OUR RETIRED ADVENTURE
qUEREMOS VIVIR AL SOL
KSha
Costa Rica is amazing! Beauty abounds.
Panama is "home" for now. Loving life!
South America is next! Columbia here we come.
Costa Rica is amazing! Beauty abounds.
Panama is "home" for now. Loving life!
South America is next! Columbia here we come.
I needed three days of rest after the workout of climbing the hills on Saboga Island, so my swim routine had to wait until Monday morning to resume. As Sha was setting up her yoga, I left the house to walk down the two stories of the parking garage to get to the pool and could hear the high tide waves coming ashore. Arriving at the pool I was surprised to not be able to see the sand on the beach because the water level was so close to the complex wall; a few moments later a large wave crashed over the wall at the lower deck of the complex. That’s when I realized the entire deck was lined with a 3 foot high wall of sand bags. Multiple resort employees were watering, shoveling and sweeping the sand that already had accumulated on the lower deck. The high tide, at 6:42 AM, was at a height of 5.4 meters (just shy of 19 feet), luckily, by the time I was done swimming at 7:25 AM, the waves were no longer coming over the lower wall. Coffee/tea and some breakfast allowed more time for the tide to go out as we waited for a safe time to go for our beach walk. Upon returning from Saboga Island, Sha had seen some news of the high tide waves causing devastation in Farallon, a small fishing village we visited on our first trip to Panama when we stayed at Playa Blanca. The pictures we saw online showed houses washed away from the impact of heavy waves during the high tide. We were worried about our stretch of beach as we headed down to go out for our walk. The first two pictures below are older ones for a reference point of what the recent high tide waves did. The next few high tides didn't help things either. The repair work has begun in earnest and probably will be continuing for awhile. In Panama, you can only get a driver's license if you are a resident; which seems fairly logical. We weren't too concerned about that until we found out that you could stay in the country for six months at a time--but only drive with an out of country license for three months; which to me, is not logical... Now you may think, drive carefully and no one will have any reason to check your license. Well, I don't think I have mentioned the fact that at different points on the road and at any hour of the day there may be a group of police personnel conducting random checks of IDs, licenses and sometimes passports. There seems to be no pattern or rhythm to these checkpoints; however, we have been stopped at multiple times and places. As we approach them I get my license out to show the officer and routinely I offer a "buenos dias/tardes/noche", show my ID and get the wave to keep moving through. On three occasions I didn't get the quick pass through. The first time was coming home from Punta Chame after spending the day there visiting friends from Canada. About 10:30 PM we came to a sometimes manned, sometimes not manned structured checkpoint for the area. I offered my ID and was questioned further (we managed to figure out the directive) about my passport and (more difficult to figure out) date of entry stamp on my passport. Well, we had a picture of our passports on our phones, and showed them; but didn't have our date of entry stamp picture. For a tense minute or so I was mentally working overtime to be sure I understood what he said and making sure I didn't (accidently) say sometime stupid or wrong. We figured out that he was telling us to be sure to have that information with us at all times and we thankfully were allowed to continue home. The second time was fairly routine because we had the entry stamp pictures to show when we entered the country, and we were not stopped long. The third time we were asked to show more information; we (maybe just me) actually "felt" more confident that we knew what we were doing. However, the officer threw us both for a loop when after looking at my date of entry, said I could only drive with this license for a month. Now this occurred at the beginning of August and we still had 4 and half months before we planned on leaving the country. That's when we called up our friends Randi and Ed (deliverer of the great games 5 Crowns and Rumikub) in Georgia and planned a get together in September. This way we would have an entry stamp with less than 3 months in Panama before we left in December. Just to be on the safe side, we didn't go into town quite as much prior to our return to the States. Our drive to Panama City and the airport was dramatically less dramatic than our drive to the ferry. We parked our car near the airport and rode the shuttle to arrive when we planned. Our flight to Atlanta was on time, smooth and arrived even a little early. Our arrival was rather late in the evening so we had reserved a car at the Atlanta airport to avoid our friends having to pick us up at 9:30 or 10 PM and driving back the 90 minutes to their house. That all looked good on paper. At least it did until we walked about 2 miles from our gate to Customs, rode a shuttle 30 minutes from the International terminal to the Domestic terminal, and then took the airport train to the rental car area. By this time the day was feeling quite long and we were eager to get the car and be on the road. I want you now to think of a famous Seinfeld episode; one that we later chuckled about after a brief strong bit of profanity once we left the Thritfy Car Rental counter. [Pause your reading for dramatic impact...ok continue.] It went something like, "I understand you have a reservation...but we don't have a car for you." The agent also added; I think to make us feel better, "We are the world's busiest airport you know." Then I added; to make me feel better, "Then you ought to have more cars, don't you think!" When the group after us came away empty handed as well and said "It's the Seinfeld episode!", as Sha had just said as we left the counter right before them; we had to a least crack a smile. Now what!? We checked another company and got the same answer...no cars available. Well we thought, Uber to the rescue. Sha went to work and secured a ride that would charge us $93 for the 90 minute ride to Greensboro...first, I wasn't sure we'd find one--and then wasn't sure how steep the price would be. This felt like we were lucky! It wasn't easy to find where the Rideshare pickup place was at; but we made it with minimal profanity or sweating. Upon exiting the building to the pick up area, a man asked us if we needed a ride. Long story short...no got one...where to...Greensboro...how much ya paying?...$90...I can give you a great deal...how much?...($350)whaaat? no thanks...that guy won't show up...we'll wait...come see me when he doesn't...sure thing, thanks. "Big" Willie, our Uber driver, picked us up 3 minutes later. Now Willie is a good ole southern boy, born and raised just outside of Atlanta and he can talk the ears off a dead donkey. I felt like that donkey in the back seat as we heard about the entirety of his family history and the sorted happenings of parent discipline, children and siblings. I do have to say that it made the drive go by faster; except when he be into a sorted tale and I'd notice he was doing 20 mph under the speed limit...oh well, he did eventually get us to our friends' house. A great but tired reunion, a couple of beers to shake Willie's stories off the brain and we hit the hay. Randi and Ed have a wonderful home where a 2 minute golf cart ride has you at the dock to board their pontoon boat for a cruise on Lake Oconee to look at the sights (nice houses dot the shoreline), fish or just float and enjoy the day or watch the sun set. Girls: Sha is bottom left and Randi is top right. Heading to the dock in the golf cart to go fishing! Randi is our, self-appointed, "fun director" and she's good at it too. She informed us that she had rented a house in the mountains (yep, Georgia's got 'em) and that she had some "fun" excursions for us to vote on once we got there. Georgia is a very interesting and beautiful state with more trees than you can shake a stick at. It has beautiful lakes and rivers, mountains and waterfalls! Traveling to our destination in the Helen Georgia area, we came to realize that there is no direct route to anywhere unless you are on one of the main Interstates of the State. We took more small little backwoods roads--some not paved--and turned back and forth so many times that we all seriously questioned whether the car's GPS was on drugs or working properly. None of us were disappointed when we entered the beautiful 3 bedroom home on a private lake. There's something to be said about being able to step out your backdoor and walk 20 feet on your patio with your fishing pole and cast your line into the water. Some of us are good fishermen (note the one-handed grip to display the beast)... And then some of us are much, much better! (note the need to use two hands.) That was the biggest bass I have ever seen! Our house was just a few miles outside of the town of Helen; a little Alpine village in the Georgia mountains. We just so happened to arrive on the first day of Oktoberfest! Visiting the town, we found shops of all kinds, restaurants along the lazy river that ran through town, tubers floating down the river and music at every other place you passed. The beer was pretty good too! On day two, we set out to follow our fun excursion plan and explore the surrounding area. Our first stop was seeing Tallulah Falls in Tallulah Gorge State Park. Tallulah Gorge is 2 miles long and nearly 1,000 feet deep and has 5 individually named waterfalls. Fun fact: On July 18 1970, Georgia's governor and 30,000 spectators watched Karl Wallenda tightrope walk 1,000 feet across the gorge 750 feet above the bottom. It took him 18 minutes to cross to the other side, adding two headstands along the way. The first one was in honor of soldiers in Vietnam, the second just for fun. The tower used to hold the cable is still present on the trail along the gorge. I was glad to have had the workout in Saboga Island as this trek was mostly uphill along the trail we took; except going down the stairs...but I forget about going downhill because we had to come back up. It was well worth the energy expended to see. On our way to Anna Ruby Falls; our next fun destination, I had to change shirts before we grabbed some lunch. Anna Ruby Falls is near Unicoi State Park and is actually twin waterfalls created by two streams. Both creeks begin on Tray Mountain (Georgia's 6th highest peak); Curtis Creek drops 150 feet and York Creek falls 50 feet. The Falls have a 0.4 mile paved path to view it...doesn't sound too bad does it? I'd like to have a talk with the guy who measured that distance; sure seemed a heck of a lot farther than that as I walked up the hill. AND, nobody said it was a crazy steep paved path! Oh boy...I didn't bring a third shirt. The path followed the stream and was beautiful everywhere you looked; information plaques along the way gave a weary walker local information and a chance to catch their breath. About halfway up the hill, (1.2 miles into the 0.4 mile walk) we had a short sun shower to crank up the humidity for the rest of the climb. Fairing much better than I did on the climb to see the Falls; I'm quite sure, our niece and family (Jennifer, Kevin, Rachel[now a senior at UNC] and John[second year at West Point]) made the climb back in 2011. The A/C was a welcome comfort in the car on the way to grabbing some dinner before going back to the lake house. Rehydrating on the patio with a fishing pole was the order of business as the sun was going down. We had tried and failed the night before to have a campfire on the patio by the lake; due to wet firewood, but we were determined to succeed on our last night. The fire was so peaceful as the stars started to pop out of the moonless sky. The last couple of days by Randi and Ed's place were filled with fishing their lake and playing cribbage. The battle of the sexes started out with the boys dominating--for a very very short time before the girls came from behind to win or simply just crushed us for the remainder of the games during the trip. We all got up early for the drive to Atlanta for our mid-morning flight back to Panama. We are very thankful for the hospitality and the adventures in Georgia. Thank you Randi and Ed for a wonderful visit. Our flight home was uneventful, as was our shuttle pick up to get the car parked at a near by hotel. Our troubles began on the way out of Panama City when, using Waze on my new phone, it gave us bad information and had me turn when I knew I shouldn't but did. We had to drive to find a way to turn around and get back on the road I just exited. Following my own knowledge after that snafu, I ignored and silently cussed out the voice on Waze and got us out of the city and heading home. It wasn't long before we were neck deep in cars on the road going slow or stopping altogether. Waze said it would last 12 minutes...we found out that was a crock of bull when we were barely moving 20 minutes later. As traffic started to back up on the opposite side of the road too, Sha found out on line that there was an overturned truck ahead that was struck by two people on a motorcycle resulting in both cyclists dying. The accident happened closer to Coronado than Panama City, so we knew it would take a long time to get home. Our normally hour and fortyish minute trip lasted over four hours before we arrived in Coronado. We've had a couple of excellent Italian dinners last week at Luna Rossa, which we can walk to and Club Med, which is halfway to town from the house. We also tried our hand at shrimp fettuccine that turned out pretty good for a couple of nonItalians (not pictured). We had an interesting house guest for a short time a few days ago. NGG had to reach out online to her bird expert in Pedsi, Panama, for the proper identification: Roadside Hawk. We let our artistic ability run rampant at our second Sip n Paint on the 20th. Although we don't think an art gallery showing is in our immediate future, we had a great time. We are getting back into our normal routines for our last 3 months in Panama; yoga/swimming, beach walks and floating in the pool. Seems like we have been here a long time...
Oh, before I forget, I think I mentioned that after Panama we would be going south; I now realize that was incorrect. We will actually be going slightly north and east to our new location. Our next destination on our adventure will be Columbia; specifically Cartagena for Christmas and New Year's, and Santa Marta for January into February. We have yet to decide if we will further our stay in Columbia after that or move into our next country of South America. We are not thinking about packing yet as there is much more Panama to enjoy. Another mouthful has erupted from BB and the locals are calling for a cease and desist order from the authorities...so before the law comes down hard on me, I better call it a day. Ciao for now amigos! Pura Vida!
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Kevin & Sharon SeibelBeginning our next big adventure! Archives
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