"It's a helluva day at sea sir!"

We'll get to the sea adventure in a minute, but first some local news and updates.

Well, our favorite little Germany beer house (that Mindy liked so much) shut down...luckily it's only temporary while they move to a new location. October is the reopen target...we'll see if that tracks or if "Panama time" kicks in. Sounds like it will be more open-spaced and they are adding some meat/cheese platter options at the new place. We had to go back the night before they closed to have a few "pints" and some of their great soups, the goulash soup is heavenly! We even grabbed a couple of cigars from the humidor before we headed home.

It has been very hot, even for Panama this July and the country is experiencing a drought that has effected the traffic through the Panama Canal. Like Costa Rica, we have found that the rainy season isn't what you would think; as it doesn't rain that often. We have been on a cycle lately where it seems to want to rain on Mondays. At the end of July, we had a storm that seemed to want to make up for the infrequency of rainfall. It actually knocked out our main power connection for 18 hours. We are so lucky to be connected to the residential tower's generator so we were "electrified" for lights and such, but no WiFi during that time. The power problem "blew up" our WiFi modems and they had to be replaced before we got our "connection to the world back." The short video is a brief example of this storm.

Speaking of storms; during the first week in August we went to The Gold Coast Brewery, a local place on the road between our house and Coronado, on a Thursday for Happy Hour and half-priced burgers. As we chatted with another expat couple at the table next to us the sound of the wind outside was hard to ignore. Shortly after that, it began to rain. I hope the short video below gives you a taste of its intensity.

We were happy to be inside as it stormed, and surprised that it didn't last very long. We enjoyed a wonderful burger that was cooked exactly the way we ordered it; medium rare, which doesn't always happen when you get a burger in Panama. Our ride home was uneventful and our power was intact when we arrived. The next day we discovered an unusual addition to our property that was a product of that storm. Fridays are the day our poolman and gardener, Fide,  (pronounced fee-day) comes to service the pool and tend to the grounds. Not long after his arrival, Sha and I passed by the hammocks to see Fide on the lower deck pointing up into one of our trees on the lower section of the property. Here's what he discovered.

It took me a minute to realize what the heck it was.

We all had a good chuckle and began speculating on where it came from, and then realizing how strong that wind on Thurssday really was. We eventually found out that it came from the ninth floor of our tower. Recovery has been discussed but not attempted. I don't think it will be an easy task as it is at least 30 feet off the ground.

Although we like to eat at the local restaurants, we do cook a great many meals at home. I found a great pork tenderlion the other day that Sha made a rub for and we had mashed potatoes and glazed carrots, yummy. Sha even made her own chimichurra for the pork!

NGG is always checking the horizon and the sand for new encounters during our beach walks.

---

The love of my life celebrated her "29th" birthday...give or take a few on August 9th. I had mentioned in the last post that we were looking into a whale watching excursion, and we booked one for her birthday. Here she is with Captain Cesar and 1st mate Jesus at the dock. 

We were the only two passengers, and went to sea on a 31' boat named the Bally Hoo; on a two; nope four hour cruise. The weather couldn't have been any better with clear skies and hardly any wind. We were so excited!

Leaving the harbor and heading out to open sea.

The beautiful birthday girl!!

Two excited kids who can't wait to see their first whales in the wild.

As we hit the open sea, the surface was flat and undulating gently as we powered away from shore. I found myself marveling at the vastness of water ahead and around us. I also found myself staring at my beautiful bride who looked so happy as we headed out to sea on her birthday. As we scanned the surface ahead and to the sides of the boat, we began to see big areas of the water that looked like it was roiling and moving. The captain informed us that that was schools of sardines moving through the water. I lost track of time as we scanned and marveled at the beauty of being out to sea, when the 1st mate made a sound and pointed off to the right side of the boat. I heard the captain acknowledge positively but did'nt see anything in that direction. Looking at Sha, I could tell she didn't see anything either. That exchange sharpened up our focus and I was determined to not miss anything else. Not long after we were rewarded...

"There be whales here Captain!" (Star Trekkers may remember Scotty saying this famous line when they were trying to save the world in Star Trek # 37, or something near there.) We even caught several groups of mom and baby!

Pictures are hard to get while looking and guessing where the next surfacing would occur; but I caught some great action on multiple videos I took. NGG had the day off so she could enjoy her birthday of whale watching; unfortunately the videos are too large to share on this platform. This is an experience that is super hard to explain how cool it was. We were 5 miles off shore and in about 90' of water when we encountered our first whale. During the next two plus hours we saw at least a hundred sightings; many were of the same whale or whales as we slowly tried to follow or guess where they were traveling to. Our closest encounter was a whale surfacing about 50' from the left side of our boat; amazing sight. Our captain put us on the whales and we had sightings every 5-10 minutes it seemed.

As the whale sightings began to dwindle, the captain asked if we'd like to do some fishing. NGG was all over that with a hardy "heck-fire yeah!" The 1st mate hooked up 3 lines to troll behind the boat as we slowly headed back to shore from our 6 mile point off shore. The mate got the pole holder belt set up on the birthday girl so she was ready to go when we hooked something.

The first "fish on" call, Sha jump to the pole and was reeling it in, when it appeared that the fish got off the hook. She knew it and the empty lure verified that fact when it reached the boat. Not to be deterred, the lures went back into the sea and NGG was at the ready watching the pole tips for any dip indicating a fish had hit it. Maybe 10 minutes later one of the side rods dipped and as the mate handed Sha the rod she was reeling like a pro. This time there was no stopping the birthday girl and she landed her first fish, a mackerel; about a 2 footer! She wasn't done yet. While we both were watching the pole tips, about 50 yards behind the boat we saw a large blue and green fish jump out of the water perpendicular to our fishing lines. Sha remarked that the big sucker jumped right over our lines; it was remarkable how fast that fish was going. After a couple of false hits on the center pole, Sha sounded the alarm and jumped to the pole as the tip dipped down. Two minutes later, Sha landed her second fish a Dorado (Mahi Mahi). She said it was hard to reel this guy in and wasn't sure she could land it...but she did!

Needless to say, we both had an absolutely wonderful trip, tons of whale sightings and NGG landed two fish as well. We had a birthday lunch at the Boga Bar in the harbor when we were back on land and marveled at our pictures and the beauty of our experience we just had.
We then headed home to relax in our pool and have that birthday cigar we were saving!

Sha wanted her traditional birthday dinner she's had since she was  a little girl, at the house. So we put together her favorites, sloppy joes, baked beans and some home-made fries.

I think I'll leave you all there for now...plenty more days in Panama for other cool things to happen--although things will be hard pressed to top Sha's birthday.

Wishing you all the best that life has to offer!

​Ciao for now.
Pura Vida!!