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.
We weren't entirely sure the luggage was going to fit into the cab; but we made it work. Yep, we cabbed it from Cartagena to Santa Marta; our new host helped us with our driver so we would get to our new home without any problems. I have got to say the roads here in Colombia are pretty good and minimal potholes were observed during our 4 hour transport northward up the coastline. Our driver, Yeimer, was a retired policeman and a good and cautious driver; unlike most of the other drivers on the road. No passing signs and zones are just for decoration on the side of the road...we had to slow down to let many cars (and sometimes buses) back in our lane before they ran into oncoming traffic multiple times throughout the trip. As we left the city of Cartagena, it wasn't long before we realized the landscape was changing to more arid and "desert-like" feel to it. We had forgotten we had to take a Toll Road on our trip; and we were thankful the tolls and gas were in our package price. We were in the I Auto category; so our toll was just over $4 USD (had 3 tollbooths to go through). Glad not to have had to pay the VII C6 vehicle toll! With vehicles lined up to get through the tolls, because the tolls are paid in cash to real people in the booths, there is always someone willing to sell you something while you wait in the lines. Near the halfway point we hit the city of Barranquilla, which was huge, population about 1.3 million! It took us at least 30 minutes to navigate from one side of the city to the other. There seemed to be people everywhere...on the road, along the side of the road (at local shops/restaurants or waiting for the bus etc.), and the large sections of residential high-rise buildings and the sheer number of them were hard to comprehend. Central and South American cities seem to be the home of the skyscraper! The road signs were interesting enough to keep you looking around to see if you could interpret them all. Most were logical enough to figure out; but not all of them... It didn't seem like long at all before Yeimer was telling us that the Santa Marta mountains were visible in the distance; and soon after the outline of the city of Santa Marta. Our new home is on the Playa Rodadero shoreline, just to the south of Santa Marta proper and about 75 meters from the water. The road in was a little rough (brand new road being put in, not completed yet), but we made it and pried ourselves out of the cab. After we reacquainted the lower halves of our bodies with regular blood flow, we were ready to unload and check in. The following slideshow will give you an idea of what our new home looks like. We found out that we arrived (Sunday) on the Epiphany (or Three Kings Day) Holiday; that is actually celebrated on the Monday after Jan. 6 in Colombia. First picture below shows our beach on our arrival on Sunday afternoon. Fresh catch of the day is brought into shore early in the morning. The pelicans line up for scraps from the cleaning of fish people bought (pic #4). Picture #3 was taken at 6:30 AM on the holiday Monday. By the afternoon, you couldn't see the sand! We have started our customary recognizance of our neighborhood and are getting the lay of the land and grocery stores. The wind here has been much stronger than we experienced in Cartagena, so the heat doesn't feel as intense. I will say as I finish this post though, the wind has been quite a bit calmer than our first few days and our feels like temperature today was 102 degrees. Here's to hoping for the breeze to stick around so that we can send some warm wishes to family and friends in the midwest with less than ideal current temperatures.
We are looking forward to a clifftop restaurant experiencing the sunset tonight and will check in with you all soon. Stay safe and be happy! Pura Vida!
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Our four weeks here in Cartagena have been wonderful! On our last walk this morning, through yet another section of our area; we both commented that we couldn't have picked a better spot to experience the Old City of Cartagena. We walked on the wall around the Walled City, we walked around the wall of the Walled City, we've walked up and down and back forth within the Walled City, we walked across several bridges to explore the nearby neighborhoods of the Walled City, and even walked onto the peninsula of Bocagrande where high rise condos and hotels dominate the waterfront (that ended up being near 2 hours of hoofing it).
Cartagena was wonderfully decorated around the Old City and people have been late-night festive and partying throughout the holidays. Sha found us a restaurant right down the street from our townhouse where we had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. We got a roasted chicken and made some homemade stuffing for Christmas dinner. We liked it so much that that's what we did for New Year's Eve as well! Our neighborhood was extra alive for New Year's Eve. We were on both our balconies to catch the fireworks signaling the start of 2024. We've enjoyed some great outdoor spots for food and did our best to sample as many different restaurants as we could. We even enjoyed some street cart breakfast food before we left. We had about a fifteen minute walk to get to the Caribbean Sea shore; but had a much farther walk to get to any beach in our area. Our first attempt to watch the sun set on the shore; we waited for a clear horizon evening, was pretty cool... ...but we picked a different spot to watch our second sun set; and it was much better! (enjoy slideshow below) Sha almost had a laundry fiasco on Saturday while doing the wash before we packed for our move to Santa Marta. The dryer decided to stop working in the middle of the second load of wash!. We had stuff drying on every chair and open drawer until we got assistance from our cleaning lady for the townhouse, Mrs. Emilia. She arrived mid afternoon to magically get the dryer back in operation and saved the day so we could finish packing. We will miss the vibrant, energetic and alive Walled City of Cartagena next to the cosmopolitan cityscapes that line the Caribbean Sea. We have a driver picking us up tomorrow morning at 10 AM for the 5 hour ride up the coast to Santa Marta. Sha told me she's super excited about traveling the stretch of 90 between Soledad and Ciénaga prior to reaching Santa Marta. We'll let you know how the trip goes and show you our new house in our next post.
We wish you all a happy new year! All the best for 2024! Pura Vida! 5 AM on December 7th came pretty quickly as we got ready for our ride to the airport and took our last pics in the Coronado Bay house that we have enjoyed for the last nine months. We were sad to leave this cool house and the many new friends we have met here, but we all vowed to keep in touch and check in on each other. We scheduled our early pickup ride to the airport because we wanted to be sure we wouldn't have any road closure/protester problems even though the Supreme Court voted favorably for the Panamanian people and against the mining contract. Many Panamanians are still not satisfied that their government will "do the right thing" in regards to this issue; so the unrest is diminishing but not gone. We happily arrived at Tocumen International Airport 3 1/2 hours later with what seemed like normal traffic delays. We had time for a leisurely breakfast, a little walk and before we knew it we were boarding the plane for South America. I had to get a couple of last shots of Central America as we left Panama City from the plane window. I also couldn't help recording our first views of South America as we started our descent in our 45 minute flight from Panama City, Panama to Cartagena, Columbia. The plane landed, taxied and parked and we walked down the stairs onto the tarmac in the bright afternoon Cartagena sunshine. Before I got to the bottom of the stairs; and as I was looking ahead and saw the long walk to the terminal, I realized it was hot. No, you don't understand...it was HOT! If you thought Panama was hot, you need to stay in the sauna longer to appreciate the heat here. As you probably have already guessed, Blog Boy was soaked by the time we made it to the zigzag lines of Immigration prior to picking up our checked bags. An easy path through Customs found us walking along the yellow line to the taxi stand. We were informed our taxi would be $10 to our new home in the Getsemani district and NGG shut down the dude that wanted us to pay $20 and we got in our $10 taxi. Now I'm sure you recall me discussing the fact that Panamanian drivers are terrible drivers; well they now are not even close to the worst I've seen. Cartagena drivers are something. The road may be 2 lanes wide; but there may be 4 cars and a couple of motorcycles vying for a share of those 2 lanes at any given time...especially at intersections where everyone knows somehow to stop at the same time and allow cross traffic a chance to move. Totally glad to not be operating the vehicle we were in as we made our way along the coast from the airport to the Getsemani district of Cartagena. Cartagena is divided into two sections; the Modern Cartagena and the Old City. It is one of the major ports on the northern coast of Columbia. The current population is just over 1 million people. It was founded in 1553 making it one of South America's oldest colonies. Prior settlement by indigenous people around Cartagena Bay dates back from 4000 BC. In 1984, Cartagena's colonial walled city (Old City) and fortress were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The currency is the Columbian peso and $1 USD is about 4000 COPs. The last two photos above are of sections of the walls of the Walled City. Getsemani, our home for the next month, is part of the Walled City section of Cartagena. Our address proved a challenge for our taxi driver to find. His persistence paid off because after driving around our neighborhood a few times; as well as enduring a traffic cop yelling at him to move as he was looking at his Google map, he parked and walked along the block and found our entrance. It was no wonder it wasn't easy to find as the entire block in front of our entrance door was under construction. We have a gated locked front entrance to the complex that is manned 24/7 where you are buzzed in and out. I was happy for the help with our luggage to the second floor unit we will be staying at for the next month. (Hit play button in top left corner to get a look at our home.) Our initial research into Cartagena had indicated that this was a cool area to be at in the city, and it didn't take long before we knew we were in the "happening" place in Cartagena. We ventured out for our first night's dinner and walked along the street with the flag banners right behind our building and found the restaurant Sierpe, not even a 3 minute walk from our front door. Some sangria and crab dip to start; followed by mushroom risotto for Sha and squid ink pasta and shrimp for the bald one; delicious! A second round of sangria before we walked home helped prepare us for the all-night cacophony of music, taxi horns and sounds of people laughing coming from the street we left after dinner. Our early exploratory trips of our neighborhood began to give us a taste and flavor of this vibrant place we came to visit. The below pictures can give you a little idea of our immediate neighborhood here in Getsemani. As you can see, the neighborhood streets are very narrow (luckily mostly one-way) and many homes and businesses have about 2 steps from their front door to get to the street. We have continued our routine of rising early and doing an exploration walk in the mornings. Some first walks incorporated exercise with little seek and find missions for grocery stores. After we finally found our first one, we realized we walked more than twice as far as we needed. GMC, or Google Map Chick working with maps doesn't know her head from a hole in the wall when it comes to navigating Cartagena. It's a good thing that our frequency of walking the area helped us find things better than GMC has; because she needs adjusting. On day 2, we decided to find and walk the wall of the Walled City. Here's what we saw...(play button top left for slideshow) You may have noticed the bird at the top of the building in the last set of pics; NGG has not lost her touch. We are across the street from Centennial Park, a square block of green space with statues, athletic spaces, street vendors and is a meeting point for tours of the Old City. It's also home to sloths and monkeys! The parrots come early to the balconies of the units around our pool and like to loudly squawk good morning to everyone. They were munching on a fruit of a tree by our pool one afternoon when NGG recorded them here. The parrots were cleaning each other atop a pole on the building in the second to last pic. Our last pic above was in the grocery store at the butcher's window...I think Sha was thinking of going totally Columbian and was thinking of cooking a local dish with this guy. Luckily I haven't had to carry him home yet. Sha booked us a private walking food tour in the Walled City with a local guide, Andrés--I don't remember which day it was as I'm having difficulty keeping track; that was packed full of historic information that Andrés shared from being born and raised in this very area. We met him just across from the "start" of the Wall and began walking through the streets. This was on display at the University and dates back to 1626. Our first goal was to find one of Andrés' favorite street vendors for a taste of arepas de huevos. His first choice needed 20 minutes before his food would be ready. Surprised, Andrés lead us off to find another vendor. When the second vendor wasn't ready as well, Andrés said "That's never happened before." So we continued on, all the while being told about the sections of neighborhood or the history of the buildings we were walking by. This was a prison for women until it was closed down during the Covid 19 pandemic. Now it is a parking garage. We continued through the neighborhood in search of the elusive arepas and were rewarded when we finally came to Magola's. This small place was full of people; a great sign! Arepas de huevos: fried circles of cornmeal stuffed with an egg, meat and cheese. Fresh out of the fryer, these were hot and delicious. Adding a little of the local sauces gave them a distinctive taste. Our next stop was back through the narrow streets to find Andrés' favorite fruit stand featuring mangos and papayas sliced thick in a cup. Sha and I split a mango cup as they were huge. We heard about the sauce the locals put on the fruit and we had to try it; pepper and some other good stuff really added a unique flavor to the sweetness of the mango. It was a two-handed job managing the fruit cup, so sorry no pics. We needed to walk off the mango (filled me up and I wasn't sure I'd have room for whatever was left) and we headed a short distance around the corner to the Circo Teatro, the multi level mall in the Walled City that originally was a bull fighting stadium (it is now outlawed in Columbia). The remodel kept its original style and is now home to 4 levels of "high-end" shops that occupy the outer circle of the building. The top floors have the stadium type of seating still a part of the design and there is a water and light show that occurs nightly that we will report on later when we attend. There was a restaurant on the top floor that had an outdoor patio, and Andrés wanted to share what he called the "best views of the city". I have to agree with him. Having cooled off a bit inside the mall, we were off to our next stop for some shrimp cocktail. Back through the narrow streets we went and ended up in a spot we were somewhat familiar with, but had missed the actual food stand we went to visit. The family running this business has been in this spot for the past 50 years serving seafood cocktails. We took a seat in a park-like area and awaited our sampling and Andrés brought us his favorite childhood drink. Andrés' soda was fantastic and tasted like creme soda; plus the shrimp cocktail was awesome and the circus of people getting served and walking by was excellent! Feeling pretty good (despite having walked a good distance for a round bald guy), we set out for our next stop; the Clock Tower for some local homemade sweets. I was super pleased to be walking in the direction of our home and an area that we were familiar with the location. Like the entire neighborhood we are calling home; the Clock Tower plaza was alive with people and activity celebrating the holiday season. We each got to choose 2 different treats and we got a quick sugar rush from the samplings. I thought you'd enjoy this little sampling of the activity at the Clock Tower plaza... We had one more sampling to partake in with a choice between local coffee or beer...with only one coffee drinker in the group, we decided on the beer option. I was again pleased to be heading closer to our home as we walked through Centennial Park (right across the street from our townhouse) where Andrés again gave us historic information and told us of the sloths and monkeys living here. We tried to see them but the darkness made it difficult to see anything in the trees. We emerged from the park and walked down the street behind our townhouse. We stopped outside of Trinidad Plaza and found a neighborhood favorite little shop to sample a local beer, Costeñita. They might be 6 or 8 oz.; so we had to have two of them each. We enjoyed the beers and the activity of the plaza before we headed home. The feel like temperatures since we arrived have been at 104 or 105; so our early morning walks have avoided the supremely intense heat. We save that for our pool time where you can cool off in the wonderful pool we have here. By the time mid afternoon hits it's time for some shade inside the townhouse and maybe a beer to rehydrate. We have enjoyed the proximity of many restaurants to our place and are looking forward to branching out a bit to sample the local cuisines.
I will sign off for now and hope you and yours are enjoying the preparations for the upcoming holiday season and have plans to be with family and friends as we send our love to our families far away. Until my next report from South America, be well and safe. Pura Vida! Don't cry for me Argen...wait, we haven't got there yet; ...don't cry for me Panama! It is finally time for us to leave Panama and head to our next destination in Cartagena, Columbia. We just filled out our immigration form this morning in preparation for our Thursday flight out of Panama City. I will need to dig out the suitcases so the packing can begin as well. I'd be remiss if I didn't update you on the civil unrest and protests in regards to the open pit mining contract that has held the country stagnated. For the last 5-6 weeks there have been intense daily protests and road blocks across the country and some areas have been nearly shut down due to protesters not allowing traffic to move into or out of several parts of the country. Our immediate area saw the single road block of protesters that I told you about in an earlier post; but we have not had one since. The Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether the contract with the Canadian mining company operating the mine was constitutional amidst environmental and the indigenous population's complaints against the mining operation. I am happy to report that in the past week the SC has finally issued a judgement that the contract is unconstitutional. Some groups are saying that they will continue to protest until the mine is completely shut down (that would be a long process); but some sense of normalcy is returning with a reduction in protests/road blocks and schools are reopening and students are returning to school. We are still being cautious when we return to Panama City for our flight to Columbia and will leave for the city at 5 AM to be sure to make our noon flight. We are going to miss our house with its many animal visitors; from the birds that have flown into the house as well as the ones who have crashed into the windows, to the iguanas throughout the outdoor living area and pool, to Sha's favorite buddies the giant cockroaches that have showed up from time to time, not to mention the bat and all the moths and butterflies to have come by to say hi. We welcomed our last new friend the slug the other day to our guest list. We have sadly lost the use of our pool this past week because the Tower is undergoing a deep cleaning and repainting. Due to the paint chips and debris falling from this process, our pool needed to be covered up to avoid damage to the filter system. We enjoyed one more Sip n Paint in November and had fun painting a sea turtle. Sha's is the good one! We didn't forget about Thanksgiving as the temps were consistently in the 90's and were wondering what our plans might end up being as we heard about family and friends' plans back home as the Holiday approached. Well, when in doubt, Sha hits Facebook! She found a perfect Thanksgiving menu from a restaurant that she had really wanted to go to about 15 minutes down the highway from our house. We ordered a bottle of wine and then enjoyed a wonderful 4-course meal. It started with a Mezclum salad with blue cheese, pears and carmelized walnuts followed by cream of leak and potato soup in our own individual pots. The main course entailed smoked ham in fig flavored gravy, thick slices of baked turkey with stuffing, served with mashed potatoes, imported green beans and cranberry sauce. All that was topped off with a slice of pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream (8 visuals in slideshow below). Our last Thursday for Trivia was not our best result as we only got 21/40 questions correct and finished "out of the money."(Poor showing resulted in zero pictures to document the occasion.) But we regrouped quickly to make it to our last Friday afternoon BINGO game. Sha managed to claim a couple games; Blog Boy got within one number several times but came away 0 for 10 games on the day (note that the intense concentration did not pay off). I read somewhere that BB really just goes for the 2 for 1 beers anyway. Sha's meet a lot of people from the Tower at her water aerobics classes over the course of our stay. Carol, who lives on the 15th floor, organized a day trip to San Carlos and had us over for cards to learn a new game called Spite & Malice. We hit the market for a little shopping, then the local Chinese restaurant (Sha and I didn't even know it was there; right across the street from the market) and headed back for cards. We enjoyed the new card game with the group (from L to R) Carol, Betty, Sha and Gina; as well as later playing just the two of us. We just made the cut before leaving to also attend Carol's 80th birthday party at Picasso's! The "Tower girls" planned a little send off for us with cocktails and snacks on the rooftop Tuesday afternoon. We had fun chatting with old and some new friends one last time. We also got to enjoy a wonderful sunset. We actually got a double sunset as the sun sank into a cloud bank above the distant mountains and the reemerged as the clouds drifted to set again behind the mountains. (time lapsed below) Well, we've put off packing long enough so it's time to sign off from Panama. Next communication will be from Cartagena, Columbia, South America. Thanks for sticking with us. We hope you are all well and safe.
Thanks for the adventures Panama! Pura Vida! Well, we are in our last month here in Panama and that makes both Sha and I a little nervous. We have settled a little more than either of us planned on here at House Coronado; but it has been paradise to say the least! A few things have happened since I last shared some news with you; so I'll pass on the new data that has been collected. Sha and I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary on October 19th! That was then... ...this is now! Time seems to move both fast and slow. It does seem like we've been together a long time; but it also seems like we are just getting started in our new life. I guess being married to your best friend allows you to have it both ways. We figured since we were getting so good at this, we deserved two anniversary dinners. First, on the 19th, we did our best at Thursday night Trivia at Picasso's and then we went to the unique garden restaurant, Cafe Med on the road to town for a wonderful evening and a great dinner. A glass of wine led into the tuna tartar, followed by bruschetta de casa (might be better than Chi town's finest--don't let the looks deceive you!). Sha then opted for the spinach and ricotta cannelloni and I had the seafood casserole. We then had to finish with the fudge brownie with ice cream to pair with our second glass of wine. We rested during the morning and got ready for Friday afternoon BINGO at Picasso's in a rain storm and then slummed it by eating at home that night (more on how sucky it has been to eat at home later). The rain continued throughout the day and into the night. As you may recall, we have access to the Coronado Tower and are connected to the generator for the building that kicks on when power is lost for any reason. The weather since March; when the rainy season started, has been much drier than expectations and has impacted the operation of the Panama Canal for many months. It has given us gringo visitors a mostly hot and dry rainy season to work on the tan lines. As the end of October approached, the clouds increased and evening showers have been more frequent. This night as we were watching TV, the power was lost and it was dark as heck fire in the house! As always, the faithful generator roared to life outside our house and we waited quietly for the lights to come back on. We knew the generator was working because we could see the emergency lights were on in the parking garage; as if the jet engine roaring outside was not enough to evidence the generator in operation. As we waited, the darkness got a little oppressive and Sha got the headlamp we use for walking to and from the two restaurants near us so she could refill our wine glasses in the kitchen. We waited in the dark for the lights to come back on...and we kept waiting. We were grateful to have the headlamp so that we could find our toothbrushes to brush our teeth before we went to bed--without the A/C! We were both surprised to have slept fairly well, but knew immediately that power had not been restored because the lamp beside our bed that I had left on was not working and the generator was still hard at work. Long story short, a purchased ice bag was put in the freezer to preserve our frozen foods and 18 hours of no power was resolved with our handyman, an electrician and the Power Company getting our power back. Just in time for us to get ready for Anniversary dinner #2! On Saturday the 21st, we went to the closest Italian restaurant, to our house, Lunarossa (it takes about 4.5 minutes to walk there) for anniversary dinner #2. Sha has been loving the chicken marsala here and my go to is the seafood fettuccine in Alfredo sauce (their pizza is really good too!). We might have to make this two-dinner anniversary thing a standard practice! I think I'll finish the food section of this post before we shift gears, revealing two samplings of some of the wonderful meals we have prepared together at our house. First offering is the combination of marinated and grilled mushrooms that were paired with scallop potatoes and grilled salmon...best mushrooms ever! The second example is Sha's famous beet, arugula, crushed nuts and feta cheese salad, paired with pasta and grilled tuna...yum! Just so you know, there is the occasional hotdog, ham and cheese sandwiches, PB &J lunch or chili, pizza or hamburgers for dinner too. They just don't look as nice in pictures. Now to the casa (house) and country data collected since the last post. We were excited to have our last guests coming to see us the last week in October. We first met on our initial trip around Costa Rica in Playa Grande and really enjoyed each other's company. Maghan and Charles are from Charlotte NC...we call them the "Royals". We planned a four-day itinerary of places to go see for their stay with us before they would leave to go to the Bocas Del Toro area on the Caribbean side of Panama. About a week before their arrival we began to worry about the news we were hearing regarding the open-pit mine in Panama and the new contract that the government signed with a Canadien company to continue operations. The President of Panama signed the new contract late on October 20 and news of protests were hitting the internet by the 22nd. Unfortunately, I'll bet this news hasn't been covered anywhere else. People are pissed! Sha was constantly monitoring the web for local information as we wondered if our friends would be able to get to Panama, and more so if they would be able to get to our house! As the days passed before our friends arrived, the news did not improve; it actually got worse. Country-wide protests were reported, more roads closed, areas cut off from food, fuel and necessities. We had originally planned to pick the Royals up at the main airport but needed to change plans due to the unstable changes in what roads might be closed due to protesters and any possible ways to find an alternate route around them. We hired a recommended driver from Panama City to pick them up and bring them to our house. Well, the normal two-hour trip took five hours and thirty minutes from start to finish. Charles and Maghan in Miami before flight to Panama. Sha and I were both happy to see those same big smiles on their faces when they finally arrived! We had to monitor the protest locations closely because they were occurring more frequently in our area, and ultimately there was one on the highway just to the south of our entrance into Coronado and our house. We had decided to head to Playa Carocal and Punta Chame for the afternoon, hopeful that we would not encounter any protesters on the road. We ate lunch at the (remodeled) Surf Shack and walked on the beach at Playa Carocal. Then we drove up the 5 mile long thin peninsula to get to Punta Chame; not before we stopped at the kite surfing school/restaurant Solé for a beer. Punta Chame is a small fishing village that Sha and I love to drive around and look at the houses, people and their beach full of boats. Having gone down every road in town, we decided we had better head for home. As we approached the entrance to Coronado we encountered this... A very short distance past the REY sign on the left (in the above pic) is where we need to turn for home. Straight ahead, you might even be able to see where the left turn lane juts out. Here's what happened next...(play video) We successfully navigated the drainage ditch that separates the highway lanes to reach the entrance to Coronado. With two "Malls" on each side of the entrance road, we had to go and see the actual road closure and protest in person. After feeling like we were up close and personal with the local protest and road closure (the protesters did let some cars pass through every hour or so), we headed to the newly reopened La Hauca de Duende (the German beer/cigar restaurant) for some pints and dinner. Charles tried two different sausages... Sha and Maghan had the goulash, and I had the schnitzel. Topped off with a couple of in-house brewed beers was perfect way to finish our day. Luckily the protest closure of our exit/entrance to Coronado didn't persist the next day and we decide to try to go to the San Carlos market and then show them the cool stretch of beach we found; and then go to the Boga Bar (one of our favorite places outside of Coronado) in the Vista Mar complex. San Carlos market...yep it was that big! Also at Vista Mar harbor next to Boga Bar...on a 3 year mission around the globe to fight plastic waste in the ocean. The Royals brought us a southern care package full of comforts from the States including coffee, a specialty jam, snacks and a bag of grits. Never having had (let alone made grits) they offered to fix breakfast for us. Gotta say, didn't think I would like grits...but dawg gone, I do! We also went back to Picasso's one night to see a local band and enjoy some sangria. The Royal's last night with us was Halloween and we were all invited to the Tower's rooftop Halloween potluck party! Sha made some chili to share, and we packed a cooler and headed for the top floor. We all had a good time and met some new people we hadn't seen before. We called a fairly early end to the evening as the driver we hired to return them to the city was arriving at 4:30 AM to be sure they had enough time to get through any roadblocks and not miss their flight to Bocas. The happy, yet sad send off the next morning returned us to being empty nesters. We hope to reunite somewhere in South America. The protests are continuing...there does not seem to be a readily available solution. We are still safe; although some violence has been seen and several deaths have occurred in different locations. We'll keep you posted. On a happier note...somewhere in there, there was also a full moon. I have to say that Sharon, no not my Sharon, has been pressuring me to keep the data flowing; and I appreciate that persistent nudging. I also appreciate her detailed review and reflection after new postings and want to acknowledge her active readership; thanks!
As I have previously detailed, we will be heading to Columbia on December 7th to visit Cartagena for a month and then on to Santa Marta for the next month. Our next task will be to figure out how we will circumnavigate the continent of South America and determine which way we will go to see what we can see. We are counting down the days (kind of, but not really) to our departure; but plan on enjoying every minute here in Panama. I'm sure there will be some more data to be collected here in Panama before we leave. If I find any, I'll share it in a timely manner. Stay safe and happy everyone! Pura Vida! According to NASA, it occurs only once every 360 to 410 years. What, you might be asking occurs so infrequent. It's called an Annular Eclipse; or maybe better known as the Ring of Fire, and it would be occurring on Saturday, October 14th! There are 3 types of solar eclipses; a Partial Eclipse, which is self explanatory; a Total Eclipse, which is also self explanatory; and then there's the Annular Eclipse which occurs when the Moon is near apogee (The farthest orbital distance from earth) and its diameter is smaller than the diameter of the sun (as we see it), so that when they are aligned the moon does not completely cover the sun's diameter and at alignment there is a ring of the sun visible around the moon. For all you science/astronomy geeks that might have made sense; so if it didn't, wait to see the pictures and it should be a little clearer. We were so excited when we found out Panama was a prime location to view the eclipse and immediately made plans to go to Pocri, a town about an hour and a half away from us where the eclipse would occur directly over the town. We could have remained in Coronado and seen the eclipse, but would not have been able to see the Ring of Fire as we would have been off to the side of the direct path of the eclipse. As we all learned when we were little, you don't look directly at the sun. An eclipse is no different, so if you don't want to go blind, you need to have the proper viewing equipment to see the event. Sha is the Queen of finding things on Facebook. She found a man (Jorge) outside of Panama City that had Eclipse glasses for sale and over the course of a couple of days she verified he was legit and that his glasses were certified safe for viewing the eclipse and ordered a pair (the only ones left) for overnight delivery. During the course of that verification process, we weren't sure if we could get the glasses or if they were safe, so we sought out alternative ways to see the eclipse if the glasses fell through. Internet research revealed that a welder's googles or mask was an alternate to eclipse glasses, as long as you had the proper shade of lenses. I didn't realize until we went to our second hardware store in town that there is quite a variety of shade darkness of lenses for welding. They had a cool pair of welding goggles, a welder's mask and multiple lenses for the mask. Fearing to get the wrong equipment and go blind at the once in a lifetime event, we hit the internet while in the store and tried to figure out what we needed to buy to be safe. Several websites said to be safe you should only use a level 14 shade to view an eclipse. Well damn; the store didn't have a level 14 shade lens. NASA website to the rescue! NASA said the level 14 is optimal but that it would be safe to view the eclipse with a level 12 shade lens. The goggles were shade level 5...they're out. The welder's mask could be fitted with any lens, and there was a good supply of level 12 shade lenses available. We went home with the mask and 2 level 12 shade lenses. Prior to departing for Pocri, we went back and bought a 3rd lens to put over our phone's camera when we found out that without it we would damage our phones if we took a picture of the eclipse. So with viewing equipment secured, we were feeling pretty good. Our thoughts now turned to packing for the trip. The Annular Eclipse will last 3 hours and 30 minutes with first contact at 11:25 am, Ring of Fire occurring at 1:12 pm, and last contact at 2:56 pm. A cooler was mandatory with plenty of water, homemade sub sandwiches, chips and cut up cheeses and sausages for a snack. Umbrella (for shade), hand held fan (which we left at home), sunscreen and paper towels and a garbage bag rounded out the necessary items to be loaded. Having our own pool at the house proved fortuitous because we have lounge chairs around the pool. Yep, we packed 'em for the trip, along with towels and pillows and brought the little plastic table as well. Excited with our preparations for the big event; we tried to be responsible and get a good night's sleep for the early am wakeup and travel to Pocri. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and our drive to Pocri was pleasant and smooth. As we arrived and drove through Pocri on our way to Virgen del Carmen Park, (this is where Jorge had said he was going to view the eclipse), the clouds started to increase and we gave each other a silent look as we found a place to park along the square of the Park and set up our viewing space. The parking spot we picked turned out to be the absolute best spot we could have chosen. Not 5 minutes after we parked, and as we were determining where to set up our chairs, several people started to move barricade fences to block off the square around the Park (and we were already inside!). As you can see in the bottom right pic above, we were about 50 feet from the corner where the professional astronomers were setting up their telescopes. We were right across the street from the Park and right next to the main corner of activity. We had the best set up to see the eclipse of anyone there; only thing we didn't have was a cool telescope. Although we did find Jorge (Sha's FB friend and eclipse glasses provider) who did have a telescope and set up about 40 feet from our chairs. We had multiple people come over to talk with us, including a man who we think was the Mayor of Pocri who did a little video of Sha talking about the eclipse. The day stayed mostly cloudy, but not so dense that you couldn't track the sun as it moved. We found our equipment was perfect for seeing the sun through the clouds and the views we were seeing through our #12 shade lenses were hard to describe as the event began. You can't, for safety reasons as well as boredom, continually stare at the sun as the moon began to move across its diameter. Checking in to look every 5-10 minutes began to be our routine after 11:30 am. We tried to take some pictures using the shade lens covering our cameras, but they didn't come close to what we were seeing with our viewing equipment. As 1:12 pm approached, the buzz of the crowd grew and you could feel the excitement building. We had been following our routine of periodic checks and were continually amazed at what we were seeing despite the clouds in the sky. We were very fortunate that Sha had contacted Jorge as he allowed us to look through his telescope shortly after the Ring of Fire was visible. Before we left Sha asked Jorge to share some of his pictures he had taken through his telescope with us...with a ton of thanks, here's a small sample of what he sent to us and what we saw with our own eyes. (Note the time stamps in the bottom right corner.) We left Pocri thankful to have been able to experience the Annular Eclipse first hand and in awe of the natural phenomenon we just witnessed. When we're not helping NASA, we've still been enjoying our little piece of paradise here in Coronado. Although, I guess NASA did want my photos of the morning near full moon and the full moon a few days later...I've since had to block them from calling me due to their constant need to ask me for stuff. We continue to love our house and all its outdoor living space. Our iguana friends still come to visit us; although their waste products they've been leaving on our outside table and pool deck have made them less cute and more of a pain lately. NGG's still got it! In some quick catch up news; my nephew Kaleb is the second Seibel to become a Nebraska Cornhusker and is a member of the Husker Hockey team! GO BIG RED! Proud of you nephew!! In other super cool news; our niece Jen's hubby Kev ran his 4th Chicago marathon, setting a PR of 4:18:02! Jen is the best marathon reporter and supporter that ever was! Kev is my hero! In just the run of the mill news, we hit the local bar (Picasso's) up the road from the house for Trivia Night and teamed up with Mat and Christine who are a couple living here from Canada. No pictures to prove we were there; you'll just have to take my word on it. We didn't win any prizes but felt like we represented North America in fine fashion. We followed up that wild evening by hitting the same bar for afternoon BINGO the next day! Unbeknownst we came on week 3 of a 10 week tournament. Sha wasted no time in putting the Seibels on the leaderboard by winning the first two games. She gave someone else a chance on the third game, but cried BINGO again in game 4. I did chip in win 2 wins of my own, but my bride of almost 38 years took the afternoon prize with three wins! Oh by the way, Sha and I will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary on October 19th. Pretty cool.
Well, I'm out of astronomical, super cool, nature and mundane news for now. I'll work on gathering some more data to share in the coming weeks. Don't forget, we may be out of the country (USA), but we are not out of touch. WhatsApp works worldwide...you can even video call if you want to check to see how my tan is progressing. Thanks mom for video calling from the Seibel family reunion; it was great to see everyone! Sha and I hope you and your family are well and happy. Until next time. Pura Vida! 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! At our age, birthdays last more than a day...sometimes they last a month. I guess when you're living your dream, every day can feel like your birthday! Well, we finished off Sha's "birthday month" in style and went to Saboga Island in the middle of the Gulf of Panama for 3 days to go whale watching (again). More on that in a bit. Prior to our leaving for the island, August seemed to fly by rather quickly. This is the first year I was caught off guard when I heard school was starting; nope, still don't miss it. I got into a regular morning swim routine while Sha does her yoga. Our regular walks on the beach still turn up the occasional interesting items and are continually being reshaped by the high tide waves. We've had some good storms, with the winds blowing pretty hard and the ocean has tossed a lot of debris onto our beaches on several occasions. Surprised to see so many tree trunks, branches and wood pieces, along with the disturbing plastic bottles and such (no pics of that gunk). Storms out at sea. Sha's mom Arlene's favorite cookie. This poor shack is still hanging in there. Not sure what this big thing is; but looks like a bottom feeder, or sucker fish. We've been back to Mambo Italiano and enjoyed a new kind of caprese salad (left pic below) and found that they changed the way the prepared their lasagna; looks cool, but Sha didn't like it as the taste changed also. The pizza was still excellent, thankfully. We still eat pretty good at home too. We signed up for a Sip n Paint at the local Art Studio on the road into town on the 20th. We had a great time painting 'Boat on a Beach'. [slideshow below] Our "final" birthday activity for birthday month was the trip to Saboga Island on the 29th. For those Survivor watchers, Seasons 7, 8, and 12 were filmed here. We needed to leave the house at 4:30 AM to get to the ferry in Panama City for the 7:30 AM departure. If you were to think of the worst traffic jam you've ever been in, you would have to multiply it by 50 to get close to the traffic jam going into Panama City that we were in; it started jamming up about 50 miles from the city. At many points of the trip we weren't sure we were going to get there before the ferry departed. The ferry left from Flamenco Island, the last of three islands connected by the Amador Causeway, an 8km road just outside the city. We were excited about the 90 minute trip out into the ocean traveling to Saboga Island. As we left the harbor, the view of the city was pretty cool. There were too many ships to count that were waiting to get into the Panama Canal that we saw as we motored away from the harbor. Panama is experiencing a drought which has greatly affected traffic through the Canal. Hundreds of ships were waiting their turn to enter the Canal in the waters outside the city. We both were amazed at how fast the ferry was traveling in open water as we zipped past the huge ships. We arrived at Saboga Island in no time and upon disembarking from the ferry, found our panga; piloted by one of the 713 local residents, waiting at the dock to take us to Villa Noelia. The trip from the dock took us around to the west side of Saboga Island. The scenery and colors of the water are hard to describe, and we spent the 15 minute boat ride admiring the beauty of it all. [slideshow below] We got off the panga right on a white sand beach where we were met by Bayron, who led us across the sand to a bricked pathway leading up the hill into the jungle. You may recall that big steep hill we climbed in Costa Rica; well this path to Villa Noelia was just as steep...thankfully not as high though. I didn't document it because I was working too hard to walk up it and was thankful when I made it to the top. Villa Noelia is on a side of the hill in the middle of the jungle. We could easily see and hear the ocean through the trees; but the hard climb made it seem like we were farther from the beach. Darling, Bayron's mom, was there to greet us and check us in. By the time we had unpacked it felt like it was late afternoon; when in reality it was just midmorning. Sha's pre-trip research had found the island has a 500 year old tree that we wanted to see and also beaches that we wanted to visit. Bayron, who we later learned is guide, luggage carrier, handyman and waiter, packed up some water and off we went to see "the tree". We walked back down the hill to the beach, much easier going down. Crossing the beach we headed back into the trees...and yes, the hills. It wasn't long into the trek that I realized they should have a warning about the terrain you'll be covering, and have you sign a waiver! The path was not paved, the ground was not smooth...and there was moist clay and rocks everywhere. Rough going to say the least. [slideshow below] We walked up hill and down hill and back up for what seemed like hours (maybe it was a half hour). The point where we turned off the path didn't look like a path until you stepped over the fallen tree. About 5 minutes later we arrived at "the tree." [slideshow below] We admired the enormous tree and tried to rest a bit to reenergize, knowing we had to go back. When we departed, I found I needed a sharp focus on where my feet were stepping along the path back. We had talked to Bayron before beginning the trip about also going to Saboga Lodge (rooms, restaurant and pool connected with Villa Noelia) to check out and see. We stopped at a junction of two paths, seemingly for a quick rest, when Bayron indicated this path went to the beach. I was so tired I said no; and then quickly changed my mind as this was one of the things we came here for. Bayron assured us it wasn't far. I wasn't 100% convinced until I saw the water. Boy was I glad I didn't say no. Bayron took his dog to the far end of the beach and we spent the next 45 minutes alone in the teal colored ocean floating and relaxing in the gentle waves. We then headed back into the jungle and made our way to Saboga Lodge; arriving just as my legs were screaming STOP! We went straight to the outdoor shower and the pool. Rested (sort of), we headed for the restaurant for some lunch. Bayron had gone back to Villa Noelia sometime between our pool visit and lunch; so we were on our own going back. How hard could it be? We knew it was only a "10 minute walk" from Villa Noelia and there was really only one path leaving Saboga Lodge. So...follow it and get to the beach; cross beach to paved path, climb (steep) hill to Noelia...right? Well that all sounded good in my head. It was when we both couldn't remember crossing the wooden bridge on the way back that I started to get a bit nervous. I didn't think I missed a turn; so we had to be going the right way...right? We climbed a muddy incline and stopped to rest when Sha saw a Noelia sign pointing toward a path going up a steep hill. A green sign in the jungle, how'd I miss that? The path didn't look like a path but was lined with sticks with orange tape fluttering in the breeze. We asked each other if we remembered the orange markers and we both shook our head no. Do we believe the sign and go up the really steep hill on the path that doesn't look like a path? We decided we trusted the sign and started up, quickly finding out that this was the steepest hill of the day. Half way up I had to stop for the third time wondering if I would have to spend the night there due to exhaustion, when I realized I could see the top. Summoning my last reserves, I fought my way to the top and with sheer delight was looking at the front of Villa Noelia! We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, then to the main deck for some cribbage and rehydration. After cards we ordered dinner and Darling cooked us up two wonderful pasta dishes in the kitchen you can see behind Sha in the above pic. We were excited and talking about the full "Blue Moon" (second one in August) coming on the 30th when we realized the sunset painting the western sky. We quickly headed down to the beach to enjoy the spectacle. [slideshow below] Early to bed, early to rise, cause tomorrow is whale watching day! We enjoyed a relaxing morning and Darling fixed us a wonderful scrambled eggs, sausages and fruit breakfast. We talked with the young couple, Alfonso and Gabriela staying here as well who came on the ferry with us about the whale watching we would be soon doing together; and then the four of us went to the beach to wait for our 10 AM pickup. Our panga showed up on time, for Panama, and we boarded the boat at the shoreline. We weren't sure if this was our whale watching boat or if we would transfer to something different at the ferry dock as we headed back to the north side of the island. We had our answer when we kept going straight out to the open ocean. Saboga Island is part of an archipelago in the Gulf of Panama; and after traveling for about 15 minutes, it appeared we were headed straight for one of them. We were confused when our captain steered us toward the white sandy beach because we all were expecting to be looking for whales. Al and Gabby conveyed our concern and translated the response that we could enjoy the island and that the boat would return after completing some other undisclosed task with the boat. The small island is uninhabited; and as the boat puttered away we felt like we were left on a deserted island. As we laughed about being stuck here, we found and shady spot for our things and set out exploring the small beach and rock outcroppings. It wasn't long before we were in the gently lapping turquoise waves offshore. [slideshow below] We had been enjoying floating in the ocean for quite some time when we heard a boat approaching the island and thought it was time to go. Oops; not our boat as we watched it continue on and circle the island. As there was no other boat insight, back in the water we went. It seemed a great deal longer than we expected to be there when the boat returned for us; although none of us minded because of the relaxing beauty of the little island. We boarded our panga and set off to find some whales. Our little boat made this experience so much different than our first adventure. As we traveled into open waters, we all were scanning the surface ahead and to the sides of our boat (this time we had 2 extra sets of eyes looking). Just I was beginning to wonder if we would have any luck at sighting the giant sea creatures, the captain cried out pointing out to the left of the boat! Sha was quick enough to see the fin as it crested the surface; but I missed it! That started it rolling. Another difference that we noted was we were able to see the blow spray of the surfacing whales that gave everyone a chance to see them no matter who spotted them. We also saw whale tails as they dove back down into the depths! I caught one in a pic (a bit blurry), and Gabby caught one in a short video!! NGG captured the first two pics. We were pretty giddy with our new sightings and experience as we continued to search. Counting, we reckoned we saw about a dozen whales as we encountered a lull in our sightings. Continuing to search; but thinking we might be done seeing whales, we saw the sight of a lifetime. Straight in front of the boat, a couple of hundred yards away, a whale jumped right out of the ocean! Three fourths of its body was out of the water! We saw its ribbed white belly and fins as it twisted before hitting the water with a tremendous splash. I'm getting goosebumps remembering it as I write this. What a sight; wow! That ended up being the last whale we saw that day. As we headed for home, we motored by Contadora, another populated island near Saboga. More developed and populated than Saboga, the east side of the island had some beautiful beach residences and resorts. After passing by Contadora we were back to the northeast edge of Saboga and around to Villa Noelia on the west side. The below pic is what we believe is Saboga town, which we didn't get a chance to visit as it was an hour's trek through the jungle to get to from our villa. We disembarked from the panga on our home beach satisfied and happy whale watchers. After conquering "the hill" to Noelia, we spent the rest of the afternoon in our pool with Al and Gabby. Darling, again prepared us a great dinner with Sha having a garbanzo bean salad and I had seafood fettuccine. We didn't have to wait long after dinner before the full moon was out. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 3:45 PM on our last day on the island, so we planned to go out on the resort's kayaks and paddle boards with Al and Gabby after breakfast. Always up for an adventure...maybe should have passed this one time. Bayron, apparently in need of another title, became the kayak and paddle board transporter as our equipment was at Saboga Lodge, and he had to bring them to us. It was a little windier than the previous two days and the waves were sneaky strong as we attempted to launch at water's edge. Al and I helped launch Sha on her way with minimal problems. As I attempted to get into my kayak I immediately found myself in the water with my overturned kayak banging into me from the waves hitting it. With extreme difficulty, I emptied the water out of it, and with Al's help set off afloat in the ocean. The ocean was rougher than any of us thought or were prepared for. As I watched Gabby's difficult launch and Al get afloat and end up in the rocks; I knew it was time to go back in. As Sha came back to shore, we were all happy to be out of the water. We decided to explore our home beach from the safety of the sand and check out the interesting rock layers at the top of the beach. Our transport to the ferry this time, we found out, was to be by "car" instead of the panga. Another of the local residents picked us up at the Villa and took us through the jungle roads to the ferry dock. On the ferry ride back we must have been really flying because it got us to the harbor ahead of schedule. As we let the A/C cool the car off before we left for home I was still marveling at the ships in the waters outside of the city. It was apparent, as we drove off of the Causeway, that not everybody had as great a last three days as we did. We experienced the evening version of the traffic jam from the netherworld on our way home, but...we eventually made it.
Not sure what I'm going to do next year to top this birthday month. I think I've said a mouthful in this edition of the KSha adventure, hope you enjoyed it. BTW; we've booked our next adventure for the first two months after we leave Panama...we're moving south. More to come later. Stay safe all! Pura Vida!! 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!! I am getting pretty good at knowing where the pothole sections of the road to and from Panama City are as we headed back to the big city to pick up our next visitor. In a reunion of sorts, Sha's former co-worker from Sun Microsystems, Mindy from Cincinnati came to stay with us over the 4th of July week. It was a pleasure to finally meet Mindy after hearing plenty of phone conversations and stories involving the two of them; and receiving a long awaited requested hug as we loaded the luggage and left the airport for our home. Mindy, Sha and BB enjoying a morning beach walk. It was nice to see Sha and Mindy enjoy telling stories of the people and events they shared while working at Sun Microsystems. It really was a great company; made that way due to the really wonderful people working there. We did a little home cooking with some salmon and tuna on the grill; but also did some eating out. A visit to Nueva Gorgona for tropical drinks and some good Thai food at Bovedas. Lunch at The Boga Bar in the harbor of Vista del Mar. Dinner and Sangria at Picasso's, down the road from our house. Waiting for the band to start. The band was jamming, so had to get up and shake a leg. We spent a special day with Mindy on the 50th anniversary of her wedding day in Chame at one of my favorite Panamanian beaches in Playa Carocal. We had a couple of cold beers at the Surf Shack and did some sightseeing in the town of Punta Chame. Two chicks at the Chame sign. The remodeled Surf Shack with new palapas and its very own pool! Mornings we'd lazily enjoy coffee and tea, and a beach walk when the tide was right. When we weren't sightseeing, we enjoyed our pool to cool off during the hot afternoons. Cold drinks and 5 Crowns were our entertainment when we stayed at home. We had some great battles and laughs playing that game! Sha had done some research to find the happenings for the 4th of July and booked the three of us a bus transport and private table at the Hawaii Beach Club on the sea for drinks, dancing and food with other local expats. The food was great, the band was awesome and I was the envy of the place with the two prettiest table-mates in the whole place. Loading the bus heading to Hawaii Beach Club on the 4th. BB, Sha and Mindy at Hawaii Beach Club. Patriotic in Panama. We even got to enjoy a beach firework show from our pool to top off the celebration of the 4th! We didn't have time to schedule an "official" visit to the Panama Canal, but on the way to the airport for Mindy's return flight home, we drove along the "backside" of the canal and found a place to park. We arrived just in time to see a large ship exiting the Canal. It was a great visit and it was sad to see "Mindalicious" leave for home ; but we know that the 5 Crowns craze will be spreading to Cincinnati as soon as she can get to the store! Sha has had her eye on this restaurant in Nueva Gorgona for more than a month and we finally went for dinner. The place is Mambo Italiano and it has a total of five tables for patrons. Rave reviews caught Sha's attention while doing research and we were not disappointed with what we found. We picked a night they had a singer and had some Italian wine (which we don't normally drink, but we loved it!). It was also the owner, Sonja's B-day, so the place was quite festive. She really made us feel at home there and came to our table frequently to check in and chat with us during our stay. First visit to Mambo Italiano. Wood fire brick oven in background. Our entertainment for dinner; this guy had a great voice. Bruschetta to start, Sha had the lasagna and I had a brick oven pizza--delicious!! Our pool is fantastic and after floating on our rafts in the sun, we like to get the Rummikub game and have some poolside friendly battles with a beer to cool off. We caught a bug and were under the weather for a time and couldn't walk on the beach for a bit. When we resumed our walks, the beach to our right (northwest) was changed dramatically. A big expanse of rock (not pictured) on the beach (that we didn't even know was there) had been exposed from the surf washing the sand that had covered it away. We also noticed one of the beach properties had sustained some damage to their wall on the beach and a section of it had sunk resulting in a giant crack in the wall. You may recall the picture of me standing next to a huge tree that was on the beach and a regular destination for our walks when we go this way. Well, that tree is no longer on the beach, at least as it used to be. It appears that someone cut the tree up as you can see below with the pieces still left on the beach. There is a small community of fishermen houses at the end of our walking distance (just past the huge tree that is no longer) and the rough surf has damaged one of their structures that is also pictured below. The crab pictured above was captured in our house. They sometimes like to crawl through the locked grill gate covering our front door.
We had a cool National Geographic moment during one of our recent walks on the beach as we watched two split-tailed seabirds (not sure of the proper name; I call them M & M birds because their wings look like an "M" when they are flying) hunting along the shore. Unlike pelicans who dive into the water to catch fish, these guys fly low and grab fish by their beak as they continue flying. We happened to be on the beach adjacent to the two birds fishing as one of them snagged a fish and then flapped its wings to gain altitude. As soon as the one caught his fish, the companion immediately went into attack mode to steal the fish from the other. The aerial battle was soon joined by a third split-tail trying to steal the fish as well. The hunter dropped his fish at one point during the 25 second battle, but deftly caught it midair and successfully kept his catch by evading the other two would be thieves. Would've loved to have that on video, but was too engrossed to even think of it before it was over. The weather lately has been really hot, high 80's and 90's with a feels like temp of 105+ on some days. Even the locals are complaining of how hot it is. Can't be grateful enough that we have our pool to be able to cool off in. The infrequent afternoon rains are the only cool air we get until the sun goes down. Whale watching season is just around the corner and we are looking to set up a boat excursion in nearby San Carlos. Keep you posted with that endeavor as we proceed. We are really enjoying our life here in Panama and look forward to each day. Hoping all is well with you and yours. Until next time. Ciao amigos! Pura Vida! |
Kevin & Sharon SeibelBeginning our next big adventure! Archives
December 2023
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