Settling in in paradise...

Hola from Coronado Panama! At the moment, it is Oscar Sunday and you crazy kids in the U.S. turned your clocks ahead an hour before you went to bed last night. Not a fan of the changes two times a year; and neither is the Panamanian government--no clock change here in Central America. It is currently 3 PM and 82 degrees (feels like 88) with full sun at our new residence in Coronado Bay. Our flight arrived 45 minutes early last Monday and our scheduled driver picked us up right outside of Immigration and we headed out of Panama City. Those of us familiar with Chicago know it is fairly easy to navigate the grid pattern of the city and surrounding areas...not the case for Panama City. There may be as many drivers here as there, but the way streets merge and exits are on both sides of the road; it is not a comfortable place to drive. I haven't even mentioned the WAY people drive here. Even as we navigated some familiar areas, we were glad to have a driver getting us safely to our destination. Locally touted as a 60-90 minute drive from Panama City; actual time to Coronado is closer to 2 hours as traffic is always a factor when moving through and around Panama City.

​It didn't take long before we felt like the Rey del castillo (King of the castle) and Reina de la piscina (Queen of the pool) at our new home for the next 6 months.

Tom, our real estate agent got us to the Super 99 (grocery store) on day 2 so that we could get supplies and food for the house. A $4 taxi got us home with all our bags from there (about a 3-4 mile trek to our house). Sleep and wake up times took a few days to acclimate into normalcy and then our morning beach walks became easier to initiate. We have almost the perfect distance in both directions on the beach from our house that takes us each way out and back totaling an hour. 

Morning moon over Coronado Bay. Beach is partially black and white sand.

Beach view of interior mountains and a lagoon fed by high tides about 50 meters from the ocean. 

Just a little driftwood on the beach...Ha!

That's for you Karen! Hi Norm!

Sha has been monitoring the local Chat groups (and keeping tabs on our Costa Rican friends) and found a reasonable long term rental on a car for us. We picked up the car on Thursday; and although we have to "give it back" for a day of maintenance, we are feeling like we are getting everything in it's rightful place. 

Just a little step up from our clown car we had during our last visit.

The only thing left we needed to set up was the TV situation. Cable is currently working; (CNN & Fox only english stations available) which we will cancel when we have all the required info (waiting for some local info needed). Meanwhile, Sha again came to the rescue by finding THE guy to know to setup up your TV watching system. Yesterday we had Leon (aka the TV Guy), come to the house with a "magic" programmed box that we connected to our internet and now have the ability to watch any movie, PPV, sports program or TV channel on the air. Holy crap you might say...too late, I already said that! We are still learning the nuances of the system today, but hopefully we will feel confident as we continue exploring the system.

Now we think we have our home the way we want it.

About a week and a half until our first visitors Randi and Ed arrive. We are both looking forward to seeing our Georgian friends!

A quick checkin on the newly named Coronado Bay House Cribbage Championship, heretofore referred to as CBHCC; with 2 days of competition in the books, BB leads NGG, 5 games to four. Thanks to CC (Cool Carolina) Kev for sending the NC cards to ensure my dominance during this championship (Team Kev!).

That's all for now peeps! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Pura Vida!