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 have had our first rain since the last time we chatted and have now entered the rainy season; or better known as the "green season." The rain came straight down in buckets and lasted about 4 hours. The ending of the first rain of the season prompted an explosion of large black flying insects that apparently had been dormant in the ground until then. We had been enjoying the downpour inside the house and covered areas outside as darkness was falling and the rain was easing down. We were in the process of organizing dinner when the first bug invaded the kitchen. NGG jumped into action and fly-swatted it into oblivion. Then we noticed that it wasn't alone. We both needed to be busy "cleaning" our way back to the open slider doors of the house; and with regret closed them (temporarily) because we saw a great deal more of the buggers outside. We "suffered" eating dinner inside and were eagerly anticipating getting in the pool to cool off after a "hot" dinner in the house. On our way to our room by the pool we continued to see more of the flying bugs but not a crazy number of them...until we got to the pool! The surface water was covered in them!! Most were dead, but some were stuck and trying to get out of the water...there were thousands of them. I tried to clean the pool with the net; and actually thought I had done a good job until we got in...I had gotten (almost) all the bodies, but as we got in we saw thousands of barely visible wings that were still floating in the pool. NGG was quick-thinking and got the strainer from the kitchen so we could do a small-scale cleaning from inside the pool. We are so grateful that the next two rains did not bring the insect explosion with their coming. However, the strainer is still by the pool as it is needed every day to clean the surface of bug parts and wings that continue to come and reside in our pool. We have embraced the idea of, as NGG puts it, "outdoor living" because our front and back doors are always open until we turn in for the night. We spend the majority of our time outside and are mostly tolerant of the occasional visitor from nature that wanders, runs or flys inside to "say hi." We still have our two gecko friends that have decided to stay in our kitchen area by the side window. We have helped multiple hummingbirds and several smaller birds find their way back outside from inside our glassed living room. The bat that visited us one night was a little more difficult to persuade to leave as he ended up flying through the entire house before I was able to convince him to leave. Our scariest encounter was when Cujo came in the house while we were watching a movie. I heard, over the sound of the movie, a raspy panting noise and turned just in time to see a large dog inside the house and almost ready to enter our dining room. I jumped off of our couch screaming "get out of here" with my heart pounding in my chest (scared the heck out of me)! Luckily the dog turned and bolted out of the house. I continued hollering as I ran outside to be sure it wouldn't come back...then I had to explain it to Sha as she hadn't seen the damn thing...then the security people at our front gate came to see what I was hollering about. With my Spanish and hand signals, I managed to convey what had happened, and to my surprise and admiration, one of the men got a stick and rope and inspected our whole property-which is not easy to navigate in full sun, to be sure the dog was not hiding anywhere on the property. We were very thankful for him to have done that! We leave a few more lights on at the back of the house now at night. Our (much less scary) iguana friends have increased and they seem to be a bit more acclimated with us being in and around the pool. The Iguana Whisperer has captured a couple of our candid encounters... We are continuing to enjoy our walks on the beach and wanted to share some other shots of the low tide landscapes we see. We try to avoid walking at high tide as the beach slope is too steep and the waves are powerful and come up to some concrete walls of properties on the beach. After my parents' visit, we were back to the two of us until this past weekend. During our first visit to Panama we had met Nils, a Canadian firefighter that we were looking at beach property together one afternoon-then had gotten to know each other over lunch; planned a trip back to Panama with his wife Jenn, and spent this past Saturday and Sunday with us. We went out to eat Saturday night and enjoyed a live band after dinner, then came back and sat in the pool drinking wine until...most of us couldn't recall the next morning. A lazy Sunday morning gave us enough energy to do a little sightseeing and have lunch at the Boga Bar, which is at the end of a beautiful harbor about 20 minutes from the house. Thank you Nils and Jenn for a great visit and dinner and lunch. We introduced them to the game 5 Crowns (thanks again R & E!) and ended up playing that until well past when normal people go to bed. It was super cool to see Nils again and to meet his wife Jenn...hoping to see them one more time before they head back to Vancouver.
Alright Sharon--no not my Sharon, now you know everything I know. I don't always think about the blog updates as I am getting accustom to realizing I don't always know what day it is either. I might be getting the hang of this retired living thing. We continue to love everything about living in Panama; although when the wind dies down it is seriously hot here. We will be back in Chicago (and Wisconsin) for a wedding in about 3 weeks and will be trying to squeeze in seeing as many friends/family as our week there will allow. Glad the weather will be much warmer than our last visit! Until next time... As they say in Panama..."Ciao!" Pura Vida!
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Kevin & Sharon SeibelBeginning our next big adventure! Archives
December 2023
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