September31st

First Chemo, 29 September 2011

2011-09-29T15:54:00.001-07:00

So, here we are at the University of Michigan Cancer Center. Tommy is having his first "infusion" (sounds like a fancy tea, doesn't it?) and I'm loving the hospital's WiFi. Today is a long day, since a new port had to be installed. Consequently, we are treating ourselves to a hotel in Ann Arbor and tomorrow more treats: a movie! Last week we saw "Moneyball"; we love any movie about baseball but throw in Brad Pitt and a field we know...can't get much better.

The next chemo is 18 October, the third on 8 November, and then a CT scan to see how things are doing. In the mean time, I'll go to Panama on 24 October to get some admin stuff done and bring back winter clothes. A Michigan winter...ugh...ugh...ugh...the last time this chica was in winter was more than 25 years ago...ugh...ugh...ugh...

It is now college football season here. The University of Michigan team has won four straight, but the real tests are yet to come. Since TV at the farm is minimal (until Donald and Sarah spend more time here), we find different locations to watch the games. Last week was the Zukey Lake Tavern; we may go there again this week although the Gregory Pub beckons, too. I have always been fascinated how the Michigan alumni never ever stops rooting for Michigan...despite being out of school for years and years and years.

Speaking of the University of Michigan: when Tommy was in school here, he once visited the hospital for some minor problem. Fifty years later (i.e., this year) when we went to the first doctor, whose office was a part of the University Hospital system, Tommy's records were pulled up immediately! Can you imagine how many old records are in the system?

Time to go...

Bar #4 in Alpena

2011-09-17T04:57:00.000-07:00

This was the final stop...our hotel bar...

Bar #3 in Alpena

2011-09-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

I was drunk...the IPA's are great...

Bar #2 in Alpena

2011-09-16T15:19:00.001-07:00

This is a great bar. The "lounge" with Gus the bar tender. Because of this bar, and the BigTenNework (which will show the Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan game), we may have to stay in Alpena a third night...

2011-09-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Bar #1 in Al[pena, on our bar tour...

September 16th, Alepna bar crawl

2011-09-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Tommy slept til 1 pm qne then we went to tour this tiny town....

More photos from Steamboat

2011-09-16T11:31:00.001-07:00

Linda, Cynthia,Wilson

Tom and Pat Barron

Tom Brown ...

Some photos from Steamboat Springs

2011-09-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

Let's see if we can get some photos up....

This is a nice one. We had decided to have a cocktails on the driveway deck, next to Tom Terry's great RV.

Cynthia and Tommy; Cynthia just had eyelid surgery so that's the reason for the bruising.

The Cancer Thing

2011-09-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is really a bummer. Last October, Tommy was given the "all clear" by his Panamanian doctors. In June (at the University of Michigan Hospital) he was diagnosed with recurrent cancer, now outside the esophagus but which apparently spread from the site of the original cancer. I can now see the tumor, along his neck and collarbone.
We will re-start the testing and doctors in a week. Maybe the new CT scan will tell us how fast the tumor is growing. The radiation oncologist will tell us if he can radiate the new tumor, or if it is too dangerous. The oncologist will tell us what treatment she recommends to try to control the tumor. And Tommy will decide what he wants to do.
I should mention that Dr. Reddy, the thoracic surgeon told Tommy that the tumor is not operable, that it cannot be cured, and that he has two years to live. Well, that puts a new frame around it, doesn't it?
So that was one of the reasons we decided to go on this driving trip. Driving is a good thing for Tommy; he loves the van, the US roads and attractions, and just seeing new stuff. It is one of the situations in which he can have control. He is a fantastic driver; I am a great navigator and passenger.
So, the driving trip and seeing so many of our US friends have renewed our energy and I think we are ready to face the cancer again.
The US medical system is so different than the Portuguese and Panamanian. Seeing a doctor is only a small part of the process, whereas in Portugal and Panama, the doctors rule and I could reach them by cell phone and e-mail. In the US, the doctors are protected from too much interaction with the patients. I never knew of a "nurse practioner" before; now I do and I'm sure I'll get to love them but....

El Valle Church Windows, continued...

2011-09-16T09:04:00.001-07:00

So, you saw the original windows. Here is a photo of the students and the work in progress...
And then the final windows (which are mirror images of each other, except that the east window has an "alpha" and the west window an "omega".
The installation started on a day when we couldn't attend. When we checked on the progress, we could not believe that the west window had been installed in the east window's space! Yikes! How could this happen? Particularly when the two windows were not the same size???? Jean Claude Augrain, the Foundation's Director, quickly translated and had the installer change out the windows. As the re-installation was taking place, Roberto and Jose Luis came by and pitched in to help. The are both carpenters; now they are both window makers and installers.
I am so proud of the students and feel ever so fortunate to have had this experience. The community is extremely proud of these new windows. I love them!

El Valle Church Windows

2011-09-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Last year the Foundation funded me to teach four young locals to learn stained glass. The Foundation paid for all the materials and tools, which I had shipped from the U.S. My students were three adults (Roberto, Jose Luis and Yulitza) and one 14-year old (Eduardo). They knew that the ultimate goal was to build replacement windows for the ugly colored class/plastic ones in the main church.
They were fantastic students, who put up with my miserable attempts at speaking Spanish. They learned quickly and made six or seven projects, which were displayed in the art exhibition in February 2010.
In early March 2011, we starting building the windows, which were designed by Coqui Calderon (one of Panama's premier artists). Coqui's designs were translated into glass patterns by Tommy; this was a very, very difficult job but, of course, he did it. He also built the build boards for us. Before we began, my wonderful friend and Spanish teacher, Cecilia came to translate so that we were all clear on what we were doing.
Let's let the photos speak for themselves...the original windows...

The Wall

2011-09-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

Our "trash group" is a loose collection of about seven or eight gringos, often augmented by visitors and/or other residents. We pick up trash every Monday morning along the main street. We have been doing this for about three years now. This same group runs the recycling program, but we'll talk more about that later.
Anyway, one of our biggest gripes was the long Hong Kong (a supermarket) wall, which was a very dirty white, completely covered with graffiti. We asked Mario, the owner of Bruschetta's, to get permission for us to paint the wall; he did. He also was the focal point for an art contest, which asked for entries for mini-murals to be painted on the wall.
Led by Jim Eaton, we power washed the wall (twice), primed and painted it, blocking off the mini-mural "canvases". This took days and days, which you might expect since all the workers were in their sixties. Nevermind, we did it! And then it was time for the kids to start painting. We had eight wonderful youngsters who were very serious about this. It was hot, and since the wall was east-facing, they were in the bright sun for most of the day. They never complained, but kept at it. The trash group keep them well hydrated and fed.
And traffic in El Valle stopped, as residents and tourists stopped to watch, take photos, and compliment the youngsters and the trash group. Over the main two weekends of painting, we had so much fun with the kids and the folks who stopped. The amount of good energy was incredible.
We later had Cesar (local artist) paint the first panel. The last panel was designed by Cas Jimenez (art teacher) and painted by him and his students.
All my photos of this wonderful project are in my other computer; I'll see if can resurrect some of them.

Catching up

2011-09-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

While Tommy is sleeping, I'll catch up on various news. Our beloved TwoBaby died in January. He had been sick for several months, eating less and less. We woke up one morning and knew it was his last, so we held him until he died. We buried him next to the house, and later planted flowers there. We are now nine months later and I still miss him and his sweet nature. He was the most wonderful little friend. Whoever would have thought that you could love a little animal that much?
I have wonderful memories of Two but a really fun one was in Portugal. Tommy and I were at the Scotts' house for dinner. I can't remember if Gill and Nigel were there, too. Anyway, we were all having a laughing good time, with plenty of food and drink, and I was laughing my big laugh. All of a sudden, two small black furry things appeared: TwoBaby and his sister, who had heard me laughing and tracked us down. More laughing, of course.
There was another time in Portugal when Two stationed himself in front of the dishwasher. We had already determined that one of the hoses had been gnawed in two by an animal, so we figured Two was guarding the house and not letting the rat move. Tommy and I constructed a "rat run" from the dishwasher to the front door. Armed with brooms, we pulled the dishwasher away from the wall, and "broomed" the rat out the front door. By this time, Two was sitting on the hill across from the front door, watching his two crazy friends. He proudly did nothing to help.
Two was a bundle of love. Tommy "gave" me Two and his sister for my birthday in 1997. I promised to make the two cats outdoor cats, who would never be allowed in the house. Ha! Not only were they allowed in the house, they owned the house and us. Two went on to travel to the US, and then spend four months in the van with us, traveling to Panama. When we were in Portugal, he loved to hunt and bring home treasures but in Panama he was more of a house cat, although he loved to sit in the herb garden and smell the hummingbird plant.
I miss his warm furry body, his sitting on my lap at night, brushing him, his leg kisses, his talking, sleeping with me at night, and his greetings when we came home.
Anyway, I got Two for my birthday in 1997. This year's birthday was celebrated with Carl and Mary Ann at Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor. Here's a photo....

September 16th, 2011, Alpena, Michigan

2011-09-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

The UP of Michigan is an extraordinary place, with incredible scenery and people. One night we stayed in Gladstone at the Lakeview Inn, which no longer has a view of the lake but does have a salon with the most friendly attendants (I guess today they are called "estetacists", although I can't even spell the word so let's just called them beauticians, etc.). Had the most wonderful haircut to repair the damage of the miserable one from El Valle three months ago. New to me, the "latest" is to flat iron my curly hair completely straight and then cut it. Me with completely straight is not a sight for sore eyes. And then I had a facial, which they promised would make me look ten years younger; false advertising.
We crossed the Mackinac Bridge and drove down the western shoreline of Lake Huron. We have now driven along three of the five Great Lakes, all of which are spectacular and huge, huge. Last night we ended up in Alpena, a small town on Thunder Bay (great name, isn't it?). When I got up this morning, I decided that Tommy looked worn out so we are booked for another night here in Alpena. Perhaps tomorrow we'll drive straight through to the farm, or not...we'll see what tomorrow brings.
It seems that the closer we get to the farm, the sadder we get as we realize that we will have to face the cancer, treatment options, and all that crap. So why not put off reality for a while...
Photo above is Tommy and Peter Shipman when we met for dinner in Denver.

September 14th, 2011

2011-09-14T08:32:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was our 29th wedding anniversary and we spent the evening at the Hotel Chequamegon in Ashland, Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin? We are driving from Steamboat Springs, Colorado to Michigan. Why? Okay, let's back up...
Earlier this year, we shipped the big black van back to Michigan (to Donald and Sarah's farm) from Panama in anticipation of a three-month driving trip around the U.S. and expecting to spend about 6-8 weeks in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, building stained glass windows for Cynthia.
We arrived in Michigan in mid-June and shortly thereafter Tommy was diagnosed with recurrent cancer. The tumor is not in the esophagus (the site of the original cancer, four years ago), but rather along the vocal cords and the right lung. Since the tumor encases nerves and arteries, it is not operable. After weeks and weeks of tests and doctors and sickness, we couldn't stand it any longer and decided to take a break and drive to Steamboat Springs.
We raced across country, getting there in four days, with our last night in Laramie, Wyoming: a very cool town. Then we dropped down into Colorado and arrived in Steamboat in mid-afternoon, shortly after Tom (Brown) and Cynthia. And the fun began. Tom and Pat Barron arrived the next day. Wilson, Linda and Tom Terry arrived a few days later. Too much fun was had by all, as evidenced by the recycling box and the number of missed planes. Tom Barron successfully made his plane but only because he had a private plane meet him; he was mercilessly teased about that plane. Everyone left by the 7th of September, and Tommy and I stayed around to rest and tidy up; we left on the 8th.
We had a short drive to Denver, where we met up with Peter Shipman for dinner. The next day we hit the road, driving through Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Minnesota and now Wisconsin. We hope to be in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan later today.
Photos to come...if I can figure it out!

This isn't possible! March 4, 2010

2010-03-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

Has it been that long since we've talked!? WOW! Well, life is busy and in a routine, so maybe we haven't felt inspired to write. But wanted to tell you about an exciting happening, which is building on previous efforts.

For the last several years a small group of gringo ladies has had summer art programs for the local kids in El Valle; each program has been about 8 weeks long. Last year, all the art projects were made with recycled materials, including the kids' carnaval masks and costumes.

This year we had sponsorship from the Fundacion Parroquia de San Jose (i.e., we didn't have to have bake sales to raise the money for the program...what a treat!), and we were fortunate to have two teachers from the Museo de Arte Contemporano (MAC) in Panama City. The kids learned basic painting and color mixing, and employed those skills to make and paint their carnaval masks. It was such a delight to see the kids' creativity grow, and see their joy in achieving some really interesting work with novel approaches. In about a week, we will put up an exhibition of the kids' best work (as chosen by them) in the El Valle Library.

Also, during this summer's program we employed four young teenagers as aides to the MAC teachers. These teenagers were chosen from the previous year's program when they had demonstrated their own creativity. It was so gratifying to see these teenagers grow in responsibility and initiative, and share their artistic ability with the younger kids.

The Fundacion has asked us to organize additional cultural classes for the kids; these new classes will be conducted during the school year. In April we will re-start the weekly painting classes with the MAC teachers, and we hope to add other classes, such as: acoustic guitar, ballet, singing, theater, music reading and appreciation, choir, creative writing and any others which fit into the general category of "culture".

Now, if this isn't a motivation to learn Spanish....

October 24th, 2008

2008-10-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

We are having gardener woes. Our original gardener (liked by Barbara, despised by Tommy) decided to stop gardening and take up construction (more money). Found another gardener straight away, agreed on terms and duties, and waited for him to show up on the appointed day....nada. Found a second gardener, agreed on terms and duties, and waited for him to show up on the appointed day...nada. Now I'm getting paranoid; what's going on? A cousin of friends' gardener said he had an extra day, and would send in a crew of four to do a big tidy-up; agreed on terms and duties...well, you know what happened...nada. He did show up a week later, apologizing that he was too busy and would have his friend Sebastian come the next day; I emphasized I only wanted one guy for one day a week. Four guys showed up the next day.....My Spanish is NOT that bad! I am going to hire an interpreter to find out why this is happening, or, more accurately, not happening! Groan...

October 14, 2008

2008-10-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

I think that you know that I have been involved with a local Panamanian group which is trying to do something about the roadside trash and to start a recycling program. We had our first "fair" on Saturday, which included lots of exhibits, introduction of the first "eco brigade" (kids who are going to keep streets around the school clean), and a bake sale to raise money. I had contacted "Playacommunity" (an English-speaking website, centered mainly on the coast, about 40 minutes from here) for publicity. They wrote an article before the event, and then wrote an article after the event, which included photos. Check it out here: http://www.playacommunity.com/the-news/community-events/el-valle-first-ecological-fair/
You will notice the "NO BASURA" sign, which I designed and starting creating. When my mother came to visit, she helped me and then later I had the elementary school kids help. The sign is made mainly out of little juice boxes, which we cut into strips, folded and then threaded onto wire in the shape of the letters.
Anyway, the ecofair was a grand event for this little town. In two of the photos you can see the kids of the first eco brigade, getting ready to take their pledge. Oh, they were so cute!

And today Tommy and I went to Panama City to pick up my new car....a little baby red car. It is very similar to my Nissan Micra in Portugal. I drove it home and I love it!

September 13th, 2008

2008-09-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday was our anniversary (26 married and 30 together)..yikes! As we were passing Mario's, we saw him talking to the fish truck guys. We knew that the fish truck had lobster, so we stopped and asked Mario to buy two and fix them for us for dinner. He as delighted, so we went there with our bottle of champagne, and he put flowers on our table and served us a sort of lobster thermidor. We were sitting outside, and the temperature was perfect with no wind. We could hear the live music at the beer hall "Imperial" in the distance so it wasn't too intrusive. Off in the distance we could also hear fireworks (what in the world was happening in El Valle with all this activity?)

The last time we had lobster was in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua on our trip from California to Panama. Mario's lobster was every bit as good! What a special evening!

Cement Workshop, September 2008

2008-09-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Franco is an artist who works in many media. He is currently using cement to make sculptures, which are magnificent and too expensive (rightly so)for my pocketbook. He was very receptive to teaching his techniques, so I organized a two-day workshop. In order to get us started quickly, Franco had cut and bent the initial armatures so that we all started off with the same shape. And then we went to work, each of the six of us creating something original and completely different from all the others. We mixed and applied cement for hours, with Franco helping each of us as needed. We were so thrilled with our creations; mine is a bust of (perhaps) a lady but it could be an American Indian. And it is heavier than shit!
Because of the success of the first workshop, others wanted to learn so I organized a second workshop. I just went to look at their creations: all of theirs are different from each other and from ours! This medium is incredible!
I need to finish my big stained glass commission (hopefully by the end of September) and then I want to try a larger, more delicate piece. Cross your fingers!

Organic Coffee, El Valle

2008-09-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

We have a special treat here in El Valle: a small tostaderia (coffee roaster) which specializes in organic coffee. The tostaderia is owned and run by Francoise and Jose, a Canadian/Panamanian couple. They make excursions throughout the country to source their coffee beans. Each batch of beans has an interesting journey; for example, the last bag I bought made this trek: Jose called someone in a small village in the Ngobe Bugle comarca (way west and north from here...towards Costa Rica), where they had previously visited and approved the coffee. The phone answerer took a message and a couple of days later, the "chefe" called Jose, who ordered four five-hundred pound sacks of coffee. Once the coffee beans had been picked and bagged, the sacks were loaded onto donkeys who make the trek through the jungle until reaching a road where there was a 4-wheel drive jeep. The sacks were taken, by the jeep, down to the Pan American Highway, where they were transferred to one of the buses which run up and down the highway. The bus got the coffee beans as far as the turn up to El Valle (28 km down the mountain), where Jose was waiting with his car to transport the beans up the mountain to El Valle.
It is not often you get to hear about your food origins! And it is yummy coffee, too!

Travis and Morgan, August 2008

2008-09-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

Most of you know that Travis (11) and Morgan (8) are my beloved grandchildren. I was fortunate to have five days with them when we were in the States in August. These kids have so much, and there is no way that I can compete with that so I prefer to spend time with them, creating memories and events with which they can identify me. And we usually have a lot of fun, too.

The day I arrived, we walked downtown and had sushi for lunch. On the way back, we stopped into a make-your-own-art and the two of them created art pieces. Then we stopped for decaf mocha frappachinos for the kids; Travis was amazed that there are no Starbucks in Panama. This kid needs to get out of California!

Later that week, Travis decided to have a lemonade stand. San Carlos has a farmers market every Thursday in August; he reckoned that lots of people going to the market would have to walk by the house. We ran around, collecting supplies and decorations; Travis and Morgan made signs which were pasted on the street corners and the big sign on the front of the shop window. We opened promptly at 4, and had customers right away. People in cars stopped when they saw the big sign, parked and came over to buy the lemonade. The kids worked straight through til 8, when the market ended. They made over $25!, all at 50 cents a glass! And no fighting at all...another wonder!

On Friday, we went up to the Tahoe house, primarily because Chris and Kerry wanted to continue re-roofing the house. The kids and I were sent to the creek with a picnic lunch, but before we got to eating, Travis decided we needed to building a raft. So, with Travis as engineer and project director, we build the raft, and re-built the raft, and re-built the raft...five times worth. We used materials we found in the creek: old planks, a log, and weeds which we tied together to make string. Five re-builds and five hours later, we had a raft which floated with a kid on it! What a riot! We had so much fun, we didn't realize that it had gotten so late until Kerry came to fetch us. It was great!

Birthday Parties

2008-09-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

Before I get to my birthday party, let me tell you about a couple of others held here in El Valle. Rene, our friend from Portugal, decided to hostess a birthday party for the August babies: Adele (6th), Marilyn and me (the 7th), and Christine (the 12th). Rene is the definition of "the hostess with the mostest". There were 14 of us for a sit-down dinner, served by staff, and prior to that, a cocktail party with a bar tender. Marilyn brought tiaras and boas for all the birthday girls, and we found ourselves posing for lots of photos. Marilyn and JD also came dressed in fancy clothes: he in a tux and spats, and she in a party dress her mom had made for her 40 years ago...imagine! I couldn't get one arm in a dress from 40 years ago!

A week earlier, we had a surprise birthday party for Rene, here at our house. Tommy and I had originally thought we would have a small, intimate dinner for Rene, Tom and another couple. But Rene's cookbook group wanted to honor her as well so we changed course, the menu and decided to make a surprise out of the big group. The cookbook group is five gals who are writing a cookbook, the proceeds of which will go to charity. The group is currently in its "recipe testing" phase so each member brought two dishes (whose recipes they were testing) to the surprise party. What an easy way to have a party! Anyway, Rene was surprised, the dinner was delicious, we all had a lot of fun, and she got lots of presents. Our present to her was a New Zealand leg of lamb, which sounds like a very weird present but, in fact, she and I have been moaning about the non-availability of the New Zealand lamb and I had just found them at Riba Smith (new item).

On to my birthday party in the States: several months ago Cynthia had declared that my 60th birthday needed to be celebrated. She's probably sorry she brought it up because I realized what I wanted most was to have a "Big Chill Weekend" with my US pals and the best place for that was her house in Sierra Madre, California. She graciously agreed to be the hostess. Linda Shipman did the organizing, and almost all my pals were there. There were even a couple of surprises: Linda and Wilson, and Nancy, each of whom had said that they couldn't attend. And I really was surprised! Gosh, but it was a fabulous time, and exactly what I wanted with all of us cooking and shopping together, meeting in the kitchen to get the day started, taking walks, talking, going off to special lunch places, visiting bead stores, and just generally hanging out. For the party, Cynthia had hired a band and all the gals danced with Skip; what a good sport he is! It was a perfect time,and I'll enjoy those memories forever!

The "No Basura" Project

2008-07-29T18:07:00.001-07:00

One of the ugly things about Panama (actually, all of Central America) is the trash. Trash is thrown out of car and bus windows, dropped wherever it is no longer needed, and just pushed aside when the grass is being mowed. Newcomers to El Valle are appalled when first arriving. El Valle is so beautiful but litter is everywhere.

A number of were talking this situation, and hit upon recycling. Our thesis was that the only way to motivate the locals to not throw trash was to pay them for it; they are so poor that we felt this would work. As Gerlinda was calling around to find out information about various recycling operations (few, few and far between), Jackie found a recycling company down on the coast. This is a Colombian company, which containerizes the trash and ships it to Colombia. Can you imagine!

Completely independent of our project, Carlitos organized a town clean up day. It was enormously successful, collecting 300+ huge bags of trash plus piles and piles of tires. We met with Carlitos and described what we wanted to accomplish. We agreed to combine forces, with his co-op taking the public face and lead (much, much better than a couple of gringas trying to ram something down the locals' throats). He is putting his team and their "brigades" in place, and we expect them to start up in August.

In conjunction with my current interest in trash, I decided to make a sign spelling out "No Basura" (no trash) out of trash. One day I left the house with my big green garbage bag to collect trash for the sign; Tommy was standing on the front porch, yelling, "No wife of mine is going to collect public trash."

Well, this wife did, and after a couple of false starts, figured out how to cut and fold the colorful juice cartons and then thread the folded bits onto wire to make the letters. When my mother visited, she was pressed into service to help out. She and I completed about half the letters, and this sure was getting to be a bit tedious. Then one Thursday, Maritza called to say that she needed an alternate project for the kids for the art project and would I consider bringing the stuff to make the sign. Wow! Would I ever! The volunteers and two teachers led the cutting effort, while the kids folded and quality controlled their work. A couple of the boys pounded the holes in the folded papers (everyone wanted that job!), and two of us threaded the papers onto the wires, which I had pre-bent into the letters. By the end of the class, all but one letter was finished, which I did the next day.

"Our" welder made a black metal rectangle for me, and Tommy drilled lots of holes in it. We tied the letters onto the rectangle, and now the sign is almost done! I just have to paint the names of those who contributed to this project. And then the sign will be hung in some public place, in conjunction with the recycling project. Pretty neat, isn't it?

Maritza's Art Project

2008-07-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

In previous posts, I have mentioned my friend Maritza, who is Panamanian but spent most of her life in the US. She is an artist, has energy for twelve, and is enormously creative. She was my Spanish teacher for about four months, and I often referred to her as the "best teacher I have ever had." She gave up teaching to start an art project in one of the local elementary schools.

None of the schools in El Valle teach art. Maritza approached the Minister of Education and the officials in this one particular school, and described her program: a elective weekly project to teach the kids about the great masters, some drawing and painting fundamentals, with presentations by visiting artists. The program was approved, parents gave their approval, and we signed up 103 kids! I say "we" because Maritza enlisted her friends as volunteers to help out.

I was the first guest artist, and described the process of making a stained glass item, as well as showing some of my pieces. The yellow VW is always a crowd pleaser. I also had the kids apply copper foil to a glass bobble, and they got to keep the bobble. Christine, who makes paper from local plants, was a big hit, as was Harry who is a designer (mostly furniture). He brought three or four of his chairs and sofas, which had been scaled to child size. Franco described the process of making cement sculptures, and Shirley and Jackie gave painting lessons. In our last session, George Scribner, a Disney animator, enthralled the kids. He first painted Dumbo and then taught the kids how to draw Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and figures with movements. He was terrific and had the kids completely engaged.

Panama was host to an exhibition of Rembrandt etchings. The kids studied Rembrandt for several weeks. The ones who had the best Rembrandt portfolio (essay, drawings, creative coloring) were selected to go to the exhibition. (Keep in mind that many of these kids had never seen the ocean, let alone been to Panama City and a museum.) Although the school had a bus which would transport the kids, there was no budget for the diesel, the driver, the lunches, etc. etc. So, we quickly did some fund raising in El Valle, and had a great response. We left El Valle at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning (ugh), and were first in line for a tour through the museum. The museum tour guides said that these kids were the best ever in the museum. For the most part, they were speechless. After the museum, they went to the mall for lunch and some playing on the bumper cars. The bus got back to El Valle about 5; it was a spectacular day.

One project, prompted by a visiting mural artist from the States, was a mural for the "auditorium" at the school. Kids in the art project designed the mural, which was executed by several high school kids under the direction of Mark Nelson, the visiting mural artist.

The project will continue through the end of October. I am so grateful to be involved with this project. The kids are so good, and just lapping up all this stuff. They get a kick out of me and my laugh, and giggle shyly when they say "Thank you" to me in Engish. And I love it, when I am riding my bike around town, one of them sees me and waves excitedly.

Beisbol, Panama Style

2008-07-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Barbara was called "Barbara Baseball" when we lived in the States. When we lived in Portugal, we did find some amateur baseball but it was too amateur and too far away (the team did ask Tommy to coach them!). Anyway, so one of the joys of moving to Panama was to reconnect with baseball (beisbol to you Spanish speakers).

Early in our life here in Panama, I started on a mission to find out about baseball in Panama, for which there is a website but no future information posted. While doing some research on the web, I found an article written by a Panamanian about a game in Rod Carew stadium. I wrote to him and he replied, suggesting that we catch a game in the "juvenil (youth) league"; he said that they were more interesting than the "old guys" and that their season was starting in January. Sure enough, the season did start in January and the games were played in stadiums all over the country. With all the best intentions, we never got to a game during the regular season, mainly because the games started at 7pm and were at least an hour plus away.

When Cynthia came to visit in February, we made it our goal to get to a game. The schedule in the newspaper showed Saturday's game in Chame (about an hour eastwards), starting at 7 pm. Okay, we could do that. The next day, the schedule showed Saturday's game in Chame at 5 pm. Hm. Saturday rolled around, and the schedule still showed a 5 pm starting time, so off we went, looking for the stadium, which was an adventure because there are no signs on the highway to point you in the direction of the stadium. We found our way there by asking directions at every intersection.

This cute little stadium (held a couple of thousand fans) was tucked away in the middle of a residential area; lights had recently been installed. We arrived about 15 minutes before starting time, paid our $4 to enter, and there were only a few seats left! Cynthia found out that, for an additional $1, we could rent white plastic chairs, which we could put anywhere there was room. So, we plunked ourselves down, slightly to third base side of home base, about 10 feet behind the screen. Great seats, we thought. Then the game started, exactly on time, and everyone stood up, starting yelling and screaming and we could see nothing. Behind us (two feet away), the base drum started banging, joined by various other musical instruments in the stands. Runners were going for, and returning with, beers for everyone around us; people got louder and louder. Actually, the noise was making Tommy physically ill, so he took some time outs down along third base line. Was it a baseball game or just a fun, loud night out?

Who was winning? What was happening? What inning was it? Beats the heck out of us...there was no scoreboard. We found out the next day via the newspaper that Chiriqui won that game; they went on to win the title a couple of games later. So, that was our beisbol experience this year. We had hoped to get to a "big league" game in Panama City at Rod Carew stadium but will save that for next year.

Just a few more beisbol notes:

--early on in the youth baseball tournament, the game was stopped because "one of the umpires turned out to be drunk"

--the national team had hoped to play in the tournament in Taiwan (I think this was in November). Panama was disqualified because its league manager had not paid the required $6000 for insurance.

Beisbol, Panama style, may not be all that we hoped it would be....

Legal! Finally!

2008-07-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

It took almost nine months for our Jubliado Visas (geek visas) to be approved. First of all, there was much confusion about our having US passports and Portuguese documents. Our lawyer wasn't following up closely, so our applications sat for several months before he finally woke up. It only took a day to resolve the confusion but then our applications were caught in the flood of other applications, as well as a change in directorship at Immigration.

Finally, on May 6th, we saw on the Immigration website, that our applications had been approved. We notified our lawyer (and no, we are not recommending him to others). We were told that the earliest we could pick up the visas was on 16 May.

My mother arrived late on 14 May, and I drove her up to El Valle on 15 May. Early on 16 May, I drove back to Panama City, collected Tommy and we walked over to the lawyer's office. His minion drove us to the Immigration office, where another minion had "taken a number" for us at 7 am in the morning. Our number was finally called at 11ish, and the minion moved the paperwork from one window to another. Don't ask: haven't a clue why. The Immigration office is in an old building, with seating for about 100 and standing for about 500. Even then, in order to move, you had to shove people out of the way. It was chaotic, hot and seemed completely disorganized. No wonder the government has approved a new building and offices for this department.

We were finally told to get in the line for photographs; we waited in that line for about an hour, all the time watching others being taken out of line and ushered into the photo place. Obviously, they were bribing the officials and I would have been glad to, as well, had I known this was a possibility. So, I did the next best thing: explained that mi esposo had cancer and that he had an appointment at the hospital for treatment. We were photographed and had our approved, stamped and official visas within the half hour.

Wish I had thought of that earlier!

Drivers' Licenses

2008-07-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

So, after the nonsense in traffic stop, I became paranoid about getting our Panamanian drivers' licenses. Our first stop was the American Embassy, to have our California licenses validated and notarized.

Then, onto the Foreign Ministry, so that they could do whatever they do. It is hard to figure out, but they issue a deposit slip which one takes to a Banco National and pays $4, and gets some pink stamps. These stamps are applied to some paper issued by the Foreign Ministry.

You take all this stamped and notarized and officialized paper to the driver's license place, where you are photographed, tested (eyes and hearing), and then issued a license on the spot. The driver's license place is incredibly efficient and easy to deal with.

The Embassy and the Foreign Ministry took us one day (because of the wait times at the Foreign Ministry). We did the licenses another day. And we were thrilled...we were finally legal!

June 6th, Anton and Penonome

2008-07-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

So June 6th was the appointed court date, which was in Anton. Maritza offered to go with me (thank goodness)! We arrived a little before 11 (the designated time), and a half hour or so later, were sent into the court administrator's office, along with the bicyclist. We each explained what had happened (Maritza translating for me). I also said that I knew the bicyclist could not pay any money, that I would pay for the damage, but that I wanted the record clear that I was not at fault.

The administrator, seeing an easy way out, announced that we could all shake hands and agree to my terms. Maritza was having none of it! She convinced the administrator that the agreement had to be in writing so that my insurance would not be affected. Because putting the agreement in writing would create more work for the administrator, it took Maritza some time and forcefulness to convince him that it was necessary. But he finally agreed, and we were told to return at 1 pm for the document. The bicyclist was told he could go home; Maritza and I gave him money for his bus fare home.

So, we went to eat lunch and shop (what else?). Of course, when we returned to the court at 1, the document wasn't ready. However, at about 3 we left the court, with the all-important document, feeling very good about our mission.

And then disaster struck: Maritza twisted her ankle as we were getting into the car. It was so bad and so painful, that she could not drive. I took the wheel, stopping first to get a bag of ice for her ankle and then onto Penonome to the hospital.

This was a third world hospital, nothing like the beautiful hospitals we had come to know and love in Panama City. It was raining, and there were puddles on the floor where the roof had holes. The floors were not clean, and everything was very, very old and used.

After x-rays and waiting another two hours, the orthopedic doctor arrived and pronounced a torn ligament. There was nothing he could do for it but prescribed a "boot", to be purchased in Panama City. He also prescribed pain killers, which we stopped and got on our way back home.

By this time, it was dark and raining. But the pain killers were working, and Maritza sat in the passenger seat with her hurt ankle elevated on the dashboard console. I was merrily driving along and then we were stopped at roadblock and waved over. License, registration and documents please.

I mistakenly admitted that I had been in the country for a year. Oh, and where was my Panamanian driver's license? Did I not know that I was driving illegally and that he would now confiscate the car and charge me a huge fine? Maritza took over, explaining the ankle problem, starting to cry, and asking whether or not we could contribute to the police fund. $8 later we were on our with, no fine and no more talk about confiscating the car.

What a day! We did laugh most of the way home....am I meant to be driving in Panama, one wonders...

Me, the car and the bicycle

2008-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

My mom visited for two weeks in mid-May. Since Tommy was in Panama City (and I don't drive the big black van), my mom rented a car so that she wouldn't have to walk and/or bicycle everywhere (as I do). I was the driver of the car, and found that I did enjoy driving again (this was my first Panama driving experience).

However, on the way to show my mom the Piedra Pintada, a local petroglyph, we had an accident: a bicyclist, coming towards us in our lane, smashed into the car. He wasn't hurt but he broke the windshield, smash a headlight, and scratched the car in numerous places.

Ah terrific. Someone called the El Valle police, who arrived in about 20 minutes. They confirmed that the car could not be moved, and that we had to wait for the transit police from Chame (about 50 minutes away). The El Valle police were really great, and took mom back to our house so that she could eat (she is diabetic) and wait this out in comfort.

The bicyclist was a humble man who lived a further hour away, up in the mountains. He had been on his way to pick up his daughter from school, and wasn't paying attention to things. After the accident, he did leave to go pick up his daughter. He returned with her, and she and I colored while waiting for the transit police.

FOUR HOURS later, the transit police arrived. It took them about 12 minutes to make their report, and to issue us a court date.

What a stinking way to spend a Thursday afternoon!

Tommy's Radiation Treatments

2008-07-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

In Panama, radiation treatments are only available at one private hospital, Centro Medico Patilla, which is a different hospital than our beloved Punta Pacifica. Anyway, Patilla demanded that we pay for the radiation treatments, and then request reimbursement from our insurance company, BUPA. This despite BUPA's pre-authorization of the treatments, and assurances that they would pay. We refused to accept this, yelling along the way, "Is this any way to treat sick people?" We told everyone, including Tommy's doctors at the Punta Pacifica (the doctors in Panama practice at all the hospitals so they are somewhat influential).

After more than two months of holding firm, Patilla finally agreed to bill BUPA directly, and the radiation treatments started in early May. Because the treatments were given every day, Monday through Friday, Tommy had to live in Panama City during the week. He stayed at the Sevilla Suites, in the El Cangrejo district, and walked back and forth to the hospital. He took the bus into Panama City on Monday mornings and returned Friday, early evening.

The treatments continued for five weeks, and pretty much busted him up: fatigue, a terrible rash on his back, thin, and grouchier than you can imagine. And that's saying something, isn't it?

Anyway, the treatment seems to have worked. The doctors are finding no evidence of cancer! In late August, Tommy will undergo all the tests again to make sure that he has healed properly. Thank you BUPA is all we can say!

Is it really July 28, 2008?

2008-07-28T05:36:00.001-07:00

Gosh, but we have been away a long time! Inertia, lots of house guests, Tommy's radiation treatments, lots of excuses....

To finish the license plate story: the week of March 13th, Maritza and I went back to Panama City, arriving at the licensing office at 7:00 am, just as it opened. We were greeted with smiles and nods of acknowledgment. On our way into Panama City, we had stopped in Coronado and bought boxes of chocolates, which we started dispensing to each clerk who moved us successfully along the road to the license plates.

The revised import papers had arrived, as had the revised police inspection certificate, so we were given papers to take up to another office, where a new title was issued. Then back down to the licensing area, where we were given the coveted Panamanian license plates! By 9:00 am, we were done! Almost an anti-climax after the wildness of the previous week.

So, what did we do with the rest of our day? First we went for Chinese breakfast (dim sum). What a treat! And then we started shopping: Do-It Center, Riba Smith, Cochez, etc. etc. I mean, why waste a trip to Panama City?

Ah me, the joys of the bureaucracy...March 6th, 2008

2008-03-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

Maritza and I went to Panama City yesterday, leaving at 5:30 am and returning at 9:30 pm. We went to get the license plates for the van; we failed miserably.

The import agent had not put enough information on the import papers, and the vehicle registry found it impossible to register the van without pertinent information.

This is how stupid it is: she needed to input the number of passengers. I said two, and a bit later, produced a photo to show that it was indeed a 2 passenger vehicle. Wasn't good enough; the information has to be on the import papers. There were a couple of other similar problems: for example, in the block labeled "model" the agent had put "S/N" (i.e., sin nombre...no name). The vehicle registry people said this block was improperly filled in, and should have said "S/M"...sin modelo.

Even though Maritza worked her way through the supervisor ladder, we couldn't overcome the bureaucracy and rules (which are apparently rigidly enforced to try to overcome corruption). So, we trudged the papers back to the import agent and we'll see how long it takes her to correct the information; although promised for today, I'm not believing a minute of it.

Welcome to my third world!

Shopping, El Valle style, February 24th, 2008

2008-02-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, a friend picked me up and told me that we were going to go to buy tomatoes (she knows that I like to dry them and therefore need a lot...a kilo produces only a small zip lock bagful). We drove out of El Valle, up a mountain road (but a good road!), and saw tomatoes growing up the sides of the mountains. We stopped at a local farm, and the farmer took us up to the tomato-growing area. We had to walk on narrow little paths, which went up and down, around, and over streams; it was perhaps a 15 minute hike to reach the tomato plants. Oh, and were they healthy and lush! I was grateful to be living in macho land, because after the tomatoes were picked (50 kilos or so), the MEN carried the buckets down to our car and all I had to do was concentrate on not falling. I remember when we were driving through Guatemala, seeing corn planted up the mountainsides and realizing that, in North America, corn is only planted in flat areas because of the mechanized state of agriculture. And I guess the same could be said of tomatoes; I was so impressed to see that all the mountainsides were green with tomatoes.

We also have a local organic farmer here in El Valle. His lettuces are beautiful, as are the few other vegetables he has. We have all started buying our special seeds for him, so that we can expand his produce line. Yesterday I gave him spinach seeds because I have the hardest time finding spinach here. Funny, the things one misses.

Carnaval, February 1-4, 2008

2008-02-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Carnaval in Panama! What a riot! Carnaval is sacred here, and celebrated all over although a handful of towns are famous for the quality of celebrations.

In those towns, there are queens of Calle Arriba and Calle Bajo, and the courts of the two queens are great rivals. Apparently, each court makes up songs (derogatory) about the other court. The costumes are themed and not the skimpy Rio-type costumes.

Crowds gather in the streets to dance and enjoy. And the big event is when the water is turned on and people get wet. Days before carnaval, towns brag that they have plenty of water this year.

Up here in El Valle, there were no parades although we were told that last year there were parades. There was plenty of water throwing and water balloons. I was doused several times while riding my bike by two boys in the back of a truck. They had a barrel of water with a hose and were having a great time. I didn't mind getting wet; all in good fun!

Jazz Festival, January 21-26, 2008

2008-02-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

The Panama Jazz Festival is a week-long event, with the first several days being devoted to workshops and teaching. The public music events were on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We went to them all!

Thursday and Friday were in the convention center. We had great seats and the acoustics were good. However, Thursday was a real disappointment with mediocre music (Tia Fuller and Catherine Russell, both from the US). Neither bothered to speak one word of Spanish, and their music couldn't hold the audience. A big disappointment.

But Friday made up for it! We started with the Dave Samuels Caribbean Jazz Project; they had lots of energy. Then along came the Stanley Jordan Trio. Stanley Jordan, an American jazz guitarist, spoke entirely in Spanish but mostly played heavenly music and mostly without the other guys. And then he sat down at the piano and played a duet with himself: one hand playing the guitar and one hand playing the piano. Two sounds coming through one body was magical. Tommy was hoping for a one-man trio; why couldn't he play the sax as well?

Saturday was a free concert in the cathedral plaza in Casco Viejo (old town). The concert was two hours late starting but we enjoyed watching the audience assemble (everyone else seemed to realize that the concert would start late). We did stay for two hours of music but were tired and ready to call it a weekend, so we left mid-afternoon. We understand that the event went on til 11 at night, ending again with Stanley Jordan.

Next year we'd like to get a hotel in the Casco Viejo area for Saturday night. Casco Viejo is an area in transition; it is mostly terribly run down and very down market. In the rebuilt areas, it is beautiful and reminds us a lot of New Orleans. Anyway, to get to the cathedral grounds, you have to walk quite a few blocks through not nice areas (the taxis aren't allowed through). There are police everywhere so probably nothing bad will happen, but next year we'd like to stay til the end and only have a couple of blocks to walk.

Anyway, the jazz festival is really great and well worth going to. And yes Wilson, we did buy the t-shirt.

Health Update, February 13, 2008

2008-02-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

We just learned that there was a rumor going around the Algarve, saying that Tommy had died. NO WAY! He is alive and well, and was just told by the doctors that the chemo seems to have cleared all the cancer in his esophagus and bones. He'll start radiation therapy soon: scheduled for five weeks, five days a week.

Since this radiation will be in Panama City, we are looking into a short-term apartment rental or an aparthotel. It might be fun to spend a bit more time in Panama City.

Tommy's body is starting to recover from the brutal chemo sessions. He has regained his energy, and some weight, and his hair is coming back -- black, not red! And he has eyebrows again, so he doesn't look sick. So, sorry we didn't post this good news earlier.

Take care. Kill those rumors!

Panama's Push Buttons, January 2008

2008-01-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

We have mentioned these love parlors before, but this particular article explains Panama's Push Buttons so well, that we just pasted it here in its entirety. The article was prompted by the murder of a prominent Panamanian lawyer.

"In Panama there are places, basically motels, that are used by people for short term sexual encounters. They are designed so that the customers and staff have no eye-to-eye contact. Each of the rooms has a single parking space in front. If the door is open then that room is currently unoccupied and is available. You pull your car in, roll down the window, and "push the button" to close the garage door behind you - hence the name "push button."

"Many of these places were built thirty or more years ago and were position on the edge of Panama City. Now, the city has grown and overtaken these locations and they are, in effect, right in the middle of the city in some cases. Lazy Susan: Many of these places have different kinds of setups and schemes to minimize contact between the customers and the staff. For example, you can pick up the phone and order anything you might want, from beer and alcohol, condoms, food, whatever. They all have a kind of "menu" of things they offer for sale, usually at greatly inflated prices, but it's available. You use the internal intercom system to call the front desk and place your order, and when it comes they give you your items in a kind of "lazy susan" thing built into the door. It spins around and there's your beer (cool.) Then you pay the bill and the people who work there never actually lay eyes on you. Confidentiality is important when you're banging the secretary or something.

They All Have A Theme: Like the "turbulent waters" which features a jacuzzi in every room. There's one which has a kind of "sex furniture" thing (complete with a sign describing all of the various positions you can get yourself into using it.) The pricing depends on how nice the place is. The cheapest rooms start at like $5.00 for an hour, and the top-end models are like $15 or $20 bucks. Most include at the very least a television with about five or six channels of closed circuit porn being broadcast to the rooms. Usually there are several channels of different flavors and styles. I skip past the ones featuring farm animals...

The "Push Buttons" of Panama are Famous: You hear guys talking among themselves all the time, bragging about how they picked up some girl they know and "I took her to the push..." There are also little places in town known as "pensiones" which are basically the same thing but for people who are on foot. They are little motel rooms where you pay by the hour, but they don't have the elaborate "drive in" and "push button" door closing feature. These are just cheaper versions of the same thing, and tend to be where street hookers take their johns to do the deed.

Killed in the Push: The lawyer in the story was killed by two Colombian women who stabbed him to death and ran, leaving him to die in the push button. Another feature of the push buttons is that they are designed so that you can't just leave at will. What you usually have to do is let them know through the intercom system that you are done and leaving. After you pay your bill for whatever you might have consumed, then you go get in your car and wait. The staff from the push come and inspect the room to make sure you didn't steal any towels or anything, and then they activate the garage door, letting you know that you are free to go. In the case of the two Colombian women who killed the lawyer, they went screaming at the staff of the push and made them open the door to let them leave, and people saw them running away covered in blood. They got away, and that's when the body was discovered. What they should have done is just called the police, and opened the door once they got there.

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for http://www.panama-guide.com/ Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source.

Happy New Year! January 7th, 2008

2008-01-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

How did I forget to tell you that Tommy's latest endoscopy showed no cancer in the tumor area in the esophagus! We were so busy celebrating that we forgot to post this good news!

We tried to get a bone scan to check the cancer in the bones; no luck! Apparently all hospitals in Central America are lacking the fluid/??? needed to conduct the test. Tommy's oncologist said that this stuff is due in next week and that his office would get us an appointment.

Pretty crazy stuff, isn't it?

Meanwhile, Tommy's hair is regrowing and I have detected the beginnings of eyebrows! So cool! His appetite is better and he has more energy, and, under threat of penalties from Cynthia, he is actually walking a little bit each day.

Will let you know the results of the bone scan. I'm guessing next week, but then again....

December 12th, 2007

2007-12-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

Last week, our friends Skip and Linda Shipman came to visit. One of the things I had always wanted to do was find the fish market down on the coast, which someone had mentioned to me in passing but with no directional details. So, S&L and I went on a hunt for the fish market.

By asking directions at almost every intersection, we did find the fish cooperativa which was on the beach, a short walk from the parking area. A she got out of the car, Linda put her watch in the front pocket of her slacks, since the watch was irritating her skin. Unbeknownst to her, she had a hole in that pocket and when she realized it (couldn't have been more than five minutes later), the watch had been found and the finders were gone.

After we bought the fish (robalo, as fresh as you could have it) and shrimp (enormous, 7 to the pound!), we stopped at the police station in Gorgona, where the fish cooperativa is. Between Skip and I, we explained the situation, that there was no point in returning to search the area, and that we only needed a police report for the insurance. After about 15 minutes, the lady cop got in the car with us and directed us to the main police station in Chame (about five minutes eastward). Along the way, she touched Skip's shoulder and said "Tranquila" because our boy was not happy nor patient person.

At Chame, the police lady reported our problem and the record making guy said we had to go to Panama City, where there was an official interpreter. Much smiling and begging later, he had called his superior and received permission for a guy sitting in the office to translate for us. This guy, along with his friend, were in the police station to report a break-in at their hotel, and the theft of several things, including a gun. (This is interesting: the owner of the gun is responsible for whatever happens as a result of using the gun, no matter who uses it. So, it was therefore, vital to him to make an official report that the gun had been stolen, which released him from responsibility for subsequent actions.)

So, perhaps an hour and a half later, with the help of the unofficial translator, the police report was produced. By the way, all the Panamanians were surprised that an insurance company would pay, based on a police report (I will tell you more about insurance in Panama later). We gave the unofficial translater $5 and a five-pack of beer (Skip had one); he was delighted. And, as a postscript, Skip just told us that the insurance company was accepting the police report and would pay up based on that. So, it was worth the wait.

Our Christmas tree arrived yesterday by bus. Rene's son, Nigel, bought trees for her and us, and had them transported up here, on top of one of the commuter buses. What a sight!

And a P.S. to the previous posting: no, the gardner did not show up on the day promised for fixing the road. He showed up on his normal day, and used part of that day to fix the road. Unacceptable. I decided not to confront him, or get angry at him, but rather just to ignore him. He is well aware, as all drunks are, that he has misbehaved. Yesterday, his regular day here, I noticed several new potted plants on the terrace. It is not going to be that easy for me to forgive his bad behavior!

December 6th, 2007

2007-12-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

I made a big mistake last week, and am waiting today to see what the consequences are. The lane in front of our house is sandy/muddy and terribly pot-holed, and is becoming increasingly difficult to use because it is so rutted and muddy. Everyone here "fixes" their portion of these secondary roads by putting down loads of big stones and then sand.

I finally asked our gardener to arrange the stones and to dig the french drains, etc. etc. We agreed on a price and he was to start on Saturday and then finish up yesterday. He did start on Saturday, and then Sunday came to the house, asking for the total agreed-upon sum for the job.

I was distracted and not thinking straight, so I gave him all the money. In retrospect, I realize that he wanted the money to take his friends drinking (there was a live band in the beer hall on Saturday night; the band finished about 5 am Sunday but its audience seems to have continued celebrating all day Sunday). Well, needless to say, the gardner didn't arrive yesterday. Today is the normal day for the gardner. I wonder if he will show up, and, if he does, what the story will be. And I wonder what my reaction will be to the lie. This is a very wierd situation, isn't it? His family must hate me for enabling his drunkness.

November happenings

2007-11-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

November is a month of national holidays here. We started off with the religious holiday of Lost Souls Day on November 2, followed by Independence Day from Columbia on the 3rd, and Flag Day on the 4th. Then we had the 10th, which is the "First Cry for Freedom from Spain". Finally, we will have the 28th, which is Independence Day from Spain. How about that?

The first weekend was a major celebration. In Panama City, all major buildings were draped with huge flags, and red, white and blue bunting. Small flags were being sold everywhere. The entire country had marching band parades. Here in El Valle, our parade consisted of about ten different bands from the local schools as well as one independent band. Some of the bands included baton twillers, some included cute girls marching in complicated patterns, and others included girls dressed in polleros, the beautiful national costume. Our parade lasted almost two hours, ending at the reviewing stand near the mercado. Music continued for most of the day. And no wonder, these kids practice the entire year for these parades! (All of us can hear the practicing, at almost any hour of the day and night.)

The school kids come from very poor families. It is amazing to know that the families have to buy the uniforms, the instruments, and costumes. Imagine this on family incomes of about $300 a month.

I watched the parade while sitting at the Gourmet Coffee shop (only open on holidays and weekends). The shop has seats outside, so I enjoyed my coffee outside while watching the parade. How about that for comfort!

October 30, 2007

2007-10-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

We went to Panama City on the bus on Sunday, primarily to get set for the chemo on Monday. However, we had some fun along the way. We saw the movie, "Michael Clayton"; our first movie in a cinema in Panama! So, because we are "juliblados" (i.e., old geeks), our tickets were half-priced: $2.00 each. Hard to beat! With our coke, water and popcorn, the whole experience was less than $10! The cinema house was a standard multi-plex item in the mall, with clean, comfortable seats and a huge screen (it was hard to get far enough away from it so we didn't get dizzy). Good film, too.

Later that evening we went over to the casino nearest our hotel (Veneto Casino). We had a snacky dinner while we watched the Red Sox womp up on the Rockies on the big screen in the sports bar area. We thought one of our table neighbors was a real Rockie fan until we realized that he was betting every couple of innings. He didn't do too well that night.

The casino was completely decorated for Halloween, although this is not a holiday celebrated here in Panama. The decorations were great: lots of balloons, huge spiders and webs everywhere and pumpkins all over. Great atmosphere!

While Tommy was having chemo, I went from store to store, getting stuff we can't get up here: decent light bulbs (note: one only buys name brand light bulbs here; the others are made in China and either don't work immediately, quit after 10 minutes, and/or twist off from the metal bottom when one tries to unscrew it...on this we happen to agree with Lou Dobbs!); shelf standards (had to visit two different stores to get 12 brackets to match!); English muffins; you get the idea. We were both exhausted, for different reasons.

Tommy wanted to sleep in this morning, so I took an earlier bus home. When I got off at our street, I was carrying my purse, two curtain rods, and two heavy, large bags. Three kids, who were walking home from school, stopped me and took my packages to help me home. Even though we went past their house, they insisted on walking me all the way home. Ah me, what a great feeling!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

2007-10-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

We had another parade today even though it was pouring rain. We knew that there was an upcoming parade because all week long we have been hearing drum practice every night. This parade was "hosted" by one of the local schools, but there were floats from many other provinces (Bocas del Toro, Darien, Panama, etc.). Today's parade was a bit more low key than the one about a month ago, which had many more floats and all the floats were pulled by oxen. The general idea was the same.

The queen of the parade was the daughter of Dario, one of the fellows building the workshop. As I was riding my bike home this morning, I met Dario. When I asked him, "No work today?", he told me about the parade, about his daughter being the queen, and that he was looking for his boss to get an advance so that he could buy candy for the queen to throw during the parade. Of course I gave him a couple of bucks.

The parade started at the other end of town at 10ish. At 11:30 Tommy and I left our house and drove three blocks to a restaurant on the main street (on the parade route). This restaurant also has two bar seats outside in the front, and we were early enough to grab those. So, we had front row seating, con bar service, for the parade.

All the floats were pickup trucks decorated with flowers, palm fronds, and posters. The kids were in the truck beds, waving, dancing, and throwing candy. All were costumed: boys in dressy white shirts and dark trousers, and the girls in the beautiful native lacy dressy with elaborate hair ornaments. Most of the floats had some sort of cover to keep the kids dry. We saw one dad walking alongside the truck, holding an umbrella over his kid in the truck.

Each float was followed by its own marching band and dancing supporters. The bands all have drums and a horn section (some more than others), and assorted other instruments (one had an accordian). One of the bands took shelter on the terrace of our restaurant; this was great because the muscians continued to play while they were at the restaurant. Hard not to have happy feet while listening to these bands.

The parade route went past us, and a half block later, turned around and returned to the center of town. We watched both passes; probably took an hour or so. Everyone was soaked but had great big smiles.

So, now it's Saturday night and we are watching University of Michigan football on TV (you can take the boy out of Michigan but you can't take the Michigan out of the boy....), and we don't hear any drum practice. First time in weeks!

October 18th, 2007: Health Update

2007-10-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

Six weeks after we got here, Tommy was diagnosed with cancer of the esophogus which had spread to his bones. Chemo started immediately, with all the joys that come with chemo: hair loss, nausea, extreme tiredness, etc. However, after three sessions of chemo, spread over nine weeks, a CT scan showed that the tumor (originally 10 cm) had been reduced by 95%! Isn't that grand news!

Chemo has re-started with three more sessions, which will take us to early December, when there will be all sorts of scans to see what is going on in the esophogus and the bones.

The chemo is taking place in Panama City, at the Punta Pacifica Hospital which is brand new and affiliated with Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md., USA. We originally went to this hospital for another problem, and when the doctors were trying to discover the source of that other problem, they came across the cancer.

We feel the hospital is terrific, the doctors are really on the ball, and the nursing staff attentive and kind. The admin staff, while polite and very nice, are sometimes not as efficient as one would like. However, the Punta Pacifica has a wonderful lady named Dee, whose function is to help patients and families with any admin and/or translation difficulties. This is truly a plus!

Because the doctors know that we live in El Valle and therefore cannot easily run back and forth to the hospital, all the diagnostic tests were performed on an in-patient basis over a period of three days. Because of our terrific BUPA insurance, Tommy had a private room with a couch, which could be converted into a bed for me when I desired (no charge, either). I did that once but didn't eat the offerred hospital food, opting instead to walk across the street to the shopping mall and get a sushi take-away.

The chemo sessions are on every third Monday, so we take the bus on Sunday and treat ourselves to a nice dinner with wine because wine is prohibited for a week after chemo. We like to stay in the El Cangrejo district and have a terrific little hotel ($35 a night, thank you very much). We are learning all the great restaurants in El Cangrejo, as well as the casino Veneto.
We stay Sunday and Monday (because the chemo ends too late on Monday to catch the bus), and return home on Tuesday mid-day.

We are greeted by TwoBaby, screaming his head off. Gladys, the maid, comes in every day when we are gone but it just isn't the same apparently. Nice to be missed!

There are always two ways...., October 6, 2007

2007-10-06T08:04:00.001-07:00

When we entered Panama, we were given 90 day visas, as was the van. For one reason or another (including sloth), we let the van visa elapse without renewing it.

After a short time here, we quickly decided that our beloved van was inappropriate in Panama; apart from the main roads, the roads are too pot-holed and narrow, as are driveways, for the "monster" as our friend Rene calls the van.

We toyed with the idea of sending the van back to the States, to sell it there. We knew that the more we drove the van, the more we were tempting the god of fines. Finally, we decided not to hassle with selling the van in the States, which meant that we finally had to deal with registering the van in Panama so that we could sell it here.

After several weeks of unanswered e-mails, miscommunications, and frustrating phone calls, we were directed to Julia. Barbara visited Julia last week, and gave her all the van documents, including the out-0f-date visa.

Julia sent her "boy" to Aduana (must be the immigration office in Panama City?), and several hours later called with the news that the fine (for letting the visa elapse) was $500. Thankfully, we didn't rush to agree to pay this, because Julia went on to say, "As you know, in Panama there are always two ways of doing things. In this case, the immigration lady has offered to place the appropriate monthly stamps on the van visa. She can do this for $25 a month." Since we were four months out-of-date, our bill was $100. Love it.

Contrary to many of the North Americans, we are not offended by "the other way" of doing things in this part of the world. Hey, if it gets the job done and doesn't hurt anyone, what's the big deal? Besides, it is usually cheaper and quicker!

A word about buses, October 5th, 2007

2007-10-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

I think we mentioned that we have been taking the bus to and from Panama City to El Valle. We just walk out to the main street (2 blocks) and flag down a bus which says "Panama City". Or, we can walk into town (5 blocks) and wait at the bus stop, which is covered and has benches.

Last week we were returning to Panama City with our friend Gill (and her very large, heavy suitcase) so that we could play in PC for a day before she had to catch her flight home to Portugal. Since it was raining, Tommy drove Gill, me and the suitcase into town to the covered bus stop. He returned the van back home, fiddled a bit as only Tommy can, and then started walking back towards town to catch the bus.

In the mean time, Gill and I had caught a bus, and I explained that "mi esposo" was walking towards the bus, and that we wanted him to get on the bus. Luckily, for the fiddle factor, our bus meandered all around town and finally headed out. As we were passing our lane, I spotted Tommy a half block down, which somehow I conveyed to the bus driver. The bus turned around and went to pick up Tommy! Lovely.

Earlier this week, we were in PC but had so many appointments, that we were later than normal getting to the bus station. We ended up on a bus which left at 6pm, which meant that a half hour later it was dark outside (and inside, of course), and everything was a bit slower because it was "rush hour" and raining. About halfway home, we noticed that all the street lights were out, and that the only lights near houses and stores were car lights which were pointed at the buildings. Also about this time, our full bus started picking up additional passengers so that the aisle was completely jammed with standers and several guys were hanging out the doorway. Imagine the joy of having a backpack in your face, as well as the delightful smells of so many crammed, wet bodies. We were ever so glad to enter El Valle, where there was light and fresh air!

These buses seat 25 to 30 people, and are relatively new. The latin music plays constantly and loudly; Gill tried to drown out the music with her IPOD but was only marginally successful. The bus driver normally has a helper, who stations himself near the doorway. He flags down passengers, helps people on and off, and takes the money. He also is the guy who has to hang out the doorway when the bus is jammed.

The journey takes between 2 and 3 hours, depending on the bus driver's mood more than anything, it seems. In PC, the final stop is the Albrook Mall, from which a $2 cab ride will get you into the middle of town. All this fun and convenience for only $3.50, each way. Can you beat it?

September 14th, 2007

2007-09-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

The shed was finished this week, except for some final painting. The local tradition, when the roof goes on a building, is for the owner to provide the workers with beer and mondongo (tripe). After advice from our friends here, we decided to forego the mondongo and give the workers beer and money ($5 each). The workers didn't seem to miss the mondongo at all.

While in Panama City earlier this week, we found more wonderful grocery stores. I say tell everyone:I haven't done any site seeing in Panama City but I know every grocery store in the city. These last two were J ewish delis (have found three so far), with a great vegetable selection. Also, from our hotel in Panama City, I can walk to New York Bagels and treat ourselves to great lox and bagels, along with buying bagels to bring home.

The ship with our household goods had to divert itself to other ports in order to avoid the hurricanes in the Atlantic. Instead of the promised 3 September arrival, the ship is now schedule for 17 September. Unfortunately for the import agents, they forgot to inform us of the missed arrival date so we had a one-sided, unhappy conversation with them. We are now getting regular status reports. Once the ship docks, it will be another week before we get our stuff, due to customs procedures. We are now expecting our stuff to be delivered to our house around the 24th of September, just when we have visitors. Naturally.

Speaking of visitors: Nigel and Gill from Portugal and Donald and Sarah from the US are arriving in Panama City on Saturday the 22nd. We plan to go meet them, spend a couple of days there, and then come up here for a couple of days. Tommy's birthday is on 25 September. One of the best restaurants in Panama in here in El Valle, so we will be going there for the birthday dinner. For all our foodie friends: "best" in Panama is probably at "B" elsewhere. Still good, though.

The little local library is so neat, and is funded by contributions from the wealthy Panamaians who have weekend houses here. The library has a small, but certainly adequate, English language section. On Saturday mornings, several volunteers teach English classes to the school age kids. I went a couple of weeks ago, to show one class the magic of Google Earth, which fascinated everyone in the library. A big favorite was Disneyland.

The library also shows movies, via DVDs. On Friday nights, the movies are in English with Spanish subtitles; the reverse happens on Saturday nights. We like this little event! Some weeks the movies are good and some weeks they are bad. Some weeks we get surprised, like last week when the advertised movie, "The Holiday", was replaced with some awful Jackie Chan crapola. One of our friends walked out as soon as we confirmed the replacement; he gets the smart guy award.

I think I mentioned that I was teaching myself to make paper, using our household's recycled paper. My efforts were okay but not great. Luckily, one of our new friends here is a papermaker, using plant material. She had me over for a papermaking session; what fun and I learned alot. And what a mess we made.

The weekends here are lots of fun, with more stores open and with lots more energy in the town. The market, which is famous throughout Panama, has much nicer produce on the weekend, and there are more artists/craftspeople selling their stuff. The pottery pot man is also here on the weekends, and we have lots of his pots and saucers. There are several pottery places along the road up to El Valle; one of them has large pots similar to the ones Cynthia gave us for our Portuguese house. We had to leave those big pots in Portugal, and will replace them with ones from one of those pottery stands.

There was a big drama here two weeks ago: a fairly influential couple from the US was vacationing up here, staying at one of the fancy hotels. The guy of the couple decided to go walking on one of the mountains; when he didn't return within the expected time, his wife notified the hotel owners who started mobilizing search teams, some volunteer and some paid. This poor guy was found two days later (!) by the local Indians, who made a basic stretcher to lift him out and carry him down the mountain to the waiting ambulance. Apparently this couple has enough influence to get Jimmy Carter called President Torrijos (of Panama) to ask him to ask the US to send helicopters (the US stated policy is to not send helicopters unless requested by the host nation...except when it suits them otherwise). Panama didn't request US help, but it didn't matter because the mountain is so steep and jungley that there is no place for a helicopter to land (the Panamanian rescue service did send a helicopter but it couldn't land). Anyway, the guy had at least one fractured leg (some stories say two legs and an arm were broken), was taken to a hospital in Panama City, and is okay now.

I just went outside to close the gate and the frogs are talking! El Valle is home to the golden frog, in case you didn't know. I don't know if the ones I hear are the famous golden guys, but they sure are making noise!

Talk to you later!

August 22, 2007: Donald's 60th Birthday!

2007-08-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

Today is Donald's 60th birthday, which he is celebrating in Florence with Sarah and two other friends. May the celebrations be long and lusty!

Hurricane Dean hit Mexico, Belize and Guatemala yesterday. The news is full of Mexico's damage, but we can find little about Belize and Guatemala except that Ambergris and Caulker Cayes were evacuated, as was Belize City. Corozal apparently took a direct hit; we remember it as the first place we camped in Belize. It was extremely low lying and right on the water. It was so incredibly poor and ramshackle when we were there; just can't imagine it now and how the people are coping.

Well, it has been a while since we talked. We have the workers here again, building our "shed" so that we can store a lot of our stuff when it arrives, which is currently projected for sometime in September. We decided to build the shed first, since it will take about five months to build Tommy's workshop (which we will get started as soon as the shed is finished). Today the shed reached a height higher than the mason's arms, so he made his version of a scaffold: a rickedy board, perched over two cinder blocks, piled on top of two oil drums. Well, it seems to do the trick!

Our visa applications have been filed! It took over three months to collect all the papers and have them authenticated in their countries of issue. Christopher handled the US papers, and easily handled the undocumented (on the internet and telephone records) move of the Panamanian Consulate from San Francisco to San Diego. Getting documents from Portugal started with Hans and Justina obtaining the required reports, and then our lawyer in Lisbon taking those reports from office to office. This took over a month (!), and cost you don't want to know how much money. He also had to deal with offices which had moved, telephones which were disconnected (with no forwarding numbers), broken copy machines which caused days of delays, bureaucrats who didn't know what was required....unbelievable! At this moment, we are not sure which is the worst bureaucracy: the US, Portuguese or Panamanian! And then, naturally, we had a week of absolute hell when we discovered that the Lisbon lawyer had sent our papers through Portuguese "fast" mail, rather than by FedEx or DHL, as we had requested. The reason we requested the use of these courier services is that Panama has no postal delivery by the postal system: everything goes to a general delivery post office (such as in El Valle), or to a post office box. And the "system" is said to be completely unreliable and corrupt. However, our lawyer in Panama City put his staff to work to find our package and, after a week of searching, the package was located. Champagne time!

Well, we'll come back in a few days. Right now, we want to get snacks ready for folks who are coming over for a drink. Take care!

El Valle, Panama, May 23rd, 2007

2007-05-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! So, we were heading down the mountain on Friday, May 11th and our lawyer called to say that the house contract was ready to sign, whenever we were. Well why not on Saturday, we all agreed. So we did, and wow! was it easy! That afternoon, Tommy and I taxied around Panama City, buying a washer, dryer, a new stove and an exercise machine. The new stove is a luxury, for sure! And, per Cynthia, the exercise machine a necessity.

The following day, Sunday, we headed back up the mountain and met the sellers of the house, who handed over the keys and we moved in. Incredible! The house is about six months old, and still has a few things unfinished or needing fixing/improvements. It has four bedrooms and three baths, plus a maid's room and bath (!), which is now the exercise area. It is a great house, which makes up for the smallish lot. The house came fully furnished, with mostly new stuff, including linens for the beds, as well as a TV and DVD player which doubles as our stereo system. We'll give back much of the stuff when ours arrives but for now, we couldn't be more comfortable. And, we should say, the sellers have gone out of their way to make sure that we had enough of the right stuff. They will eventually be our neighbors because they are building a replacement house on the lot behind us.

We have had electricians, plumbers, builders, etc. here for the last week. It is amazing how little you can get done, when you have all these guys around (Skip says that it is like herding cats). Last week they kept all their promised appointments; this week, no one has showed up ... including the national telephone company. Fortunately, we were well trained in Portugal so this kind of stuff doesn't bother us as much as other "estranjeiros", who freak out if someone is 10 minutes late.

The garden is small but beautifully planted. We are adding plants to screen ourselves from the neighbors (way, way too close) as well as to give ourselves some privacy. There are also quite a few herbs (lots of basil, parsley, and rosemary) but eventually I want to expand this part of the garden. There is no coentros (cilantro) or lemon grass anywhere I can find so we are going to have to grow it.

By the way, "we" don't add the plants...for the first time in our lives, we have a gardner who comes 10 days a month to maintain the garden and cut the grass. We also have a maid (another first) who comes once a week, today being her first day. We are going to have to start making messes because she finished all her work (including windows) within six hours.

It is hot and humid here, and the rainy season has just started. And boy! Does it rain! This little internet place has a tin roof, and the noise of the rain on the roof makes it impossible to have a conversation here. At the moment, this is part of the charm as your man Tommy loves to say.

TwoBaby is thrilled to finally have a place of his own! As he did in Portugal, he talks to everyone who comes in the house. He and I were up early this morning, to watch the sun come up. We also watched a frog, hopping around the front terrace. Two didn't chase the frog but did investigate the frog's path/smell after the frog had hopped off. We are grateful that TwoBaby is an old, well fed cat because he hasn't gone after any of the birds which visit us each morning, chirping us awake.

Tommy is busy, cataloging all the refreshment stops. There are very few "bars" as we know them, but plenty of cafes which serve drinks. And there are two miserable concrete structures which are known as the beer gardens. I prefer the cafes any day.

El Valle was once the crater of a vulcano (a gazillion years ago). The town itself is flat, which is ideal for bike riding. I couldn't resist: I bought a bicycle. But because I have a really good bike which will be coming with our household goods, I bought the cheapest one I could find here. What a piece of junk! I have already had two blown tires. Everyone just shakes their heads and says "Chinese" because this bike was made in China. They say the same about the light bulbs sold here in El Valle. Now we all know that China produces good products, but the worst ones (i.e., with no quality control) seem to end up here in Panama.

Tommy visited the post office today to find out our address. It is:
Tommy and Barbara Camph
General Delivery
Province Cocle
El Valle de Anton
1001
Panama

We may also get a post office box in Miami (there are three different companies here, offering this service). Apparently this is a good thing to have for such things as Amazon shopping.

Our cell phone is (country code 507) 67 38 47 20. When the telephone company decides to appear and install a phone, we'll let you know the land line.

Crazy stuff, hm?

El Valle, Panama, May 9th, 2007

2007-05-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Woops...it has been awhile! We did go back up to Lake Arenal, and spent another two days looking at properties. There were two great pieces of land, overlooking the lake. We left the area, feeling really good about the people and the place. This time, on the way down to San Jose, we stopped to look at Volcan Arenal. Our bar of choice had seats looking directly at the volcano, who chose to erupt and throw some lava down our side while we were sitting there. This is truly an amazing experience! So primevil, so out of control, so stark and fascinating. You expect to see dinosaurs at any moment!

We spent the night again at the Belen RV trailer park, and the next day headed south (unfortunately, through San Jose...ugh!), arriving in the Dominical area late in the afternoon. What a drama, getting into the campground! Our van was too high for the first entrance, so we were directed to the back entrance, where metal lines had to be held up with poles to give the van enough clearance! The owner was extremely accommodating, and made a difficult situation good. What a gorgeous beach area is Dominical! This apparently is a great surfing area, so once again, we were the oldest folks around. We found a super restaurant nearby, and had great fresh tuna for dinner.

The next day we went back up the highway, so that we could visit Pete and Mary Jo's house at Tres Piedras. We were 40 minutes getting down to the valley floor, on a difficult road for our van, but when we arrived at their caretakers' house, we were welcomed with great enthusiasm. Irma, the wife, took Barbara wading across the river and up the grass driveway to the house. What a great location! And what terrific people are these caretakers. They cut us two pineapples to take along, and invited us to return when the river was low enough for the van to ford (in the "summer", which would be January or February...the season reverse is difficult to get used to.) Tres Piedras is a bit of magic!

We continued along the coastal highway, which was absolutely beautiful and the road in great condition. We spent the night at the Bunka Lodge, about 60 km from the border. We had our own little guest house, which was so well equipped and laid out that we took measurements, thinking to copy it if we were to build a guest house.

The next day we crossed the border, and you all know our feelings about borders so enough said. We had intended to spend the night in David but after an hour of being rejected at the hotels (all full!) we continued on to Boquete, which is a mountain town and much, much nicer than David. We found a hotel which gave us our own cabin (which we are really liking!) and started exploring. We found a jazz club! We liked Boquete a lot so spent the next two days looking at houses, and did find one we liked.

After two days in Boquete, we headed east and ended up in Santiago for Saturday night. On Sunday, we continued eastward, checking out beaches as we went. Our favorite was Santa Clara, which has white sand, a couple of casual restaurants and ranchos with hammocks. That night we ended up in El Valle, which is a mountain town where our friends from Silves, Rene and Tom Cosans, live. We spent Sunday night at a hotel and then met up with Rene and Tom on Monday, April 30th.

Rene and Tom took us to lunch at a neat local place (garlic shrimp...yum!). As we were finishing lunch, one of their friends came to the table and, after hearing that we were there to look at property, she announced she had something for sale and would show it to us that afternoon. She did, we liked it, Rene and Tom couldn't believe the value for money, we looked at it again the next day, made an offer, and here we are!

The agent is named Chola and she has 10 brothers and sisters, and they all have children. One of Chola's nephews is a lawyer in Panama City and he and his partners specialize in ex-pat matters. Chola bundled us up, took us to Panama City and for two days we did the visa stuff, the bank account stuff, and met the owners of the house in El Valle. Oh, and Chola found someone to take care of TwoBaby while we were in Panama City. The Chola universe!

So, now the lawyers are working out the contracts, our terrific bank (SRI Federal Credit Union) has already transferred the down payment, and we are on hold, waiting for a summons to Panama City to sign the promissory contract for the house. Wild, isn't it?

Laguna del Arenal, Costa Rica, April 22, 2007

2007-04-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

We did cross the border into Costa Rica on Friday the 13th. It was another hot, slow and corrupt border crossing. We paid $100US in bribes and fees (mostly bribes). On our way to the border, we were on a road which was extremely pot holed, so Tommy was playing "dodge the pothole". All of a sudden we were stopped by the Nicaraguan police, who wanted to fine us for zig zaging on the road! Due to my limited Spanish, this took a while to understand. While this was sinking in, the police stopped a Nicaraguan car and told them they were going to be fined; the Nicaraguan started arguing fiercely. Accordingly, we too gained some courage and start complaining about the "carretara muy mal". The police had enough of our act, and waved us onward. Hey, a minor victory is still a victory!

About 60 miles (or was it kilometers? can't remember) from the border we arrived in Liberia, a modest-sized town, where we stopped to go to a bank and grocery store. I found myself wimpering with joy, as I entered the air conditioned, modern grocery store with everything I could ever want! Boy, I guess it has been a while! Lovely! We stayed that night in a "decommissioned RV park" (whatever that means), and the next day drove down to the beach.

It was really too hot for us at the beach. After a few refreshments, we headed up into the highlands. As we drove into the Laguna del Arenal area, we were flabbergasted at the beauty and tranquility. We only stopped for a drink, and ended up spending the weekend there. This also happened to be the weekend of the local festival, much of it right in front of our hotel. That was great fun! One of the main parts of the festival was a "tope", a horse parade up and down the main street. The fancier riders got their horses to prance and dance. After several hours of this (mind you, refreshments were plentiful), the horses and festival goers went down the hill to the bull ring plaza, where there were lots of food stands, a merry-go-round, etc. etc., as well as the bull fight (for which we didn't stay). Lots of local color!

The town of Arenal felt good to us, with the right mix of gringos and ticos (as the Costa Ricans are called, and this nickname isn't derrogatory). The lake is incredibly beautiful, and there are lots of artists around. So on Sunday, we looked at land and houses for sale. Nothing was quite right. To jump ahead: we returned this weekend to look some more, and this time we did see two different parcels, either of which could work for us. We aren't going to put in an offer because we first want to see what Panama has to offer. But gosh, it is beautiful here!

In between the two weekends, we stayed in the San Antonio de Belen RV trailer park; this is right outside of San Jose, the capital. The park is run by a transplanted Californian, and its guests were either German or Californians (not just us). One of the Californians wants to return to Yuba City, which should be an indicator of how much time we have spent with him. One of the German couples had had their camper van shipped to North America and they had been travelling for almost a year. They were ready to finish their trip and go back home, had paid their passage (including the car), and had confirmed reservations on a freighter (this costs about 5,000 euros, one-way). The day of boarding, they were told that there was no room on the ship for them because the freighter was full of mangoes; perhaps there would be room on the next ship in two weeks. And they have no recourse! Life in the second world!

During our time in Belen, we got TwoBaby's papers sorted out. He first had to see a vet, get another shot, and then the vet had his papers verified and stamped by the Minister of Agriculture. We took those papers to the Minister of the Exterior, where they were stamped and signed. Then we went to the Panamaian Embassy, where the papers were stamped, signed and verified or some such bullshit. To do our part, we had to go into San Jose, which we found quite unfriendly and a bit too rough for our tastes, so once our business was finished, we took a local bus back to Belen.

This last week, the electricity has been cut three times for several hours each time. Apparently these were planned cuts, but no one around us seemed to know that. We have been told that the electricity company is doing this due to shortages, or, alternatively, in preparation for a rate hike.

We have been lucky so far with regard to the roads: they have been pretty good. And, contrary to Nicaragua, there is very little roadside trash (Nicaragua was terrible in this regard). As you drive around, periodically you see the following painted on the road surface: a square, and in the square is a heart with a halo. We were told this was a reminder to wear your seat belts, which you surely need here. The number one cause of death in Costa Rica is road accidents!

Our plan is to return to Belen tomorrow, and then on Tuesday, go to Pete and Mary Jo's house near Dominical, after which we will make our way to the border. Tommy's goal has been to get to Panama by the end of April so we should meet that goal (fingers crossed!).

Talk to you soon!

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, April 12th

2007-04-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

This place is a little slice of heaven. In many ways, it reminds of us what the Algarve must have been like in the 1970's. San Juan del Sur is a surfers' paradise (consequently, we are probably the oldest people in the town), with the smallish town built around a bay. The only thing between our hotel and the ocean is our favorite bar. No DWI's for us! Last night we had a lobster dinner...so good and so cheap!

Tomorrow we expect to cross the border into Costa Rica, and then head south towards Liberia and the Nicoya Penninsula. We expect to spend the weekend there, and then head for San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica) because TwoBaby has to have specific papers, verified by the Panamaian Embassy, in order to cross into Panama legally. Everyone advises us to forget about the papers, and bribe our way across the border. Our decision still hasn't been finalized. We'll see how we feel next week. In Costa Rica, we hope to visit Pete and Mary Jo's place (although they aren't there, and Pete just reported that the river is not passable in our van). Lots of adventures ahead of us!

Before we came to San Juan del Sur, we spent a day in Granada. What a fabulous place! It is picturesque, it is clean, has lots of history and is very easy to get around. We took an hour-long buggy ride around the town, with our driver doubling as a tour guide. And didn't you want to know that there are 12 Catholic churches in Granada? We would be happy to return to Granada, particularly if the baseball championships were going on!

Granada is on Lake Nicaragua, which is HUGE! This lake is part of the passageway for the proposed canal project to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. We had heard rumors that the Japanese were funding this project, but those could be just rumors.

Speaking of funding....as one drives around, particularly on the miserable back roads, you see lots of billboards which credit various countries for funding to fix the roads. Countries so far are Japan, Denmark, Holland and the EU itself. And this is funny...on the potholed back roads, you will come across kids with shovels. They are filling in the potholes, and as you drive near them, the kids are pointing to the pothole they just filled. Of course, some money is expected.

Contrary to several guidebooks, the beer through Central America has been great. Tommy likes wine with dinner, and that has been mainly from Chile, and a few times, from Argentina. The food hasn't been that terrific except for special dinners like last night. But here in Nicaragua there are these little treats called rostillas, which are corn bread rings. Some of them are plain and some have cinnamon, and they all are delicious!

We have been surprised by the great differences among the countries, and how the changes are immediate rather than gradual. There is no place like Guatemala, with the colorful weavings and crafts. The people in Nicaragua have been the friendliest so far. The scenery changes dramatically every thirty miles or so.

So, tomorrow...onto to Costa Rica!

Jinotega, Nicaragua, April 7th

2007-04-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! We are in Nicaragua, in a little town in the highlands, about 100 miles north of Granada. Since this is Semana Santa (Easter week), we have been trying to stay away from the populated areas to avoid high prices and scads of people. We are staying in a lovely, fantastic, what a surprise! little boutique hotel with terrific staff and a gourmet restaurant. We decided to give ourselves two nights here, since we were all suffering from too much travelling and too many border crossings. We will probably leave tomorrow for Granada.

To back up...we left Xela four days later than planned because Tommy came down with bronchitis. The hotel found a doctor, who made a hotel call and proscribed antibiotics and four days of bed rest. We left on Thursday, March 30th. Tommy, who had been imaging maneuvering the car out of the garage (for two weeks), had no trouble at all. As we drove south out of Xela, we saw the lush harvest gardens which supply organic produce to the USA, and nonorganic produce to the rest of Central America.

We chose to drive on CA 2 (not CA1, the Pan American Highway), which parallels the Pacific coast line. This road is in much better condition than CA 1, but we still endured tremendous traffic jams (for no apparent reason). Our last night in Guatemala, we camped in a water park (how about that Greg and KG!), which was set up for RVs and camper vans with electricity and water. They just forgot to tell us that the park and restaurant closed at 6pm, so we had a lovely dinner of crackers that night! (Once the park closes, the gates are locked and you are there for the night.)

The next day, we crossed into El Salvador. The crossing, even though we hired someone to help us, took much longer than expected (about 2 hours) so we were a bit late finding a place for the night. We ended up in a town called Acajutla, which is on the Pacific Ocean but could only find one hotel with secure parking, our primary concern. Although right on the ocean, this hotel was a true shit hole, so we slept in the van and were careful not to use any of the facilities. Repulsive. This next morning we were encouraged to leave by 9am, so that the hotel could rent out its rooms to beach goers.

With such an early start, we decided to take the guidebook recommended Ruta das Flores, a road going up into the mountains. It was beautiful and cool, and so lovely that we stayed in a little hotel in the middle of a coffee plantation. We had our own cabana, complete with hammocks on the porch. It rained during the night...our first rain since we left California! What a terrific little stop!

Our third night in El Salvador was in Zacatecoluca, a rather miserable, though lively, market town. In order for us to pull through the driveway into the parking area, the owner had to move his taxi and open the rubber curtain across the driveway. The van and TwoBaby were great curiosities to the owner´s kids. The local bank was also the internet cafe. This was located right on the main square, which was surrounded with market stalls selling food and everything else imaginable. Our hotel had cable TV, so Tommy watched the final game of the NCAA tournament (sorry about your team, Greg!).

The next day we stopped at Playa El Cuco, where we had planned to stay at a beach resort. Unfortunately for us, the resort had doubled its prices due to Semana Santa so we continued down the road til we found a small sign for quartos. The rooms were disgusting so we talked the owner into letting us camp in the van, under palm trees, about 100 yards from the ocean. It was magical, complete with ceviche for lunch and fresh fish for dinner, both prepared by the owner´s wife. Again, we were the curiosity of the day to the local kids and chickens and turkeys, which were wandering around the property. The property itself was huge, with palm trees and three medium sized dwellings, disgusting as they were. And it was right on the ocean. We asked the price of such a property, and were told it would be about $250,000US. Not that we want to live there!

On Wednesday, 4 April, we crossed from El Salvador into Honduras at El Amatillo. This border crossing, no matter which way you are going, has the worst reputation in Central America. It is hot, it is slow, it is expensive, it is absolutely horrible. We hired a guy with a Michigan shirt to help us, but even so it took us almost 3 hours and $100US to get into Honduras. The guy with the Michigan shirt had lived in the US for about twelve years before he was deported (we were too chicken to ask him what he did).

About 60 miles from the border, we found a brand new motel (two weeks old!), complete with huge swimming pool, a bar and a restaurant. We had to stop. The people here were extraordinarily helpful and friendly. This was the first place with satellite TV (previously TVs had been cable), and it was amazing how many US channels were available (not that there was much interesting to see). During the night we lost electricity and the TV, due to a terrific rain storm, complete with thunder and lightning. Fortunately, the electricity came back on after about 20 minutes, so we didn´t suffer in the heat and humidity. During our 24 hours, or so, in Honduras we were stopped by four security/border patrols, and one which asked to see our emergency triangles. Oops...no where to be found in the van! (The question is, how can you sell a $25,000 van and not include triangles). The cop said we would have to return to Choluteca (about 60 miles westward) to pay the fine. We must have looked so pathetic that he finally let us go (no bribes). We stopped the first possible place and bought the two required triangles.

And then on Thursday, we crossed the border into Nicaragua. Our guide, Carlos, ran around, getting all our papers signed and bribes paid (yes, we are not too proud to pay the border bribes!), so the whole process only took about an hour. We headed eastwards, towards Esteli, which sounded great in the guidebook. It wasn´t so great, but we needed a place to stay since it was getting late in the day. We rejected the best local hotel, and went to the best restaurant, which was on a hill, overlooking the town. We talked the restaurant owner into letting us camp near his restaurant. This area was patrolled by his security guard, so we felt safe and were happy to get to our van after a good dinner. The guard said something about us having to leave early in the morning but we told him we were leaving at 9am. WRONG! At 5 am, he pounded on our doors, saying we had to leave because his boss would be coming soon. Arguing didn´t help...he had the gun (he didn´t point it at us, we just knew we was in the position of power). Obviously, I need more Spanish lessons to find out where our communication with the restaurant owner went wrong.

So, we were up early with no real plan. We head up into the highlands to the "City of Mists", Jinotega, which is about 100 miles north of Granada, and found this terrific hotel which allowed us to check in at 9am in the morning! Also staying at this hotel, is a youngish Texan, who is developing a first world style subdivision (urbanization) near here. The houses are much cheaper than Panama and Costa Rica, and he said that sales were great. Could be bullshit, but maybe not. It is lovely up here, and the Nicaraguans we have met have been so nice and friendly with lots of smiles. Yesterday we went for a drive to the lake and were stopped by the cops, who asked to see our papers. Oh shit! This was the one time we didn´t have them with us because we had unburdened ourselves of all that stuff and left them (inadvertently) at the hotel. After lots of explaining, the cop smiled and let us go on. Lucky, weren´t we.

We wanted to tell you about "Auto Hotels", which we have seen all through Central America but mostly after we left Guatemala. At first we thought that these were like North American motels. However, after looking a bit more closely and reading about these auto hotels, we realize that they are not motels as we know them. Picture a cinderblock courtyard, with about 10 to 20 one car garage type openings. There is a curtain across each opening. Apparently, you drive into this garage opening, the curtain is closed and you and your honey have the privacy to do whatever you want. Some of these places look quite desparate, and some look very fancy, and they all charge by the hour.

So many of the people we have met have been deported from the US, after living and working there for years. One gets a whole different feeling about "illegal immigration" into the US after travelling in these parts. So many of these immigrants are the main financial support for their families. In fact, 15% of El Salvador´s GNP is due to funds sent by the immigrants. That was one reason that El Salvador now uses the US dollar as its currency.

Time to go....talk to you soon!

March 24th, 2007

2007-03-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I graduated from school! Verbs and tenses and cases are still exploding from my brain, and I may decide to speak in the same fashion as my brother Peter, who says he always uses the infinitive and never declines his verbs. I was something of an oddity at the school since most of the students are in their 20's, most of the students opt for the "total immersion program" (staying with a local host family and eating three meals a day with that family), and most students are here for at least four months. Obviously, they speak much better Spanish than I will ever speak but at 58, I'm going to do what is comfortable for me and my family (can you imagine Tommy living for two weeks in very basic accommodations, without TV and very little privacy?).

Last Sunday a group of us (students) went to Chichicastenango, the site of the largest indigenous market in Guatemala. We went there via chicken bus (one transfer) and the 100KM took four hours. The other kids said I had a true chicken bus experience, with a driver who was trying to win the chicken bus race, sometimes cornering on two wheels (well, not really, but it sure felt like it!). For the last hour, I shared my seat with two other people (this is a seat built for two elementary aged children). Anyway, I had my chicken bus experience! On the way back, we were all so tired, that we returned via mini-bus, which was somewhat faster and safer.

Chichicastenango is a market-lover's paradise. Stall after stall after stall selling local crafts, woven goods, beautiful clothes, shoes, belts, hammocks, travel bags....etc. etc. The colors! The variety! The richness of it all! Inadvertently, I discovered how to get the best price...just walk away. So, by walking away many times, I came home with lots of treasures! Just think of all the money I saved! We also visited the church at the top of the town. Our guide said that it was used primarily by the Mayans. It felt and looked very primitive and smelled overwhelmingly of incense, which was being burned at the entrances and in the church.

Have we told you about the great VISA scam? Cynthia will recall that we encountered this several years ago in Spain, and Bert ran into this in the Algarve when trying to buy port. It goes like this: the famous VISA emblem is on the gas/petrol pump, or front door, or even painted on the stall pillars, as we saw in Panachel. Often one chooses a specific restaurant or store or gas station, due to the VISA emblem. So, you eat or fill up or select stuff and go to pay, flipping out your VISA card. And the clerk looks at you and says, "machina no funcionada". Right. Machina no funcionada for years. We even have been tricked after asking if we could pay by VISA before we filled up with gas/petrol. Once the fill up was complete, the machina had stopped working. So, you always have to have enough cash to cover the fill up or dinner. Machina no funcionada.

We both came down with the flu this week. I missed a day of school while trying to recover. Even though I went to school, I didn't have much energy so decided to take a mini-bus half way to school each day. These are passenger vans (about the size of Tommy's Toyota and Chevy vans) with seats for 12 to 15. There are no published schedules or routes; the busses just drive around town, picking up passengers. The driver drives and his helper hangs out the side door, yelling for passengers. I flagged down my bus in front of the hotel each day. There are so many of these mini-busses that I never had the same one, and always just told them my desired destination before getting on. The fare is 1Q, no matter how far you go. This demand-based system really works! Donald says it has no chance in the USA due to unions, liability, the government and lawyers. Too bad!

It is easy to get your daily ration of fresh fruit: every other street corner has vendors of sliced fresh fruit (watermelon, papaya, cantalope, pineapple) and vendors squeezing fresh orange juice (which you drink from their glass glasses and return the glass, which they wash in a pail of water). I was game! Many of the vendors also have fresh eggs and I still haven't figured out how those are served (nor do I want to!).

We have the great fortune to be in a hotel which is centrally located for almost everything we want to do. Within a four block radius we have the Parque Central, banks, post office, lots of restaurants, internet, laundry, used book store (!), and TWO jazz clubs! We have been music pigs, attending almost every night. One of them is a little hole in the wall, with the "stage" being a platform over the smallest kitchen imaginable. This one specializes in a guitar style called "trova", and can handle about 30 people. The other club is a real restaurant (French) with great food, and seating for perhaps 60. We were there last night for Buena Vista style music, and we will go tonight to hear a trio playing more traditional jazz.

There is also a stained glass studio just around the corner. This guy's work is fabulous but he has a very small market because this is such a poor country. He did some of the windows for a church on Parque Central...absolutely beautiful work.

There are lots of foreign college-aged kids here, studying Spanish and doing volunteer work. The majority of students at my school were pre-med students, with one being a doctor who had just finished her residency in Seattle. What a fabulous experience for these kids! Most of them are either from North America or Scandinavia. Xela is a sister city to Tromso, Norway so that probably encourages Norwegians to come here.

We plan to leave Xela tomorrow. We love it here but it is time to move on. There are several things we won't miss: the incredibly dirty air, which we have noticed much more since we were ill. The tragedy of the homeless children (all ages) which is an enormous problem here. The "collectors", which are college boys, dressed in klu klux klan-like outfits except that the outfits are purple or yellow or black, rather than white. They go around the city, soliciting donations from businesses, mainly. If the business doesn't pay, their merchandise and walls are splashed with paint. My teacher said that the police don't do anything about this problem; I subsequently read a newspaper article which said that the police were trying to stop this practice. Meeting these collectors on the street is creepy.

So, talk to you soon!

March 14th, 2007, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

2007-03-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Quetzaltenango two days ago, so that we could go to Spanish language school here. This is the second largest city in Guatemala and if you can´t handle the official tongue twisting name, its nickname is Xela. It is a great place! We decided not to opt for the home stay option, but rather are staying in a modest downtown hotel. I have had two days of lessons and my head is exploding with verbs. Tommy is having some quiet time for now, needing to de-stress after the drive here. I walk back and forth to school (about a half hour each way), getting my morning coffee at McDonalds (the only coffee place open at 7:00 am). I get back to the hotel about 1:30 and then Tommy and I join forces to explore our neighborhood. TwoBaby holds down the fort at the hotel, waiting for us to bring him treats.

Our previous post left us in Flores, from which we drove south down the middle of the country. From Flores we went to Coban, where we stayed at a great little B&B and ate an upscale dinner in their restaurant. The next night we stayed in a funny little motel near Salama which had a pool, noise all night and a horrible restaurant. While we were looking for our night spot, we stopped at a restaurant to ask if we could camp in his parking lot. He looked at us, and then said ¨Cobras!" Tommy starting shouting, ¨Cobras! There aren´t any cobras here!¨ Finally, the man pointed us down the road, suggesting that we could find something further along. About a half hour later it dawned on us that he was saying ¨cobrar¨, meaning that he wanted payment for letting us camp in his secure grounds. Ah yes, a good lesson which we used the next night when we camped in a restaurant parking lot nere Tecpan.

From there we went to an official campground in Panachel, near Lago de Aitlan. This is a lake, formed by a collapsed volcano and surrounded by at least three other volcanos. It was completely magical! Our campground is owned and run by a transplanted Texan who smokes the truth every morning. Panchel itself is kind of a hippy, touristy, very comfortable small town on the lake, and one takes tuk tuks everywhere for a cost of 5 quetzals per person, point to point. A tuk tuk is a small vehicle, with probably a motorcyle engine and a small seat in the back for passengers. Panachel is at the base of a very, very, very scary mountain road. My eyes were closed most of the time as we travelled down the road.

After two days in Panachel, we drove here. All 96 kilometers took 5 hours! Most of this was on the Pan American Highway, which we had joined just east of Guatemala City. This highway is positively the worst piece of highway extant. It goes up and down mountains, with trucks crowding every lane, whether or not they have the power to get up the mountains or the brakes to get down safely. The highway has road works, road works, road works, announced or not. Everyone is passing everyone, particularly on blind curves. You get so that you are certain the next one will be a head on collision; strange that we never saw one! There are pedestrians everywhere. There are vendors of foods and trinkets as you wait in line for a road work stoppage. The entire highway is completely and utterly accident potential, and without a break or rest stop. Tommy drove the entire way, and I am grateful that he could handle it (I couldn´t).

Here are some phrases to capture our impressions so far: incredible mountain scenery, particularly in the north central part of the country; moutainsides with small farming plots and corn growing up the mountain sides; pedestrians everywhere carrying their loads (food, firewood, animals) either balanced on their heads or their backs), short-bed pickup trucks with metal structures welded shoulder high so that about 15 to 20 people can stand in the back; guns, guns, guns slung around most men´s backs; wonderful tourist police in their black and gold pickup trucks, keeping the roads safe for us; hundreds of minibuses (9 to 12 passenger vans) doing the town to town transportation runs; pink Eveready signs painted on lots and lots of houses along the road; fabulous fruit drinks (watermelon included); old US school buses, some still yellow and many painted terrific colors, particularly those known as the ¨chicken buses¨ (the most basic and local of the bus system); and color, color, color everywhere! The indigenous women wear the most beautiful woven outfits, and they have the blackest longest hair you have ever seen.

The Guatemalans smile a lot. When they do, you see that most of their teeth (particularly the front ones) are outlined in gold. And wasn´t Tommy the lucky one: one of his gold inlays popped out (not the one you fixed, George) and he went to a dentist yesterday. This cost a mere 50 quetzals (about $6.50 US). We´ll see how long the repair lasts!

We have seen two funeral processions. In the first one, the coffin was in the back of a pickup truck and every conceivable kind of vehicle was in the procession (including a tractor). We saw the second procession here in Xela, as we were trying to navigate our way to the school. The procession was on foot, blocking the entire main street for miles and miles. Colorful, though.

As we left Panachel, we stopped to fill up with gas. The minimart at the gas station also sold dried cat food, the first we have seen since we left the US. We gratefully purchased a couple of bags although TwoBaby has been pretty happy about his non-dried food diet of fresh chicken and fish. We were able to find cat litter in Belize so loaded up on the stuff there.

Very few people here speak English but one phrase is always in English: car wash. There are lots and lots of car washes. We used one in the north of Guatemala to wash off our Belize road dust (extreme). It took two people 40 minutes to get the van clean. The cost was 25 quetzals (about $3.00 US). Hard to believe, isn´t it?

Everything is very cheap here. We delight in our dinners for less than $20.00US, including the sauce. Our hotel (but keep in mind that it is very basic) is only about $20.00 US a night. The fresh fruit is everywhere, and you can get four or five watermelon slices for about $0.50US. We don´t mean to dwell on the cost of living here. It is a pretty special place, as well!

Hasta la vista!

2007-03-07T07:36:00.001-08:00

March 7th, Guatemala

2007-03-07T07:36:00.000-08:00

Wow! Guatemala! We had an easy border crossing from Belize to Guatemala. The border town was similar to Tijuana: a little sleazy and lots of vendors. Several miles down the road, we stopped for refreshments and Tommy used the bathroom (which turned out to be in the owner´s house). Suddenly, Tommy is yelling my name: he was locked in the bathroom! The owners and we had a big laugh about this. We continued on to El Remate, where we had hoped to camp for the night but the town didn´t feel quite right and the camping site was up a very steep slope. Instead, we drove on to Tikal, the site of the largest Mayan settlement in Guatemala.

This area is so well organized but not overly commercial. The campgrounds (for vans and tent campers) was right on the edge of the park entrance, as were some small restaurants. Easy! We woke up at 5 am on Tuesday, as the really serious Tikal visitors were heading to the park so that they could watch the sunrise at the temple sites. We were less serious (big surprise!), and fiddled around for several more hours before going in.

What a place! Those Mayans were amazing! Incredible number of temples, etc. in a very small area, although we guessed that we walked about 6 miles in order to see all the sites. The park was fairly crowded with lots of tours. We were one of the few who didn´t climb to the top of the temples. seeing Tikal was a really great experience, and yes, Wilson, Tommy did get the t-shirt!

Last night we ended up in Flores, an island in a small lake about 60 miles from Tikal. We camped across the street from our restaurant, after being assured by the locals that it was safe (it was). Today we´ll head southward.

The entire Central American area could use Tom Baron down here to get these roads in better shape! The maps give one no indication if the roads will be good or bad, and when bad, they are very, very bad. We followed a bus yesterday, so that it could show us the danger spots. And, contrary to the books, livestock crosses the road. I get a kick out of the pigs but Tommy likes the turkeys best.

We talked to a family from Quebec. They are travelling, with three young children, all through Mexico and Central America. Their van is the same size as ours, and they estimated that their trip would last eight months. We also saw two motorcyclists from Germany (plates started with AA..Achen?), who had their large dog in a cage at the back of one of the cycles. I feel quite normal, travelling with TwoBaby!

Last night in our restaurant, the TV was showing the UEFA Champions League playoffs (Lyon v Roma), and flashed that Porto and Chelsea would be playing later on. We wondered if Miranda and Peter went to the game.

A few final notes about Belize: such great people who are always smiling! And everyone speaks English. There is lots to do there, for example, stays at the jungle lodges, tours to the caves and Mayan sites, hiking, diving, swimming, snorkling, canoeing...unending. Everyone rides bikes. And there are Chinese everywhere! Almost all the businesses are Chinese-owned and no one seems able to explain why. Nancy, the graveyards are above ground here, too. At the border, we saw a pickup parked in a ravine parallel to the border. Two guys jumped out of the pickup, hefted two large boxes, and ran across the border (out of sight of the guards). Our last campground in Belize was one of the nicest: it had a great restaurant, and a river in which I went swimming each day. We also met a group of bike riders who were on a tour of Guatemala and Belize (one of the guys was a Californian, who saw our California license plates). They were with an organized tour, which transported their luggage from place to place while they rode. Their truck had broken down that day, so they ended up camping in our campground unexpectedly. The British Army Jungle Force (which trains in Belize), helped tow their truck out to a town.

These little stories are part of our lives now. See you soon!

March 4th, 2007: San Ignacio, Belize

2007-03-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

Today is Sunday, March 4th and we are in San Ignacio, Belize, which is the western most city in Belize. We hope to cross into Guatemala on Monday or Tuesday.

The last time we talked, Tommy and I were in Corozal, having just crossed into Belize. Since then, we have seen much of the country (Orange Walk, Belize City, Ambergris Caye, Dangriga, Belmopan, and now San Ignacio. Belize is a very small country, but only has three good roads; the rest are either dirt (graded or not), or very broken pavement with enormous potholes. If you stay on the good roads, getting around is easy. We had the misfortune to take one of the bad roads by mistake; it took us 5.5 hours to go 40 miles. And it was hot!

Belize is beautiful! The landscape varies alot from the north to south, and east to west. Generally, the further south and west we went, we found things more "upscale" and less ramshackle. And the ramshackle is really ramshackle as only the Caribbean can do. Most people are riding bicycles, and those driving cars are honking their horns to say hello to their friends (most disconcerting until you get used to it).

While is Corozal, we took a drive out to Consejo, and bumped into a North American-looking subdivision (urbanization). Wow! This was really out in the middle of nowhere and we wondered WHY? Since then, we have come across several other subdivisions and various states of completion, but they are all very far away from any town or indigenous activities.

We took a boat tour to Laminai, one of the Mayan sites. During the tour, we travelled past a Mennonite community, saw the sugar cane factory, and birds, birds, birds! We were fascinated by the snail kite (this guy eats only snails and his beak is curved so that he can get into the snail shells); the keel billed toucan; egrets and kingfishers. Another day we drove to Altun Ha, another Mayan site; this was the day we took 5.5 hours to go 40 miles on the most miserable road ever. But along the way, we met Hector, who was cutting sugar cane and gave us one to suck on. Hector, as well as many other Belizeans we have met spent some time in the USA.

After camping two nights at Corozal, two nights at Orange Walk, and one night at Altun Ha, we were camping fatigued and spent two nights in a very basic motel near Belize City. Our friend Gill Graham would not have agreed to the parking lot of this motel, let alone staying there! It was, however, clean, air conditioned, and the toilet and shower worked fine. And our hosts were fascinated with TwoBaby, and told us where we could buy more kitty litter.

We went over to Ambergris Caye via water taxi. While there we met up with Sarah's cousin, Coleen, and two Redding, California transplants, Denise and Jim (thanks to Wilson). Life is easy on Ambergris Caye! The big draw there is the barrier reef, and the diving, snorkling and fishing. It is beautiful! Coleen has an active coffee bar right in the middle of town. We asked her to tell us the most difficult thing about having a business in Belize. She said that getting reliable, steady supplies was the hardest thing. It turns out that the Mennonites produce 70% of what the country eats, and as a result, they also control what will be imported or won't be. For example, a while back, they decided that they would produce the cheese so none could be imported, leaving the country without parmesan and other such cheeses. This situation lasted until the tourist industry put pressure on the government. Interesting, isn't it? Denise and Jim now have a property management business, having sold their original Belize business, The Sausage Factory. We really enjoyed chatting with these folks!

We did a walking tour in Belize City. It is so small and well laid out, that it is easy to get around and find things. There is a lot of street life around the swing bridge and the entry port for cruise ship people. It is also quite scuzzy and dirty. But you can get anything: three people asked Tommy if he wanted to buy some dope or crack. Our DVD vendor asked both of us if we wanted to party with him. We were chicken! We found an Ace Hardware, and true to its slogan, Ace was the place and found a fan for the car to ease the night heat.

In between Belize City and our motel, we found a little bar (now, who is surprised at that?) right on the lagoon, with palm trees and a cooling breeze. It was a little slice of heaven! Again, here our host had spent 18 years in the USA.

Since TwoBaby had previously been fined for not having the proper visa, we decided to visit the Guatemalan Embassy to see if Two needed a visa for Guatemala. He didn't but it took about an hour to discover that. But what a fantastic reception we had! The people were so nice, and gave us several Guatemalan trinkets, pamphlets, and driving advice.

After Belize City, we drove down to Dangriga, which is a Garifuna town; Garifuna is almost creole-like. We stayed in a great, basic cabana on the beach. We walked into town (10 minutes)to get some dinner. Sad to say, we were very uncomfortable because we were in the color minority and it just didn't feel too safe. We were surprised about that.

The local beer is Belkin, and the guy who owns Belkin is also the distributor for Coke, Fanta, and Guiness. The local lore is that when Pepsi tried to introduce itself to Belize, the Belkin guy bought and destroyed all the Pepsi until Pepsi gave up. The beer, by the way, comes in regular, light, premium and stout and is very good!

We are taking our internet hits where we can find it. Several campgrounds have had a terminal (usually very, very slow); a coffee house on Ambergris Caye had a half dozen terminals as does this coffee house in San Ignacio. But the most interesting internet experience was in the gift shop for a prison. We picked up the prison newsletter, which we will forward onto Wilson.

This is a surprise: there is almost no smoking here, and this doesn't seem to be a goverment-mandated situation but rather that very few locals smoke (regular cigarettes). The food experiences haven't been all that great, although last night (in the restaurant in our campground) we had the most delicious squash soup (green!) and fresh fish.

Hey guess what! The cost of gas (petrol) here is about US$4.50 a gallon! It is a good thing that this is a small country! And also probably why there are so many bike riders.

Oh, one more thing: this is the land of religion. The 7th Day Adventists have really done well here. Everywhere, everywhere we see their churchs. And lots of Baptist churchs, too.

I think we are up to date now. Talk to you soon!

February 23, 2007: Belize!

2007-02-23T15:38:00.000-08:00

Wow! We crossed the border from Mexico into Belize this morning. A mere 1.5 hours, and TwoBaby had to pay a fine for not having his visa in order. Oh yes, the beer was confiscated but not the wine. My theory is that the inspection agent liked beer but not wine.

So, to back up: contrary to our earlier indication, we decided to cross into Mexico from Brownsville, which turned out to be a great decision because it is a small crossing area, and everything is in one building. Everything went smoothly, including the inspection 20 miles further into Mexico. We were hot! We drove about 200 miles south of Brownsville, and ended up camping on the beach next to two RVs from Michigan. Bob and Bunny from Michigan report that the place is pretty deserted until Easter. The name of the area is La Pesca. We had a fresh fish dinner from the rustic cafe nearby...pretty darn special and a great way to start our Mexico experience.

Since we only had a 7-day visa (and, in reality, it was only 6 full days), we had to make a lot of tracks each day. From La Pesca, we pretty much followed Mex 180 down the Gulf coast, crossed the Tropic of Cancer, went through Tampico and Tuxpan, avoiding the bigger cities (like Vera Cruz and Villahermosa), but paralleling the coastline. We turned east south of Campeche, so that we could cross the border at Chetumal.

We camped each night, and our accommodations varied from the beach at La Pesca (free), to a field next to a (probably) hotel/whorehouse, a field (Anton Lizardo), the parking lot of a restaurant (Paraiso), and several real RV/camping spots (Isla Aguada and Cenote Azul).

Driving...poor Tommy! As he says, "the minute I take my eyes off the road, there is some *#@* thing to avoid!" Potholes you would not believe! But the worst of all are the topes, pronounced toepays, but I prefer toepiss. These are obstacles placed on the road (officially or not), with or without warning signs, to slow down traffic. You hit one of these fierce things once and you have learned your lesson! They vary from concrete lines to concrete mounds two feet high, and large round metal balls interred in the road. The military uses a gentler variety: spread out truck tire strips or rope (about 10 inches in circumference). All these topes catch your attention and reduce your progress to about 40 mph. And then, of course, there are other hazards. We had a real lock-up-the-brakes situation as a cow herd wandered right into our path. We did try a toll road one day, thinking that the driving would be easier. Not that toll road: there was so much road work being done, that we were on and off the toll road, and constantly avoiding road parts.
Tommy needs a medal!

We have seen such varied scenery as we drove through Mexico: we started in a dry, desert climate, went through green, green bouganvilla land, to rolling green hills, to Gulf coastal scenes, through lots of small towns and villages. This is a beautiful land!

Our eating experiences have been varied, from the fresh fish in La Pesca to a fancy beach restaurant (where we ended up camping for the night). Alert to our cooking friends: try fresh fish, sauteed in butter, garlic, onions and dried poblano chilis cut into strips. Out of this world!
We had pollo asado at a roadside restaurant we called "Dog Chasing Pig Restaurant"; the dog seemed to be in charge of keeping the pigs off the roadway (but didn't bother if they walked through the restaurant). Actually, this was a roadside stop, not a "restaurant". Last night we had a bottle of Mexican wine (Vinos Premium XA, Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Baja); even our cheap tastebuds thought it was excellent.

Last night we camped at Cenote Azul. A cenote is a formed when the limestone shelf breaks and the underground river floods the area. This morning I swam in the cenote (just to say I did); it was warm and the lightest torquoise blue in color.

We saw a lot of trucks, hauling sugar cane to market. These trucks are piled two and three stories high with the cane. We saw one truck, pulling three wagons of cane, and we very glad we weren't behind him on a hill. Occasionally ahead on the top of a hillside, one sees the huge silloutte of a black bull, advertising Magno Osborne; isn't that a port wine?

And so here we are in Belize. We haven't made a plan for our stay here (this answer drives the border guys nuts!). But we'll check in again soon. We're off to explore this town, Corasul, and have some dinner. Ciao!

2007-02-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

Today, 15 February, we are in Laredo, Texas in a motel whose main attractions are showers, heat, happy hour and a guest laundry. After camping for several days, we are desparately in need of all of the above. Tomorrow we hope to finish up the paperwork (insurance and visas) and cross over into Mexico from here, rather than going on to Brownsville.

Big Bend (both the state parkand the national parks) was terrific! We drove through the state park, starting from the western edge, and ending up in Terlinga for the night. We had hoped to camp in Lajitas, but the campsite discussed in the brochure could not be found (even the Town Hall had not heard of it, and, with no cell phone coverage in the area, we couldn't call). Actually, to digress a bit: brochure writing seems to be a booming business down this way. The brochures are great; the actuality hasn't matched in quite a few instances. Very curious.

From Terlinga, we headed east into Big Bend National Park, heading toward Rio Grande Village with stops at Chisos Basin (overwhelmingly beautiful) and Boquillas Canyon. We chose to camp at Rio Grande Village, because snow was expected at Chisos Basin (no thank you!). The wind had dropped from the previous night, and we were able to get the grill going for dinner.

On Valentines Day we drove to Del Rio via Marathon. Sorry to report, Wilson, the Marathon Cafe is no more. We did stop in Marathon at small cafe for coffee, beer, and internet, but "bar bars" seem to have vanished in the parts of Texas we have travelled.

Speaking of things vanished: where have all the "Drive Friendly" signs gone? We have seen ONE so far. We should note, though, that driving here in Texas is generally much, much better than in California so maybe the signs aren't needed.

The drive to Del Rio was on Highway 90, a red road, which was terrific: in great shape, no traffic, and great scenery. We camped at Amistad National Recreation Area, right on the reservoir, and cooked a terrific steak and asparagus dinner. Sometime in the middle of the night, the temperature dropped to almost freezing and we woke up very, very cold.

Today we drove to Laredo, stopping along the way to have the oil changed in the van. We are glad to be warm, and sure enjoyed the happy hour!

2007-02-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

February 12th, Van Horn, Texas. We left the San Francisco Bay Area on 1 February, driving to Los Angeles using mainly Highway 1 to give our senses a treat. We had a lovely night in Morro Bay, although TwoBaby (our cat) had to spend the night in the van since all the Morro Bay motels seem to believe that "cat not pet".

We arrived in LA the next day, staying first with Donald and Sarah, and then moving over to Tom and Cynthia's for the next five days. And finally it was time to leave!

Our first journey was short: Pasadena to the Salton Sea, where we camped (primitive) at Bombay Beach, and had drinks at the Ski Inn. TwoBaby was petrified of the smells (intense) and bird sounds, as he and I sat at the shore, doing our Sudokus.

On Friday we continued on to Arizona, camping at Picacho Peak State Park, which is just off I-8, south of Phoenix. This is a fantastic park, with showers to rival any motel. The views! We drank a bottle of champagne, which meant Barbara wasn't awake for DVD watching. Tommy checked out the TV, which functioned and actually received a few stations.

On Saturday we drove a lot longer than we had intended, and ended up in Rockhound State Park, which is south of Deming, off I-10, in New Mexico. This park encourages its visitors to go rock hunting and take away up to 15 pounds of rocks (semi-precious type). There were quite a few folks with picks and heavy-looking bags, so it must be worth it. The Park Ranger here is very knowledgeable and attentive.

On Sunday, February 11th, we drove to Van Horn, Texas via I-10, which has an 80 mph speed limit in Texas; Tommy was ecstatic. We detoured through El Paso, along the Rio Grande, thinking that it would be picturesque and we would easily find a taco for lunch. Nope, no such luck; this area is ugly.

In the last three days, we have seen Border Patrols everywhere, and have been through two checkpoints. The patrols, and where they are (40 to 50 miles from the border, along fairly desolate stretches of the interstate) were a big surprise to us. We don't remember them from previous journeys along the border (but those journeys were long, long ago, so times do change).

Today we are going down to Big Bend National Park for a few days. Tommy was there with Wilson so many years ago. Skip remembers this park as one of his favorites. We are off to the store to get provisions.

Countdown, January 21, 2007

2007-01-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

While Tommy watches the NFL playoffs, thought I'd get our blog started. We are planning to leave the San Francisco Bay area about 1 February, driving to Los Angeles on the first leg of our much talked about adventure (driving a portion of the Pan American Highway). We'll stay in LA for a couple of days, and then head for Brownsville, Texas where we cross over into Mexico.

Thirty some years ago, Tommy travelled for 13 months in a self-converted van. He faithfully wrote in his journal every day, including a full day on September 31st. This wasn't a date mistake, because there are complete entries for September 30th and October 1st. Tommy often has different universe experiences!

Our new passports arrived on Saturday, so we can cross that worry off the list. Next week will be busy, getting papers notarized, etc. etc. And I have to finish a window commission for Cynthia. We will be busy! But we will be back!