News From Panama

[11.13.2008]
We will be spending the Christmas holidays in Hawaii with our good friends Dennis and Christy from San Luis Obispo. We are so excited as we have been waiting for this trip all year and now it is almost here. We will be in the Houston area for 1 week prior to leaving just to get adjust to American life and of course eating at all our favorite quality restaurants like Taco Bell, Chipotle, Chilis and Macaroni Grill just to name a few.

Marilyn has never been to Hawaii so she has been beefing up her camera gear for months now. Hard drives, 4 gig cards, lenses, etc, etc. I just can't tell you how fun it will be to go through all those photos just to bring you the extra special ones. Whew!!! But I will do this for all of you in January, not 2 years from now - I promise.

[11.2.2008]
I know it has been a long time since we updated our web page. Believe me when I say I had to review over 20,000 photos to come up with our 2 year summary. Marilyn is quite the shutterbug and it was so hard because the people and places mean so much to us it was hard to edit down to an acceptable number.

One of the biggest highlights in the last two years was our backpacking trip through southern Peru. We of course used little wheeley bags but our friends had full on backpacks. I just couldn't do it and we had just a great time with our bags - much easier. We road local buses, hiked, stayed in hostels, ate with the locals and lived out of 1 suitcase each for 1 month. We learned a lot about how to explore a country from our friends Eric and Lyn. They were already in Peru and we joined their trip at the end. Peru is cold, very high, very rural, and had amazing ruins. Of course Machu Pichu was the highlight but we left it until the very last week so that we did not have to compare everything to it.

Our other local trips in Panama are always fun. Sometimes we go alone but mostly we hook up with another couple and we have a good time exploring. Between the four of us we can usually speak enough Spanish to get by.

Suffice it to say that we think of all of our friends often and hope you are all doing well. Please drop us an email and lets catch up. And of course, if any of you want to visit any of these great places, just let us know - we'd love to have you!!

Check out all the new photos here!

[12.23.2006]
We are going to a Christmas Pot Luck today and will meet a lot of people from Valle Escondido that have eluded us so far.  We are doing a White Elephant gift exchange so it should be pretty fun.  On Christmas Eve we are going to an Open House at Linda and Scott's house, they moved in a few houses down from us.  They just received their 40' container on Wednesday and they wanted to set a goal for them to get it unpacked quickly, so they invited all their neighbors over - that is definitely motivation to get everything put together.  On Christmas Day we are joining Tracy and Andy (our neighbors from down the street) and going to Mindy and Val's house for a traditional Christmas dinner.  We are each bringing a dish that is traditional to our family Christmas.  I am bringing Candied Yams, Marilyn is bringing Peanut Butter Soda Cracker bars (her Grandmother's recipe).

The 2nd most interesting detail about this holiday is that we have gone all the way up to today without the constant pressure from the "Multi Media" about shopping for Christmas.  Sure the stores have their decorations out and Christmas music is playing yet it feels more like a holiday than an "Event" like it does in the States. I have always disliked the commercialism that has engulfed each of our holidays, especially Christmas.  Being here means we are not subjected to the mass market engine that drives the America during these months.

It has been pleasant albeit a little warm, it has been in the 80s for a week.  The rain has stopped so it doesn't even feel like winter anymore - I'm sure Santa will have to wear his Bermuda shorts to visit us this year.

The MOST interesting and enjoyable detail about this holiday is all the people we have met.  People from all walks of life and everywhere under the sun.  It is always fun to hear how they found out about this small speck of paradise on the planet - we all have our own unique stories.  The people are what make this Valle a joy to live in.

[12.17.2006]
Our new website is launched with the all the latest pictures since our arrival.

[12.16.2006]
We participated in our first Panama Golf Tournament here at the Quebrada Country Club.  There were 6 of us girls playing, Mindy, Laurie, Tammy, Tracy, Marilyn and I.  We all did very well with Mindy and Laurie taking first place with a 39, Tammy and Tracy were second with a 40, and Marilyn and I won third place (or last place for those who think negatively) with a 45.  I shocked myself by winning the longest drive contest on Hole 4 barely beating Tammy by a few feet.  All in all it was a wonderful day with good friends and a nice luncheon afterwards.

[12.16.2006]

Planted some banana trees in our yard - should get our own bananas within a year.  However they are only .03 each at the store so I'm not too worried about staying in stock until then.  Check out the Fruit picture in the gallery - food here is very easy to get.  (A little more expensive in Costa Rica though - beers were 700 Colones, about $1.50 and lunch for both of us in a "Tipico" was $12.00, here we can both eat lunch for $6.00).  The full grown banana trees will go into shock for a little while but will soon fill out and start shooting off baby sprouts.  We would like these to be our barrier from the neighbors, we're avoiding curtains as the views are so beautiful.

[12.11.2006]
 We had to leave Panama for 72 hours to renew our Tourist Visa (permanent Visa is in the works).  So we went to Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica for 4 days. AWESOME!!!  We kayaked up a mangrove river, swam in the Dolce Gulfo (Sweet Golf), hiked up a 300 ft. waterfall and swam in the top pool underneath an 80 ft. cascade of pure Costa Rica jungle water.  We saw 4 types of wild monkeys, toucan birds, a poison dart frog, pelican nests and some very wild Rastafarians (surfers who went off the grid years ago), and some TrustFundafarians (nice work if you can get it).  We found a great piece of property - 10 acres with ocean front access, 5 houses, a closed small restaurant for $300,000. This was in a great location - halfway between the town of Puerto Jimenez and Matapalo (the rustic resort area).  We daydreamed of buying this property and making it a great "stage coach stop."  The opportunities are everywhere but we can't work there and stay online - the place is off the grid and has it's own Solar Electricity and Water collection system - awesome but Marilyn would go insane without internet.  You would have loved it - we decided to go like backpackers - taking local transportation the whole way.  For the two of us it cost $14.00 to get all the way to Puerto Jimenez.  We opted for an air conditioned room for $55.00 a night but could have found another room with AC for about $30 but there were a ton of clean Backpacker rooms for $7.00 per person. [Pictures]

[12.2.2006]
Went to the beach 2 hours from here and helped release 150 baby Olive Ridley turtles into the Pacific.  A man that runs on the beach each morning looks for signs that a turtle had laid a nest.  He then digs up the nest and buries the eggs in a protected area.  Unfortunately for the turtles their beach is also home to some homeless dogs that dig up the eggs to eat. Equally unfortunate is that eggs are believed to make men viral and so the locals will dig up a nest and sell the eggs (sometimes 100-150) for .25 each - this is a good amount of money for them.  Thus when the eggs are put in a protective environment they are safe from birds, dogs and locals.  We sat in a beach side bar afterwards - the beers were .50 but we only had a $10 bill and they had no change....Did I go thirsty you might ask...but of course not - we worked on that $10.00 bill for as long as we could stand it, bought beers for our group and everyone we could find and then finally...after many, many beer bottle floral arrangements on the table we accepted our $2.00 change and left it for the tip.  Not a bad night for the turtles or us. [Pictures]

[9.28.2006]
We drove from Panama City to Boquete, a 6 hour drive through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen.  The Pan-American Highway is the main road running through the center of Panama.  It goes from the Darien region up through Costa Rico and through to the United States.  The road stops in the Darien region as this is primary rainforest and the main roads in the jungle are the rivers.  That's okay we don't want a main road to Columbia anyway, the jungle is a nice barrier.

We were very fortunate that our good friends, Mindy and Val, were passing through Panama City on their way home from Argentina.  They offered to let us follow them back so we would not get lost.  It worked out great, they new all the places to get gas and eat and Val made sure to show us where all the potholes were.

The road is primarily well kept although there are some potholes that could swallow a Volkswagen.  It is very good until Santiago and then for about 2 hours you are dodging potholes right and left.  Then out of nowhere you come upon virgin pavement - not even striped yet - and you know they are working on it and soon it will be a pleasant drive to Panama City.

The small towns and cities we pass through are only blips on the map, hardly a gas station or a restaurant until Santiago.  We did not stop in Coronado this time but will definitely make that a destination soon.   This is a well known beach and golf resort area.  The white sand, blue water and hammocks everywhere are certainly something to look forward to.

We finally pull into Valle Escondido and are anxious to see our new home for the very first time.  The last time we were in Boquete the first shovel of dirt had barely been turned.  We were not disappointed, our home is beautiful and we are amazed at the construction details.  Visit the gallery to see the first glimpses of our home just as we saw it.

[9.18.2006]
We have arrived in Panama City.  We will be staying for 2 weeks to allow time to purchase a car and wait for our shipping container to arrive in port.