More Mind-Boggling Contrasts .

We are in Casco Viejo, a section of Panama City, Panama. At one point, years ago we lived in Panama City, Florida in the USA. I didn't even know there was such a place in our home country but then Katherine got a short term job there and we were on our way. It was a fairly small town where, I don't remember one high rise apartment/condo building in that city, there weren't any I'm sure. But there sure are here.

We said to ourselves back then that it was a sign, someday we would go to the real or other Panama City well we've made it. Here, in contrast to the Panama City in Florida there seems to be hundreds of high rise buildings that house many Panamanians. The skyline of the city across the bay from us is astounding. It rivals New York City's skyline. It is the banking center of Latin America and those bank skyscrapers add their might to the scene. 

Where we are staying, Casco Viejo, is a tourist area. Many buildings, many floors of hotels, beautiful buildings and gorgeous views of the rest of the city across the bay. Buildings date back to the early 1900s.  There are people on the streets from just about anywhere in the world you can think of. People who live here speak many languages but of course Spanish predominates. Its been a good opportunity to practice our Spanish and I can feel my memory working on bringing my fluency back from 60 years ago.

The other day we had a hired driver give us a tour of the City. First we went to Old Panama City, which turned out to be the ruins of the earliest buildings in Panama City, Circa 1600. Besides the ruins there is a great museum depicting the history of the city. We had only about 40 minutes there but could have spent most of the day.

Then back into the traffic, the number of cars on the roads at all times is mind-boggling and there are only a few stoplights here and there. Mostly drivers are courteous and give others a break to flow into the traffic but judging from the dents in many cars that doesn't always work.It's not unusual to sit in traffic without any movement for ten minutes or more. Parking is what one could call a free for all but it all seems to work.

At any rate, we made it to our second destination, the Metropolitan Park which is essentially a jungle withing the City. Beautiful trees, vines and so green. Many birds with unusual songs serenade. They tell us there are monkeys here but we didn't see any, wrong time of day. Its all surrounded by concrete and traffic. Pretty remarkable how they have accomplished this. We did do a short hike and got some great pics that I wish I could put on this blog but that's apparently not working! Maybe at a later time.

From the Parque we drove into a hilly area that gave us a distant view of the Panama Canal. Many beautiful, unusual buildings in the area including administrative offices of the Canal and other government offices. We also had brief views of the downtown skyline again.

On our way back to our temporary residence (two more days here) we drove through an entire different environment, no fancy buildings nor tourist traps, but just people living in what we might call tenement buildings, dirt roads, people look happy and engaged in life. Driver says its a Barrio and its right next to our part of town, what a contrast, mind-boggling.

Getting back to our place proved to be a difficult chore. We were sitting in traffic with no or very little movement for probably 30 minutes. Finally we got out of the car and walked home leaving the driver sitting there with no passengers. We did pay him $100 for half a day of struggling through traffic. Good thing, we could sit and watch and not do the driving.

So today we are planning on going to a nearby museum, tomorrow to one of the locks at the Panama Canal with Katherine's son who showed up from Washington DC. Then Sunday we will be on our way to Atlanta then Phoenix and by Monday, back in Green Valley where we don't have a home to return to.

 Whats Next? Stay tuned for the next chapter when we figure it out.

Stan The Man 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it  rained a little here in Panama City early this afternoon, just as I was going to write a new entry on this blog. When it rains apparently the usual thing is for the Internet to go down. There went my plans and now its our dinner hour and Katherine is cooking something delicious as usual so I am going to postpone this entry until tomorrow morning. Thanks for hanging in there.

Stan the Man  

More Mind-Boggling Changes:

Okay, we are in another location and it seems like another world. Yesterday at 11AM Miguel, who has been our driver throughout our wandering around Panama picked us up in Coronado. We were more than ready to leave the so-called Bambu Haus. The owner is from Germany so I guess that led to the Haus name. The fence around the 5 or 6 duplexes in the compound is made with Bamboo so I guess that's another explanation for the name but only saw one little baby bamboo sprout. The location was not good, too far to walk to restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies so Uber and taxis were are friends. There just wasn't much to do, television, we watched some of Breaking Bad in Spanish-kind of funny but we were just killing time.

Anyway back to 11AM yesterday, Miguel picked us up, loaded our luggage and we were on our way at break-neck speed. Just before 12:30 we were in Casco Viejo or the old town of Panama City, sitting in very slow traffic. Lots of cars, many pedestrians. Another surprise, we never expected it seems to be what appears to be one big tourist attraction. Beautiful old buildings, everything gentrified, restaurant after restaurant right next to where we are staying. Tourist guided tours with 20-30 people obstructing the sidewalks. Actually a nice change from hardly  ever seeing a person, in Coronado. People watching mecca is what it is. Every nationality, every color, and every type of dress/costume. And of course many varied behaviors.

Our Air B and B is very unique, on the bottom floor is our bedroom, a full bathroom and so much closet space, we had none in Coronado. There's also the desk where my laptop sits and where I write. One flight upstairs which is reached by climbing a scary metal spiral staircase is the kitchen, quite nice, well equipped for cooking and eating and the living room, with comfortable furniture, TV and an incredible panoramic view of the skyline of Downtown Panama City and also the bay between here and there. We like the setting, the view the people watching, restaurants. We've tried a couple already but our big outing this morning was walking to the nearest grocery store (7 or 8 blocks) to stock up with a few things. Restaurants are not cheap but groceries are about half of what they are in Green Valley.

It rained hard for about 10 minutes this morning. April is the month the rainy season starts here. Usually only quick thundershowers. Temperature 88 and humidity about 80. Takes some getting used to.

Stay tuned, we have, I believe 8 days left in Panama. 

Stan the Man 

 Mind-Boggling Post-Script on Pedasi

 

I thought I had said my say about Pedasi, but this keeps coming to mind...it really happened late one evening.  

The child's screams pierced the quiet eventide.  Unrelenting, "OW, OW,OW!".  Gut-wrenching wails of pain.  No way to see through the dense jungle-like undergrowth.  What was the source of pain that seemed on-going; a snake bite, stepping on broken glass, a jaguar attack? No lights on at the nearest dwelling, but a voice heard in the dark, the child taken in, comforted, the screams diminishing.

What appeared to us in daylight is a primitive shack-no power lines strung there, and an outside water source where we watched them brush their teeth.  It was home.  The woman strolled about feeding the chickens, tidying the dog pen, dusting off the bike seat. The man drove off in the shiny new SUV parked in the yard.  In the afternoons we heard the clack of rocks batted by a young boy practicing his baseball swing.  We  pondered the sign at their gate, Jardine de Bruja...garden of the witch?? 

 Stan the Man already described the contrast of the ex-pat enclave. What we saw and heard from our air bnb window, is this the real Panama?

Until next time,

K. 

 

A New Mind-Boggling Location 

It is true that we don't always get what we want or expect. This moving from place to place and from one Air B&B to another can fool us. All you really have to go on is the description on-line and the photos that may be representative or not. It is quite easy to take photos of the positives of a place and leave out the negatives. There are also factors that we don't take into consideration until we arrive at the new location. We did arrive in our current location in  Coronado, Panama with high hopes. The facilities are very new and pristine, 5 or 6 duplexes arranged around a beautiful pool. There's also two thatched roofed shelters that provide hammocks, grills and shade which is needed in this tropical clime. Inside the duplexes the furnishings are what could be called minimalist. There is a counter in the kitchen area at which one could sit and eat except there are no stools. We eat most of our meals standing. There is a couch which I'm sitting on right now that is comfy but there is no place to comfortably do what I'm doing....writing on the blog, doing banking etc. There's one little table about the size of my laptop and that's it. There is a table and chairs on the patio outside the back door but its in the morning sun, not a good place to be. It's 86 degrees with 86% humidity. We have started eating our dinners out there since it's somewhat cooler by 6pm. This close to the equator the days and nights are almost equal in length and no daylight savings time.

The info we read before choosing this place, by the way its called the Bambu Haus, stated it was within an easy walk to restaurants, the beach and grocery stores. So the first evening we were here we set out to walk to Picasso's restaurant and get dinner and a few groceries. I'm guessing it was a mile and a half, 85 degrees and similar humidity. Needless to say we were hot, soaked with sweat and exhausted upon our eventual arrival. After eating we went across the street to what was basically a convenience store and bought stuff for the next day. Now it was dark, the road back to Bambu Haus had no sidewalks but did have heavy traffic. It was scary, couldn't get a taxi so we took a side road, rutted dirt all the way. We did make it okay except of course tired, again dripping with sweat and ready for the bottle of wine we carried back from the store.

We also discovered that the beach and the Pacific Ocean weren't just a stroll away, a pretty good hike instead but a nice beach for walking.

It didn't take us long to discover Uber has a real presence here and that's been how we are getting around recently. There are also a number of taxis.

I don't want to bore you all so going to stop now but will be back with more about Coronado soon. Just want to point out mind-bogglings can come in positives or negatives.  

 Stan the Man

 

 

 Mind-Boggling Stuff:

Time drags at times, then it speeds up and hurries on it's way. As Katherine indicated we are not often up to date on the time, date, month or.... I was going to write year but that's not accurate, we do know the year. But where we were for a week in the little remote town of Pedasi, Panama we could have been in Honduras in 1965. That's where I was back then working as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The living conditions around our house, an Air bnb remind me of the living standards back then in Honduras. One could say they are living at the subsistence level with only those possessions that are absolutely necessary. But we can't jump to any conclusions based on that since they seem happy, are very family and neighborhood oriented and every household, it seems, has a dog or two and many homes have a rooster and a number of chickens running about. Most homes do not have air conditioning There are a few cars but not many and some streetlights. Yes, there is electricity and running water that can be consumed which was not true in 1965.

Speaking of cars, we rented one from a local place that had a few. I can't tell you what a bucket of bolts that was, non-functioning power steering, I'm sure with all the rattles it had people could hear us coming a mile before we got there. I also can't tell you what brand of car it was either, wasn't something important enough to pay attention to. Anyway, we rented this car just for exploring the nearby attractions. We visited two beaches, Pedasi sits on a range of hills just above the Pacific Ocean. The roads to the beaches are dirt and very rough. Once you get to the end of the road it abruptly ends just above the beach and there is barely enough room to turn around and no parking. There are few people on the beach unlike what a beach in the United States would look like, mobbed with people.

Our last full day at Pedasi we were invited to the home of an American couple's home. We had been wondering where the ex-pats lived. One of them was a presenter at the International Living Conference we attended in Panama City telling us how great life is in Pedasi. Well, several miles out of town we drive into a gated community that could have been a suburb of Miami. There are probably 30 homes, beautiful homes but the expats don't live in Pedasi. They live 3 miles outside the town and have their own little isolated well-to-do community. I was disappointed they weren't integrated into the community but it appears that's the way it goes in Panama.

We left Pedasi the next day and are now in Coronado, Panama. Read about it next time.

Stan the Man 

 No Clocks!!

Loving this "No Clocks" to live by or mark time...really the first place we've stayed without a clock.  Mind Boggling!  There are other time keepers at play here though. The first rooster crowed at 3:33a.m.., (I just had to sneak a peek at my phone). Okay, it's 5 a.m. somewhere... Not a glimmer of day light.  Maybe it's the night sentry crowing an "all's well."  Two or three others join in a round of "cockle-doodle-doo's, then all is quiet for awhile.  The whole mind-boggling band of roosters all join in earnest around 5 a.m. and again at sun-down.  Quite a cacophony mixed with bird calls, happy hens, and barking dogs!

It is the sounds of life here in this neighborhood.  Sure beats the racket of the city; sirens, back-firing trucks, and fast cars. We don't hear the sounds of exiting commuters either...perhaps they work from home or walk to work.  We do see many houses with open doors and windows to take advantage of the breezes instead of closed in with A/C like we are here in our air bnb. Takes a bit to adjust to 80 degrees, and 78% humidity that changes little from day to night. Beautiful blue skies greet us each morning. 

 Today we explore another playa and put our feet in the sand and cool waters of the Pacific.

Until next time,

K.