An Early Move!

Some brief instructions: When the first page loads, check the right column for the Post Archives where you can choose to see earlier posts, including back to our first trip in Sept. 2011.

So as we finished breakfast yesterday morning, Sabine came over to be sure we would be out before 11AM. We thought our reservation was through the 28th, checking out on the 29th. But no check out was yesterday. So I got online and extended our beach trip by a day, packed up and left.
On the drive down to David, we stopped at the Chiriqui Storage (perhaps the only storage type facility in western Panama and maybe all of Panama) to reserve a unit we had looked at last week. Have that secured now for storing some items we don’t want to take to the US and bring back again.
Stopped at the Rey grocery in David to stock up on some items for the few days at the beach (so we don’t have to restaurant for everything). The beach is quite remote and since there are rarely any road signs or street names anywhere, you can imagine how much information is out there in remote areas. Thankfully, the iPad cell service gives us GPS type maps and a ‘blue dot’ where we are. Biggest issue was getting out of David with all the traffic, etc.
Got to Las Olas resort early afternoon, and got settled in. The resort, located at La Barqueta, about 40 minutes south of David, is largely deserted. We’ll be gone before another weekend happens. Its a nice facility, friendly helpful staff, but a little ‘shop worn’. Needs some TLC, but what place with 47 rooms and constant traveller turnover doesn’t. They have a Convention Center, restaurant, pools, terraces, palapas on the beach, and the Pacific Ocean which averages about 82 degrees year round.
Despite, or maybe because its summer (heat) here, its pretty quiet here now. Here’s some pictues of the beach for now and I’ll add some of the resort next time.

First look at the Pacific from our room

Here’s a video link:

Up the beach…palapas in front of main building

Further west past hotel

Small fishing boat out front

Cleo tried the pool. Simply barefoot!

We took a walk up the beach this morning, as its cooler then. This is known as a ‘black sand’ beach, and the sand gets hot in mid-day. The sand is fine textured, and formed from volcanic deposits. While not ‘black’ it is a darker gray. The name of the bay this area is on is Bahia Charco Azul. My translation would be Blue Charcoal Bay, but nothing like that comes up in the translator we have. There were no rocks (or agates), and only a couple parts of shells visible when we walked. The water was great.

Surfers up the beach. Only 5 of them plus 2 from hotel, and us on the beach as far as you could see either west or east.

Here’s another video with a closer look from the beach:

Cleo had a visitor on the terrace this morning.

A closer look!

A final chuckle!! While doing this post, I checked the spelling on the Google Maps. Cleo had somehow gotten our location fixed at our old Salem address…so when I searched the map for the beach location it ran a travel map with directions (via ‘blue line’ on roads) to show the most direct route here. The summary at the bottom said:
3 days, 6 hours, 51 minutes travel time (4,470 miles)
Light traffic via I-5 South
Enjoy! And now you know how to get here…..the hard way!

EcoTourist Economy

Los Establos Plaza, where we almost daily have mochas and you have seen pictures, has a number of businesses which cater to tourists. Several others are located across and along the street, and they are a strong magnet to attract visitors from around Panama, as well as from foreign countries. There have been several German ladies staying at Isla Verde recently. The Habla Ya Spanish Language School located here has host families for students to come and live and study. This past week there were probably 20 to 25 foreign students, Scandanavian, though not exactly sure which country. About 2/3 girls and rest boys, in their late teens to early 20’s. They wore uniform sweaters with logos which suggested they were part of a cruise group. They were attending morning lanquage classes here. Habla Ya also has a similar setup in Bocas del Toro near the Costa Rican border on the Carribean north of here. They apparently also have some locations in South America as well.
Among the offerings are zip-line tree top treks, eco-tours, coffee finca (farms) tours including roasting facilities, white water rafting, kayak trips, trail hikes w/waterfalls, bird watching, quad trail rides and rentals, ocean fishing, and off shore island tours. Here’s a few pictures of some of that at the ‘plaza’.

Weekend Special – Car Show & Other Stuff!

Walked down for coffee late this morning, and while Cleo waited I went on to shop for a few groceries. As I passed the Central Park I was surprised at the larger crowd. When I got closer they were grouped around several cars. Apparently a Car Show was in progress. We had seen 3 cars in a row go by last night with Costa Rican licenses and thought it unusual, and perhaps several in a family travelling together. Most of the cars displayed were from Costa Rica. Its not like seeing a car from another state in the US. It is a very involved process and paper work system to bring vehicles across the border from Costa Rica. Rental cars are strictly not allowed, with few exceptions. The car owners were dressed in monogrammed shirts for Chiriqui (local Panama ‘state’), so that added to the confusion too. But people were enjoying the event regardless of how it came to be. Here’s some pictures:

On our Thursday trip into David we stopped at the shopping center closest to the road back to Boquete. You’ve seen the Rey grocery store there. I took Cleo to Arrocha department store (much like a Nordstrom’s but without clothes and add a pharmacy). They have most of the first floor with womens cosmetics, etc. There was a large housewares section I didn’t remember seeing during my quick pass through before Christmas. So Cleo browsed the sections to help decide what to bring with us when we come back and what we can get here and avoid the shipping hassle. We didn’t even go up to the second floor. At Christmas time it was largely kids toys and Xmas Decor.
Here’s a couple pictures of the main floor:

Some Local Photos

Here are some more pictures from our walk down into town center. They show some more of the diversity in houses in town. These do not show some of the larger luxury homes also around here. Many of those are in gated communities, and dominated by expats, and range up to several millions of dollars.

What you see here is kind of representative of general population houses in Boquete, and lived in primarily by Panamanians. However, the Americans, Canadians, and other foreigners also live in very nice homes in town. This first house is across the street from the Reception Office here at Isla Verde.

This is a 2 story wood frame home on a very large lot with well cared for landscapiing.

Here is a view further on up the street. You can see some of the first home, and another large home beyond. If you click on the photo you may see the cyclone fence topped with concertina barb wire loops. Security is a big issue everywhere. While there doesn’t seem to be a lot of crime, if you leave something out, it may not be there when you return. The first wood frame home also has a different fence with large pipes and sharp angled tops. Decorative metal grills on doors and windows and fenced properties are the norm.

Up the street from Isla.

We walk by a new (since we were here in Sept.’11) restaurant, Casona del Cuzco, a Peruvian Seafood Grill.

A Peruvian Seafood restaurant.

And right next door to it is a partially completed new house. I don’t think anything has been done to it since we were here in 2011. I did see a contractor type leaving it the other day and locking the fence. But there doesn’t seem to be any activity.

Waiting for someone to finish!

And here is one last nice smaller home along the way. Actually next door to a hostel lodging place which seems to be quite popular. The hostels here are mostly inexpensive hotels. Most have private baths, etc. And maybe shared kitchen facilities.

A very nice smaller home. Have never seen anyone there.

Border Run!!

Today was set for a ‘border run’. To explain….tourists used to get 90 day visa’s to visit the country. This was changed a few years ago to 6 months. However, in their infinite wisdom, the powers that be did NOT change the drivers license usage to match. It used to be you had to leave the country for 3 days to get a new tourist visa every 3 months. But now a visiting tourist can only drive for 3 months, while they can visit for 6 months. So if you drive you have to leave the country, which involves passing thru immigration for an official ‘stamp’ to leave the country. Enter another, usually Costa Rica as its about an hour drive. Then turn around and ‘exit that country’ to ‘re-enter Panama’. It’s still in the law for a 3 day time period but has been largely ignored. While Panama is trying to clamp down on this, correcting the law to match driving and visiting times would eliminate half of their problem. Another lady staying here at Isla Verde was arranging a trip out, and Cleo overheard her, so I was able to ‘pair up’ with her, and her taxi driver, and split some costs. The driver is quite experienced with this, and still said he had not seen the border crossing as busy as today. Bus loads coming and going to/from Costa Rica and Panama. I won’t get into details, but we found some help with a young man who is a facilitator with a friend in immigration. For some tips $$ for him and the agent, we were able to jump line and eliminate probably 4-5 hours of standing in line waiting. Didn’t take any pictures today of the process. For any interested YouTube has several videos about the Paso Canoas border crossing.

Have taken a few pictures of housing as we walk down into town. You’ll see examples of resolute poverty standing next to gorgeous homes with manicured landscapes. The comparisons can be quite stark! Don’t forget you can click the photos for a larger view to better see details.

These pictures are just on our 2-3 block walk to town center:

Two side by side wood frame homes.

These wood frame houses are painted only on the front facing the street. Corrugated roofing is typical, even in newer construction. They are tiny, patched and repaired but occupied and livable. Notice the sign on the right. It follows in the next picture.

The newer construction sits next door.

Here’s a closer view of the newer home

This home is owned by a North American, and by the sign, she paints artwork for sale, bakes, and cans food for sale. A motorized gate completes the fenced privacy of the property.

I’ll add a few more photos of other homes in the immediate area of where we are. Real estate ranges from what you see here, to multiple millions of $$’s.

Tuesday Market again!

Yesterday was Tuesday Market Day again. First one we’ve been to since the holidays. It was quite busy, partly because of a presentation scheduled regarding computer safety online. While it was primarily a sales pitch for a seminar to be presented by 2 men, it was interesting. One’s computer experience dates back to the 70’s with aviation related systems. The other, younger, is a Costa Rican computer guru and the two hooked up online as they were pursuing similar security goals. For example, the older one told of experiences with removing viruses from clients computers. And thought he may have established a new record of sorts after working on a friends computer here and removing 998 viruses from his machine. Would like to see the presentation but we will be gone by the time it happens. They claim to have developed a means to go online, and transact processes while appearing entirely invisible. They can’t hack you if they don’t know you’re there. Adding some pictures of the market again:

Sales tables in the main room.

An assortment of fresh ‘home baked’ breads.

Cleo’s looking over some hand-crafted soaps

This is another large area which is the lobby for the theatre.

The far end and right side are tables of used books. Mostly paper back issues, they are always quite popular as cheap entertainment for many.

Inside the main room, you can see out the windows to surrounding areas with more offerings.

You’ll find a wide variety of offerings, including fresh seafood…fish and shrimp (langostinos), cosmetics, health aids, jewelry, art work, clothing, foods, coffee, wine, Cuban cigars, the books, etc.

For Dana!

Milly’s Chic Boutique

Found a store sign downtown today when we were walking around. Thought ‘Millie” would like to see it! And Cleo modeled, showing she’s without crutches. About another week and the boot comes off.

Also shot pictures of a couple unusual flowers here in the gardens around Isla Verde. Have no idea what they are….have never seen anything quite like them. There’s another strange ‘candle shaped’ flower beyond in the second picture too. And a little bit of Cleo walking to our ‘home’, boot and all.

Large hollow puff ball thing-a-ma-bobs.

Fuzzy Things!

Town…the last day of the Fair of the Flowers & Coffee

Yesterday was the last day of the fair. Took a few pictures of town and the crowds yesterday afternoon. We were south of town yesterday and it was difficult to break into the steady traffic to get back into town. It was virtually bumper to bumper coming north to Boquete, and most of it was for the final day of the fair.

Two blocks from main street.

The school buses are used for commuter travel here. They stop along the hiway to pick up and let off passengers so the red flashing lights are useful warning on two lane roads. They are widely used by the population to travel from town to town, and are rarely if ever used by school children. They generally walk, use short ride taxis, or smaller commuter buses. We’ve been told a ride on the bus from Boquete to David, 40 miles away, is about $2. One of the women who work at the car rental we have used, travels from David to Boquete every day. While the office opens at 8AM, she is often 10 to 15 minutes late because of the bus stops along the way.

Anyway, you can see in the pictures many were used to bring people into Boquete and have parked on the side streets to await returning passengers. There were also a number of custom Charter Buses in town. Here are some more photos of downtown Sunday afternoon.

View of main street south toward town center

Main St. north

Another traffic view

Here’s a view of the north side of Central Park.

North side of Central Park

And the west side on the main street. Sides of streets are parked full.

West side of Central Park which is the regular bus and taxi pick up and drop locations.

View of street vendors on a pedestrian street running north from Central Park.

Anyway, the event is over for this year. And hopefully the party/dance music until 4:30AM is too!

Things you didn’t know about Panama

Our morning shopping: Pineapple, Papaya, Small Watermelon, Leek, Celery, Tomatos, Cauliflower, Onion, Carrots, Cucumber, Zuchini, Green Pepper, and Cantelope.

Here is $11.75 worth of fruit and veggies we picked up this morning.

Here is a link to a short (20  sec.) video of a rainbow off the back deck here at Isla Verde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmb4j-cXY8o

News story this week in Panama-Guide.com, an online english language 'newspaper'. Don Winner, the American reporter, editor, publisher is amazing. Having been here for years, he is in the know about everything. Even in assisting capture of a recent murderer thru his contacts.
Other tidbits follow the story below…feel free to 'scan' on if not interested in history. By the Way, Boquete is where we are staying.

4,000-year-old shaman’s stones discovered near Boquete, Panama

Monday, January 14 2013 @ 04:38 PM EST

Contributed by: Don Winner, Panama-Guide.com

 14 January, 2013

 Archaeologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete. The cache represents the earliest material evidence of shamanistic practice in lower Central America. Ruth Dickau, Leverhulme Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter in England, unearthed the cache of stones in the Casita de Piedra rock-shelter in 2007. A piece of charcoal found directly underneath the cache was radiocarbon dated to 4,800 years ago. A second fragment of charcoal in a level above the cache was dated to 4,000 years ago.

“There was no evidence of a disturbance or pit feature to suggest someone had come along, dug a hole and buried the stones at a later date,” Dickau said. “The fact that the stones were found in a tight pile suggests they were probably deposited inside a bag or basket, which subsequently decomposed.”

Based on the placement and the unusual composition of the stones in the cache, Richard Cooke, STRI staff scientist, suggested they were used by a shaman or healer. Consulting geologist Stewart Redwood determined that the cache consists of a small dacite stone fashioned into a cylindrical tool; a small flake of white, translucent quartz; a bladed quartz and jarosite aggregate; a quartz crystal aggregate; several pyrite nodules that showed evidence of use; a small, worn and abraded piece of chalcedony; a magnetic andesite flake; a large chalcedony vein stone; and a small magnetic kaolinite stone naturally eroded into an unusual shape, similar to a flower.

“A fascinating aspect of this find is that these are not ordinary stones but are rocks and crystals commonly associated with gold deposits in the Central Cordillera of Panama and Central America,” Redwood said. “However, there are no gold artifacts in the rock-shelter, and there’s no evidence that the stones were collected in the course of gold prospecting as the age of the cache pre-dates the earliest known gold artifacts from Panama by more than 2,000 years. But the collector of the stones clearly had an eye for unusual stones and crystals with a special significance whose meaning is lost to us.”

Indigenous groups who lived near this site include the Ngäbe, Buglé, Bribri, Cabécar and the now-extinct Dorasque peoples. Shamans or healers (curanderos) belonging to these and other present-day First Americans in Central and South America often include special stones among the objects they use for ritual practices. Stones containing crystal structures are linked to transformative experiences in many of their stories.

Anthony Ranere, from Temple University in Philadelphia, first identified and excavated Casita de Piedra in an archaeological survey of western Panama in the early 1970s. He found that the small rock-shelter had been repeatedly occupied over thousands of years and used for a variety of domestic activities such as food processing and cooking, stone-tool manufacture and retouch, and possibly woodworking. Dickau returned to the site to expand excavations from December 2006 to January 2007.

Dickau’s group radiocarbon dated charcoal from the base levels of the shelter and discovered it was first occupied more than 9,000 years ago, much earlier than Ranere originally proposed. Her research also showed that the people who would have benefitted from the shaman’s knowledge practiced small-scale farming of maize, manioc and arrowroot, and collected palm nuts, tree fruits and wild tubers. They also probably hunted and fished in the nearby hills and streams, but the humid soils in the shelter destroyed any evidence of animal bones. Other Preceramic peoples in Panama who lived in small, dispersed communities across the isthmus by 4,000 years ago commonly practiced these activities.

Other ‘news’:

No one wears shorts here, except a very few attractive  young women and tourists (mostly back-packer, hostel occupants). You really never see men, and rarely women in shorts or even dresses here. I’m sure Panama City is different as to dresses.

Eggs are not refrigerated in stores…they sit on shelves in their 1 dozen or larger ‘crates’. But do have expiration dates.

While the Bolivar is the official currency and equal to one US dollar, The American Dollar is the actual currency of the country. They do mint Panamanian coins, in the exact same sizes and denominations as US coins, plus a larger than our quarter size, B/1(Bolivar coin), but paper currency is all US.

Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted….not so much American Express outside hotels, large restaurants, and car rentals. Travellers checks are difficult to cash…only at banks. Generally, $100 bills are rarely accepted, and often when they are it requires ID and recording bill numbers, etc. Even $50’s can be difficult.

Many think that Panama runs off the income from the Canal. Actually when combined with other Communication and Transportation items they only contribute 25% of the economy here. Unemployment is currently at 3%, and they have created a new category of Visa to encourage workers to come here. All levels from professional occupations to manual laborers are needed. A new copper mining project is to be one of the largest in the world. A $6 billion dollar investment dwarfs the cost of the Canal expansion.
Thought you might like to know!

Mid-Week Ramblings

Putting up a few pictures from the last couple days. Here’s Cleo on our way to coffee this morning, WITHOUT her ‘sticks’. We pass by two old, small Panamanian wood frame houses. And the small bridge crosses the creek that runs behind our lodging. The flowers have been coming on recently, and were quite striking today with the sunshine. The purple Bouganvillea is one of the colors it has here. Not sure about the other varieties, but made a nice photo.

We went to ‘the Fair’ yesterday morning, hoping it would be a bit quieter crowd wise, and it was. We were able to take a stroll around the gardens, and spent some time looking thru the vendor booths. Here’s a few more pictures of the gardens.

Went into a large greenhouse which had lots of plants for sale.

Last week we tried a Mexican Restaurant nearby. Extensive menu, and was good. Interesting, I ordered a beer to have with dinner. The waitress served it right away, so I was sipping on it. Another couple came in and ordered. Shortly after the waitress came quickly back to our table, apologized and took away my beer bottle. Seems it was another Panamanian Holiday. She had forgotten and its illegal to sell alcohol on Holidays. There are very strict laws and penalties if caught. She came back in a bit with a cup filled with the remainder of my beer, explaining ‘this is coffee’. As we left I complimented her on their ‘bueno’ (good) coffee and we all laughed.

Sorry about the ‘shaky camera’ work.