Well, having arrived in Manaus in the heart of the Amazon, I’ve logged over 10,000 air and sea miles since leaving Panama! Last night we walked from the ship up to the Manaus Opera House which was all decorated for Christmas with a beautiful Christmas light show and thousands of people! Internet permitting I’ll try and load at least one picture . . .

Once in a while the Internet does actually work on board . . . slowly, but . . . the rumor is that the new cruise ships will start using a much faster system . . . they will have coops of carrier pigeons on the top deck! Maybe if the cruise industry stops trying to build new ships with amusement parks (Royal Caribbean and Carnival take note) and start focusing on important things . . . like Internet connectivity . . . they’ll start to do it themselves with state-of-the-art equipment and throw overboard the company that now provides Internet services for all cruise lines.

Anyway, I sometimes do get mail and after reading my wife’s latest email, I’ve decided that she really should write a blog . . . since she is by far the better writer, but she won’t. But I thought I’d share with you the email she wrote to me and Rebecca on ROYAL PRINCESS, and our daughter in Seattle. Lest I forget what I am missing back home in Palmira . . . [The explanatory annotations are mine.]

How’s it going? Hope you’re having a terrific time.

We’re still picking coffee, although not today because it’s “Mother’s Day” here. The place is dead quiet. But, we’re still getting around 2000 lbs [of coffee cherries] each time we pick. I’ve now managed to pay for both rounds of fertilizer which is about $500 each time. Now we’ll see if we can make enough to cover the cost of the pickers. Had 11 pickers Friday and Saturday, complete with their families (about 11 little kids playing in the coffee trees) and 7 dogs (all of whom got along with our dogs except for one tigery-looking dog that Monkey [our Rottweiler] can’t stand and they get into it. Everyone backs up while they fight it out. Eventually, the dog himself decided not to come anymore. I still have to ride hard on Alfonso [our resident Gnobe Bugle Indian] and make him pick, otherwise he just won’t do it. [He fancies himself in “management”.] Grrrrr

Yesterday I brought the coffee to Durand again. [One of three big coffee producers we sell to.] While my coffee was being unloaded, we heard an ambulance coming through town with sirens blaring. Everyone was craning their necks to see it. It got to Durand, turned in, backed up and got in line to drop the bags of coffee it was transporting.

Meow (Brad & Jackie’s cat) [Brad and Jackie lost their house in Valle Escondido during the rain and mud slides] is still living here. It’s so funny. I think the poor cat is just going to be limpy from here on in. [One of their cats was crushed and the other had a broken leg.] The cat got to a certain point with our dogs acting as physical therapists, carefully licking him all over, but his one leg is still quite floppy. It’s the funniest thing to feed Meow. He watches while I feed the dogs, then goes and sits in front of the refrigerator for his dinner. I get it out, put it on a plate and by that time the dogs are done and carefully watching for cat food. We head toward the guest bathroom where Meow camps out. I turn around to look and following me is Monkey [our Rottweiler], a gimpy cat, Spot and Baru [both Dalmatians] . . . all in a straight line. We march (or gimp as the case may be) into the bathroom. Dogs sit, cat eats. Later, I hear litter scratching. It actually isn’t the cat. It’s the dogs looking for shit to eat. I now call Monkey “litter lips”. After she’s done, she comes to me with a lot of kisses. She puts her head up and I can see a bunch of littler sticking to the bottom of her chin. I can’t stand the litter breath.

The last couple of weeks have been very warm and dry. The Christmas winds are starting up.

Tomorrow, Evangelisto [son of our resident Gnobe Bugle Indian] goes to Soloy [a town on the Gnobe Bugle “comarca”, or reservation] for his brother Domiciano’s graduation from junior high. [Domiciano lives with his grandparents.] The phone calls race back and forth. Apparently, it’s very important to Domiciano that Evangelisto come for his graduation. Then, in March, Domiciano goes to high school, but as I understand it, he lives up in the mountains so far away from the high school that they don’t know how they’re going to do it unless he lives at the school. His grandparents absolutely do not want him to go. Guess Domiciano and Alfonso [our resident Indian who considers himself “above” picking coffee] will discuss it when Domicano and his sister come for a month to Palmira for summer vacation [December through March in Panama] as soon as graduation is over.

We had water problems again. You could get only so much water and then it shut off. But if you turned the faucet/hose off for about 5 minutes, you got water again. I first discovered this after I was in the shower totally soaped down. As I stood in the shower with the soap drying, I decided that was enough and headed for the dehumidifiers. Marched through the house stark naked, collected tanks from all 3 dehumidifiers and brought them in the shower with me. Thank goodness for dehumidifiers! But after I dumped them on me I tried the water just out of curiosity. Out it came. So, I called Oscar [our fix-it plumber/electrician]. Turns out there was a problem in the new white bladder tank [which we just had replaced for $150!]. Thankfully, he fixed it for $15. Two days before, he’d been to the house to fix the continuous leak in the laundry room sink [for which we’ve only had him back three times!].. That actually turned out to be tiny, pin sized holes in the faucet where there are no joints, no leak points where they’d normally be. [Faucet purchased from Elmec in David for a horrendous price, but . . . you guessed it, made in China]. I can’t explain it but it’s weird. Oscar says we have a very weird house right now. [Thankfully green goo hasn’t started oozing out of the walls!]

Ok, that’s it for the moment. Know you don’t want to be on the Internet long. [My wife knows that nothing eats up our children’s inheritance and our grandchild’s college fund more than shipboard Internet!] More later.

Enjoy! Love, Mom/Nikki

Fireworks are an American tradition . . . right? Every July Fourth, but in many jusdictions only when shot off appropriately by pyrotechnical experts with official permission. When we lived in Newbury Park, California we would climb the hill behind our house, spread out our blanket, and surrounded by neighbors watch as the City of Thousand Oaks shot off its fireworks display while the local radio station played patriotic music. Since it was frequently dry in Ventura County in July we’d watch as the officially sanctioned fireworks set off brush fires and the County firefighters raced to put out the fires.

Nice . . . but trust me, fireworks in the USA are nothing compared to fireworks in Panama! Almost anyone can buy fireworks and shoot them off at will. So the sky lights up with regularity to celebrate weddings, birthdays, reunions and business events. Almost any holiday is an excuse for fireworks. In Valle Escondido it’s really no big deal when a spectacular fireworks show erupts to celebrate some event at the resort. And the “boom” richochets through the mountains just adding to the effect. Some dogs don’t like fireworks, but our dogs, being Panamanian dogs, have grown up with them, so they just turn their heads skyward and watch.

But the day the sky explodes with fireworks all across Panama is December 24th! For most gringos it is a very unexpected way to celebrate Christmas, but, just as a star lit up the sky to show the way to the wise men, on Christmas Eve precisely at midnight the sky explodes. Almost every Panamanian no matter how poor manages to scrape enough money together to buy at least one firework with which to celebrate the birth of Christ.

As I’m sailing up the Amazon on ROYAL PRINCESS I will be thinking of the cool, fresh Boquete Christmas Eve and the fireworks exploding all over Chiriqui!

One of the best stories I know of is about the Golden Altar of St. Joseph Church in the Casco Viejo area of Panama City. The origins of the altar go back to colonial times in the original city of Panama, the ruins of which can still be seen in the “Old City.”

The city of Portobello near present-day Colon was a major transshipment point for Central American gold to Spain. In June 1668 the English pirate Henry Morgan sailed into Portobello with nine ships and took the city by surprise, robbing, plundering, killing and burning everything in sight. News spread across the isthmus to Panama City, and the word spread, “Morgan is coming!”

And Morgan was indeed hacking his way through the jungle across the isthmus. A layman, Brother John, hatched a plan to preserve Panama’s altar of solid gold. The main parts of the altar were disassembled, and the golden columns, and altar tables were taken out into the Bay and submerged. The rest of the altar could not be moved so Brother John painted it with white wash, hoping to hide the great treasure beneath.

As Morgan entered Panama City plundering, pillaging and burning, the inhabitants fled into the jungle, but Brother John remained behind, determined to protect the church.

When Morgan arrived at the church Brother John received him courteously and gave him everything he demanded, all the churches golden chalices and crucifixes. Finally Brother John said to the pirate, “Sir, I want to show you our humble church.” When they entered the sanctuary, John reputedly said, “Sir, now we are in the presence of a great work, but you can see we’ve already fallen behind in finishing the altar. You can see we are a poor church. I have given you whatever you asked, and now you are obliged to give me a favor, is this not right?”

Impressed, Morgan asked what Brother John wished. “That you give me alms of a thousand ducats to finish the altar.”

Morgan, seeing the painted altar, assuming it was only stone and wood, laughed and handed over the money exclaiming, “This brother is more of a pirate than I am!”

The altar was spared, and moved to the new city and you can see it today in all of its golden splendor in the Casco Viejo of Panama City.

Since I recently wrote about living on a volcano - Volcan Baru which dominates our landscape in Boquete – I thought you might appreciate a few pictures of Pompeii and Herculaneum from my cruises.

Sunrise in Naples Harbor with Mt. Vesuvius looming over the city.

The greater Naples area lives under the threat of a future eruption of Vesuvius. According to experts, “The population density in some areas of high risk is 20,000 to 30,000 per square km. About 3 million people could be seriously affected by future eruptions.

In the first 15 minutes of a medium- to large-scale eruption an area with a 4 mile (7 km) radius of the volcano could be destroyed. About 1 million people live and work in this area. with over 1 million people coexisting with a live volcano. Like Volcan Baru, Vesuvius is a stratovolcano.” The thumbnail to the right is an Italian Air Force photo of the eruptions.

Herculaneum was buried under 75 feet (23 m) of ash deposited by a pyroclastic flow (volcanic fragments, crystals, ash, pumice, and glass shards) moving at speeds of 50 to 100 miles an hour. Herculaneum was a seaside resort town.

Pompeii was a commercial town. When Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. Pliny the Younger witnessed the event from 18 miles west of the volcano and later recorded the event describing earthquakes before the eruption, the event itself, and the after effects including the tsunami that followed. The term “plinian” is now used to describe volcanic eruptions that generate high-altitude eruption columns and blanket large areas with ash. It is estimated that at times during the eruption the column of ash was 20 miles (32 km) tall and almost a cubic mile of ash fell in less than a day.

Archaeologists were able to identify empty spaces in the ash while excavating Pompeii. By injected these spaces with plaster they were able to produce plaster castes of citizens of Pompeii as they died, mostly from volcanic gases.

If you check out my Book List you’ll find the name of the book you should read if you are interested in the Vesuvius eruption. This computer generated graphic gives an idea of what that day was like in Pompeii.

In the National Museum in Naples is the “Secret Room” – well, not so secret as thousands of cruise ship passengers cue up for a look inside. It is called the “Secret Room” because as many of the erotic treasures of Pompeii were excavated they were considered too risque for proper citizens to view and reserved for the titillation of museum curators. Even today children under 14 are not admitted without parental permission. It gets pretty explicit.

Here is a giant 3′ erection – an early street billboard pointing the way to a house of ill repute.

Like Mc Donald’s the brothel in Pompeii had a picture menu, so you could just indicate your preference by pointing to the menu.

Having just visited Naples and seen Mt. Vesuvius across the harbor while our guests visited Herculaneum and Pompeii, I’ve been thinking a lot about home in Boquete and the fact that we live on a volcano.

Volcan Baru is the dominant landscape feature of Boquete and at 11,398 feet is the highest point in Panama. It is a stratovolcano, a tall, conical volcano characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions. Mt. St. Helen’s is also a stratovolcano. Baru “blew it’s top” in much the same way as Mt. St. Helen’s although most certainly it was a more cataclysmic and devastating event, probably happening around 1550 AD. If you click on the thumbnail to the left you can see just how much of the mountain blew away in 1550.

In 1550 Nostradamus was looking toward the future, the Jesuits were getting started and the first book on French grammar was being published. In the mountains of Chiriqui life was good for the indigenous people who lived in their own paradise. Then the mountain blew its top and wiped out the entire civilization that surrounded it.

Baru has erupted four times during the past 1,600 years, and several additional eruptions occurred in the prior 10,000 years, yet it is still considered a “young” volcano and an “active” volcano. And, yes, it could erupt again, just like half of California could be shifted off to be a separate island or an errant asteroid could wipe out Chicago. Forecasting volcanic eruptions is still pretty much a “crap shoot”, but a group of vulcanologist’s have developed a computer model called Eruption Pro 10.7 [sounds more like a condom brand for big boys]. Anyway, the “Eruption Pros” predict a less than 50% probability of Baru erupting in 2035. I’ll be 93, but I will have a great view from my bedroom window.

For the moment I’ll worry more about a terrorist “dirty bomb” or biological attack in a major world city, or Amsterdam and Venice being under water due to global warming.

The reason Baru, or any of the other volcanoes in Central America, may erupt has to do with the unique position of Panama viz a viz the four tectonic plates that more-or-less come together in the Pacific just off Panama. As these plates rub against each other they produce (just like people!) a lot of heat and friction and that results in magma lava which sometimes has to go somewhere. My daughter, the scientist, would cringe at that explanation, but . . .

So . . . do I look out the window of the bedroom in my new house in Palmira and watch at night for spectacular volcanic eruptions? Don’t hold your breath. But the US Geological Survey has gone so far as to issue a new “Eruptive History and Volcanic Hazards Assessment” for Volcan Baru.

So, here’s the real question, with ash, and gas . . . and that’s what did in many of the folks at Pompeii and Herculaneum . . . and lava flowing . . . where’s my house? Here’s a predictive assessment from USGS. The wind blows the poison gas over to the other side of the mountain: look out Volcan! The black lines show lava flow routes, and the red shows concentrations of lava build up.

Forbes has had some interesting articles on retiring abroad, and Panama is still one of the top ten destinations. As we’ve discovered recently there is no place in the world that is totally immune to nature’s occassional rampages, but Panama is still “paradise” for many of us.

Panama has almost everything: year-round sun, low taxes, massive discounts for seniors, first-world amenities, quality private hospitals, bird-filled rainforests, a dollar economy and easy flights from the U.S. Panama City is considered safest of all Central American cities, with worldly buzz because of the canal, and a World Heritage Site.

Downside: pockets of corruption.

Here’s the article from Forbes by Richard C. Morais . . .

The 10 Best Retirement Havens

Forbes cannot promise retirees “paradise on $30 a day.” Quite the opposite. We promise seniors wishing to move out of the U.S. that they will not find paradise anywhere. Each country is unique–with assets and liabilities–and the key to successful retirement as an ex-pat is carefully matching your own personal priorities and finances to the country that has caught your eye.

To help matters along, Forbes has compiled its own list of the 10 best retirement havens, based on a wide variety of criteria ranging from safety to retiree-friendly visa requirements to decent medical care. The countries on our hit list: Austria, Thailand, Italy, Panama, Ireland, Australia, France, Malaysia, Spain and Canada.

No place is perfect. Some countries rank high in one area but lower in others. Australia is by one well-regarded rating, the Country Brand Index, the most livable place in the world. (For the Country Brand and other rankings, see “Retire At Home Or Abroad?”) But if you plan to return to the U.S. frequently, Australia makes for a long slog. Canada is No. 2 in the Country Brand ratings and certainly convenient for Americans, but its harsh winters are well-known. Italy scores high on quality of life, medical care, and even cost of living and climate for retirees residing in the Southern parts of the country. But its complicated taxes and bureaucracy require patience.

So, the key to any decision: Know yourself and do your homework.

If you’re a sun-worshiper determined to protect your assets from overreaching Western governments, consider countries like Panama or Malaysia.

If you are solidly middle-class with a taste for high culture, then there are pleasant surprises to be found in Europe. Who would have known, for example, that France is so friendly to American retirees? Or consider Ireland. Its top personal income tax rate is 43%. That’s not terribly appealing on the surface, but a couple over 65 is entirely exempt from Irish tax on any income below $59,000.

Are you eager to live abroad but totally tone-deaf to foreign languages? That’s a fine argument for Australia, Ireland or Canada. The key to lowering costs and receiving first-rate medical and other services in foreign countries is the ability to “work the system,” and to do that, you have to speak the local language passably well. Sheila Trifari, an American who had cancer while retired in Paris, says she received excellent medical care precisely because she was fluent in French and could work her way through the local medical establishment.

On the other hand, going totally native can bring on unexpected and powerful bouts of homesickness. Kathleen de Carbuccia, president of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, recommends that prospective retirees seek out cities, towns or villages where there is an existing American or English-speaking ex-pat community. Fellow ex-pats will be of great help during those inevitable moments when cultures clash, and they’ll perhaps help you see the humor in the situation.

Decent and affordable medical care is a key issue for retirees, of course. Most nations, when a retiree applies for a visa at their consulates, require proof of income, such as private or public pension payments and bank account statements, as well as proof of private medical insurance. They don’t want seniors who haven’t paid into their health care systems to become a burden on the locals who have been paying into the system all their lives.

But listen to Donald Johnson, an 80-year-old American retiree in Paris, when he says, “the largest advantage we have is our health care [in France.] We are not sure we could afford to return to the U.S., where health care costs are completely out of control.” In short, factor the costs of medical care into your overall analysis, because in many cases even the costlier E.U. countries become attractive when the quality and cost of medical care is included in a retiree’s projected budget.

Look for the unexpected snafu in your plans: Most American retirees abroad receive their income in U.S. dollars; their expenses are in a foreign currency. Managing this currency risk is one of the most difficult elements of living abroad, and it is likely to be a growing issue, as we enter a period of prolonged dollar weakness.

So, be wise. If you calculate you’ll have to live month-to-month on your pension and Social Security payments while in a European city, then consider village life, or one of our lower-cost alternatives, like Thailand, where you’ll have enough income to maintain a cash reserve and a fine quality of life. No one, after all, wants to be forced home when the dollar drops 25%, as it can sometimes do in a period of just a couple of years.

But there is a means, on our list, to eliminate even the currency risk, if that is your priority. Exotic Panama, that sunny nation in Central America, gateway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, has adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency. Move there and your assets and liabilities are matched.

So, retire abroad, by all means, for it can be richly rewarding. But do so with eyes wide open.

There is a myth that Boquete has gotten “too expensive” which needs to be debunked. Yes, prices have gone up. Panama uses the US dollar as its currency and imports a lot of items, so as the US dollar has devalued prices have gone up. Like everyone else in the world, Panama is dependant on oil. As the price of oil has risen so has the cost of fuel, essential in an agricultural area like Chiriqui. Since Boquete has been “discovered” as the paradise that it is, land prices have gone up as well.

Expats like us have moved in and build foolishly large houses: who needs 4,500 sq ft for two people? OK, like a lot of people we got carried away building our dream home. But for a lot of perhaps more sensible folks, 4,500 sq feet of house to maintain and 4.5 acres of land to cultivate isn’t their dream of a relaxing retirement! There are nice, North American-style homes available on the market in Boquete ranging in price from $250,000 to several million dollars. But what if you can’t afford that? What if you don’t need, or that?

Take the house we’ve almost finished renovating for my brother. It was a simple house we originally built for our farm worker – block, tin roof, Panamanian-style windows [no glass, decorative concrete block]. We needed to have my brother close at hand to deal with some of his physical challenges, so we renovated it. He has a really cute house, about 1,100 square feet, very nicely done . . . and almost finished. We have some final painting touch up to do inside and out, but he has two bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen with dining nook, walk-in closet, bathroom with washer and dryer. He has a nice yard . . . and our total cost $32,000.

Here’s how that breaks down:

If we had to buy 1000 sq meter lot at today’s price of $15/meter in Palmira $15,000
Original cost of the worker casita $8,000
Cost to renovate to “gringo” standard (i.e., hot water, washer, dryer, microwave, stove, refrigerator, nice windows, grills, metal doors, new electric, tile floor, hung ceiling) $9,000

$32,000 for a really cut little house in Palmira . . . 10 minutes from “downtown” Boquete.

You can buy a nice, small, buildable lot in the outskirts of Boquete for anywhere from $15 to $25 a square meter, if you look around. Many of these small, buildable parcels already have community water supply, electric, and public road access. [Buying a lot without electricity can cost you a small fortune to get connected!]

One expat gal in our community, facing a major change of life after divorce, and with virtually no money, you’ll meet a gal who created a whimsical “hobbit” home out of a dilapidated old worker’s shack. With a lot of creativity, and virtually no money, she created a unique, interesting, a fun little house!

Two other gals bought an old run-down Panamanian house beside the river, invested about $25,000 and have a cute little house . . . unfortunately it is right next to the river, which may not be such a good idea.

Another guy took two 40 foot shipping containers and made a unique dwelling. 40 foot containers run around $3,000 each delivered.

Today I received this . . . I’m not necessarily trying to sell this guy’s house . . . but just to show you what $59,000 will buy if you get a little outside Boquete proper . . .

Now I know it’s hard to read since I just had to work with what the guy posted. But you can click on the above images for a little better view . . . or email these guys at ctgage@shaw.ca or call them (in Canada) 250-423-3582. They can give you all the details.

The gal who cuts my hair has a nice home in Alto Boquete for sale for under $50K. These homes are around, you just have to look for them. That means coming to Panama, spending some time, if you don’t speak Spanish finding a local who can help you, and searching. Understand a real estate agent would naturally rather work with people who are buying $400,000 homes since they work on commission, but, if you said to someone . . . this is what I want. Find it and I’ll pay you $5,000 or $8,000 . . . they’d find it . . . and if they wouldn’t a dozen other people would.

I am thinking about all my family and  friends in the States who are celebrating the US Thanksgiving today . . . while I am celebrating a day of thanks-living slurping up pasta with my daughter Rebecca in Rome.   We have a few days to enjoy Rome before boarding the ROYAL PRINCESS the day after tomorrow.  Becky has travelled all over and done exotic adventures like identifying whale sharks in Western Australia, counting male elephants in Tanzania, and trail building around Lake Baikal in Siberia, but somehow she had never managed to get to Rome.  So it is fun to show her around, and fun to be here off-season when you don’t have to wait in a Disney-type 3 hour line to see things.  But from me, from Panama, it was a challenge to find close to wear in Italy in November/December!

Anyway, the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc., will have to wait until we get on the ship.  But I am thankful . . . for my life, this time to be with my daughter, my wife, my daughter Noelle and her husband George and our grandson Rian, my friends and special “sons” in Ventura, the Dean brothers, my life and friends in Palmira, and the ability to see the world on beautiful ships.   It’s a good life and I’m grateful.

I’ve always thought Thanksgiving in the US should be more about giving thanks to God, and less about football and food.  I resent people calling it “Turkey Day” . . . can you imagine shutting down a nation to do homage to a bird, and a turkey at that?  I know Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird . . . thankfully, we as a people dodged that bullet.   But since there is a lot of navel gazing and focus on eating and . . . damn it . . . that bird, I thought I’d pass on some things  my sister-in-law, Dorita, sent me.  This is one of those Internet forwards, so I have no idea what the copyright issues are . . . and if it’s yours, and you have a problem, let me know and I will shoot it.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US, belatedly to those of you in Canada, and to the rest of the world as well.

A few years ago a couple of expats got together and began to dream about developing an amateur theater group in Boquete. Their initial efforts were produced in inadequate, temporary space, where if it rained you couldn’t hear the play, and if it rained too much everyone needed to evacuate. They persevered and the group grew and interest grew . . . and through the years Boquete has started to become a kind of mountain mecca for the arts and artists. Additional productions and theater troupes evolved, and several community-wide concerts and art shows have demonstrated an amazing variety of both native Panamanian and expat talent. And the initial group, by now known as Boquete Community Players, or BCP began to dream of a permanent home for the arts in Boquete. They looked at defunct bars and dance halls and even an old slaughter-house . . . and four-and-a-half months ago they managed to convince a theater supporter to lease them an old bar named “Snoopy’s” that was abandoned and trashed. People pulled together, worked amazingly long hours, contributed and amazingly . . . in less than 5 months IN PANAMA! . . . created a center for theater and arts in Boquete including a 150-seat theater, expansive lobby overlooking the river and the mountains, and a meeting room for smaller events and community functions.

Yesterday was the grand opening of the BCP Theater and Event Center designed to serve the entire Boquete community. I know I promised to only post on even days, but this is NEWS and can’t wait! The BCP Center is open!

Sunday there were two grand opening performances that were sold out. The show featured a master of ceremonies who read extensively in English and Spanish from 3×5 cards, backed up by a talented mix of expat and Panamanian performers. But it really wasn’t about the show as much as it was about the realization of a dream of art and community center for Boquete.

The center can be rented for private events and meetings and is available to the community for concerts and events.

When you look at these pictures . . . you need to know that less than 5 months ago this place was trashed . . . and now . . . WOW! It’s not exactly OASIS OF THE SEAS or a Princess or Holland America stage, although hogging-spotlight-time is familiar, but for Boquete in the mountains of Chiriqui, this is big time!

Remember 52 pickup . . . throwing all the cards into the air in utter frustration?

Well, that’s a little what life feels like in Boquete! 4 days until I fly away from it all . . . to work on ROYAL PRINCESS for 4 months. I can’t wait to go to “work” on the ship so I can get a vacation!!

In my dreams I fly off into the sunrise with everything I planned to do finished, leaving things all in order, my work for the cruise all done . . . everything scheduled out. Well the cruise part is done, so all of you who are joining me on ROYAL PRINCESS shouldn’t worry . . . but everything in Palmira and Boquete . . . sheer chaos! Unfortunately “shit happens” and it usually all happens just before I leave on a trip.

So, right now, the thought of my own stateroom where I can hide out and put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign, get room service or eat whenever and whatever I want, have someone to clean my clothes and make up my room . . . and sail to exciting destinations . . . well, that sounds like heaven! Unfortunately, as usual, I leave my wife to clean up the mess.

My daughter, Rebecca, will be meeting me in Rome for a few days, and then joining me on the ship for a month. She’ll get to spend Christmas and New Year’s with me on the ship, which is always fun. She gets off in January and my wife joins me in Fort Lauderdale for a month. Then two months, which will go quickly, and I’ll be back home to continue the chaos of retirement. What ever happened to sitting back, sipping wine and reading??

So here’s where we’ll be going over the next month or so, and some of the stuff I’ll be talking about . . .
the actual talk titles are different. I put on my REALTORS hat to create fluffy titles . . . remember “handyman special” [It's ready for demolition], “partial ocean view” [If you climb to the roof, hang onto the chimney and lean out far enough you may catch a glimpse of blue between the buildings], “quaint and charming” [last decorated in 1949 even before shag carpeting]. Anyhow, here’s the itinerary . . .

Itinerary Royal Princess – Tri-Continent [1921A]
1 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy -8PM Special: “Pizza, Guns & Roses” – Sailaway commentary Depart 6:00PM
2 Naples/Capri, Italy Arrive 7:00AM Depart 6:00PM
3 Palermo, Italy – Taped: Port Talk: “Tunisia” Arrive 8:00AM Depart 5:00PM
4 Tunis (La Goulette), Tunisia Arrive 8:00AM Depart 5:00PM
5 At Sea – Lecture: “Age of Discovery”
6 At Sea – Port Talk: Casablanca”
7 Casablanca (Marrakech), Morocco Arrive 7:00AM Depart 8:00PM
8 At Sea – Lecture:: “Rum & Sugar: The ‘Oil’ of The 17th Century”
9 At Sea – Lecture: “Slavery & The Triangle Trade”
10 At Sea – Port Talk: “Adventure In Dakar”
11 Dakar, Senegal – Sailaway Commentary Arrive 8:00AM Depart 6:00PM
12 At Sea – Port Talk ”Cape Verde”
13 Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands Arrive 8:00AM Depart 5:00PM
14 At Sea – Lecture: “History of Piracy”
15 At Sea – Lecture: “Our Vanishing Rain Forest”
16 At Sea – Lecture: “Amazon River Adventure”
17 At Sea – Port Talk: “ Santarem”
18 At Sea – Port Talk – Manaus”
19 Santarem, Brazil Arrive 9:00AM Depart 6:00PM
20 Boca da Valeria (Amazon River), Brazil –Scenic Cruising Amazon Arrive 7:00AM Depart 2:00PM
21 Manaus, Brazil – Sail in Commentary Arrive 10:00AM
22 Manaus, Brazil
23 Manaus, Brazil – Taped: “Let The Adventure Begin” combined with Port Talk Parintins [Designed for those joining the cruise at this point] Depart 6:00PM
24 Parintins, Brazil – Lecture: “Amazon River Adventure” – Sail In Commentary Arrive 12:00PM
25 Parintins, Brazil Depart 7:00AM
25 Boca da Valeria (Amazon River), Brazil – Port Talk: “Santarem” Arrive 10:30AM Depart 6:00PM
26 Santarem, Brazil Arrive 7:00AM Depart 5:00PM
27 At Sea – Lecture: “Our Vanishing Rainforest”
28 At Sea – Port Talk: “Escape from Devil’s Island” AND Lecture: “Coffee in The Americas”
29 Devil’s Island, French Guiana (Isle Royale) – Sailaway Commentary Arrive 8:00AM Depart 2:00PM
30 At Sea – Port Talk: “France in The Caribbean” AND Port Talk: “England in The Caribbean”
31 Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago Arrive 8:00AM Depart 4:00PM
32 St. Lucia – Sailaway Commentary Arrive 7:00AM Depart 4:00PM
33 St. Barthelemy –Sailaway Commentary Arrive 8:00AM Depart 4:00PM
34 At Sea – Coffee Chat
35 At Sea –
36 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Arrive 7:00AM

Sound like fun? Come and join me on ROYAL PRINCESS! After Fort Lauderdale we’ll be doing 14 day trips up the Amazon between Fort Lauderdale and Manaus.

Some things take some getting used to in Panama.

We are in the rainforest where there are more insect species than anyplace else on the planet.  So, yes, we have bugs.  We spray inside the house, but our doors are usually open and bugs come inside . . . all kinds of bugs.  Back in California my wife would have hit the ceiling if she saw a 2″ beetle crawling across the room.  Now, she takes a look, and calls me only if it is interesting and one we haven’t seen before.  Spiders . . . we have all kinds, everywhere.  I took these pictures on Halloween morning, thinking of all the folks back in Ventura who were going to great lengths to decorate their homes with spider webs.  I not only have spider webs, but I have webs that are fleeting works of art!

We also have tiny little coffee flies.  And they bite!  But the good news is after you’ve been here a while, or live on a coffee farm, they don’t bother you.  They just like fresh meat!  But when I come home from months at sea . . . I’m fresh meat.  The key is not to scratch.  Don’t scratch, ignore the bite, and in a day it’s gone.  Scratch and it becomes infected and lasts forever. 

So I can deal with all that.  What I can’t deal with is the propensity for these damn little flies to go swimming in my Chardonnay.  Between one sip and the next, I’ve got an unwanted protein additive.  Nikki has taken to covering her wine glass with a paper napkin, but that offends my sensibilities.  A glass of Chardonnay is not meant to be served with a napkin on top! 

There are other things that take getting used to . . .

Last night there was a big community party in Palmira.  It started at 8PM and went until 4AM and sleeping was like sleeping on a long haul flight.  Wake up, doze off, wake up, doze off all night.  The dogs, being Panamanian dogs, slept through it all, but I didn’t.  And since it is coffee harvest we have a lot of Gnobe Bugle Indians visiting from the Comarca as itinerant pickers.  So, naturally, with the Seco flowing, we end up with a lot of drunk people in Palmira.  Thankfully these all night parties are not a regular occurence!  So the neighbor who is supposed to be working on store room only, and I can only get him on Sundays, only worked half a day since he was up until 3AM tending bar.  And my really good Indian worker, who’s a 27-year-0ld, and usually doesn’t mess around, partied.  And as usual at these things when everyone is drunk a disagreement arises over a girl.  Turned out another Indian was hitting on my kid’s girl, so being a gentleman, and a Gnobe Bugle, a big fight broke out.  He didn’t work today, nursing a few cuts and a black eye, to say nothing of a royal hangover.  He passes it off to “Indians being Indians” . . . and he got the girl, so I guess all is good . . . except I didn’t get any work.

Saturday I went to Global Bank, where we already have an account, to open a new account in my name and in my brother’s name.  Now I know Obama and the rest like to point fingers at Panama as being a “tax haven” . . . which it isn’t . . . and a place for laundering money . . . which, in some cases it probably is.  So the US has a hard on about Panama while ignoring the real corporate tax haven . . . Delaware. The US would like to stick its nose in the financial affairs of this sovereign nation and is royally pissed that Panama is saying, “No!”   I’d like to see Obama come down to Panama and just try to open a bank account!  He’d need letters of reference from locals, and probably his lawyer, as well as letters of reference from his previous banks, copies of all the pages of his passport, detailed personal information and they’d probably want to hold Michelle as collateral while they first input everything into the computer, then, not trusting computers, do the same stuff all by hand, and then send the entire file to Panama City where it is carefully reviewed for at least a week before an account can be opened.  So it was . . . 1.5 hours sitting there in Global Bank while the gal tediously did all this stuff, took a few personal calls on her cell phone, and intermittently ignored us to service other customers.  She went to the bathroom once . . . I was surprised she didn’t have to call Panama City to get permission since everything else needs to go to Panama City and writing and via computer! Computers in Panama haven’t made things more efficient, they’ve just added another layer of work and created a whole lot more jobs. And this is a bank that claims to cater to expats! What every happened to bank managers who throw themselves at your feet and . . . “Would you like an electric blanket . . . and a toaster? How about a blender?” Left that back in the States!

Some days I do better at this than others.

* * * *

Thankfully Jackie decided that he needed a day off yesterday, so we didn’t work on salvaging what there is to salvage.  A day of rest, and a day to work on my world cruise lectures for Cannes and Barcelona.  Nice way to escape the mud!  And a chance to dry out my boots!

Through this arch was one of the finest kitchens in Boquete . . . now moved 50 feet and accordianed under a mountain of mud.

Of course the trucks and backhoes aren’t allowed into Valle Escondido until 9AM.  This does not constitute enough of an emergency or disaster in the eyes of Taliaferro’s Valle Escondido Resort to risk disturbing a hotel guest who might want to sleep in until 9AM, if there are any guests.

Here’s what is left of the built in Viking refrigerator and freezer . . .

I had decided to continue digging in the mud . . . but to move on with blog subjects, until yesterday . . .

One can seriously question why Valle Escondido and it’s developer, Sam Taliaferro, carved lots out of the side of a mountain in a rain forest and sold them to expats who saw only the promised “paradise” and not the prospects of disaster. [Most of the lots in Valle Escondido are fine, but there are a few that are certainly "questionable"] One can question why Boquete town officials approved building on these lots and issued building permits given the fact that the Junta Technica, the “supreme” building and engineering department of the province of Chiriqui, had already expressed disapproval. One can question the wisdom of the folks who bought and built on these lots even after locals had expressed reservations. There can be . . . and probably will be . . . no end to these discussions . . . and probably a lot of business for lawyers and judges.

If Panama’s new President Ricardo Martinelli is serious about attracting foreign investors and enabling expats to invest in Panama with confidence, and creating a transparent government that cannot be bought, he will immediately lauch an investigation. If the Ambassadors of the United States and Taiwan are concerned about the welfare or their citizens who are investing in projects in Panama, they will put pressure on the Panamanian government to investigate.

Most of the properties in Valle Escondido are fine . . . and Valle Escondido continues to be a wonderful place to live, but in order to keep it that way there needs to be an investigation and thorough understanding of what went wrong.

Valle Escondido at one time was a coffee finca owned by Sitton, then it was purchased by Sam Taliaferro. Who is Sam Taliaferro? If you go to one of his Web sites . . . www.valleescondido.biz  . . . you will see that he fancies himself to be a modern John Galt. Galt was the hero of Ayn Rand’s mega-novel ATLAS SHRUGGED.

Hi, my name is John Galt. If you have found this website you are probably not looking for an ordinary residential community, you are seeking something more. If you will spend the next ten minutes reading this first page, it may well be the start of something that will change the course of your life forever. It could be that what you will learn right here on this page will intrigue you to look deeper into my story, and if you do, you may end up taking a path that thousands of other have already taken . . .

Now I can come out of the closet and share my story without sounding like a madman and offer you an opportunity to share in my vision and foresight to create a safe haven in a very stormy sea. Take a look at our special community and see the incredible opportunity of lots, new homes, condominiums and resale properties. Find out why over 130 families have already made the decision to move to Valle Escondido and why you should too. And if you want to come for a few days or a month and just visit we have special rates in our resort to accommodate you. If you want to rent a home or apartment for a time to be sure that this is the right place for you, we have them available too . . . Sam Taliaferro AKA John Galt

Many of the folks who bought from Sam and actually live in Valle Escondido jokingly refer to him as “King Sam” not “John Galt”, which may be because of his château at the end of the Valley with its high Louis  XIV Versailles-type fence. [Fences like that are not permitted in Valle Escondido . . . except for Sam.]

So who is this modern-day “John Galt.” Again, in Sam’s own words . . .

An inventor by profession Sam has developed and patented numerous technologies used by fortune 100 companies throughout the world. He has built a number of manufacturing operations to build these technologies, the last one in Costa Rica in 1995.

In 2000 he had an idea to create Valle Escondido, a residential resort community in the mountain highlands of Panama that would appeal to those looking for an exotic yet first world lifestyle. The small village where the project is located has become known throughout the world as a retirement/tourist hot spot due to his marketing efforts and the success of the development. It was rated the number one foreign retirement destination in the western hemisphere by the AARP in 2002 and one of the top five best lifestyle values in the world by Fortune Magazine in 2005. The success of the project lit the fuse that started the real estate boom (and bust) in Panama.

In 2005 Sam began writing the Panama Investor Blog which focuses on the country from an investors prospective and reaches people interested in Panama from all over the world. Current subscription is about 7000.

Sam and his wife Thalia also operate the Valle Escondido resort Golf & Spa located in the center of the residential project. The resort employs about 80 full time Panamanians and is one of the areas largest employers.

Sam writes an excellent blog which I enjoy and is a superb marketing genius who more than anyone else “put Boquete on the map” and to a large extent put Panama on the map as a retirement destination. There are many developments in various stages of development . . . a lot of which are still developer’s dreams on pretty architectural drawings that may, or may not actually come to fruition. Valle Escondido was the first development of its kind and it is a reality and not a pipe dream, which is one of the reasons to buy in Valle Escondido. And, yes, I still have a beautiful house for sale, in a safe spot, overlooking the Valley and the golf course. I’ve pulled it off the market, temporarily, because it is now being used as a storage place for furniture salvaged from the collapsed home of our friends Brad & Jackie.

So you have two things going on in Valle Escondido . . . or “The Valley”. You have private, custom homes ranging in price from $365,000 to several million dollars. You have two types of “Villas” . . . a fancy name for duplexes, and condominiums. All of these homeowners are part of the homeowner association to which dues are paid (Ours are about $1000 per year) and the homeowner’s provide security, road maintenance, trash removal, and maintenance of common areas.

You also have the Valle Escondido Resort  which includes a small hotel, and Quebrada Grande Country Club which includes a 9-hole executive golf course, swimming pool, gym and spa, and both of these operations are owned by the Taliaferros.

. . . Just so you get the total picture . . . Now we cut to the devastation at Brad & Jackie’s home . . .  built on one of these Valle Escondido lots carved out of the mountainside in a tropical rain forest.

As you might imagine retros, or backhoes have been at a premium with all the mud slides in Valle Escondido and elsewhere.  Jackie finally found a contractor who had sufficient trucks available to begin digging out and hauling away mud and debris and arranged for the backhoe to start work yesterday morning at 7AM.

By 7:45AM there was still no backhoe . . . and Jackie got a call from the backhoe which was outside the gate at Valle Escondido where the guards were refusing to let it in.

The homeowners have a permanent right to pass through the Valle Escondido Resort and the road access and guard service is jointly maintained by the homeowner’s and Valle Escondido Resort, with another of Sam’s many companies providing the guard service.

Jackie when down to the gate to unscramble the mess . . . here we are sitting with tons of debris to be removed and the guards won’t let the backhoe through! . . . and he is told that the backhoe cannot come in until 9AM because it would disturb guests at the hotel!  Here we are in a disaster area, and the backhoe cannot get in because it will disturb guests at the hotel . . .

Frankly, whether there were guests in the hotel or not, is hardly the point!  Surely if there were guests they would understand that Valle Escondido was a disaster area since all they had to do was look outside their door.

So, after getting nowhere with the guards [and these folks all live in fear of being fired if they deviate one iota from what "Sam says"] Jackie went at 8AM to one of the Valle Escondido Resort managers, Analia, and patiently explained that he had lost his entire house, and this was a disaster area, and if there were no guests in the hotel, and it was all of 4 minutes to drive a backhoe past the hotel to the other end of the Valley, why couldn’t he bring in a retro at 8AM.  Analia promised to check with Thalia.

Bottom line . . . no go . . . the retro sat there and wait at the gate for two hours!  In my humble opinion this was both incredibly stupid and callous .  Am I wrong?  For all his marketing genius, Sam sometimes shoots himself in the foot when it comes to public relations.  So memorable it has now become a Valley legend is the time the Valle Escondido Resort insisted on charging mourners $2 a head to attend a funeral service being held in the little chapel at Valle Escondido. [It has never been clarified if the corpse was charged $2 to enter.]  These kinds of things are quickly blamed on the guards for not using their heads, but . . . then again, the guards know they could be fired for thinking something is incredibly stupid and callous, thinking for themselves, realizing the Valley is a disaster zone, and making an exception.

Update as of 8:10AM November 14th . . .

Since the retro was left on the property . . . where in the back yard the mud is still 4 feet deep! . . . it can fire up, but they aren’t letting the trucks in until 9AM lest the non-existent “hotel guests” be disturbed!  And they’ve had 24-hours to get a clue!  Nice neighbors!  And what really pisses me off about this is that when Sam and Thalia were building their hotel, rushing to get it finished before the holidays, in the Valley right beneath my bedroom window, they had workers yelling, backhoes, screaming tile saws, cement mixers and trucks working 7 days a week starting at 7AM!  Of course that was Sam’s project.

It was a little over a week ago that two low pressure systems stalled on either side of the western end of Panama, looking on radar like two giant boobs. These two low pressure systems dumped a ton of rain on Chiriqui and Bocas del Torro, areas where the soil was already saturated by the heaviest part of the rainy season. The result was havoc, and disaster for some, while others continued celebrating the Panamanian independence holidays. Those two boobs of weather would merge in the Caribbean and become Hurricane Ida, which would eventually dump even more water on Nicaragua and El Salvador leaving, at this writing, some 20,000 homeless, 120 dead, and 500 missing. So we should be thankful that the damage was not worse in Panama.

Two of our dear friends lost their dream home, and I have spent much of the past week ankle deep, and once almost waist deep (and needing to be pulled out) in mud and debris. And throughout the week I have had some random thoughts and impressions . . .

I’m not as young as I used to be!

I had plans to get on the elliptical machine and start walking and lose 5 pounds before I left on the ROYAL PRINCESS . . . 10 days from now. But with 66 lectures and talks to prepare for the DAWN PRINCESS world cruise, which leaves a month after I get back from ROYAL, most of my time has been spent sitting at my desk. Well, I’ve lost the 5 pounds shoveling mud over the last 9 days . . . and I feel the “burn” . . . boy do I feel the “burn” . . . of new muscle. I’m shoveling, lifting and working like I haven’t worked in years . . . and chugging Ibuprophen and living for the evening when I can soak in my hot tub. I’ve done this before . . . but I was a heck of a lot younger! My idea of leadership has always been to lead by doing, and so I figure if I expect the Gnobe Bugle guys I’ve recruited to give 100%, they better see the old man gringo giving 100% even if it’s killing him. Well, it’s not killing me, and I’m not going to let it . . . but it hurts! Most of all what hurts is admitting I’m not 20 any more!

“Feed the baby!”

My wife used to run a program for Ventura Public Health working with teenage moms and dads. Sometimes she would accompany case workers on home visits just to check up on things. One one such occasion the baby was screaming and the case worker wanted to discuss available options for the bewildered teen mom, and give detailed instructions on baby care, totally ignoring the screaming kid. My wife’s evaluation to the case worker was, first, “Feed the baby!” Then deal with the rest of the stuff.

Something similar happens in a disaster . . . or, for what it’s worth in grief. One of the things we used to teach in our seminars for people wanting to help folks going through grief . . . or disaster . . . was that they should never say, “If there is anything I can do . . . anything! . . . just let me know.” Or, “What can I do to help?” . . . which is a little better. Mostly people say these things because they want to feel better and no matter what their sincerity it is self-gratifying and not at all helpful to the person in need, who is likely in shock and has no idea . . . but you’ll feel better yourself for saying something polite, if trite. You got eyes! You can see what needs to be done! Do it!

I loved this week seeing folks stop by, presumably mostly wanting to look, and then saying, “If there is anything I can do to help . . . ” when we are trying to shovel out a mountain of mud! Grab a shovel! How obvious does it need to be? We need help! You think a half dozen folks are going to do this alone?

The folks I admire are the ones who just showed up, prepared to work, and started doing the obvious, or folks who just showed up with food, without asking or being asked, since it was obvious the workers had to eat. One gentleman showed up out of the blue up in his cowboy hat and drawl grabbed a shovel and did the obvious, he started digging. Thank you sir! Some folks none of us knew, showed up with meals! Thank you! A Panamanian guard at the guarded, gated community showed up on his day off just to lend a hand to someone in need. Thank you!

Recovery is a grim task.

This has been a sobering week of recovery archeology. And there have been successes. We’ve been able to find three sets of keys in all the mud, Jackie’s wallet and passport . . . not much else, but they were vital items. We’ve pulled out clothes, what’s left of beds, rooms that have been smashed so that all we can tell is . . . “This is green” so this giant hunk of wall came from the laundry on the other side of the house” or “How the hell did the entire kitchen get moved from one side of the house to the other and crushed like an accordion.” All the while knowing . . . if this had happened at night . . . if Brad hadn’t been in the States and Richard (the house boy) hadn’t been in Panama City . . . we would be recovering bodies, not the remnants of a family’s life.

Who’s responsible?

Well, this was a natural phenomena . . . and “shit happens” and tornados, hurricanes, mudslides, wildfires . . . stuff happens, natural stuff. So, I guess ultimately it is God who is responsible. But maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t build housing tracts in areas that are prairie and for eons have depended on wild fires to disperse seeds and procreate the landscape. Maybe, just maybe, we should look at a valley created by what appears, without heavy rains, to be a peaceful little stream and wonder, “How did this valley get cut over the eons?” But we like to pin blame . . . and in this case there may be more than enough to go around.

Why did Panama allow development along a hillside which has done this very thing as recently as 25 years ago and is known by all the locals, who we newcomer gringos usually ignore, to do this kind of thing periodically? Why did they issue building permits knowing this problem? Who approved the plan for the development given these factors? Didn’t this kind of thing show up in an environmental impact study? Oh, there was no environment impact study, even though one was required. How interesting! Why not? And the head of the Junta Technica, a gentleman by the name of Sr. de las Casas, refused to give the required approval to the project and tried to shut it down several times, yet was over ruled by political considerations. [Sr. de las Casas told me this personally several years ago.] And how did that happen, and why?

I remember when we first came to Boquete and started looking around for property and one of the then well-known developers, who really wanted me to buy a house from him, showed us around not only his project but all of Boquete. He spent about 3 hours with us, and we went with him to pick up his son and rabbit at his son’s preschool. He was charming and wonderful, although I think always a bit peeved with me because I didn’t buy from him. At any rate at one point on that tour of Boquete he got a phone call, and when he hung up he was absolutely elated and said, “That only cost me $5000 to get that approved, and I thought it was going to cost $15,000.” I started thinking about that statement this week . . . wondering just what he meant . . . and thinking maybe at that point I should have gotten back on the plane and gone home.

Our new President in Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, has promised transparency and that government and law applies equally to all regardless of their money and political pull. We shall see how successful he is, particularly with out-of-town developers who come with great dreams looking for shortcuts and fast profits.

And, I know, everyone likes to beat up on the developer . . . but, as I said, there is more than enough blame to go around. The developer was just one character in this sad play . . . which could have cost lives. Makes you ask some serious questions about a lot of the developments . . . and high rises . . . under construction in Panama. Mr. President Martinelli take note! If you want foreign investment you better be able to guarantee  a government that works and can’t be purchased . . . and, for what it’s worth, so far on the surface at least, that seems exactly what Martinelli is trying to accomplish.

We have a long way to go to “community”.

There’s a lot of talk about the “expat community” in Boquete, but, after the past 9 days I suspect 98% of it is just talk. A community responds. A community reaches out. A community helps. I’ve become painfully aware of all the times during the past six years when I’ve thought good thoughts about others in need, said prayers . . . but never really done anything . . . except maybe say those dreaded and useless words, “If there is anything I can do . . . ” I’ve been surprised at how few folks have reached out, grabbed a shovel and helped, even within the “gated, guarded community” in which the tragedy happened. Yes, I know people were shoveling mud out of their own homes, and weary . . . but cleaning up mud from your living room and losing everything are a little different! I’ve been amazed at people who wanted to divert Jackie’s attention from salvaging what little was left of his home and his life, to worrying about “his” mud ruining their grass! “His” mud?!? Just because it landed on his house destroying everything, suddenly it is “his” mud? Give me a break! But people are people . . . and if I’ve learned anything in 30 years of the ministry, people are mainly concerned about themselves. You can talk about “saving the world” but navel gazing is a lot more fun, and certainly a less strenuous commitment.

What I find appalling is the comments by some other expats, who for whatever reason didn’t choose to live in this particular development that happens to be experiencing a problem right now . . . trust me, others will follow . . . comments to the effect that, “It serves those folks right!” and they seem to take some kind of personal satisfaction in another’s loss.

Boy, do we have a long way to go in building a “community”!

You learn who your friends are.

I sometimes think that over the years we’ve known them, Brad & Jackie have entertained half of Boquete. Various clubs have enjoyed their weekly hospitality, consumed their booze and wolfed down their food . . . yet have any . . . or better “many” . . . of these folks shown up to help in time of need? Brad was an impeccable host . . . but when the china is all smashed, the booze bottles are broken, the cards are at the bottom of the pile of mud and the fancy gaming table is smithereens . . . where is everyone? [See "Community" comments above]

Pondering the future of Boquete

Sure . . . I do. This is our home. This is where we’ve chosen to live. This is where we are vested and invested. And Boquete will survive, and thrive. There have been bumps in the past and there will be bumps in the future. I remember driving through Vail a number of years ago . . . more than I’d like to remember . . . and saying, “Who in their right mind is ever going to pay $90,000 for a home beside a river in Vail?” Today . . . try $9 million! So Boquete will survive and weather this and future storms. But it is a double whammy . . . a once in 20-year flood last November, and again this November another “once in 21-year” flood . . . that, coupled with a world-wide financial downturn . . . all this has taken its toll. Several well-known, flagship projects . . . mostly at this point fancy architects drawings or partially constructed dreams . . . are rumoured to being taken over by banks, or failing all together. This is certainly a time for caution if you are thinking of coming to Boquete, but . . . it has always been a time for caution! This is not the time to come to Boquete and to be so overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, that you leave your common sense at the baggage claim at Tocumen Airport.

Overwhelmed by the beauty of it all . . .

Yes, we got reamed . . . but driving from Palmira to Boquete in the morning, with the sun shining you are overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. It really is “paradise”. Unfortunately there is no “paradise” in this world that is immune from nature’s occasional rampage or human failure or tragedy. Is it worth it? You’re damned right it’s worth it! I was talking with a local expat who moved here from Carlsbad, California, and in the midst of all this chaos I asked if he missed the traffic and hassle of Southern California, and he looked at me as if I were nuts! Who wouldn’t choose this?  And one of the things that makes living here wonderful are real friends like Brad & Jackie who would do the same thing for us if we were in need.

And would I buy in this particular development again? Yes! It is reality . . . reality, like all reality, of course has a few problems . . . but it is reality, it’s not a pipedream, it’s not “going” anywhere. It is beautiful! We had wonderful friends there and we could walk to their houses for dinner and drinks, and walk home . . . now we have to wend up the mountain on dark and sometimes foggy roads. Yes, I’d buy there again . . . but I would pay very close attention to the construction . . . although in the case of this particular home the construction was the best money could buy and unfortunately no one could build to prevent a mountain from falling down . . . and I’d pay very close attention to the location of the home and avoid being directly up against the canyon walls. I’d talk, talk, talk and talk some more to locals as well as expats. Is this home built on a pad that was carved out from the side of the mountain, or has this ridge or whatever been there as long as anyone can remember? I’d do my due-dilligence and check with engineers, local building officials, and architects – but you should do that anywhere, right?

Anyhow, that’s how it all looks from the mud.

PS – And since we uncovered a few bottles of wine today, I’ve consumed most of a bottle tonight . . . so if I’m being too frank or too honest . . . blame it on the Chardonnay.

When we first came to Panama my banker in David advised me, “Don’t stress . . . live long!” It’s something most Panamanians are frustratingly good at, and most gringos chafe at the very idea. But, if you are not going to blow a gasket in Panama, you’ve got to get used to the idea . . . particularly now that the holidays are upon us . . . holidays of various sorts that began this week and will continue until Easter. Don Winner of www.Panama-guide.com has been here a whole lot longer than I have, and he has a way with words about these kinds of things . . .

Ah yes, it’s now just about the “most wonderful time of the year” in Panama. It rains like hell in November which then turns into the Panamanian Summer (dry season) – and during these months nobody wants to work – at all. The holiday season officially starts next week, and now you won’t be able to get a damn thing done in this country until after “Semana Santa” (Holy Week) – Easter will be on Sunday 4 April 2010 next year. So mark your calendars accordingly and set your frustration meters to “calm the hell down.” In November the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 28th are all official national holidays to celebrate Panama’s independence from Spain, Colombia, as well as Flag Day. There will be a lot of celebrations and parades, and most importantly – buttloads and buttloads of beer. Mother’s Day is always on the 8th of December, and Mom likes beer (urp). From there we slide right into Christmas, New Year, and lots more beer to celebrate all of that stuff. They typically outlaw sales of beer for Martyr’s Day on 9 January, but it’s still a holiday so stock up and plan accordingly. Carnival in 2010 falls on Monday Feb 15 and “Fat Tuesday” Feb 16. Of course that means you can get anything done from 12 to 17 February. Few gringos know that the expression “Fat Tuesday” actually comes from the Latin “ego imbibo nimium damno beer per carnival quod iam ego sum pinguis” which means “I drank too much damn beer during Carnival and now I’m fat.” The hangover lasts until Holy Week in April. You can expect that anyone who’s supposed to be working will only have one thing on their mind – how can I get paid more money right now so I can buy more beer to drink during (fill in the name of extra long holiday weekend here). They are going to tell you that they have some kind of a problem, their dog blew up, dead grandmother, sick aunt, bad hair day, butt boils – whatever. Just smile, hand over the money, document everything, and set your phasers to “chill.” April is just around the corner, so enjoy the dry season once it starts. Might as well, because you won’t be able to get a damn thing done anyway…

By letting Winner say that it gets me off the hook with my Panamanian friends for saying something like that . . . but it’s true!

My wife send me this forward that I think she got from Dinah, who got it from Susan, who got it from Michael, who received it from Fran . . . you know how this Internet forwarding stuff goes, but I thought it was funny . . .

When the stress starts getting to you, these activities will help you to laugh and maintain your sanity . . . even if everyone else thinks you are nuts!

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don’t disguise your voice.

3. Every time someone asks you to do something ask them if they want fries with that.

4. At work put decaf in the coffee maker for three weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.

5. In the momo field of all of your checks, write “For Marijuana”.

6. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face.

8. At the drive-though specify that your order is “To Go”.

9. Sing along at the opera.

10. Five days in advance tell your friends that you can’t attend their party because you have a headache.

11. When the money comes out of the ATM jump up and scream, “I won! I won!”

12. When leaving the zoo start running toward the parking lot yelling, “Run for your lives! They’re loose!”

13. Tell your children over dinner, “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”

14. Pick up a box of condoms at the pharmacy, go to the counter and ask where the fitting room is.

OK, I have a warped sense of humor . . . but I’m surviving!

The two tropical depressions that have combined to form hurricane Ida have moved through Panama . . . so hopefully we may be in store for some sunny days after seemingly days and days of pouring rain. The patriotic parades went on in the rain, even as down the block folks struggled to pick up the pieces of their lives. There was extensive flooding and mud slides in Boquete.

Valle Escondido was particularly hard hit. Although our house in Valle Escondido escaped without damage, our friends up the road, whose house backs up against the valley wall, weren’t so lucky. Their $1 million home is gone. Thankfully our friend Jackie escaped with only the clothes on his back before the mountain came crashing down and the others were all away from Chiriqui. Yesterday we all spent the day up to our knees in mud and rubble . . . and back again today.

Even in “paradise” . . . shit happens.

More tomorrow . . .

Fly fishing?

Hi Richard-I came across your site and blog. What fun being an expat in Boquete!

My husband and I are travelling to Panama in January, 2010. We are taking the all day canal transit tour on Jan. 16th. ( We are not cruise ship people) We live in the Sunriver Resort, south of Bend,Oregon. Perhaps you know of it or have been here.

We were thinking of visiting the Kuna Indians at one of the San Blas Islands. i.e. El Porvenir or Playa Chico or ? Can you recommend which island to go to for a night or two to experience their culture? Also, my husband is an avid fly fisherman. Do you know of fly fishing either in the ocean or rivers in ALL of Panama?

Next, we have friends that live in Boquete (your home) where we want to explore your area. See a coffee plantation, etc. We don’t know how many days to allocate to see your area. Any ideas? Then we fly from David to San Jose, Costa Rica. Thanks in advance for any assistance, guidance, recommendations you might have for us. We’ll only make this trip once in our life time so we want to do/see all we can. Haley Dahlquest

Hi Haley! Well, let’s start with your last comment . . . “We’ll only make this trip once in our life time”. That’s what we and a whole lot of other folks who live here now as expats thought! So, good luck! I know Bend is nice . . . my daughter went to Willamette . . . and you may be surprised by Boquete. We’d lived in Colorado for six years, and many times as I’m driving down the mountain I think Boquete is like Colorado without snow. I’d plan on at least 4 or 5 days in Boquete . . . there are coffee tours, river rafting (our water is warmer than yours!), hiking . . . lots to explore. I’m not a fisherman and know nothing about fly fishing, but I have heard that if you get high in the mountains above the coffee farms that there are native trout and fly fishing. My neighbors in Boca Chica, Bruce at www.gonefishingpanama.com can give you the lowdown on fishing in the Pacific.

Unfortunately we haven’t had time yet to get out to the San Blas. We had a trip all planned, then something came up. I know that it is pretty undeveloped as a tourist destination by choice of the Kuna. There are some small hotels that are run by the Kuna and they would be your best bet.

I’m sure some of my readers know a lot more about this than I do, so maybe they will chime in and share some advice, which I will pass on.

On Carnival Miracle . . .

Hi Richard! I have enjoyed your links through Cruise Critic as I being my research for our upcoming cruise. We are sailing on the Carnival Miracle in February 2010, this will be our first time visiting Panama, and we are scheduled to be in port from 0700 to 1700. Traveling with me are my 77 year old mother (who is in good shape!) and my two sisters. My youngest sister is a stroke survivor, and has some mobility issues, but she can walk distances, albeit a little slower than most. We always make a point of enjoying some of the culture of the country we are visiting. Do you have any recommendations for tours to avoid (because of age/mobility) or ones we should consider. We usually venture out on our own and steer clear of the ships excursions because of the size of the tours, so we are not fearful of doing that. Our safety is of utmost concern to us (and my husband, who is not coming along on this cruise!) My mother would like to see the canal and locks, my sisters the wildlife, and I am easy to please! Is there any tour you are familiar with that would cover those particular sights? Thank you for any advice you may have for us! And we will happily stick with the ships tours if you think that is the best option for four women! Thank you in advance! Gail Foley

As an aside . . . I’m glad Carnival has started coming up with names like CARNIVAL DREAM and CARNIVAL MIRACLE . . . the old run of ships . . . ECSTASY, FANTASY and SENSATION . . . all sounded like condom brand names!

Hi Gail! For wildlife I would suggest the “Gatun Lake Safari” where you go by a small boat – 20 or so people – out on Gatun Lake. The guy who runs this tour lives on a houseboat in Gatun Lake and knows where the monkeys and stuff hang out, so you will see wildlife. They do a nice Panamanian lunch on his houseboat, and you will be crossing the Canal itself at several points and see the ships going across Gatun Lake and some of the work going on to enlarge the channel. You won’t see the locks. You will have to get in and out of a boat, but the boat guys are very helpful and the only walking involved is on and off the bus and to and from the boat.

To see the Canal there is a tour that will take you by ferry-boat through Pedro Miquel and Miraflores. You’ll see the locks and the main part of the Canal and get a glimpse of Panama City. Again the only walking is to and from the bus. Experiencing the Canal on a small ferry-boat is different from on a large ship and you can reach out and touch the sides of the Canal. Unfortunately, no wildlife.

So it is a choice which you want: wildlife or Canal. I would definitely recommend going through the ship and not attempting this on your own.

Looking for a deal . . .

My husband and I want to do a trip to the Panama Canal in Jan or Feb. We have only done one cruise before to Acapulco. Now I am looking for a good deal—to maybe only do part of the canal and more ports in the Caribbean. My husband just was forced to retire—laid off from his job. Lily

Life is change and growth and there is no growth without change, so good luck to both of you and I know you will make the best out of your situation and hopefully look back someday and think that was the best thing that happened to us. [Check out my earlier post on THE AGE OF THE UNTHINKABLE, an interesting book which applies not only to geopolitics and economics, but also to the challenges of our personal lives.]

Right now there are still some good deals . . . steals? . . . out there as cruise lines fill their ships at any price.  I’d look at the 10-day cruises that go into the Canal and are round-trip from Florida, like ZUIDERDAM. 

Any insight into . . . life??

Aloha Richard, We are considering a Panama Canal cruise this March-May. I think one leaves on May first. Are there must see, should skip ports? And also any insight into ships? We have been on Princess and HAL only, but not these ships. Thank you, Sharie

Sharie . . . Sharie . . . Sharie.  Try my Panama Cruise page, my Cruise page, or just click on the sidebar to the right on Cruising and Travel and you can enjoy all my fount of knowledge and insight.  That’s kinda why I took the time to put all that stuff here.   Then, if you have more questions, shout.  Aloha.

Snakes . . .

Richard, We will be on HAL Oosterdam (11/02/2009) and will enter Canal at Cristobal at 5:00 a.m. 11/08, exit Canal at Balboa at 7:00 p.m. and depart Fuerte Amador at 5:00 p.m. 11/09. I really want to visit the Embera Village but am very concerned that I may see a snake! I am terrified to even be in the vicinity of one that may be brought by me for viewing! At a distance I would be ok. Is it “safe” for me to make this tour? Any other suggestions for what to do at this stop? My husband will probably do one of the other tours – Observation Center or Panama Railroad.  Thank you for your help. Lynne

Lynne, you should be so lucky as to actually see a snake in the wild.   Go in peace.  It is a very “safe” tour for you and others.  The only tour I know where they bring out a snake . . . a nice boa . . . and let people who wish hold it, is on the “Gatun Lake Safari” tour.    People who take the Embera Village tour love it!  And no snakes!

Smaller ship in Canal . . .

Hi Richard I am doing some background work on cruising thru the Panama Canal. My husband is not interested in cruising on a large line but we also have at most 10 days to play with. We are also bringing my 76 yr old mom with us. This is one of her dream trips she is in good shape but does tire. Can you suggest where to look and what to look for I was reading thru cruise critic and it seems you know a lot but the trips thru the canal. Any help would be appreciated thanks Dawn Davis Keidawn

Princess has four ships described as being like “a day aboard a 5-star country inn”.  One of these is the ROYAL PRINCESS where I am heading in exactly . . . 21 days.   These ships hold only about 600 guests.  The ISLAND PRINCESS is doing 10-day trips into the Canal round trip from Florida and would be ideal for you.

Injustice . . . what’s new?

Richard:  I read your blog today on the above subject [US drug strategy] and thought I would add another recent twist. Not only is Prohibition not working in America it is also affecting the sovereignty of the country to the north. In a complete act of injustice (because we in Canada have reciprocal laws of extradition with the US), the Canadian authorities have been forced to hand over Marc Emery (the Prince of Pot) for selling marijuana seeds south of the border.

An act, that at worse would maybe get a month in jail in Canada, has netted Mr. Emery (a Canadian citizen who has never even been in the US and an active advocate of marijuana legalization) a sentence of 5 years in an American prison! This is wrong!  I am ashamed of my country for allowing this to happen to a Canadian citizen and am completely at odds with the complete waste of money and short-sightedness of my American neighbours in this regard. Garth Liseth,  B.C., Canada

Garth, I too am often shocked and ashamed by the injustice of the US court and legal system.  We do not behead people . . . but we do take their lives, sentencing them to life in prison without possibility of parole for simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time, like Brandon Hein.  What makes it worse is that the US sets itself up as the judge of perceived injustices in the rest of the world, while committing atrocities like with Brandon here at home.

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” -Jesus, Matthew 7:4

Karl, who disagrees with me on Brandon, but is not an ogre . . .

Here’s a low-cost drying solution for your coffee. Probably too late this year with your planned work ahead, but fine for next year. This type of dryer will work rain or shine, and even if overcast, will collect sufficient heat for drying coffee in Panama.

http://www.fao.org/ class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”">docrep/T1838E/T1838E0v.htm

( I’m not always an ogre, and enjoy the majority of your posts. )

Thanks, Karl.  I will check that out.   We need all the help we can get drying this stuff.  And, for the record, I didn’t call you an ogre . . . almost everything else, but not an ogre.  Thanks for thinking of me . . . and hanging in here!

“Gatun Lake Safari”

I saw your comments about wildlife during a Panama Canal cruise, and specifically “Gatun Lake Safari”. I searched the Internet, but could not find the tour operator. can you give me contact information.

I’m not sure that you can book this tour independently since it requires a certain number of participants and the availability is limited.  If a ship is in the ship’s tour operator has booked the tour completely.  You need to book it through Shore Ex on your ship, either in advance on the Internet or on board.

Day in Puntarenas . . . with kids!

Richard, I know that you’re the expert on Panama, not costs Rica but….. we’re in port @ Puntarenas for one day. Would you have any suggestions of things that we should do w/ twin 11 yr old boys in tow? Thanks so much! Bonnie

There’s really not much to do in Puntarenas.  There is beach, right in town, within walking distance of the ship, that’s used a lot by locals.  On weekends it’s crowded with families.  There is a zip line tour, depending on the size of your twins and the requirements.  The tropical train, rafting (again depending on size requirements) and eco-jungle river tour would be interesting.   A lot of the Puntarenas tours require a lot of bus time so it depends on how your kids do on buses.

A dildo by any other name . . .

I was in the U.S. Air Force and assigned to Japan in 1950. I did some train rides during my off duty days and on one of my adventures I chanced to be in Komaki in the middle of March. The city was at a standstill with the parade and crowds all celebrating Honen Matsuiand. I took some pictures of young girls walking out of the crowd and smooching giant replicas of the male organ. While wandering the crowd, I bought a small cardboard box inside of which was a 6″ hand carved wood penis. I still have it. One of the only things I brought home from the Korean War. J Morris

Man, are you lucky the TSA wasn’t around when you came home from Korea!   “Attention all TSA personnel: we have a dildo alert at position three.”   

So the 240 pound highly trained and educated TSA screener with tight black pants, a shirt with the tail hanging out in back and overbearing military manner says, “So, sir . . . you look like a straight shooter, and having survived Korea . . . what the hell are you doing with a 6″ dildo in your luggage?  Flesh-colored, soft latex we can allow provided you keep it in your luggage at all times and do not remove it, use it, or fondle it during the flight, but, but a 6″ wooden dildo.  Sir, that’s a dangerous weapon of terrorism and must be confiscated.”

Later . . . in the break room, “Hey Mabel, look at this baby!   This straight-looking Air Force dude . . . I didn’t ask and he  obviously wasn’t telling . . . tried to smuggle this onto the plane.  Come to momma, baby . . . “

Counting the days . . . until I leave on ROYAL PRINCESS . . .

So whose calendar has the bigger X’s on it marking off the days until you leave for your big trip..yours or Nikki’s? Dinah

Nikki’s, I am sure!

Coming home . . .

Hi… I just found this site of yours through Google. Amazing! This is what I’ve been looking for many months now! You are a gem of knowledge to me. I am a Panamanian native, born in David Chiriqui. I have lived in California for many years and now wish to move back to my country, yet I am very, very Americanized. Even though I am Panamanian,with dark skin, they still look at me  ”>differntly. I was in David and Boquete two years ago with my wife and first son. I am 29 years old, married with two small children …. I want to move to Boquete! My plan is to build and pastor a church in David. I was considering to buy a house in “Los Montes Del Caldera”. I have many questions before I sell everything I own in California to move back to Panama and do a work for God and be with my family. Would you, sir be willing to assist me with the practicalities of a Panama life style. Thanks, Arcinio Arauz

Arcinio, welcome home!  I took my car to a local “shade tree” mechanic the other day and bumped into a friend of his, a young Panamanian guy who’d gone to the states, fallen in love, got married, and had lived about 15 years in the States.  About 8 months ago he’d come back home to Boquete and was so happy to be back in Panama.  I know that people leave Panama, just like they leave the States, for many reason.  And for many in Panama the States seem like the promised land of opportunity.  But . . . good Panamanian friends of ours have family that live in Simi Valley, California, close to where we lived for 18 years in Ventura.   They LOVE Simi Valley.  Simi Valley!   They talk as if it is almost heaven!  And they are from Boquete!!  Go figure!   I guess to each his own.

I’m sure that many folks who are looking to “escape” to what they perceive to be a “better life” will shake their heads.  But home is home and right now I think there is increasing opportunity for Panamanians who understand the anglo world outside of Panama to come home, bring back some of their experience and apply it here.  The current mayor of Boquete spent time as a young man outside of Panama and as a community we are better for for it because he has brought ideas from North America to Boquete that are tremendously helpful in this time of growth.

Like moving into any community, even if you are coming back, it takes some time to fit in and adjust.  Acknowledging your Americanization is a good start.  Frankly, aside from the fact that you speak Spanish, you may have the same troubles adjusting to Panama as the rest of us.  It ain’t California!  But if God is calling you . . . what can you do?    Let me know how I can help.  What church or denomination are you affiliated with?  Training?  Background?

Working in Panama . . .

hello im thinking of moving to david. i am a university trained american nurse with a speciality in cardiology. is there much employment for nurses in david? Or do you know of any web sites i can Judy

First, the bad news. If you are not a Panamanian you can’t be employed in Panama. Even as a nurse. We have a friend of ours, Dr. Newton Osbourn, who was born up the road from David in Concepcion. He got a scholarship to Yale, then went on to the University of Michigan, and practiced in OB-GYN ending up at Walter Reed. He is one of the world’s experts on treating women with AIDS and lectures all over the world. When he retired he moved back to Panama and was our neighbor when we lived in Valle Escondido. He wanted to be of service and to work in the local Indian clinic, but Panama would not recognize his medical training or experience. He would have to intern in Panama! Incredible, but true! And so, determined to serve, he did! He jumped through the hoops and now is offering his expertise on the staff of the Women & Children’s Hospital in David. But he is Panamanian. Judy even if you were to jump through the hoops here, as a non-Panamanian citizen my understanding is that you could not be employed.

However . . . the work around is to consult. You can set up your own business of one and be a consultant. Or you can develop a related business, like being a “visiting consultant” (“visiting nurse” would imply a medical practice, which you don’t want) who assists and consults primarily with some of us “aging gringos” who now need, or are going to need, that kind of assistance.

We’re now well into Panama’s rainy season with November being one of the “worst” months with the most rain. And we’re moving into the peak of the coffee harvest season. We pick, rain or shine, and the Gnobe Bugle workers are used to working in the rain, wrapped up in black plastic bags.

Our gourmet Boquete coffee, which would sell in the States for $14-16 a pound, brings us in as growers about 35 cents a pound, gross. By the time you take out wages and fertilizer, not only are we . . . like other small growers in Boquete . . . not making anything, we’re losing money. Which is while several Panamanians we know are just letting their coffee farms go, because it doesn’t pay to pick the coffee. There are folks, like us, who would like to see the coffee culture in Boquete survive, but it is increasingly difficult for the little guy. So this year we are trying to process at least some of our harvest. And it is, as they say, “a learning experience.”

For the moment we’ve decided not to try and put a motor on our little depulping machine that removes the outer red husk of the coffee cherry, but to run the machine by hand. That’s working, but once the beans are removed from the cherry they still need to be washed, again we’re doing it by hand, and then dried. Without the big commercial dryers the big boys use, we have to revert to the traditional method of drying the beans in the sun, which actually produces better tasting coffee.

So just when the rain is heaviest, the sun is most important to us.

Even in the rainiest season, mornings in Boquete are usually glorious, then right now, about noon it starts to rain.  Morning is my favorite time of day in Palmira . . .  Palmira being the tiny town where we live, 1000 feet up the mountain above “downtown” Boquete.  There is something about the quality of light in the morning in Boquete that is magical.

Today promises to be a glorious, sunny day . . . at least until noon!

November is when the pointsettia plants that line our long driveway are the prettiest!

Blue tarps in the driveway are excellent for drying coffee when the weather is nice.    The blue absorbs some heat, but not too much heat, which is what black plastic would do.

Coffee drying in wire racks . . .

This is the good stuff folks!

Nikki takes time out from coffee drying to work with Evangelisto, our Indian worker’s son, on his English homework.

We dry coffee wherever we can, including the front porch!

So keep the sun shining . . .  and keep your comments coming!  The next post, I promise, I will answer the mail!  In the meantime, I’m going to have a cup of coffee!  The coffee we’re drinking now is from last year’s harvest.  The green beans have aged, and we are having what we held out roasted in small batches.  The coffee we are producing now won’t be available until next year this time and will be sold as top quality “estate coffee” . . . completely processed by hand on our own farm the traditional way.

National Patriotic Month

November is a month when Panamanians celebrate their country . . . with two Independance Day celebrations (Spain and Columbia) that stretch out an entire month. There are endless band practices tying up traffic, and parades and banners and parties.

Two stories that Don Winner ran on Panama-Guide.com caught my attention . . . both about Panama’s new President Ricardo Martinelli, independently very wealthy and the owner of many of the supermarkets (Super 99) in Panama.

Martinelli Approves The Largest Budget In The History of Panama

Telemetro – The approved budget was for more than $10.5 billion dollars. Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli approved the largest budget in the history of the country for $10.574 billion dollars, nearly half of which is destined for social investment, said the government of Panama. “Panama is facing major problems that can not be solved with delay or simple words or quick fixes, and if we are able to lead a world crisis and continue to grow our economy as we have done in the past three months at 2.5%, we will also be able to overcome our problems with an unprecedented budget” Martinelli said. Of the approved amount, 36.6% (about $3.8 billion dollars) will be for investment and 63.4% ($6.7 billion dollars) for ongoing operations. “We will give special treatment to the social sectors” to which 49% of the budget is directed, more than $5.2 billion dollars, with the goal of reducing poverty and extreme poverty in the country, said Martinelli. The budget includes $1.3 billion to service debt, $516 million in amortization and $834.5 million in interest. This budget beats the record set in 2009 by the administration of Martin Torrijos which was more than $9.7 billion dollars, which was the time was a 17% increase over the $8.3 billion dollar budget of 2008.

Editor’s [Don Winner's] Comment: This budget represents spending equal to only $3,204.24 for every Panamanian citizen ($10.574 billion divided by 3.3 million people.) The Panamanian economy continues to grow and expand, as does the population of the country. Thankfully, now that Panama has full control and dominion over the Panama Canal, the macro strategic economic condition of the country continues to improve, despite the horrendously corrupt governments of Mireya Moscoso and Martin Torrijos. Not much happened economically speaking from 2000 to 2004, a period known locally as “the crisis.” The real boom started in 2005 and continues to this day, despite the global economic downturns of the past year. Short term bumps and jitters aside, over the very long term the outlook for Panama and it’s citizens is more than just bright, it’s simply glowing with a radiance unknown in any other country in Latin America. Blessed with the Panama Canal (thanks, Uncle Sam) and a relatively small geography and population, Panama should be able to continue to improve baseline standards of living and boost all measures of economic standards across the board. Added the one-two punch of the administration of Ricardo Martinelli – that is attacking corruption with one hand while increasing social spending with the other – Panama should continue to make consistent and steady progress over the next five years. The only possible wildcard would be something completely unforeseen and unpredictable – such as the remote and unlikely possibility of a major natural disaster such as a devastating earthquake in Panama City – but barring that the future looks very bright indeed.

Martinelli ran on an Obama-like platform of “Change” . . . and he is making changes and waves, even going after officials in the former administration with charges of corruption and theft. His famous inagural speech line was, “In this administration it is OK to put your foot in your mouth, but not your hand in the till.”

Ricardo Martinelli Takes Only $1 Dollar in Salary as President

TVN Noticias – Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli gets paid for being the CEO of the National Government – he received exactly $1 dollar. In one of his first acts after assuming the office of President of the Republic on 1 July 2009, Martinelli donated to private foundations and charities his entire monthly paycheck of $7,000 dollars to which he is entitled ($4,000 in salary and $3,000 in expenses.) On Friday, 14 July 2009, the President submitted to the Comptroller General of the Republic a report detailing the 13 institutions that are all receiving continuing and monthly donations stemming from his salary;

Fundación Súper 99 B/.600.00
Fundación Ricardo Martinelli B/.600.00
Fundación Ofrece un Hogar B/.500.00
Hogares Crea B/.500.00
Hogar San José de Malambo B/.500.00
Nutre Hogar B/.500.00
Hogar Bolívar B/.500.00
Fanlyc B/.300.00
Fundación Rotaria B/.300.00
Fundacancer B/.300.00
Probidsida B/.300.00
Casa Esperanza B/.300.00
Damas Guadalupanas B/.221.00

The total monthly donation is for $5,421 with the remainder corresponding to the taxes and deductions as required by law. (Every month Ricardo Martinelli receives a $1 dollar paycheck from the government.)

If it had been me . . . and I owned Super 99 . . . I probably would have only accepted 99 cents a month, but . . . hey . . . keeping it $1 has “no strings”.   Accepting the man at face value, and assuming he isn’t shipping containers of the people’s money to other off shore tax havens, that is change, very presidential, and very patriotic. If there are no under-the-table, behind-the-scenes, family-member-deals going on, then it is truly government service.

No, no tulips.  You need cold weather for tulips.

Why “Tulip Time” . . . well, I went to seminary in Holland, Michigan which every Spring celebrated its Dutch Heritage of making money by holding a festival called “Tulip Time.”  There were endless parades, Dutch specialties to eat, lots of Dutch stuff to buy, and of course beautiful tulip fields.  My wife, as she was growing up in the Holland High School marching band, got to march it the Tulip Time parades, wearing . . . you got it, wooden shoes!  Every Tulip Time it was madness!  Bus loads of bands coming to compete from all over and hordes and hordes of tourists.

Since Hope College (where my wife went . . . I went to the arch rival school Calvin in Grand Rapids) and Western Seminary, where I went, are in Holland, Michigan and since the tulips bloom in May . . . Tulip Time coincided with exams and studying for exams.  How can you study when outside the library window are three bands practicing endlessly?  So, we tended to hate Tulip Time.

In those days the City of Holland planted tulips all along every road in town.  And there was a hefty fine for picking the tulips: I think something like $50 per flower.  So all the male students at Hope competed with one another to bring their girl friends the most expensive, unpaid for bouquets possible!  And to get back at the town fathers and the noise of Tulip Time, sometimes guys would drive slowly down a street with no cars with the passenger door open, neatly clipping the flowers off all the tulips.  They the city fathers got vicious, and started driving steel stakes randomly in the rows of tulips and ruining doors in lieu of fines.

So what’s all this Tulip Time mania have to do with Panama?

Just this . . . endless, endless drumming . . . over and over and over and over . . . same rhythm.  Bugles . . . which I always knew from summer camp revile were the instruments of the Devil . . . playing the same off-key notes over and over and over and over . . . all this because next week Panama comes to a screeching halt!

November is the patriotic month celebrating the birth of Panama.  Red, white and blue banners are everywhere!  [Kinda makes you wonder how they came up with red, white and blue, doesn't it.  I mean why not blue and yellow, or red and green?  Well red and green was already taken by the now-province of Chiriqui where I live which declared its own independence 50 ears before Panama.]  Anyway it is a BIG celebration, and it all starts Monday in Boquete with a huge parade that goes on endlessly with nothing but students marching and “bands” . . . we use that term loosely.  Bands in Panama consist of 50 kids with drums playing the same thing over and over, 20 girls playing the same repetitious song on bell lyres, and a few guys with bugles . . . but it is all done with enthusiasm, and I guess that is the point.  The parade itself runs usually about 8 hours!!  Of sameness!

In addition to the drum noise, there are the marching practices.  I swear in October no kid learns anything in Panama but how to march . . . poorly.  And they practice . . . and stop traffic . . . and they practice . . . and they march, and march, and march.  Would that they put as much effort into math and science!

Anyhow it is a wonderful celebration of country!  And there is lots of time for family!  Many official, and even more unofficial days off work.  TWO celebrations of Independence . . . one from Spain and the other from Columbia.   Independence from Spain is celebrated on November 28, and the November 3 holiday is independence or “separation” from Columbia.  So, scratch November.  Then comes the big holiday, Mother’s Day, early in December . . . then Christmas . . . then the Boquete Fair . . . then Carnival . . . then Holy Week . . . so sometime in April life, and work returns to normal.

At least Tulip Time only lasted a week.

And, to answer your unasked question, with all this going on, there is no time for . . . or need for . . . Halloween.

Sometimes it is a struggle to fully enter into and appreciate the culture.  Especially when you aren’t fluent in the language.  My problem, not Panama’s  It’s fine for many folks who come down here and generally make their own lives, pretty much strictly amongst other expats.  I drove into Valle Escondido the other day and saw all the same guys I always see getting ready to spend the morning playing golf.  And I said, in my very halting Spanish, to my Indian worker Sabino, “These gringos just play golf every day.  I just work every day.”  What’s wrong with me???   We’ve chosen to try and enter into the coffee culture, so we end up with a lot of folks who only speak Spanish, and who know a whole lot about coffee and try to communicate it to us . . . and with our limited Spanish skills we only get part of it, or get it backwards . . . yikes!

I have never received the gift of “speaking in tongues.”  For those who have that gift, fine, but God has never given it to me.  But I have prayed, and asked, and worked for the gift of speaking in one tongue . . . Spanish . . . and it eludes me!  I know lots and lots of vocabulary . . . and verbs . . . I just don’t know what to do with the damn verbs!  Some locals have the patience of Job . . . or Jose . . . and manage to interpret my garble and make sense of it.  Sabino, our young Indian guy is amazing at figuring out what I’m trying to say.  Our other Indian guy, Alfonso, thinks he understands me . . . and then runs on in rapid fire Spanish, or is it Gnobe . . . and thinks I understand him.

Living in Panama as an expat is fun . . . but also frustrating at times.

Even in Panama!  Not often, but sometimes they do!

It’s raining in Boquete . . . all day . . .

But that’s pretty much according to schedule.  This is the rainy season, and October is usually the “worst” month.  Well, October and November, and sometimes December, but hey, the rain makes things green and makes the coffee grow.  And usually it doesn’t rain all the time . . . but sometimes . . . it’s been raining for two days.  But at least that’s on schedule . . .

And we’re picking coffee . . .

And that’s on schedule . . . well, maybe a little early . . . and we’ve been experimenting with removing the cherries ourselves, now that we have finally adjusted the machine that’s to help us.  I’ve found a motor, so that’s the next step.  Now, if we could only have some sun to get this stuff dry!   Fortunately I have good neighbors in Palmira who are willing to help out with this stuff.

The coffee cherries get dumped in the hopper and then pressed against the copper screen which pops out the coffee seeds or beans.  Then then need to be washed by hand to remove the sticky “honey” and then dried . . . hopefully in the sun.  In the commercial beneficios they are put in big revolving drums like a huge clothes dryer for about eight hours.  These are usually fired with dead wood or gas.

And I’m getting my lectures  . . . well, not “done”, but making progress . . .

I’ve been in India for a few days!  What a fascinating country!  I can’t wait to get there.  Not only do the cruises give me an excuse to travel, but they give me a reason to get caught up on all the stuff I missed learning about!  I consider myself an “educated man” [AB, MDiv, MBA, PhD] but there is so, so much I know nothing about.  Sometimes I think the older I get the less I know, and it’s not that I’m forgetting, it’s just that there’s so much to know.  When I was younger I used to think I knew all the answers, now I’m just struggling to figure out some of the questions!

With theology . . . I would have been a fantastic “boy preacher” with all the answers!  Now I struggle with the questions.  In life . . . I’m reminded of what a Facebook friend posted . . . “I like the characters in my life, I just wish I knew the plot.” 

I’ve given myself until November 10th to work on the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS, then all that goes on hold, and I just focus on reviewing all the lectures I’ve already done that I’ll be using on the next series of voyages on the ROYAL PRINCESS, the Tri-Continent (Europe, Africa, South America) and the Amazon.  Then I start packing . . . you’ve worried about what to take on a two-week cruise, try four months!  Actually, you take a LOT less and just wear the same stuff over and over and over.  Formal wear is good . . . and easy . . . and doesn’t take any imagination, and nobody cares if it’s the same every night!  And with a couple of suits, where the slacks and jackets mix and match, and a bunch of different ties, and a few shirts . . . and free dry cleaning and laundry (that helps!) . . . you’ve got it made.

Also predictable . . . though not always on schedule . . .

A quake last night. We were sitting in front of the fire watching DVDs of “Gray’s Anatomy”, where doctors occassionally treat patients between episodes of sleeping with one another or sleeping with anyone who comes within 6″ of another, preferably breathing, human being. Anyhow, sitting there enjoying the wine and the fire, and the chair starts feeling like a massage chair, which it isn’t. 6.1 About 180 km South of David, where three tectonic plates come together. No big deal. The dogs stuck their heads up and looked around, the cactus plant waved around, but we didn’t want to miss a single moment of who-is-sleeping-with-whom, which is a little like having dinner in the crew staff “fishbowl” on the ZUIDERDAM.

This may not be a static image, but we will give it a try . . .

This one will give you an idea of the seismic activity off in the Pacific Ocean south of David . . .

I am busy with a million things that have to be done before leaving for four months on the ROYAL PRINCESS in 34 days. I’ve finished all my lectures for ROYAL and am trying desperately to cover as much of the world as possible since, when I get back from ROYAL I have only a month before I do the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS. So for the past few days I’ve been working on India, while trying to keep up with life on the farm in Palmira.

Just a year ago I was desperately trying to finish up construction of my house before leaving on the ZUIDERDAM. What’s wrong with me?? Here I am yet again having bit off more than I can possibly chew.

Anyway, while I’ve finished the lectures for ROYAL, I’m still doing some reading relevant to the cruise. This winter we I will be regularly visiting Devil’s Island, the site of the former French Penal Colony in Guiana, so I’ve been reading the books that have been written by former inmates of the French Penal Colony. There are three main books, each with a slightly different perspective depending on what things were like when that particular inmate was “in residence” and his personality.

The one I’m reading now is FLAG ON DEVIL’S ISLAND by Francis Lagrange. Lagrange is interesting because he was sentenced to the French Penal Colony for art forgery and counterfeiting. He was incredibly good at the art forgery business and one of his works eventually turned up in a respected museum and was eventually exposed as a forgery. He created the forgery so the original could be stolen from the museum and sold to a private collector in California and replaced on the museum wall with the forgery. The forged painting hung on the museum wall in Europe until the California collector’s original went up for auction and suddenly . . . viola, there were two! Lagrange is also interesting because he painted, with house paints and whatever materials he could lay his hands on, a crude artistic record of life in the penal colony. Eventually these paintings have made their way to the University of Missouri and are now available to be viewed online

When Lagrange first arrives in Guiana he is given some advice on how to adapt to life in the islands by an experienced con . . . “Adopt the colonial pace, my friend, and you’ll get along all right.”

When Lagrange asks, “The colonial pace?”, the man gives a description which describes not only the pace of life in Guiana, but the pace of life in most of Latin America.

“Never run if you can walk, never walk if you can stand, never stand if you can sit, never sit if you can lie down, and never do anything today you can put off until tomorrow.  That’s the colonial pace.  Master it and things won’t be so bad.”

Master it living in Panama and things won’t be so bad either.

When I first went to work for 24 Hour Fitness in the newly created position of Director of Ecommerce the only Web presence this privately held fitness company with over 400 clubs had was a sign that said, “Call this 800 number for the 24 Hour Fitness nearest to you”.  Fortunately we had a CEO, Mark Mastrov, who “got” the Internet long before most folks caught on and was insistent on developing a Web presence which today is a major factor in the success of 24 Hour Fitness.  But at the time I would go to Internet conferences where people would be discussing the question of how to get their CEOs to know what the Web was all about.  The scheme was to introduce your CEO to the wonders of golf information yada yada on the Internet and get them hooked.  Mastrov was always a half step ahead of us: he got it from the beginning.  At these conferences people would make incredible predictions like, “Someday the Internet will be taken as much for granted as the refrigerator.”  Wow!

But here we are . . . the Internet is an essential fact of life introducing a freedom of information and commerce which some repressive, and a lot of other just plain greedy, governments are still trying to control.  It is now possible to link up with people from around the world . . . and people who talk are less likely to hate one another.  It’s possible to instantly watch history being made on the other side of the world.  You can log onto cruise line sites and watch what’s happening in various venues on the ship or check out where the ship is sailing on the bridge cam.  You can log into libraries and universities and even get a university education . . . all on line.  Marvelous! 

Panama’s new President, Ricardo Martinelli, has taken some giant steps forward . . . and is enjoying an over 80% favorable rating for his first 100 days . . . and one of those steps is the first step toward creating a truly wired country.

According to an article in LA PRENSA > . . .

More than 500 points in 22 cities across Panama have been enabled with free wireless Internet service, according to the State Secretariat of Communication.

In a symbol activating of the network yesterday, President Ricardo Martinelli launched the $25.5 million dollar project, which is being developed by Liberty Technologies, who won the bid in September of this year.

With this connection, users with any personal computer equipped with Wi-Fi signal can “have access to websites, chats, and e-mail for free through an attainable speed of up to 512 kbps,” according to the press release. The places that will offer this signal will display an orange logo that will identify the national network, said Eduardo Jaén, Secretary of Technology Innovation.

Connection points will be located in places found to have the greatest concentration of people, such as schools, parks, libraries, health centers, police stations, community gyms, tourist spots, and municipal and government sites, among others.

The first phase of this project plans to install service in: Penonomé, Coclé; Colón, Colón; David, Chiriquí; Chitré, Herrera; Panamá, Panamá; Arraiján, Panamá; La Chorrera, Panamá; Santiago, Veraguas; Soná, Veraguas; and Pesé, Herrera.

In the second phase, the project will incorporate connection points in cities like Chanquinola, Bocas del Toro; Aguadulce, Coclé; Bugaba, en Chiriquí; Chepigana y Metetí en Darién; Ocú, Herrera; Capira, Chame, Chepo, and San Miguelito in Panamá..

Keeping a promise

“We are fulfilling a campaign promise; providing the opportunity for young people to gain access to technology,” said Martinelli at the Orlando Winter gymnasium of the Alfredo Cantón school in San Miguelito, before a cheering crown.

Jaén chimed in that they also plan to provide public school students with free laptops.

Just think of what that can mean for the future of a little country of 3.3 million people!

OK, questions and comments . . .

Plan my cruise . . .

Hello sir, After reading your interesting blogs in cruise critics, I would like to ask you for some suggestions/tours to take. We are planning to take a Panama Canal Cruise on early Dec/January/Feb, we are on our early 40’s, in a tight budget but would like to have some unforgettable time on the following ports.
ARUBA
FUERTE AMADOR, PANAMA
PUERTO CALDERA, COSTA RICA
PUERTO QUETZAL, GUATEMALA
PUERTO CHIAPAS
HUATULCO
ACAPULCO
This will be our first Panama Canal Cruise. Thank you. Julius Cristobal

Hey Julius, like your last name, Cristobal . . . as in Christopher . . . as in Cristobal, the section of Colon where there is a pier that many of the Canal ships use. Check my page Panama Cruise for more . . . depending on how long you have in Fuerte Amador, which is really the Amador Peninsula area of Panama City, I have some suggestions for you on the Panama Cruise page. Aruba . . . go enjoy the beach! Take a $2.50 city bus from the station across from where the ships dock and have fun! Acapulco . . . the best view is from the ship IMHO. Cliff divers are highly overrated, again IMHO. Huatulco, not much to see where the ship docks. I usually just spend some time on the tiny beach. Puerto Caldera . . . beach in town, but other than that there’s nothing there unless you take a tour. Guatemala . . . definitely get up to Antiqua! If you don’t want a ship tour, get a few other couples together and rent a van. It’s worth the trip. Enjoy!

Get off the ship!

Hi…i really love your blog. Could you please tell me if you would recommend that I stay on the Mercury to cruise through the Panama canal…or should I take a shore excursion? any help would be great! thanks, Irene

Irene, I don’t know what itinerary every ship is doing . . . depends on MERCURY itinerary, and what your options and choices are. My Panama Cruise page gives a lot of information that will help. Generally I think you should be on for at least one lock experience, and then, when possible, take advantage of the opportunity to see some of Panama . . . you’ve come all this way! Suggestions for Panama tours depend on your areas of interest . . . again, that’s why I wrote the Panama Cruise page! You’ll love MERCURY!

Popular retirement destinations . . .

Didn’t know if you’ve seen this. Re: recent retirement rating destinations.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/RetireInStyle/the-worlds-best-places-to-retire.aspx

Iaorana! Bob P.S. Can you tell we’re getting ready to go on a 33 day HAL Rotterdam/French Polynesia cruise in January?

You’ll love the ROTTERDAM Bob! Susan Wood, one of my favorite cruise directors, is often on the ROTTERDAM, although I heard she may have left Holland America, and I understand that Joseph Pokorski may be heading to ROTTERDAM. I’ve worked with Joseph as cruise director and also as one of the stars of the new entertainment approach Holland is rolling out on the smaller ships. Joseph is a fantastic tenor with experience in opera and Broadway. You may be in luck!

That’s an interesting article . . . and you note that Ecuador is just a few points higher than Panama on International Living’s rankings. I know several folks who’ve moved on from Boquete to Ecuador. One is back in the States . . . the other hasn’t been there that long. 8,000 feet elevation rules a lot of retired folks out . . . I understand the cost of living right now is cheaper. The fact that Panama uses the US dollar was an advantage . . . I thought. Time will tell. You gotta find a place where you feel comfortable.

Elizabeth Taylor (really!) asks . . .

Hi I am going on a cruise around the Caribbean to Aruba,Colombia, Cristobal pier, Costa Rica and Gran Cayman I am coming from England and leaving from Miami.Could you please tell me if I need any Visa please Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth, I’m not the person to ask about this . . . for US citizens I know that no visas are required. I would doubt that it’s any different for UK/EU folks, but to be sure you need to check with your travel agent and/or the cruise line. I know cruise lines are increasingly ducking these kind of questions, telling you to check. The fine print in most cruise contracts tells you that the cruise line isn’t responsible for anything, and I suppose their lawyers have told them to shift the burden back on the passenger. I’ve found some of the bigger visa service sites are a quick and easy way to find out and generally very accurate and up-to-the-minute. Enjoy your cruise!

Responding to my post about hospital costs in Panama, David says . . .

Do not forget about Jubilado Descounto. If you are over 55 for women or 60 for men you can ask for a discount at pharmacies, hospitals and hotels which can range from 10 to 50% off. David Maples

Technically, you are correct . . . BUT . . . in my opinion the “Jubilado Discount” . . . offered to Panamanians who are over a certain age and to expats who have been granted a “Pensionado” visa, is the most overhyped thing in Panama. Folks selling Panama love to opine about the “Pensionado” benefits . . . There are sometimes you would have to be totally insensitive to ask for the discount, other times . . . like with medical stuff . . . you have know way of knowing what the regular fee is. Maybe they’ve just inflated the regular fee since you are a gringo and “all gringos are fabulously wealthy” and they figure you’ll ask for the discount anyway, so you still end up paying more than a normal, working Panamanian who walks through the door. I know that’s not the law, but unless you’re ex-Canal, know these people, and speak Spanish fluently . . . how are you going to complain, much less discuss it. Most restaurants in Boquete automatically up the price to adjust for the discount, especially if they have a big “gringo “clientele. I look at the prices and can tell pretty quickly if they are “gringo” or “Panamanian” prices, and we have both . . . although not legally . . . on everything. Send your maid to the farmer’s market, and if they don’t know she’s working for a gringo, you’ll be stunned at the prices she’s paying for produce, compared to what you pay. Unfortunately there are some Panamanians who aren’t sure how long all this is going to last, so they want to get theirs while the getting is good. I have a neighbor who was going to lay cement blocks for me and agreed to work for $15 a day. A fair rate. The next day when he was supposed to start work he didn’t show. I’m sure he went home and his wife said, “For a gringo! They have all kinds of money! You should have asked for $30!” And I just might have paid it then . . . not now. I’m scouting around for shipping containers and the going rate is about $2500-3000. I was talking with the wife of a local guy who brings these up from Colon when he’s making a trucking run empty. She had quoted me $3000 for a 40-foot container, delivered to my farm. I went back to see her and a so-called “friend” of this family was there, and the wife wasn’t. And he, knowing I was there to see the wife said, “Oh, I can get you a container!” trying to beat out his friend for the business. I asked, “How much?” And I could see the wheels turning as he paused to consider just how much he could get from this stupid gringo while at the same time beating out his friend. “$10,000.” I could go on and on, but won’t.

2 years and 200,000 visitors!

Who knew? Certainly not me when I started this October 16, 2007, not sure anybody would read it! 200,000 visitors later, and folks from all over the world, all I can say is “Thank you!” It’s been fun, a lot of work, but still fun. And what I enjoy most is meeting folks on cruises and around Boquete who first met me online and when we talk about something, or I say, “Nice to meet you”, respond with something like, “Oh, I know all about you!” scary, huh? And I enjoy your comments and questions, so keep reading, and keep the comments coming!

Reluctantly I have concluded that at this point, and with my commitments to cruise lines, I just can’t post a new blog every day . . . so, starting today I will be blogging on even-numbered days only . . . whenever that is possible. There are times onboard ship when we’re not getting the satellite signal, or there is some interference, and the Internet is down, but as much as I possibly can, I’ll be here on even-numbered days.

I thought you might get a kick out of seeing how all this has played out!

It was the title of one of Dr. Robert Schuller’s (the original one) books, and it’s true!

It’s been a rough week in Boquete and in other sections of Panama as well, including the Gnobe Bugle comarca. If you drove into Valle Escondido this morning, or even yesterday, with the sun shining . . . it did indeed look like paradise. But even in paradise there are storms and disasters. It could be snow and ice, or tornados, hurricanes or tsunamis . . . we don’t happen to have those things in Boquete. What we do have at this time of year is rain, often lots of it. The winds blow from the North at this time and bring storm after storm off the Pacific and across Panama, so we get alot of rain in November. And tropical rain is often torrential and the predictable result is flooding and mudslides. All-in-all people have held up well.

My very good friends Brad and Jackie suffered the most and lost 90% of their million dollar home in Valle Escondido when the mountain wall collapsed on top of their house and sent a wall of dirt and mud through the part that remained standing. Their house keeper, Richard, was in Panama City, and Brad was in the States, and Jackie was home alone. He came outside to check out a wierd noise, looked up at the mountain, saw it start to move and ran . . . when he turned around the mountain was on top of his house. With the rest of the family gone, Jackie is left alone to cope with not only the loss but also the cleanup. I snapped this picture of the damage, not really paying attention to Jackie being in the picture, but when I look at it, the look on his face conveys it all.

But this is one tough China man! He’s generally pretty quiet, until you get to know him, and, at 37 is a lot older than he looks. He’s an ex-Taiwanese marine and a tough cookie, despite his slight looks. In his high school English class in Taiwan the teacher was arbitrarily giving students English names, and I think Jackie got stuck with something like Stewart (no offense to all the Stewarts out there!). He complained and the teacher let him pick his own name, so he choose Jackie Chan after the kung-fu movie star. His Chinese name is beautiful when he says it, but most Anglos can’t reproduce the tonal sounds of his name and it comes out sounding like chop suey, so, except officially, he’s Jackie Chan.

He’s faced this tragedy alone and day by day he has become more optimistic and positive in spite of the mud! He finds the humor in having spent weeks taking all the bad grass out of his back lawn and just when it was perfect . . . down came the mountain. He cleaned the gutters to be ready for the rains . . . then this. He’s gracious when neighbors ignore that his house is in ruins and complain about the mud run off ruining their grass. He worries about their problems, when he has humongous problems of his own. When I’m lamenting his loss, he is pointing out ways in which his glass is half full. Amazing guy, really, and I’m glad to have him as a friend.

It is amazing what a few people, very few, have been able to do it removing mud, pulling out a few trinkets that can be saved, and initiating the clean up. A lot has been done in a few days, but there is so much more to be done.

What has always amazed me, both professionally and personally, is how quickly and instantaneously life can change. But in the midst of tragedy . . . the tough times never last, but tough people do! What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

Jackie is one tough guy.

Tuesday started ordinary enough.  Our truck was in the garage . . . broken transmission fluid line.  With only one car, at 8AM I drove Nikki into Boquete to the BCP Theater, where she volunteers as manager, to get things set up for the Tuesday Morning gringo meeting.  She had meetings afterward and promised to give me a call around 3pm when she was ready to be picked up.  It was raining and had been seemingly for weeks, although it was only a day or so . . . stead rain.  Panama had tropical depressions on either side of the Isthmus producing heaving rain which looked, as our Aussie friend Diane said, like two big bosoms on radar.  (They would eventually merge in the Caribbean to form hurricane Ida.)  Since it was the first of our string of November holidays, and we had nobody working on the finca,  I went home to work uninterrupted on my world cruise lecture on Kusadasi (Ephesus) and to start on Istanbul.  Lecturing on a world cruise sounds romantic and exciting, but right now it is just sitting at the computer trying to coalesce thousands of years of history into a few dozen visually exciting Powerpoints with a few good laugh-lines thrown in to keep the audience having a good time as we slog through empire after empire.

About 3:15 PM I got a call from Nikki to pick her up at Dave and Erin Ross’s in Boquete.  Usually it’s 10 minutes to get from our house to “downtown” Boquete.  Traffic in Alto Boquete (“upper” Boquete as opposed to Bajo Boquete “lower” Boquete, which I usually laughingly refer to as “downtown” Boquete) as jammed up like the 101 in Ventura.  Panamanians may be laid-back, particularly in the “frontera” or “interior”, but there were a lot of Panama City folks here for Tuesday which was the Get-Ready-for-The-First-Independence-Day-And-Five-Months-of-Kicking-Back-And-Working-A-Little-as-Possible holiday, otherwise known as GRFTFIDAFMOBAWALAP Day.  (The Panamanian government loves alpha-bet-soup names for the several million or so government agencies.  I can never figure out what the acronym stands for, much less what the agency does . . . but they all have nice logos.)  So all the Panama city driver began honking horns and resorting to the Panama City cluster-fuck driving style when confronted with a traffic jam, i.e. cars headed the wrong way against traffic and going in every direction proceeding to make a bad situation worse.

I’ve lived now in Panama long enough to big up a few things . . . my Panamanian attorney from Panama City rides with me, covers his eyes and says, “Wow!  You drive like a Chiricano!”, which I take as a great compliment, but then I learned my driving skills in New York City and on California freeways. 

So, hearing approaching sirens and seeing flashing lights and knowing that the authorities were arriving and would soon make matters worse, I too pulled out into oncoming traffic on the two-lane road and managed to get to the turnoff for Volcancito.  I figured there had been an accident on the grade where the two lane road snakes down into Bajo Boquete (“downtown”) and that I would sneak around up through Volcancito and then down the back way through El Salto into Boquete. 

As I turned up the road to Volcancito  some of our friends from Panama City were standing beside the road with their car and told me that Boquete had flooded and they were trying to get everyone out and not letting anyone back in.    Apparently it had rained all day, much, much harder in Boquete than it had in Palmira, 10 minutes away.  This happens in the Chiriqui mountains: it can be pouring one place, and sunny in another.  So it took me 1 hour to wend my way through Volcancito and down through El Salto going through 6 mudslides on the way.

When I got to Dave and Erin Ross’s there were a few cars in the driveway, and I rang the bell and nothing happened.  So I figured the power was out and walked in . . . and the entire floor was covered with water.  I found Dave and Erin, Nikki, and some friends on the back porch, sipping wine.  They had all returned from a BCP Theater meeting and found water cascading into their house from a failed roof.  So you can see that even we gringo are adapting, adjusting to the cultural differences and coping with disaster without stressing unduly.

Knowing I had to navigate back to Palmira I drug my wife away from the wine, and we headed home.  Boquete was a wet zoo, but most of the people had left and a few parade left-over schools and bands were boarding buses to head home.  We found our friends from Panama at my brother’s former house in Boquete and they were showing us some of the damage from the river that had flooded there.  Some folks next door came over and they were digging out.  I managed to slip on the grass and go crashing down hitting my head and getting covered with mud.    Meanwhile ambulances and emergency vehicles were streaming out of Valle Escondido where we used to live before moving to the finca.  My friend, whose cousin in the mayor, said that his cousin had told him Valle Escondido was a disaster area and houses had collapsed.   Since we have friends in Valle Escondido and still own a house there, obviously we were concerned.  I wasn’t sure they would let us in, but the guards all know us and so we drove in to see this beautiful valley full of mud and debris.   From the other side of the valley we could see that our house looked fine.  I asked one of the Valle Escondido workers if our friends house was OK, and he just took his hands and mimicked it breaking in two.  I asked if he had seen our friend and he said no . . . now, really concerned . . . we drove up the road past our property, which looked fine (and is) up to a sea of mud and a few city vehicles.  Thankfully we saw Jackie standing in the middle of the mud in the street.  The mountain above their home had collapsed and came crushing down tearing away the left side of the house.  Jackie had escaped moments before the mountain came down with nothing but the shirt on his back.  But he was alive!  His partner was in the States, their houseboy was in Panama, and their renter had been on line in their bunker-like downstairs guest apartment through the entire thing, not really knowing there was a problem until he lost his Internet connection. 

By this time the Valley was a sea of fog and it was quickly getting dark, so we really couldn’t see much.   Jackie had rescued one of their two cats.  He had a place to stay and we took the cat to the vet.

More later . . . suffice it to say that for two days I have been up to my ankles, and sometimes up to my thighs (and needing help getting pulled out) in a sea of mud and debris.  It is pretty much all gone.  You have to understand that Brad & Jackie had one of the truly showplace homes in Valle Escondido.  Brad’s kitchen was the finest kitchen in Boquete with acres of cherry and granite, top-of-the line professional everything, Viking this and Viking that . . .  we found the Viking built in refrigerators yesterday . . . identified them by the drawer containing the neatly wrapped cheese slices, in the pile of mud and debris where the bedroom used to be, squashed like an accordion.   There are areas of the house that it will take us weeks to uncover. 

I don’t like living in a disaster zone.  When I was in seminary a tornado roared through Comstock Park and I came home to find that the path of the tornado was down our street.  My folks home was spared, but many of our neighbor’s homes were totally obliterated.  I can still hear the chain saws and remember the agony of helping people sort through piles of what had once been their homes, hoping to salvage some reminder of their lives before the disaster.  It all came back the past two days.

We lived in Ventura County, California . . . what can I say.  I remember a month when the city was ringed with fire all night and hundreds of fire crews from all over the West coast where running through town to fight fires, driving back from Santa Barbara and seeing the hills above our house in Ventura all ablaze . . .

The responses to folks at these times is interesting too . . . people come and say, “If there is anything I can do . . .”  and then walk away.  Hell!  You see all this mud?  You see that shovel?  Pick it up and help!   But they really don’t want to help, they just want to ease their own consciences by volunteering without doing what obviously needs done.  Brad hosted a weekly dinner party for a local group . . . two days have gone by and I haven’t seen any of those folks showing up with shovels?  What the f***?   We are either in this thing called life together . . . or not.  So for those of my local friends who are reading this . . . grab a shovel, put on your boots and help!  Response to this kind of tragedy defines who and what we are as a community.

Some folks “get it” . . . we had three guys show up with shovels and wheel barrows . . . people Jackie didn’t even know. A couple of gals showed up yesterday a noon with lunch for all of us! Just saw a need and filled it. As Dr. Robert Schuller used to say, “Find a need and fill it: find a hurt and heal it.”

 Unfortunately, even “paradise” can have natural disasters.

More later . . .