Penny

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His excellency ???

I agree. This was a wonderful piece about my friend Bixby. I've known Bixby for about 14 years and she's an amazing person. The only bad part about our friendship is that she wants me to give up all meat and it would be very difficult to give up my BLT sandwiches. Bixby, being a 7th Day Adventist, doesn't use alcohol or tobacco, is a strict vegetarian, and also doesn't use caffeine. She will probably live to be 110.

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One of the many things I like about Panama is that it is a baseball country; preferring baseball over soccor as does Cuba and the Dominican Republic. I tell my guests that Panama appears to have 3 "B" sports -- baseball, boxeo, and bicycling. Can hardly wait until the stadium is open in David. I think the grand opening is in March of this year.

The new Panamonte bridge should be open by next year and that will be a huge help for us on the Jaramillo side of town. I love the feria; I'm happy to see it come; I'm even happier to see it leave.

I was caught in this mess this morning. After about 40 minutes of inching forward, I finally cleared the accident site. Glass all over the highway. The backup was up beyond the Terpel station in Alto.

Magaly y Javier Sorry I had to miss the party at the last minute. I've given Beth Abraham some $$$ for you guys. She'll give them to you on Tuesday.

Inga truly was one of the matriarchs of Boquete. With the passing of both Cecilia MacIntyre and Inga Collins, Boquete has lost some true pioneers. There are many stories about Inga's time in Boquete and I imagine some of them will be told at her funeral.

Nancy and Nairn are two of the people who make Boquete a great place to live. The fact that they've donated more than $22,000 to charity amazes me. I'm a volunteer for the Handicap Foundation and I know that some of the money comes to us. Good job Nancy and Nairn.

You're right. It wasn't the current Panama ambassador. Escape Artist lead you to believe it was. I was fooled.

Roger Since you use them every year, please tell me where I go from this page to find out my property tax:

It always seemed strange to me that this guy (the Ambassador) wrote a monthly column for the online Escape Artist magazine based in Panama. He would give highly complicated investment and tax advice to people. Much of it was based on avoiding US tax. Now, I don't think it's either a sin or a crime to pay the least tax possible, it just seemed a little unseemly for our ambassador to be giving such advice.

I just saw the answer to the NIT question yesterday. Going from memory it's something like Nacional Identity Tessoral. That may be close. What I will probably end up doing is going to the tax office by the casino in David and asking them to show me how to use the web site.

It was more crowded than ever when I tried to drive in front of the fair to town about 4 pm Thursday. I've never seen it so congested on opening day. Usually, nobody attends until Thursday night as the vendors are still getting ready. Of course, the fact that Varela was in town didn't help the congestion. Took about 40 minutes to go from my house in Jaramillo Arriba to the main street. Everyone in my neighborhood gets the passes to pass in front of the fair from either the mayor's office or the Jaramillo corrigadora but the pass doesn't help when it's stop and go traffic and you count your progress by the inch. Couldn't even attempt the same route going back home as they had stopped all bridge traffic. Went around the Alto Lino loop which can also be a problem at night when many folks of the inebriated persuasion walking in dark clothing on the road. But, having said all that, I still love the fair.

More or less the same. I'll probably be safe if I just pay the same. Sometimes, because of the timing of payments, there's a little more or less multa and/or interest. It just bugs me that the government websites in Panama are so difficult to navigate. My neighbor says they do it on purpose so you have to hire either a lawyer or accountant. I attribute it to ineptness. Just when you learn to use the darn thing, they change it around the following year. Then, every five years a new government comes in and re-writes the whole thing. Starting this year, if you pay taxes on your personal residence, there will be a huge change in the downward direction.

Okay, I need to find out how much property tax I owe for my rental house. I followed all the instructions but they don't go far enough. I've hit this page and can't figure out where to go from here to find out my property tax amount due. Any help appreciated.

Bonnie is correct. The normal recycling center doesn't accept colored glass (e.g. wine bottles) nor any kind of plastic. That is why this one day recycling fair was so valuable. The local volunteer group has found somebody over by the CR frontera who will take all that stuff and they plan on collecting it periodically and trucking it over there. Bless their hearts.

Ramps?? We don't need no stinkin' ramps. On another note, I think I heard that the bus station is not going to be moved to the new Federal Mall afterall.

Judi Smith gave a very well received talk at BCP about 15 months ago. Because the talk was so excellent we decided to invite her back. This may be in the field of alternative medicine but her practice is definitely at the top of the heap. Come early as the theater will probably be full.

The pair who wrote and produced Panama, The Musical, will present a sneak preview in the BCP theater on Tuesday, January 16th at 10:30. We will learn all about the trials and tribulations of producing an event of this magnitude here in Panama.

Oh, no !! This is my favorite David restaurant. I hope they relocate and reopen. You just can't beat their rollos primaveras.

I stopped by about 8:30 with my bag of plastics. Good work guys.

You are actually hard pressed to cash anything over a $20 bill unless you have a bank account and cash the bills at your own bank.

Larry Thompson, Boquete resident, passed away at his home in Florida this morning after a long illness. Larry is survived by his wife Dottie and several children. Dottie and Larry were residents in Panamonte Estates.