JoJo

I don't bother to squeeze the Omega 3 onto their food. They take the pill smeared with a bit of sour cream, yogurt or bacon grease. Down the hatch! lol

We feed the veggies raw with ground, cooked chicken livers, and 1/2 cup kirkland kibble twice a day. Get the same results with lovely coats and they get all the vitamins and minerals from the veggies being raw. We grind the veggies in the Ninja so they aren't in chunks. The Kirkland brand kibble is the best sold in Panama.

There every year in the same spot. Used to have animals though so I'm happy to hear that isn't allowed any longer. We were at Song Depot and PriceSmart today shopping so were right there but couldn't stop.

Lots of holidays coming up and the thieves are thick as. . . well thieves. Be safe everyone.

Is this the one between PriceSmart and Chiriqui Mall?

I agree Fran. Those that have guns should never say so either. Puts a target on your back.

Women or even men are at risk when walking alone even during daylight hours. My Panamanian taxi driver of the last 5 1/2 years has been robbed twice that I'm aware of. Once while driving the taxi when the fare he picked up pulled a gun on him and took everything he had including 2 phones, his money, his drivers license, insurance, taxi license, etc. He was days trying to replace all of that and the expense involved. The other time was while riding a bicycle going to the little corner market for his grandmother. He was hit over the head from behind, money and bicycle stolen. So yes, our Panamanian friends are being attacked as well. It seems to be getting worse each year with these punks killing people either by beating them to death or shooting/stabbing them. Watch your back and always always always be aware of your surroundings.

Good advise OldSalt Twin Wolf, we keep our two dogs in the house except to go potty day or night. I don't think I could bear to lose either of them. My little tripod female (40 lbs) is about 8 years old and my little macho male (50 lbs) is about 6 1/2 or 7, so they aren't kids anymore. We play with balls and rope toys in the house to try and keep them active and when let outside the male chases our resident lizard. lol We have motion sensor lights front and back, alarms front and back because our front is not fenced, just the back. Take care and be safe

It's sometimes difficult to share, especially our first time when they killed our dog. He was a street dog that adopted us. All the neighbors said he was a viscous animal, but he had been abandoned and then people throw stones or sticks at a stray. Instead we put food and water out for him. It was a hard won battle for trust that we had won with him and we were very attached to him. We had him for about 2 1/2 years and will always have our memories. But we moved to another house 1 1/2 kilometers closer to the hwy on the same road. We were only there for about 2 weeks when that happened. We now have two rescue dogs. They are the best! 100% pure Panamanian mixed breed mutts. Best dogs ever and I've had many different pure-bred AKC registered dogs from Toy Poodles to German Shepherds and Labs. There have been a lot of theft in our neighborhood here in David recently. One neighbor is increasing the height of his wall by another 2 feet and putting razor wire up. He has had expensive equipment come up missing from his yard and shop 3 times in 3 months. He's done! Another neighbor next door to him moved out. Their house was broken into several times as well as their vehicle. That yard isn't fenced and it's next to a vacant, wooded lot. Several other homes on the next street were robbed and my neighbor across the street had things stolen from the back yard. We are each responsible for our own security and we watch each others back here as well. It's the best we can do.

You may or may not be asked to show the following: $500 cash or credit card with current statement showing balance available which must be $500 or more. Or a Panamanian Bank statement showing that amount available. Airline ticket to Country of Origin. Each person in a family must be present as they take your picture with a webcam. There must be in excess of 6 months remaining on your passport to gain entry to Panama. You may or may not be required to stay overnight in Costa Rica. If you go around 2:30, check out of Panama, In and out of Costa Rica, have a bite to eat or shop for awhile then check in to Panama it usually works. DON'T ASK WHEN YOU STAMP OUT OF PANAMA IF YOU HAVE TO STAY OUT. The exit fee from Costa Rica is $5 plus a $2 fee and whatever your credit card charges you. There is an office around the corner from immigration where you pay the exit fee. If that is closed someone can direct you to the bank where this can be accomplished (we've never had to go to the bank). It just depends on who you get at the window. it's been different every time we go. The last two times they didn't ask us for anything at all, but we are always prepared just in case.

That was our third unpleasant experience living in San Pablo Viejo. The first and worst one was when they poisoned our dog, cut the chain link fence in back, cut the bars on the carport in an attempt to get in at 2:00 am. That was right after I got home from surgery. The police were all over the yard and found an empty Pio Pio chicken nuggets container which they figured was laced with rat poison to kill our dog. They found short pieces of rope the police assumed was intended to tie us up once they got in. They didn't realize the dining room door was open for the dog to get out onto the enclosed carport and when he went leaping out there the one cutting the bars dropped one which woke us. I still hurt from the loss of our dog. The police fingerprinted the window where they broke the latch to toss the poison chicken in the house and took a sample of our dogs mouth to determine cause of death. That afternoon the Police Chief came to the house. He told us to buy a gun and shoot to kill and if we killed someone outside the house to drag them inside. That was a shock! Now he knew we couldn't just go buy a gun and I don't want one in the house anyway. For about two months the police would patrol around our house day and night and hit the siren when they passed letting anyone watching know they were watching too. There was one other time when a guy actually got in the house, had the big screen TV unplugged when I though I heard a noise and went to investigate, silly me. But whoever it was ran before I got there. He took the cord to the TV with him. My neighbors Gardener fixed the fence AGAIN and found the TV cord hanging out on one of the barbed wire fences in the pasture. We've been lucky. Then we moved to David. Just petty theft here until one morning I had left the back gate/doors open for the dogs and got in the shower. My daughter was in her room on the computer. Someone came in, took my purse (found it empty of cash, about $400) and took my Kindle. I normally don't have that much cash on me, but we were going shopping that day. I admit I didn't bother calling the police. Nothing to see here. So now we keep ALL doors closed and locked even during the day, all our windows have bars and all our doors have bared gates on them. It a shame you have to feel like a prisoner in your own home, but TIP. In spite of all the warts, we love it here.

Cute.

Thanks Keith, I knew you would have all the info. ;o)

Thanks Hil.

San Pablo Viejo, about 10-15 minutes outside of David towards the border. It's been about 3 years ago now.

Good question.

While what you say may be true Twin Wolf, we had a very different experience. One morning about 8:00 am when I let my two mid size dogs outside to potty, there was a young man in my front yard getting ready to hop the fence to get out. Seeing the dogs after him, he got in too big of a hurry and ripped open his arm on the spiked rod iron fence. He stopped next door where 3 teen-aged Panamanian young men were talking, one was my neighbor and two of his friends. Another of his friends on a bicycle was just arriving and had seen the guy hop our fence. The bad guy was asking them for help for his bleeding arm and was told NO WAY, WE SAW WHERE YOU CAME FROM! One of the boys called the police and when they showed up all the boys told what they saw. One of the boys went with my daughter to the police station to file the report which was much appreciated since her Spanish was not adequate to that level. When asked if they could identify the guy, my daughter had not seen him, but the young man with her had and said yes, he could identify him and showed on his arm where the guy had a bad cut from the fence. The police found the guy at the hospital getting stitches and arrested him. They were only going to fine him $40 since he hadn't actually stolen anything, was just trespassing. The stupid kid tried to take one of the officers weapon and was immediately arrested and taken to jail. I don't know where it went from there.

This is wrong on so many levels it should be criminal.

There haven't been a lot, but there have been posts.

Contacting someone that is "off the grid" may pose a problem. They usually don't want to be bothered.

Groan.

We buy bottled drinking and cooking water in the 5 gal bottles. We have the stand with the hot/cold water distribution system and love it. Always have cold water and only seconds to heat water for tea. The bottles are recycled, no ending up in the landfills. There is no way I'm going to drink the tap water here. We filter the other water but we don't have as many problems in David as there seem to be in other areas. Maybe that's just a rumor too, who knows for certain.

Pretty much boils it down Dav. Thanks

We're in David and we used Bombasa. We're in a rental but the water pressure was so bad it wouldn't operate the on demand hot water tank. It's been three years ago so I'm sure the prices are higher than they were then, plus it depends a lot on what you need and how much you're willing to spend. We only had space for a 200 gal storage tank at that time. Ours was just over $1,200 at that time. We now have a concrete pad adjacent to the storage tank and plan to add another one. Hope that gives you "some" idea.

Are you reading your own site? http://boquete.ning.com/forum/topics/what-s-going-on-with-the-water