Bud

Mark,

I know you pretty well as a friend, and find this kind of personal sharing in a public forum not to be your typical style. Thus I know that you are really pondering and processing all of these related events deeply, and expressing yourself very clearly.

Like all other expats, the both of us are getting older one day at a time. We are heavily insured for health issues in US facilities. We have researched and continue to research and analyze both health care resources and health care insurance options in Chiriquí.

We found it interesting that two security related entities came up with group health care discount programs at roughly the same time. Our analysis of the AAC program concluded that it probably is a good program, but that the numbers don't work for us. And since we already are RD subscribers, that program will come to us with no further outlay.

We know from first-hand experiences that one simply cannot predict future needs. Just short of two years ago we were in Cancun (Mexico) and I came down with a serious MRSA infection in my left foot. Great health care resources in Cancun, and nine days of hospitalization resulted in avoiding an amputation of my left foot and part of my leg. However, that was at the cost of $4,000/day, and involved three rounds of surgery to remove necrotic tissue. Fortunately we had travel insurance that covered almost everything. And then on another trip I broke a toe. Great health care, and again we have travel insurance that protects us financially. However, travel insurance doesn't cover us when we are home in Boquete, and so local programs are important and worthy of serious consideration.

Bottom line here is that our experience makes us strong proponents for doing as much advance planning and risk avoidance as feasible. Credible, detailed information is the best tool that one can use to help make a decision for themselves.

Thanks for your posting. This is serious business.

And so, for the bottom line as to why I am posting this, how can we (in our role as owners/administrators of CL) help you and others get the word out, and assist our community?

Dottie, two thoughts for you.

First is that some banks take a day or two for a transfer to be delivered to the receiving account. You may see the funds withdrawn from your account immediately, but that doesn't mean that the recipient sees the incoming funds immediately.

Mark is still very much involved with supporting Rodny Direct. You may contact Mark via a private message (PM) here on CL. His "display name" is MarkoBoquete, and if you click on @MarkoBoquete then you go to his profile, and you can click on the envelope icon to start a PM.

Hope this helps.

Edwin is across the street from Dr. Chen's office, or just a few doors north of Melo's in Boquete.

Edwin used to be management at Nelvis Restaurant, which was located in a house behind Plaza Los Establos and just a few doors south of the church across from the main elementary school. Nelvis was sold, and Edwin is now doing his new thing in a smaller facility, but with the same tipico menu, great service, and low prices.

Highly recommended.

32 minutes ago, NewsLady said:

Newslady made a mistake.

My curiosity tends to get me into trouble. Please cancel my question. Apologies to all.

P.S., It would have been okay if there was a link between the two businesses. It just struck me as very unusual.

The above notice went out via News Boquete. The reply-to header on that email was Heidi Rehm. I thought Chef Chris was the new owner of Big Daddy's. 

Just asking a question here: what link, if any, is there between Big Daddy's and Mike's Global Grill? I would think of them are competitors, but apparently not.

MarieElaine, you are correct that this email received about 48 hours ago from Yahoo actually refers to a breach that occurred in 2013. Three years to report it. Ouch! The damage has long since been done.

I do know from other reports that Yahoo did report this breach earlier this year, but again long after the fact.

FYI, the email from Yahoo that is shown above was an email sent to me earlier this week for my backup Yahoo email account. I remain unimpressed with their "proactive" stance.

2 hours ago, Bonnie said:

I'm not sure what you're saying, Bud. Are you suggesting that only direct flights get the full discount and that those of us obliged to change planes before arriving at our final destination do not? And what about the return trip (assuming all reservations were made at same time beforehand).

Only the flight segments that either originate and/or terminate on Panamanian soil qualify for the jubilado discount. For example, if you fly to Amsterdam on the non-stop KLM flight and return via the same route, then both segments get the discount. On the other hand, if you then fly from Amsterdam to Tallinn, Estonia, as just one example, then the follow-on flights do not qualify for the discount; only the two KLM flights get the discount and the other flight segments do not qualify -- even if they are all booked on the same reservation and e-tickets.

From this, one can deduce that if you wish to go to Europe that it is better from the qualifying jubilado discount perspective to fly directly to Europe, rather than flying to the US (e.g., Houston, Atlanta, or Miami) and then connecting with onward flight segments, referring to those flights that take off or land outside of Panama.

I agree with Pederhaney's posting, and add that the jubilado discount applies only to flights that originate or terminate in Panama. Thus, if you fly from PTY to ATL to JFK, then the flight from Atlanta to New York is not discounted.

Wow, Bonnie. This is falling somewhat short of a glowing endorsement. I believe we will do a personal review of the facility prior to making any decisions.

The same photos are also available here on CL at http://www.chiriqui.life/calendar/event/502-bcp-holiday-open-house/?do=findReview&review=24.

Marcelyn and I have a LOT of experience on this subject. Our time frame was the summer of 2015.

There is an office in David that is charged with doing exactly what you are looking for. If you are on the street where the original McDonald's is located, starting in front of that McDonald's, then go to the intersection that is heading toward the InterAmerican Hwy. Turn left, drive slowly, and about 75 feet on the left will be a group of marked parking spaces. Park there. Then look for a double glass door with metal frames toward the rear of that building. There is a sign over the door, but I cannot remember what it says. It is words vaguely to the effect of "criminal investigation ministry", or words to that effect. At the reception area, tell them you need fingerprints, and then wait. You will eventually be escorted (literally, this is a security building) through some very narrow hallways to a door where they do the fingerprints.

All of the above is the good news. The bad news is that they are inefficient (read as ineffective) at getting the fingerprints delivered. Taking of the fingerprints went rather quickly, but then they have to be "processed", which means in PC. We never were able to get our fingerprints delivered to us. We made at least half a dozen trips to that office in David for that sole purpose over the course of several weeks, but only ended getting nowhere at that office as they kept deflecting responsibilities to "someone" other than themselves. Not a pleasant experience, and certainly unproductive. We never got anything from the office in David.

We had a time constraint and so looked elsewhere. Our fingerprints were eventually delivered to us by making a dedicated trip to PC, and going to a DIJ office close to Ancon. Friendly people, etc. it took them about 10 days to finish their work, and we had the fingerprints in hand (play on words intended).

There were some fees to be paid, but minimal. Don't remember exactly, but think in terms of less than $10.00.

P.S., we also needed a "police report", for each of us, and somehow ended up with an email address to send a request to at some office in PC. That office has something to do with government affairs with other countries. The police reports were ready within a week, and cost about $10.00 each as well, including all of the stamps, etc.

Marcelyn says that it was worth the trip to PC, hint, hint.

28 minutes ago, Dennis Philpot said:

I too looked long and far for kalamata olives until a CL poster told me about Casa de Jamon (I think that's the name) on the main road to Boquete -- right side going toward town next to office building which I think is called Paso Alto.

Check out the posting at http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/4051-la-casa-del-jam%C3%B3n-in-alto-boquete that talks about Casa del Jamon.

http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Presidente-Varela-promulga-Buen-Samaritano_21_4634746482.html

50 minutes ago, Bonnie said:

Thanks, Keith. A representative of my lawyer is meeting me at the airport and will accompany me through all this. I'm assuming he knows the ropes and maybe has some friends in the offices. It's a mystery to me why this can't be handled at Immigration in David. It's expensive (travel) and time-consuming,two reasons I've put it off for so long.

Good luck Bonnie. Our experience is that it really is worth all of this time, trouble, and expense. Having a cédula has made administrative and legal things a lot easier for us. One can still get things done with a jubilado card, but there are differences. One for instance, nothing has to change in Panamanian documentation when your US passport number changes (that affects things like car registrations, as one example).

I would have preferred a bit more specificity as to the "risk" that was mentioned in this announcement. Are they referring to risk to the power lines, risks to pedestrians, risks to vehicles on the roadways, etc.? I often wonder why trees and limbs are not routinely being trimmed or removed because of the risk to high tension lines that I see around our area.

I guess I should be happy that they are at least working on some of these issues.

We occasionally do what Pederhaney says, and then we aperiodically also buy a small supply (quantity five to ten) of Mas Movil's scratch-off cards, the $5.00 version, so that we don't have to go to the C&W office all that often.

As an aside I have the same cell number (but not the same phone) that I have had from the early 2000 era (which I got from Geovana Caballero when she worked at the C&W office in David). She no longer works for C&W, which is good for her but not good for us gringos needing good customer service. Our cell service is prepaid service just like Bonnie uses, which is something that works well for us since we are not big users of cell service here.

3 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

The natural disaster and emergency response organization, SINAPROC, reported that in 7 short hours between 7:30 a.m and 2:45 p.m. yesterday, at least 11 landslides were recorded in various parts of the country due to soil saturation from heavy rains.

http://impresa.prensa.com/panorama/Derrumbes-secuelas-huracan-Otto_0_4631536918.html

Someone ran that photo through an editing job with the vibrance parameter cracked up to maximum level!

Marcelyn and I tried a [new for us] tipico restaurant for breakfast this morning. La Karreta is on the main street in Boquete directly across the street from the Bioblioteca de Boquete. Service was great, food selection extensive, although more meat selections than one would normally expect, and prices were really low. When a restaurant is serving a meal for less than $10.00, we make it a practice not to ask for a jubilado discount. Our total bill this morning for both orders (Marcelyn had pancakes and I had an omelet, along with coffees and orange juice, toast, etc) was $7.65, not each, but total.

Now that the German restaurant at Plaza San Francisco is shut down, La Karreta is looking like a good alternative. We understand that they are open only for breakfast and lunch -- no dinner service. Good food, large servings (we couldn't eat everything) great service with a big smile, and lots of free parking right in front of the restaurant.

Pardon me while I wax philosophical.

I was born and raised in Texas, and not so fondly remember experiencing many hurricanes on the Gulf Coast as a young lad. I don't want to repeat that scenario ever again. And so when I first came to Boquete (2001) and seriously considered moving here, one of the questions I asked was about natural disasters. I was informed that floods and earthquakes are just about all there might be. If you choose to, you could include brush fires as a natural disaster as well; they could result from lightning (or mankind).

In these intervening years I had witnessed earthquakes and floods. I can never forget the magnitude 6.5 Puerto Armuelles earthquake that occurred early on Christmas morning of 2003. My house was still under construction and I was staying at Hotel Panamonte. One young girl living near Boquete was killed as I recall from a tree falling on her house. And then one of the big floods was in November 2008. Etc., etc.

Well, it turned out that Hurricane Otto, at times a tropical storm, and then a category 1 and for a short period a category 2 hurricane made history. The people of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua were the victims. According to press articles, three people died in Panama from the flooding, and there were literally many thousands of people who had to evacuate their homes in all three countries.

In the past, we had to depend on the writing skills of witnesses to get a feeling for events in remote places, but with today's technology (a smartphone in everyone's hand) we were able to watch a video clip of three homes in Panama that literally washed away before our eyes from the gushing waters (http://giphy.com/gifs/NUVNMU6CdCHF6/html5).

It is my understanding that Hurricane Otto made history in being the strongest and latest in the hurricane season ever to make landfall on Central America.

Let's all pray that we never see such an exhibition of the power of Mother Nature again. Otto is now history for most of us reading this, but for many who were not so lucky, they face a major recovery period.

It appears to be a flag of a community service organization in the background of this picture, so it is reasonable to presume that Dr. Zapata made service to others part of his life. So sad to hear this outcome. Giving one's life in an effort to save someone else, I agree -- a HERO!

Where should one go to report a potentially dangerous public utility to request that it be repaired? Walking nearby or underneath this power box seems to be a risk that we are not willing to take. See these photos that were taken across the street from Romeros here in Boquete. It is not just the open wiring and switch box, but also the loose metal sheeting that could be ready to fall on someone.

Interesting, but does this app work only with Chrome? I'm a bit confused on the operating environment that it requires or uses.

I don't often see the word inflection used. This suggests that maybe you are trained in linguistic matters. I do like that it works with inflected words. According to Wikipedia:

Quote

In grammar, inflection or inflexion – sometimes called accidence – is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and mood. The inflection of verbs is also called conjugation, and one can refer to the inflection of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, determiners, participles, prepositions, postpositions, numerals, articles etc, as declension.

The reason for elaborating here a bit is that about 40 years ago I worked with a lady who had a Ph.D. in neuro-linguistics. At that time I did not understand what that term meant, but with time I have begun to appreciate the importance of understanding the underlying word structures, and etymology in general. My interest in this app comes from the possibility of having been introduced to a new educational tool.

An everyday example here in Panama about how understanding words can help integrate cultures is found in how words crossover between languages. For instance, while driving around road construction or poorly designed roads, it is often that one will see the word "profundo". When I first moved here I had to look up what it translated into -- deep is one such translation, and so the sign was warning about deep trenches, etc. And then the word got linked in my mind with the English word "profound". This is such a simple thing -- some called it a "duh moment", but for me it was a "profound" (pardon the play on words here) enlightenment. There are numerous examples of words crossing over.

Thanks for your posting. I will look into your suggested app a bit more.

Just curious if anyone knows who the dignitaries are that came into Boquete yesterday, Tuesday, November 22^nd. As we were going into town about 5 minutes before 8:00am, we saw the typical motorcycle cops before and after a black SUV with the red and blue flashing lights in the windshield. They were in the area that we call "restaurant row", which is just north of the main church, and they were heading in the general direction toward the Panamonte.

We voted muchas veces, probably well over 100 times. Sorry to read that your favorite did not prevail, but it was worth the effort. I scanned the comments about all of the candidates, and there were no losers among them.

TwoSailors,

That is a fantastic website. Had not seen it previously. Will bookmark it on my browser.

Thanks for providing the URL.