Bud

That might explain why no takers for the DVD. I just assumed it was because of the content of the movie, but maybe it was the cheaper price elsewhere. Hmmm, perhaps both reasons?

Did anyone go and take pictures. We understand that there were over 7,000 horses in the parade.

Well, here we go again to Restaurante La Casa Vieja last night. Some very close friends called us earlier in the week and suggested a gathering at this new restaurant, based on my comments in a conversation held Wednesday morning. Great idea, and we made a reservation for a party of six at 6:30PM for Friday evening, last night (being Good Friday). We were told that alcohol would not be available due to the holiday, which we all agreed would not be an issue for us. We gathered at our friends home for socializing and appetizers prior to going to the restaurant. Our group grew from six to ten persons. A few minutes before our reservation, we jumped into three vehicles and headed out for the restaurant. We had forgotten about the ceremonies and blockage of Avenida Principal in downtown Boquete, and so we were delayed quite a bit and eventually got over to the side streets for our journey. Arrived at the restaurant about 7:00PM. As was our experience during our first visit last weekend, there were no other patrons. I approached one of the waitresses and mentioned that we had a reservation for six people at 6:30PM, but that we were delayed because of the traffic blockages. She understood, and was ready for our group. I then dropped the surprise of having ten in our party rather than the six as reserved. Not a problem. Some tables were shuffled around and we were ready to sit down and order food and drinks in short order. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. Our group was mixed Panamanian and expats, and so the language issue did not come up. We ordered our food and drinks. Then I looked up to see more people coming into the restaurant. That was good news. Pretty soon the entire restaurant was full, and some people were standing near the parking side entrance for tables to become available. That bodes well for the restaurant as the word gets out about good food and service. BTW, the restaurant provided complementary appetizers, which we all agreed were tasty and much appreciated. Then another surprise occurrence. I looked up at the side entrance again, only to see Michelle and David Brewer coming through the door. I immediately got up to greet them, not knowing what was about to unfold to me. I had not seen Michelle or David in a long time, and so it was good to see that they are doing well. They came over to our table (actually four tables assembled together into a group) and greeted the others. As Michelle turned to go to their table, I just happened to mention that this was our second visit to the restaurant and that we really were enjoying it. Michelle then told me that she and her friend Eduardo are the owners. We were all caught by surprise. We have known Michelle for many years, and we knew that she was busy with her wood furnishings business (used to be at the corner of the Volcancito Road across from CEFATI). Michelle told us that she also now has a construction company, and I believe she said that they have built seven homes. And now the restaurant. Obviously, Michelle is not one to let the dust collect under her shoes. It was another wonderful evening. Even though the restaurant was full, with more people waiting at the door, the food and the service were very good. Most of our group had one of the seafood items, and one had a hamburger, and Marcelyn and I had a pasta with chicken dish. Toward the end of our time there, Michelle came over to display a bottle of Boquete wine. We all were unaware of any winery in Boquete, but it was not a misspoken sentence. There actually is a winery somewhere here in the Boquete area. The bottle could not be sold, but she did open up a promotional bottle and provided samples for our group. The general consensus was that it was fruity and bit on the sweet side. I took a couple of pictures. Here is one of Michelle and Eduardo, and then also one of a painting on the wall. Michelle told me that was an oil painting done of her when she was nine years old. The artist apparently tried to make her look older than she really was. Bottom line here is that the restaurant is owned and operated by Panamanians. Advertising has been withheld to minimal while, as Michelle said, they "work out the kinks of the start up business and go slowly to be sure that it is a quality experience for the customers". Michelle and Eduardo, you are off to a good start. Thanks for a great evening.

More on the movie "City of God". We received the DVD from Amazon, but have been traveling, which delayed our viewing of the movie. We have now watched only 15 minutes, maybe 20 at the most, and then shut it down. Not our cup of tea. Will sell the DVD to any interested party for $10.00. Hardly used. It is a "Blu-Ray + Digital HD" disk (whatever that means). Send private message or email to bud.huber@grommet.net.

We heard from our housekeeper about a serious home invasion and murder in the Bugaba area earlier this week in which a mother was seriously wounded and her 21 year old son was killed.. In trying to research this incident, I could only find a Newsroom Panama article about what appears to be yet an unrelated incident in the same general area. Here is the Newsroom Panama link: http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/15000-reward-home-invasion-murder The confirmed assault was on March 22nd in which a 29 year old Panamanian mother was killed in a "hail of bullets" at her home in Boqueron. In researching these events I came across a Chiriqui Chatter blog entry talking about yet a different incident north of Concepción earlier this week. I found that article to be lacking in particulars, and so has questionable credibility. Here is the link to that blog post: http://www.chiriquichatter.net/blog/2016/03/24/home-invasion-north-of-concepcion

You truly are blessed. And many thanks for sharing your blessings with others here on CL.We get to live vicariously through your words and pictures. Have a great day, a wonderful 71st year of your life, and even a better 72nd, and more.

Marcelyn and I ate at La Casa Vieja last weekend. It was our first time there. We actually did not know it was a restaurant until chatting with friends. It is a very old building. That didn't surprise us, given the name of the restaurant. There were many B&W photos of Boquete from the 1920s, 1930s, etc., and forward. I really like seeing those historical images. The menu was extensive, but with a lot of fish dishes, which we typically don't select. But we did find adequate alternatives. Marcelyn had a pasta dish and I had their hamburger. The service was good, the food was well prepared and prompt, and with prices reasonable. Actually there was too much food, and so we both had a take away, which was handled expeditiously. We were the only ones there. Don't know how they can survive with such low patronage. Signage could be improved, and maybe that would help with the patronage. There is lots of parking, but knowing how to get in was a bit of a puzzle -- access is via the side street, not the frontage road. We plan to go back.

Thanx to Bajareque for starting this thread, and all of the replies. This has been an interesting and somewhat emotional reading for me. I hear about Uber (not Easy Taxy until now) and have always dismissed it because I live in Boquete. I also did not have Internet access (other than WiFi for use where it is available) on my iPhone until this week. The 'emotional' part of this is that I really don't like being gringo'd, and it happens a lot, especially in PC. My Spanish has gotten better, and so I have made it policy to always tell a prospective taxi driver where I want to go and ask how much before getting into a taxi. I frequently find the driver's response when I decline a ride to be a downgrade to a much more reasonable price (possibly still higher than the locals' price, but acceptable to me). Now that I have Internet access on my cell phone, I think I will give this a trial run during our next trip to PC. Even though we typically drive to PC, I detest driving there, and so the car remains parked at our hotel, and we use taxis (except for our run to Riba Smith to load up on the things not available in Chiriqui). Following Bonnie's thoughts on this subject, I add that we have a taxi driver (now a very good friend) in PC who has never failed us. We always use José (no, not José Saenz for the long timers here) when timing is critical, or we need translation assistance, or we need someone who knows where things are and how things work. I will ask José about his thoughts re Uber. Just curious if Uber works in Boquete? I don't plan to try it here in Boquete myself because we typically drive ourselves, and for the few times we use a taxi here we have another good [taxi-driver] friend, Bernardo, who we always call on. Again, thank you for this thread. I soon will learn what the Uber code and the $15 credit is all about.

I'm still looking for it also. Will try again tomorrow when we go back to Plaza San Francisco for errands.

Across the road from Plaza San Francisco is a sign pertaining to "Blue Sky". It says there is a restaurant, a swimming pool, and a meeting facility. We couldn't find it. Can anyone tell us anything about this place?

I start with a statement that I am not a lawyer, nor am I trained in matters legal. I have been told repeatedly by people I believe to be highly qualified and competent in these kinds of notarial matters that it is absolutely of no value or legal standing to use a stateside notary service outside of the state boundaries in which that notary is authorized. The US Consulate can provide notarial services that should be acceptable in all 50 states and the territories of the US.

Because of our commitment to CL and other business requirements we have redundant Internet services. We use a high end gateway router that switches between the two service providers. Those providers are CableOnda and the former "MobilNet" service. MobilNet was bought out by CableOnda in late 2015. There are two different technologies used in these two services, specifically broadband cable technology and microwave RF technology.

Twin Wolf is correct about Alex at CableOnda. Marcelyn and I took great interest in Twin Wolf's posting that started this thread. We had to go to David for reasons other than Internet service today, and so went to CableOnda's office. We were a bit concerned about the new office location, but learned from a friend that their office has returned to the old facility, but after some major remodeling. We were taken care of by Alex. His English and my Spanglish did pretty well together. We opted to go with the 2MB service; I currently have 1MB service. The dramatic cost reduction will end up saving us about $500.00 per year. It took a bit more than 1.5 hours to get through all of our paperwork, but it was worth the time spent. From the way Alex handled things and answered all of our questions we are confident that this transition will be uneventful (at least we hope it will be uneventful). My only complaint about our time in David today was the heat - a bit over 40C when we left the CableOnda office, which was before noon. Can't imagine what the temperature was during mid-afternoon. The bottom line here is that we will end up with double our Internet speed at 1/3 the cost of what we were paying previously. Thanks to Twin Wolf for posting this topic.

We have also found as of late that the ground hamburger meat at PriceSmart is very good. Not talking about the ground, pre-formed, frozen hamburger patties, but the freshly ground package in the meat cooler. Flavor is excellent and very good quality (fat content, etc.). Always be sure to check the dates on the package label.

Chris, we will arrive about 7:30am for breakfast at your place. Seriously, great suggestion about adding dried fruits and things. We have just done the cinnamon thing so far.

Interesting day today. Based on the information provided here, we decided after breakfast to go to Volcan to shop at that Romero store. Got the oatmeal (less than $3.50), maicena (some boxes call it maizena), and some other food items. Still haven't found the broth, and of course there were no muffins, etc., but we did make major progress today. As mentioned, we found the Romero store in Volcan to be clean, wide aisles, and a helpful staff (since we didn't know the locations of many things). Noticeably missing at that Romero store was a bad odor around the meat counter (that is good news). Also found some things not mentioned above, such as green beans that are not French cut style, etc. Stopped by Berard's as well, but decided not to go in, partly because we didn't have ice in the cooler. We got to meet Dottie Atwater in person, and had a wonderful conversation with her. What a fine lady. She loves dogs, as does Marcelyn. We then had lunch at La Carbonera Restaurant in Volcan on the road to Cerro Punta. Great food, good service and good prices. We ended the day with a drive through Cerro Punta, and then took the long route home through Concepcion and Bugaba. Great day today. Many thanks to all of you for helping us add to our list of pleasurable experiences. And thanks to Dottie for being such a wonderful hostess.

Amazing help here. Thank you all. Isn't the Internet a wonderful tool! Actually considering driving to Volcan to check out the Romero store per Dottie's and Maria's comments. It has been many months since we were last there. And then have lunch at that really great eatery whose name I can't remember -- on the right on the road toward Cerro Punta.

Having difficulty locating a couple of what we think of as common grocery store items. Have been to Romero, El Rey, PriceSmart, etc., but not finding them. Any assistance in pointers to available supplies would be appreciated. oatmeal, the real thing, not the quick or instant cooking version broth, either cans or cartons of beef, chicken or vegetable broth English muffins cinnamon-raisin bagels corn starch

The meal portion for us, which included the steak dish that Marcelyn mentioned and dessert and tip was about $23.00, after the jubilado discount. Note that we don't eat much, and so tend to share dishes. The drinks we found a bit spendy; The drinks added another $19.00 to the price, and that was for just one drink for each of us.

Keith, thanks for the clarification. I'm chalking off my confusion to advancing age.

It appears that the Panamanian government is much aware of AirBnB and is trying to figure out how to manage (control) its impact on tax compliance. Here is a reference that caused this post: http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Panama_Hotels_vs_AirBnB_War_Continues. When I started typing the title for this post, I was intending to use "Panama and AirBnB", but then while reflecting on the content of the referenced article the 'and' word didn't seem to convey the proper posture. Note that the subject in the web link used the word 'war', but it inferred that the hotel industry is the main party behind this interest. My guess is that it is both the hotel industry and the government taxing authorities. While we don't participate in AirBnB, we are aware that several Boqueteños do use it. Further it seems to be a big boon for tourism as well as a good source of revenue/cost savings for those who do use it. This has to be a tough nut to crack for all governments, not just Panama. There seems a parallel between AirBnB (etc.) and Uber (etc.) v the hotel industries, the taxi cartels, and the governments around the world when considering how technology moves forward much more quickly than those impacted by the advancing technology. So much for my intellectual curiosity this morning. Have a great day.

According to the following article, automobile insurance is now becoming a legal requirement. This confuses me because I have always been told (I've been here for 15 years) that automobile insurance was a requirement for registration and license plate renewals. What am I missing here? http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Panama_Approves_Mandatory_Car_Insurance

We went to the event this afternoon at the Boquete Library. A large number of photographic works were being viewed (and appreciated) by a large number of attendees. There were several very impressive photographs. Not wanting to take anything away from the other photographs, but my favorite was one in color of a hummingbird by Robert Braun. Free refreshments (drinks and munchies), but I didn't taste any of the munchies. Also, lots of good conversation, and many friends and newcomers were there. What pleasantly surprised me was the inclusion of works of art by both expatriates and several Panamanian photographers, some from as far away as Colon and PC. I thought that was a wonderful integration. Kudos to the photo club. Very glad that we went, and we look forward to more such exhibits.

The Dubai-Panama connection is again delayed. http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Panama__Dubai_Flights_Postponed_Again