Bud

3 minutes ago, Keith Woolford said:

Widening of the road at the curve beside the "Recycle' spot.

H O O R A H !

Alison, your comments about the "drop offs" is another main concern. I didn't mention it in my posting because I get taken to task for being "too negative".  Not only can vehicles become a victim of the sharp and deep drop offs, but pedestrians can as well. Try walking from across the street into any of several of the businesses on Avenida Princpal here in Boquete. Not only scary, but down right dangerous.

I agree upfront that the roadways in Boquete are [slowly] getting better. However, I have concerns about the long term viability of some of the repaved roads. For instance, here are two pictures taken yesterday showing an edge of a street (behind the car lot that is behind where Banisto used to be located), and the edge of the pavement is already eroding from rain activity. Toward the top center of the first picture where there is a faint image of a car there is a section of the roadway itself (not the edge) that has literally disintegrated. I estimate that missing pavement area conservatively to be about 40 to 50 square feet in size.

Are we getting quality road work?

In general I agree with Doug’s assessments.

This article makes me wonder what the real agenda is for the Chamber of Commerce. Are they positioning for next year’s elections? Something else?

Any chance that the Millicom takeover of CableOnda has something to do with these outages? See http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/10681-millicom-buying-majority-shareholding-in-cableonda/

Just a thought.

14 minutes ago, Keith Woolford said:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested on Friday that China is bribing senior leaders in Panama.

"SECRETARY POMPEO: I think if you go look at President Xi’s stated intentions, you can clearly see that China has a plan that is different than the one that they had five years ago or even two or three years ago. You see this in their ability to use their money around the world. And I’ve spoken to this. I spoke to it when I was in Panama and I travel the world. I remind countries we welcome commercial competition with China on a fair and reciprocal basis, but when China shows up with bribes to senior leaders in countries in exchange for infrastructure projects that will harm the people of that nation, then this idea of a treasury-run empire build is something that I think would be bad for each of those countries and certainly presents risk to American interests, and we intend to oppose them at every turn."

https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/10/286926.htm

This is a relatively important discussion topic that applies not only to Panama, but to many countries around the world. Not taking sides here, but we see the end result of Chinese influence/expansion as we travel around various parts of this wonderful world we live in.

Recommendation: remain alert and inquisitive. Insist on transparency of governmental agencies and elected officials.

Marcelyn and I recently had dinner at the Papa Rico's place across the street from the Feria here in Boquete. While there we had an interesting conversation with Yaissel Carracedo, who used to work at Mail Boxes, Etc., here in Boquete.

Yaissel decided to go out on her own, and now operates a custom tour service providing 4x4 tours primarily to Volcan Baru area. We thought we would post this information to help get the word out about her tour services. She markets her services via the Internet, principally Facebook and Instagram. Here is her Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/ycarracedo.

You may contact her via cel to 6981-1339.

While attending the first performance of The Olde Timey Radio Show (OTRS) on Friday evening, I used my Nikon D5600 to take video clips of the performances. That camera is a still camera, but it can take movies of limited duration. Some of the movie clips I took did not work because the lighting and/or people in front of the camera caused the focus mechanism to go crazy, but I figure that something is better than nothing.

And so, here are the video clips of many, but not all, of the musical pieces, skits, dances,  etc. Enjoy.

If you did not attend this show, you missed something very entertaining. We are looking forward to the next OTRS.

Our hats off to all who made this show such a success. Thank you.

3 hours ago, Lilly said:

I am a newcomer to this forum, but I felt the need to respond. I lived in Chiriqui for more than ten years. I have been back in the US for two years. I've lived in other countries and traveled the world extensively. Like Bonnie, above, I never saw much of a change over the years. I found the Panamanians to be duplicit, mostly indifferent and sometimes hostile. Perhaps because I came to expect rude behavior early on, it was a self perpetuating thing. For the record, I do speak Spanish, and I lived in David in a regular Panamanian neighborhood. Later I moved 'up' (literally and figuratively) to Boquete.

Many attribute it to a 'lack of service mentality'. And this certainly impacts people who dine out or frequent the economy. But I honestly felt less resentment and coldness when I lived in the Middle East. And, again, having spent so much of my life in other cultures, I am well acquainted with adjusting to them. It was not about my protected little white hiney being all over sensitive.

Back in the USA, I am blown away. The politeness of my fellow citizens is an incredible change for me. Reverse culture shock. "After you." "No, please, after you." I live in a moderately large city and I can leave things like bikes and gas cans and hoses just right outside--there for the picking. Days go by without hearing someone blow a horn. I renewed my driver's license and people at the DMV smiled at me. They went out of their way to make it easy.

I am that one who calls a spade a spade. I spent a decade in Panama being told by one and all that it was all 'cultural'. I call horse pucky. Bureaucracy is one thing. I have spent hours and hours of my life elsewhere on this planet sipping tea and waiting. But there was tea. And idle conversation. And lots of smiles.

In Panama, the delight I could read as I was sent hither and yon for yet another piece of 'proof' was astounding. The times I was simply told something, however incorrect, just to get me out of the way are beyond counting. Exchanging a bed spread at Conway's took an army of supervisors. I became accustomed to fetching my own condiments, to chasing the joven for a glass of water and tissue paper for napkins in all but the priciest of restaurants. Perhaps I define a culture in a far different way than most, but stubbornness and willful ignorance are a sad thing to have to 'accept' because that's just the way it is. 

And so I left. So, y'all don't even have to go there. I gave it a good try. Spent the time and saw the breathtaking beauty. Made some friends I will keep. I could even envision living there again, only with no illusions.

Interesting feedback.

Brandy, we have this event on our calendar. Looking forward to it again this year. Marcelyn and I both are soup-a-holics. Plus it supports a good cause.

I have to agree with Dottie on the matter of inventory control systems at PriceSmart. Inadequate, under used, not well understood, or possibly non-existent. Who knows why?

We really do not like the drive to David., but we had to go yesterday for several business needs (not just going to PriceSmart). We like Tuesdays at PriceSmart because those days tend to be less crowded and thus shorter checkout lines.

It turned out that PriceSmart did not have three of the items on our shopping list. Two of the items are things that really should be available all the time (IMO): paper dinner napkins, and baguettes. The third item was the spritzer bottles that are used to dispense cleaning liquids; we could understand and accept those bottles not being in stock. But not having napkins and baguettes???

At least our other errands in David were successful.

Just curious how this will play out for US citizens residing permanently in Panama. Will animosity increase? Hopefully not, but who knows for sure when it comes to these kinds of issues.

28 minutes ago, Brundageba said:

Duhhhhh.....the dry season.   

You got it right. Duh.

This lengthy jail term seems to be a step in the right direction, albeit a small step.

As for Alison's question: resources to help wayward youth, be they imprisoned or otherwise -- you gotta be kidding. As commented in other articles posted here and on other media, Panama has not committed the appropriate resources to basic things, such as education, water purity, health care, etc. This is not just my opinion, but one shared by many.

Alison, good thought, and maybe it will happen someday.

We recently had to have some additional checks printed for our primary checking account here in Boquete. I was stunned today to learn that the cost for that "service" was $26.76, and that was for only 100 checks. Without even being a rocket scientist, it was easy to figure out that each check costs a bit over $0.26. Wow!

Add that charge to the $0.10 per check written for processing through the Panama banking system, and each check that we issue costs almost 37 cents just for the clerical function of writing a check.

Our US bank provides pre-printed checks gratis. Such a difference in mindset (or efficiencies?).

The bottom line message here is to pay bills by direct transfer or credit card when possible.

El Santuario area went out at 8:40PM last night, and had fits and starts until about 2:00AM this morning. We are back on the grid now. It was horrible during that outage. I unplugged as much as I could.

Just after the outage began, I tried calling the electric utility, but could not get in. The phones were busy, busy, busy. That told me that it was a wide area outage rather than just our neighborhood.

We also felt a tremor while without electricity, but I did not look at the clock. It lasted about 10 to 15 seconds, and felt kinda weak, like a 2.0 or less.

Here is another dashcam extract. Totally unintentional to do this twice in one week. But it is what it is.

In this 25 second video clip look closely to the right of the blue car that is parked next to Sabroson and you will see what we saw. You can see the man in the orange shirt is the "offender," and the man in the blue shirt was doing the removal from Sabroson.

Here is a case of where some "clamping down" by the police should be applied. This happened earlier this week. This video clip is from our dashcam recorder. It is a 41 second clip as we were exiting Boquete just before noon on Tuesday, September 4th.

In this case are three incidents in less than one minute of people driving over the center divider line: a taxi, a bus, and a vehicle. It was the bus that was the scariest. We were within one inch (not exaggerating here) of hitting, and note that I had completely stopped and honked and flashed my lights. The bus driver still came on without reducing speed or moving further to his right until we were side by side.

42 minutes ago, Whskyman said:

I trust that everyone on this site, who is eligible to donate, is on the blood donor list maintained by Hospice (yes, I am).  Encourage your friends and neighbors to do so also. It is a simple process and you just might help save a fellow human being's life.  I myself, have a rare blood type, but have already been called upon to donate twice within six months.

Just my $.02?

Yes, we both are on the Charlotte's donor list. I am a "universal donor" (O-). However, age and our frequent travels outside of Panama work against us as being acceptable.

The one time that the requirements were waived (a dire situation for the patient), I went to Hospital Chiriqui to donate, but had a really bad experience. After many hours and two chats with the attending doctor, I finally just left because my perception was that the hospital staff just didn't seem to care if I donated or not.

I am of the opinion that there needs to be a MAJOR overhaul of the blood collection and handling process for this area (and perhaps the entire country, but my experience is limited to the Chiriqui Province).

P.S., Charlotte Lintz deserves a lot of praise for the service she provides as a blood donor coordinator for our community. And a nice lady, as well.

Not many people can say that they live close to a castle. Those of us here in El Santaurio can claim such. I have known the original owners of the castle from before it was even built, but they recently relocated to another area here in Boquete.

About a year and a half ago the new owner's of the castle converted it into lodging for travelers, and named it Bambuda Castle. We understand it is very well received and popular with the backpackers, especially those from Europe. And so they added some yurts to increase their lodging capacity.

Now in the very recent past (the past week), one of the yurts has "become hairy" with the addition of what we believe to be grass that totally encloses the outer shell. Interesting conversation item.

The below picture shows two of the yurts, with the forward most displaying its new covering, and the rear one looking like it is getting ready to also grow hair.

Thanks for this feedback. Will pass it on.

Bottom line seems to be that few things are easy here.

We have been approached by a friend who is "computer challenged" (more properly, illiterate) with a question about options for automobile license renewals when the owner is not in-country during the renewal month. I thought for a moment, and then concluded that we don't know that answer. This person has a residence, proper documentation (of residency and the automobile), etc., but frequently spends months outside of Panama. We thought about asking the Car Guy (Keith) privately, but concluded this is something that perhaps others in our community may wish to know as well.

What option(s) does someone have for legally proper automobile license renewal when they are not in-country? This person really does not want someone driving his vehicle (presumably because of liability issues, given the crazy drivers in this area). Can he renew early? What are the penalties, issues, and exposures if renewing late? Obviously the car revisado is something that gets wrapped into this process; can revisados be done early?

In the recent past PriceSmart changed the packaging of their hamburger meat. To my way of thinking that meant that they changed supplier. The label still says it is a PriceSmart “select offering”. Our experience is that the “new” hamburger meat is less flavorful and more tough. And perhaps a bit more gristle content. The “prior” hamburger meat was so much better.

Are we looney or do others experience the same?

A friend recently sent me this anecdote that caused to me laugh very energetically. I then shared it with some of my local friends and they too laughed energetically. I have no idea if this event really happened, but regardless, it is worth reading for a good laugh.

Quote

No English dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between these two words -- COMPLETE and FINISHED. In a recently held linguistic competition in London and attended by supposedly the best in the world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese man, was the clear winner with a standing ovation which lasted over 5 minutes.

The final question was: How do you explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED in a way that is easy to understand? Some people say there is NO difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED.

Here is his astute answer: When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE. When you marry the wrong woman, you are FINISHED. And when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!!

He won a trip to travel the world in style and a case of 25 year old rum.

We recently had need to visit the Gas Natural Fenosa (GNF) office in David. It used to be located across the street from the large Multibank branch in central David. However, when we got there this week the facility had been vacated and locked up tight. A few minutes later in yet a different business, we asked a super dooper friendly Panamanian lady, unknown to us, if she knew where GNF was located, and she said across from Multibank. We told her of our experience a few minutes earlier and she said, “Oh, I didn’t know that, but I have a friend who works there”. She then texted her friend, and learned that GNF had recently relocated to Galería Central. We knew exactly where Galería Central is because there is a Subway sandwich shop there and we really like their César Pollo wraps (cheap, good food ?) for lunch while running errands in David.

Here is a Google maps link to show you where Galería Central is located (across the street from the Federal Givernment House): Galería Central.

We also have to say that there are some super dooper friendly and helpful people here. That helps offset some of the pain from poor electrical service where we live and the horrible condition of the roads in Boquete.