Bud

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.

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.

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?

If true, then this is a really sad situation. Javier and Magaly do so much for our community. And our dog was a rescue situation about two years ago by Javier and Magaly. What happens now for the rescue services that they perform? Where will Javier and Magaly go? Hopefully all of the dogs will find new permanent homes soon.

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.

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.

Bonnie, of course we have electricity here in El Santuario. However, it is not as a result of Gas Natural Fenosa. We are on our generator. These outages continue to be an almost daily occurrence for us here at the end of their line. Ugh! ?

Here is another reason to enjoy Boquete. There are so many talented people who live here. This is a picture of work of art done in leaded glass at our home in El Santuario. Chris McCall was the artist behind this beautiful piece. He crafted it about nine years ago. This project took well over a year to construct because there are about 8,000 pieces of glass involved. The overall size is about seven feet by seven feet. This morning's brilliant sun made our Great Room simply glow with beautiful colors provided by this artwork. I couldn't resist taking a picture to share with others. Thank you Chris.

Thanks for all of the pointers here. John provided the best option for us by pointing out the shop close to Duran Coffee in the Don Vidal building. We took Marcelyn's watch there yesterday afternoon. The lady behind the counter was very friendly, answered all of our questions, told us the cost, etc. She informed us that we needed to leave the watch overnight, which we did. We picked up the watch today. New battery installed, watch cleaned. Returned in good working order, and the total cost was $6.42. The name of the business is La Estrella de Oro.

It is my understanding that this missing dog is now back home.

I will forward your request to a good friend who is very well connected with the Chinese community in Panama (being of dual citizenship, and totally fluent in Mandarin, Spanish, and English). It will be up to him whether he responds. Hopefully you can understand our interest in protecting his privacy. He may ask what your interest is, so if you could provide that information in advance it might improve the chance of a positive response.

Thanks, Sheila, for the clarification -- and the good news. I am a bit curious why the voting for the best chili is being taken away from the public. That is part of the fun of this event, imho.

Can anyone identity this guy?

This article tweaks a bit of curiosity in me. First off, it says the $100M is a "loan". That means it is a chunk of money that needs to be paid back, and so I am curious what Panama is going to cut short or deny its citizens in order to repay this "loan". Further, $100M is a LOT of money. What is it that those funds is going to buy? This seems off-base to me. Transparency comes from changes within a culture, to my way of thinking, not something that can be bought. Where am I going wrong here?