On 7/24/2016 at 7:09 PM, Bonnie said:

Uncle Doug, the author appears to be a man named Jeremy Kryt.

My take is that "culebra" would have no meaning for most readers of The Daily Beast. Its translation into English, on the other hand, adds an exotic dimension not offered by most translated words.

Yep, I misread the intro and assumed Kathy Reichs was on assignment for The Beast.  Good catch!

I'm not sure how much to care about geographic names, especially when the primary audience is not local. I see flights to Nuevo York on the departure monitor at Tocumen.  

On the other hand, nobody at all refers to Rio Culebra as "Serpent River".  The headline at The Beast was clearly crafted to make Americans click on the link. 

I don't know that this series will shed any new light on what most of us have previously learned from the tragedy and the investigation.  We shall see.

I'm sure it got the writer a trip to Boquete on her expense account.  Nice job if you can get it.

Oh boy.  This could get ugly.

Death on the Serpent River: How the Lost Girls of Panama Disappeared

Good!  Watch those school zones tomorrow! 

Price controls almost always lead to problems with supply.  If there is little or no profit to be made selling at the legal maximum, then the producer would be stupid to continue to produce that item.  If the price is set too high, the consumer is harmed and being forced to pay windfall profits to the producer.

It's not helpful to anyone if the price is 60 cents/lb.  and none are available at that price.

Perhaps price controls make sense as an emergency measure following a disaster or disruption to prevent price gouging, but an argument can even be made against that.  In general, price controls just ultimately backfire.

My two (price controlled) cents...

2 hours ago, Bud said:

It is my understanding from the driver that we use while in PC that cash is NOT accepted at the Panapass toll booths. You MUST have their Panapass card, or there are stiff penalties. I am only relaying what I have been told, not basing this on first hand knowledge.

Yes, I accidentally took the wrong fork at Albrook and entered the toll road. I realized my error in less than one second.  Too bad.  

You may be able to discreetly work it out with the officer at the side of the road, but there is no way to simply pay a toll, or apologize and turn around. Once you are on the onramp without a Panapass, it's going to be no fun at all.

Smuggling drugs into Panama??  That seems unnecessary.  

In any event, the attacks on e-shop were unwarranted.  I have had everything from a small envelope to a large rug shipped through them without a hitch. 

Does anyone know the logic behind the prohibition of foreign ownership of lands along the border?

The cost of obtaining an E-Cedula is certainly far less than the cost for border hop trips over the life of the card.  And of all the forms of ID I can carry (passport,  permanent visa carnet, drivers license, or cedula,) it seems to me that the "expected" form of ID to present is my E-Cedula.  I can keep the visa card and passport safe at home.

Other than having to make a trip to Panama City for the photo, it was pretty painless.

Holy smokes, I had no idea that the waiting list was so long here in Panama.  I had a hernia caused by shoveling snow a year and a half ago (no, I don't miss snow here) and I thought waiting three weeks was a long time to get it repaired in the USA.  Time goes by a little more slowly when you have a painful hernia. I don't know how your gardener does it, Bonnie.

Best wishes to your friend, Fred.

Looks must be deceiving.  I've seen bigger surf on lakes. 

I guess that what makes the riptides so dangerous.

21 hours ago, TwoSailors said:

This is great! What's next?

Actual house and business numbers?

How difficult would this be to implement in town, even unofficially?  It's really not that complicated to cooperate to number a block of buildings.  Business owners should be motivated to help new customers locate their place of business, I'd think.

This isn't exactly a radical concept that has never been successful when implemented.

Thanks, Keith.  That's not a very big quake, but when the epicenter is smack in the middle of your own living room....

I felt it, too.  Of course, we're neighbors.

One sharp jolt.  If the epicenter was directly under Palo Alto, I would estimate something under a 4.0.  It was very brief, though.

2 hours ago, Woody said:

I never heard of an epi-pen until I read your message.  Sounds like something that belongs in our emergency medical kit.  Can they be bought at the local pharmacies?

Copious amounts of red wine dulls the pain of the sting.  I know where to get that.

I have yet to see a scorpion (disclosure: I've only been living here fulltime for the past 5 months), but I seem to be getting increasingly allergic to insect stings.  A wasp popped me on the back of the neck a couple of weeks ago, and I started itching everywhere and developed some hives.  The symptoms passed within a couple of hours, but I think I'd better get an epi-pen in case I do run into scorpions eventually.  If they aren't available here, then it might make sense to get one on a trip up north.

I've actually been amazed at how few bugs I see around the house, even outdoors.

Thanks, Phyllis.  I've given some clothes to my gardener, but I have plenty more that he can't use.  I'll hang on to them.

When I moved here last year, I brought far more clothes than I should have.  This is even after donating what I thought was half of my wardrobe to Goodwill or other charities in the US prior to loading the container.  Does Boquete have any charity that receives gently used clothing?  My closets here are much smaller, and I really don't need 500 shirts and 700 socks after all...

To bring a little closure to the question, I decided to contact the County Clerk in Pennsylvania directly.  In my former life up there, I had a lot of interaction with the clerks in various counties in the region.  While state law governs (and each state can set their own requirements), the sad fact in many counties is that the County Clerk runs his or her own little fiefdom, and if they don't want to accept a document for recording for any reason, too bad.  They will return it to you until you prepare it to their satisfaction.

In my case, it is going either obtain the consulate notarization or get a local notary but have it apostilled in Panama City.  Only those two choices.  There is no visit from the Consulate scheduled for David at this time. So, I must travel with my wife to PC.

The Consulate doesn't notarize after 9:45 in the morning, so arriving on the 9 am flight into Albrook probably doesn't allow time to get the deed notarized the same day.  I would think that US Government employees might work a whole morning each day, but apparently not.  Since they charge $50  per acknowledgment, you'd think they could afford to be open all day.

1 hour ago, Keith Woolford said:

The Panamanian Notary is simply witnessing or authenticating your signature on the document, Doug.

A notarized document may then be apostilled by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores in Tumba Muerto.

Well, that hardly helps!  The only Tumba Meurto I can find is a neighborhood in Panama City (which is where I'd expect all Ministries to be, anyhow...)  It would be easier to skip a step and make the trek to the American Consulate.  At least it's only one appointment. Ugh.

That is really bizarre.  The hardest part of the process is somehow proving that the Panamanian notary is a notary, not that it was me who signed the document...

Okay, the next step is to try to sweet talk the County Clerk into saying she doesn't need an apostille.

I'm finally selling my house in the USA and I'm not going back there for closing.  The title company would prefer that my wife and I sign the deed at the US Consulate for the notarization.  I'd prefer not to do so for all the obvious reasons.

The title company tells me that they would accept a Panamanian notary if it is also apostilled.  

Does that even make sense?  Who would apostille a notarization?  (The title company doesn't have a clue.)

I think I have researched the archives at Ning about the subject to death.  Most of the advice falls into a few categories:

1) Get your document notarized at the Municipio across from Romero's -- that works fine.

2) Locate the notary in David for real estate transfers in the US. That is required.

3) Make the trip to Panama City, you lazy cheap numskull.

4) Find a notary, but get the document apostilled, too

I guess #5 would be to have the visiting consulate do this in David, but who knows when that will be....  I need to do this in the next couple of weeks.

I fully understand that the issue is REALLY, "what will the County Clerk in the US require before accepting the deed for recording?", but it's more than that.  I have to satisfy the title company first, and they want an apostille. Has anyone here gotten a notarization apostilled?

And, by the way, is the fact that the acknowledgement is written in English a problem for Panamanian notaries?

So weird.  It's hard to imagine a successful forum which forbids the most knowledgeable and connected residents from participating.  Apparently, since I'm neither of those things, my privileges have not been revoked.

I received this email a few minutes ago.

Quote

Travel Security Online

10 Feb 2016

Panama: Chiriquí province: Truck drivers strike from 15 February likely to cause disruption; reconfirm routes   Members should expect likely disruption to road travel during a strike from 15 February by Canatraca and the Chiriqui truckers' union in Chiriquí province. The work stoppage is being organised due to a dispute over customs policies. Reports suggest that the walkout is likely to involve protesters blocking access to the city of Paso Canoas, located on the border with Costa Rica, on the Pan-American Highway. Travel Advice Reconfirm the status of routes and border crossings before setting out and allow additional time to complete journeys due to the potential for protests and roadblocks. Do not cross any roadblocks, as this may prompt a hostile response from protesters. If you encounter a blockade, turn around and seek an alternative route. Liaise with local contacts for information on any planned demonstrations in your area; avoid all such gatherings due to the potential for clashes between the police and protesters.

The 6:38 shock was the first quake I've felt since moving to Boquete.  It reminded me that I had promised my wife that I would strap our curio cabinet to the wall, but haven't done so yet.  Another Sunday project....

On 1/15/2016 at 8:39 PM, Bonnie said:

 

What about the rest of us who don't live in Jaramillo but cross the bridge to get home? Are the stickers only available from the Jaramillo corregidura, as suggested, or do we get ours from our own Corregidura? If they are permanent and not merely for bridge passage, will other residents be able to get them from their respective Corregiduras after the fair is over? I can't make sense of any of this.

 

Does Palo Alto have its own Corregidura? As a newbie here, I dread trying to find the one in Jaramillo, especially since it's an unmarked house.

The whole thing seems a bit silly since there is no way to prove that you're actually resident here or not.  What would prevent someone from David from getting one?  It seems like a possible false sense of security if the sticker is being used at security checkpoints to wave vehicles through.