Uncle Doug

I couldn't find any in town on Monday. Super Baru got some in on Tuesday. 

Onions are a price-controlled item in Panama. If farmers can't get a fair price for growing onions, they will plant something else instead.

That is hilarious!! I need some!

I'm still at a loss as to what I'm supposed to use to carry my cat's poop to the trash can.  I don't think my reusable grocery bag is a good alternative. 

I'm assuming that yellow curbs mean the same thing as red curbs in the USA?

4 hours ago, Moderator_02 said:

Is this a purge or a punishment for personnel that did not follow the Martinelli administration line?

What does Martinelli have to do with it? Cortizo is not even from the same political party, and was last in power 5 years ago.

It doesn't make economic sense.  A dollar bill costs 5 cents to print.  Even presuming 0% inflation for 20 years, you will spend 50 cents on the same dollar bill.

Of course most of the money is going to be spent in Panama City.  The greater metropolitan area of Panama City is about 1.5 million out of the 4 million total population of the country.  That will never change, nor should it.

I always assume that all other vehicles are planning to kill me.

Varela was supposed to be the opposite of Martinelli, and in a way he was.  There is no indication that he was corrupt, but also unlike Martinelli, he didn't get much accomplished.  He stalled and stalled on appointing judges, did nothing to root out corruption in the courts or in the Assembly.  He wouldn't even investigate Orderbrecht until the international community did it for him.  He did get a lot of frequent flier miles, though. To the extent he had anything to do with the construction of the new Panamonte bridge, I thank him for that.

Looks like a pretty intense fire. Looks like the metal roof suffered extensive heat damage.   The concrete block is all intact, but it looks like a flashover fire occured inside. Everything flammable inside the house would have caught fire. They have my sympathy.

Holy Toledo, that is a major wipeout im the Assembly. But before I get too excited, it might just be 69 new crooks.

Sounds all fine and good, but we shall see if any of that happens.

Holy Smokes. These people should apply for asylum in their home country at the American Embassy.

It would be nice to know which 25% is going to get clobbered.

Interesting. I'm sorry at least one family had a very bad day.  I would think that house fires are very rare in Panama, as most everything is cinderblock construction.  I'm sure there are some exceptions.

At first I thought my cat had jumped on the bed, and then maybe a kangaroo.  I was in a deep sleep and it took me a few seconds to realize the whole world was bouncing. 

Baru isn't coming to life, at least not at present. The last known steam vents became inactive 7 or 8 years ago. It appears to  be getting really dead.

The USGS warns this can change.  I think it wants about a million years after an eruption to declare a volcano truly dormant, and it's been about 500 years since Baru last erupted. We apparently have a while to wait before we can truly know we're in no danger.

Isn't it unusual that we haven't had any aftershocks?

It really shook in Palo Alto. No apparent damage, but I don't think homes are supposed to bounce !

The East side of the Caldera sure seems to get more outages than the rest of greater Boquete. It wasn't even stormy last night when the power went off. 

I am so looking forward to the end of the Maduro regime.  The suffering he has caused is immeasurable. 

I spent some time with the mayoral candidate for Boquete this afternoon,  Joswar Alvarado.  Of course, I'm not allowed to vote, but he has a vision for Boquete including an office for foreign residents and fixing all the dang sidewalks in town and beyond. 

Not that it really matters too much, but it seems unusual not to identify which hostel was involved.

The US has imposed very nasty and expensive regulations on Panama banks with accounts owned by US citizens. Scotia apparently is making an effort to get rid of their American account holders. While regrettable, it's somewhat understandable. 

I need to  clean out my gutters, but I really want some serious rain around here.