2RetireesInPanama: LAST SUNDAY ALL OVER AGAIN

A few lessons learned yesterday, but still so many more I'm sure such as 1) make sure ice bucket in freezer is full and fill all ice trays before going to bed, 2) make sure Tervis' are full of water (these are our water bottles we drink out of) and in the refrigerator the night before, and 3) keep charging to our Marriott credit card so we keep racking up points and free nights as a just in case back up plan (this is a lesson we have no problem practicing).

Saturday Ray and I spent the day exploring Punta Chame. It was my "Sunday drive" on Saturday. We had not driven to the point before, and I wanted to see the beach. I was also curious about Nitro City. Punta Chame is a one road town on a long, wide peninsula, and the road is lined with shrimp farms. From December to April, it is popular with wind and kite surfers. This is when the trade winds come blowing along. Punta Chame sets along the Bahia de Chame. There are caution signs along the road to watch out for the lizards and also the ocean marine life. Apparently the ocean is full of stingrays. Nitrocity is hailed at Panama's first extreme sports resort. It was made famous this past year when Justin Bieber (young musician with huge "Belieber" following) escaped here from Florida after being arrested for drag racing. (He, however, took a boat from Panama City to the point. Imagine if he had made the drive down the long and not so exciting road!) http://www.nitrocitypanama.com
Here is where I saw lizards along the road.

Overcast day

More beach

Along the road, there is a "scenic point" pull off area

Lizard one

Lizard two

Lots of birds hanging out.

Mine looked just like this.

All ready to see pretty fish, coral and starfish (I might scare them)!

Now that's a serving! (I felt jipped at the other PriceMart!)

Cell service is spotty on this road. It was a twenty five minute drive once we turned off the main highway, and while we saw some houses and side streets, there wasn't that much more to see except for tall grasses and shrubs (some areas needed heavy pruning with a machete). Ray sarcastically suggested I call the crew in like I have done in the past at our lake house, but lo and behold, on our return drive away from the point, there were five men with machetes cleaning up the grasses!

After we drove to Punta Chame, we returned home to a wonderful aroma of the Ropa Vieja meal I had thrown in the crockpot. Ropa Vieja means "old clothing" and is a Spanish, Cuban and also Panamanian dish. I wanted to not only break in my new crockpot, but I also thought I would break in this meal on our friends, Clyde and Terry. They were warned that the back up meal would be a large salad with rice. Beef in Panama is not the best. I don't eat a lot of red meat to begin with, but this dish looked tasty enough to me to try. It is flank, brisket or skirt steak soaked with peppers and onions in a tomato based sauce. And for ten hours on low in the crockpot, how could the meat not come out tender. We were not disappointed, because the meat was excellent. Next time I will add a bit more spice to it to give it a little kick, but other than this, I think it tasted pretty good. And in the stores, they sell "Ropa Vieja" beef. So I didn't need to focus on looking for flank or skirt steak. If you want to know a little more about why Panamanian, or Central American, beef is the way it is, then read here: http://elvalleinformation.wordpress.com/panamanian-beefs-toothy-texture/
I like the last paragraph. Basically, it seems the US adds a lot to help the cows out a bit. Here, the cows are on their own. And here is Ropa Vieja (I forgot to take a picture of our meal):
After drinking beer, Ron Abuelo and eating plenty of Ropa Vieja (no wonder the meal was so tasty!), and having more great conversation with Clyde and Terry, I felt good sending them home with full bellies. An hour later we had another wonderful conversation via facetime with out fantastic friends and roomies in Virginia. Chatting with them, seeing them and the puppies along with the almost empty skittles bag gave Saturday a perfect ending to a full day spent with Ray, new friends here in Panama and our dearest friends in Virginia.

Bringing me to Sunday. Good thing we washed up all the dishes Saturday night! (Our four hands are our dishwasher here.) Ray woke to low pressure of water, and I woke to no water. Yep, this never happens here. Then why were there so many bottles of water stashed under the sink (good point, Terry haha)? Okay, off we go to practice our snorkeling in the pool. This will keep us cool for a while, and we can get a little bath in at the same time. The water in the pool was chilly, since the days have been overcast more (we have been getting good rains lately).

Here I am practicing for our big trip to San Blas Islands this week.

Back to the house, I have a talk with Gus about the water situation. He puts in a call to Maribel. She is the chief of the community (turns out he doesn't call the water company, IDAAN, but he calls Maribel). She will give us answers. It seems the water pipe that broke right outside of the gates here to this lovely community was fixed last week, but it wasn't quite fixed correctly. It broke again. "IDAAN will repair it, not today but, tomorrow. And hopefully we will have water tomorrow or Tuesday." I had just read that IDAAN was going to cut off water yesterday to many cities near Panama City for eleven hours to work on who knows what, and I was hopeful that was why we didn't have water. But Clyde and Terry live five minutes away, are also with IDAAN, in Chame, had water. Then I found out it was the water pipe. Well, because everything we buy we try to use our Marriott credit card for (points for hotels, points for airline tickets), we have a number of points to use and a few one night stay vouchers. Just like last Sunday when we had to be in the city for Monica to get the car and the title bright and early Monday, we checked into the same Marriott overnight. We had to be in the city again for Monica today bright and early (nine am) to get the title (since it didn't happen last week, and we only had a scanned copy), and we were also meeting with Priscilla, our insurance agent, at eleven am to pick up all of our insurance cards and paperwork. Deja Vu. We threw a few things into a bag, and we hit the road. We would now avoid having to leave the house at six am to meet Monica at nine am (never know about rush hour traffic just like in the Washington, DC area), we would be able to go back to PriceMart (there is another one right down the street from the hotel) for lunch and to buy a fan (a quieter one) and so much more (pillows, chips, candy, Seco, wine--see where I am headed?), we could get popcorn at the once again crowded movie theater and watch tv in bed. Oh, we would have running water, too. Ray is getting comfortable with the drive to the city little by little. You have to really drive for the others around you here, and always anticipate what could happen, but hopefully it won't, on the highway.

Very productive day yesterday when I had no idea what yesterday would bring us. We bought a few kitchen items that while making dinner the other night (and not just eggs), I discovered I needed (not just wanted). Ray and I found a can opener that opens cans, a larger skillet, a smaller spatula, a pot that doesn't allow rice to stick, and a food chopper/processor. We also bought Ray a backpack for our San Blas tour. We are still looking for a larger trash can with a lid that opens the right way but isn't $35 or more. We ate pizza and fries at PriceMart (this PriceMart's restaurant is outside of the store in a separate air conditioned room--loud but cool), had ice cream later, some chicken nuggets along the way and alas, popcorn in bed with our tv shows on our computer. Good thing I joined a gym. Trouble here, but life is good.

Today we met with Monica at nine am sharp, drove to Multiplaza Mall where we left the car at the Multiplaza Marriott, hopped in a cab for $4 to Priscilla's office (the roads are a mess, and the water in her building has been shut off), had a wonderful chat with her and picked up our papers. We talked about San Blas Islands, our life these past three weeks, and our getting settled in to Panama living. She also told me that starting in the month of September (for the women reading), Pap smears at annual exams are going to be free. My appointment happens to be on Labor Day (next Monday) on the first of the month. Perfect timing. She said it used to be only for the month of October, but they couldn't get all of the appointments into one month, so they have extended it to three months. She told us about registering the car (new tags due in October), and she told us to always call her first on her cell phone, if we have any questions. A beautiful woman both inside and out.

After our meeting with Priscilla, we went to Westland Mall which is where we found Ray's backpack, but we still didn't find a decent trash can. We shopped in El Costo, Titan, Madisons, and Conway. Next we will just look in El Machetazo or my favorite store, Novey. So with more things charged to the credit card, the ice bucket full of ice, all of the ice trays full, more water bottles stashed in the refrigerator and one in the freezer, two pineapples cored, and laundry being washed, things appear to be in tip top shape here in Casa Cuarenta!