2RetireesInPanama: ALMOST IDENTIFIED IN PANAMA

As far as we know, and as of this year anyways (rules change frequently), Ray and I are almost finished with Panamanian agencies. We hope. Today is our 26th anniversary, and after spending a relaxing and lazy late afternoon yesterday on the beach, we were to meet our attorney today at the Tribunal Electoral building to get our E-Cedula cards. And once again, it rained and poured on our way to the city. Someday it will rain and pour, and we will just "hang out at the house" per Ray. Yeah right. Okay, so this card is an official Panamanian ID card. The number on the card is similar to us using our Social Security card for identification (if our driver's license isn't acceptable). We still can't vote here, we don't have citizenship here, this card just makes things more convenient. If we don't have this card, when we renew our passport, we will have to change all the numbers on our driver's license, bank account, etc, because that passport number will change. The E-Cedula number will aways be the same. Just another box checked off once we get this card, and we thought today was the day. Not so fast.

We arrived to the big, stately building (Did I say big? Huge!) at 9:30 am after a ninety minute drive and experienced the joy of trying to find parking. Try parking one hundred cars in a parking lot made for fifty. But with success and patience, we secured a spot. Along a curb. But the curb wasn't yellow and that was a good thing. We hoped. We then walked into the building in search of our attorney.

Parking is on the side, and entrance is in back (although the corridors are at the front)

A very wide building.

She was on her way (did I mention the rain, and then there were multiple car accidents). We were told to go to the fourth floor. Wrong. We found where we needed to be on the first floor. We stood on line and waited for our attorney's letter to come to Ray's email. We then showed the woman what we were on line for with this letter, and we spoke to her in Spanish. She spoke back in English. But we still practiced with each other (she is visiting Jacksonville, FL in January and wants to know English for her trip). At 10:00, she went in search of our paperwork. At 10:20, she found our papers, and she told us to pay ($65 x 2) and have copies made of our passports and Pensionado Visa cards. Our attorney had these copies, but she still had not arrived. We went to PB (which in Panama is the "planta baja", or the ground floor) and paid for the E-Cedula cards. We went to the first floor to have copies made (sixty cents), and funny thing is because we took the steps, we beat another attorney doing the same thing for her client. I liked that we knew a little of what we were doing, and it helped that anytime we walked down a long corridor, there was a guard with a walkie talkie letting the guard at the opposite end know we were coming down. "The Gringos are coming, the Gringos are coming!" That all happened at 10:40, and here it is 11:00 already. Our attorney was waiting for us at the original office where everything starts, and we gave the nice English speaking employee our copies and receipts. We were #21, 22. At 11:25, I was called up to verify my name, my parent's name, by birthdate (had already done this an hour before, but we hadn't signed anything), and then I signed my name twice. Oh, and she had stapled copies of our passport and Pensionado Visa cards to our paperwork. Lots of staples. One stamp. Two signatures. Then at 11:35, Ray was called up to repeat this with his paperwork. Next stop, we had our pictures taken for the cards. Now my hair always starts out sort of looking half-way decent (and Ray's hair is also so manageable), but by 11:45, four hours after I styled it, I can't guarantee I looked like myself (did I mention pouring rain and humidity?). But guess what and get this! We were done with this bureaucratic government process in under two hours! But wait, we don't get the cards until, no not mañana but, next Monday haha

So once we were finished at the big, stately, intimidating Tribunal building (I always think "Indians"), Ray treated me to Smashburger for lunch. I had chicken, of course, but it was still tasty! And those sweet potato fries in rosemary and garlic with olive oil--so good. I have only been to one other Smashburger in Virginia, and I knew I wanted to try the one in Panama City to compare the food. The taste was the same, but the portions--not so great. Oh well, tonight we celebrated with a little Sangria (just a little). I must say it has been such a great past few months with the many people we are meeting here. Ray was telling me tonight that it's so nice to walk up to a counter, see someone familiar and that someone just strikes up a conversation. Everyone is friendly, everyone wants to share and to help, and everyone just wants to get to know each other. And tomorrow we celebrate our anniversary a little more when we try out a new restaurant nearby. And yesterday, we celebrated at the beach. Every day in this thing we call retirement, we celebrate, but this week it is more exciting. Our wonderful anniversary and soon we will celebrate with our daughter, family and friends when we are home for five weeks! Woo hoo! I truly am looking forward to it. It will be odd being home for so long, and then coming back to home in Panama, but we have so much to look ahead to, it is all just so good.