ANOTHER HOLIDAY (WHICH MEANS???)....

Martyr's Day is today.  It is a Panamanian holiday commemorating the riots over Sovereignty (in 1964) of the Canal Zone.  Sovereignty in this case I would think means "a self-governing state".  There had been unrest in the Canal Zone of Panama, but the riot actually started when a Panamanian flag was torn.  The conflict was between Panamanian students and the Canal Zone Police officers, over the right of the flag to be flown next to the US flag.  Read about it more here:  http://thepanamanews.com/wp/?p=2150
This past week, the US Embassy put out an alert to "sensitivity" of Sovereignty Day, as some call this day, and for Americans to be alert over their own personal security.  It is a public holiday in which shops and offices will be closed, which brings me to my selfish point here.

Last night while dining at Bluwater Bistro (after a fabulous meet and greet happy hour at Bahia Playa Serena in Gorgona) with Ray, Greg and Thea, my veneer once again fell off my bottom front tooth.  Dr. Wong had warned me of this last August.  But we were optimistic at my dental cleaning appointment in November that it was, for the most part, nicely re-cemented.  Then, thinking back, I started eating raw carrots and celery this week.  Sheesh.  There goes the veneer on my second bite.  It either fell off in my bowl of Asian Stir Fry, or I just swallowed it with that bite.   Which brings me to the pickle I am here.  Today is a holiday.  The roads are a mess again.  There are three dentists within ten minutes of one another, and not one of the offices is open.  One dentist has Saturday hours, but will they be open tomorrow?  Or is it an extended holiday weekend?  I don't know, because when I call the office, the message is in rapid Spanish.  Tomorrow, I will try to get in to be seen, and even if I cannot have a temporary crown made (which a crown would be the next step from having this veneer done, and since I retired as a dental hygienist, I do know this for sure), I will ask to have some good old composite "bonding" material slapped on that tooth until I can get an appointment in about a week.  Because the other pickle I am in (glad this tooth doesn't hurt me, and by the way, I have never had a dental emergency before in missing a part of tooth in all the years I was right there in the dental office), is that on Sunday we leave for the city.  And on Monday we are taking a ferry to Contadora Islands for a four day "vacation".  So I will either get something done tomorrow OR be looking my best on vacation.  Can't really do much of anything else.  Ray, Greg and Thea better not poke fun at me.

 After our trip, I will post more about this island but from what I know so far, it is the eleventh largest island of the Pearl Islands archipelago (out of two hundred islands and islets) in the Gulf of Panama.  It has an area of 1.39 km, or just about 1 mile.  This is the island where the Spanish counted the pearls that were harvested from other islands.  Contadora means "the one that counts" in Spanish.  There was an underwater epidemic, though in early last century, which killed most of the oysters.  Thus, the pearl count has since been greatly reduced.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Islands

Enough, or actually, one more thing about dentistry and my tooth, BUT this goes to prove a point I used to always tell my patients (why didn't I heed my own advice?) in that it is ALWAYS BEST to pick a good time to get the work that is being recommended, suggested, and/or "watched" on YOUR time.  Don't wait for things to happen, because then you might be in Panama, like me, during a holiday with the dental offices closed.  Just sayin'.

Well, this past Saturday Ray and I enjoyed a pleasant road trip (one hour) to El Valle to see our wonderful friend, Tonette.  We had visited her before our trip home to Virginia, and we offered to bring her a few staples from the grocery stores here in Coronado.  We fell in love with her seven week old kitten, Tito, had a freshly made and delicious lunch at the Butterfly Cafe (next to the Butterfly Garden) and chatted for hours at her casita, the restaurant and her casita some more.  We also visited with a good friend of hers who is moving back to the States.  While at her house (which happens to be a house Ray and I thought we might rent in El Valle, so it was great to see it firsthand), we met another woman that lives in Gorgona nearby.  Tonette was able to gather a few things for her kitten that this friend would not be taking to the States, and we drove it all back to her casita for her.  We met her landlord and friend, Tony, along with Tony's housekeeper.  She is the one that is really helping Tonette along with her Spanish.  I am so impressed by her.    She is a joy to be with, and I hope to make many more visits to El Valle to "check in". 

Tito in the jungle.

Tito takes a quick nap.

Lovely lady, Tonette, Tito and me in her gardens near the pond.

Since Sunday, Ray and I have been busy running the road.  Not really.  We came off of pool and beach days to settling into a routine of pool and beach days haha  Last Sunday we went to the city early, since all of the Panamanians and vacationers would be leaving LATER, and spent the day at two malls, having lunch at P.F. Chang's, finding new roads around the city (it was EMPTY, so this was easy to do), and we saw a movie.  While parking at Multiplaza Mall where we have been to often (we stayed at the Marriott there many times), we noticed for the first time that in the parking garage there are numbers and lights.  The electronic numbers are at the end of each row of parked cars indicating how many empty spaces are available on that row.  Once you drive down the row, there are lights overhead signaling you to the empty space.  Ingenious.  We haven't seen this anywhere before.  Clever, and in a third world country at that!  We also drove around Costa Verde which is a development with different neighborhoods of large, and very large, homes, shops, restaurants, schools, medical facilities, a church (one that I saw), and a lot of preserved green space.  After the movie, I did win seventy dollars at the casino (penny slots), so Ray decided I was a keeper still.  We then proceeded to park along the highway and wait for an incoming phone call from our friends, Greg and Thea.  They were to arrive at the airport that night from Denver, Colorado.  On our trip back to the interior, we were amazed at the traffic heading back to the city at ten pm!  It was Northern Virginia rush hour traffic at its finest hour!  The Panamanians leave the beaches late Sunday, and then they face a four plus hour commute back to the city.  The tractor trailer truck drivers pulled their rigs onto the shoulder one after the other.  No sense trying to get up and over the mountain in dead stop traffic.  We saw miles and miles of oncoming lights while we had a quick trip back to their home in Coronado.  

The week flew by with "mundane" trips to the gym, store, beach and more.  On Tuesday, we drove to a new meat market/butcher shop near the fish market in Rio Hato.  This is about a thirty minute drive from me.  We managed to ask questions about the types of meat this butcher had in his freezers.  His freezers house a ton of beef, pork, hamburger, and lamb.  Greg and Thea came along for the ride, so while "out west", we showed them Playa Blanca resort's seventeen acre pool and beach area.  They had been down the long stretch of road off the InterAmerican Highway before, but they had not ventured into this resort.  We then wanted to check out Santa Clara again.  Ray and I have friends coming to visit in the coming months, so the four of us decided to stop at Veranos (name might be spelled wrong), a restaurant on the beach there, for lunch.  Ray and I had been to this beach with my sister and nephew in October, 2012.  I just read on TripAdvisor that an old restaurant had been torn down sometime after April, 2012, and there would be two beach restaurants built (which explains why when we were there, there really was only a shower and bathroom area with parking spaces).  Thea and I walked the beach and noticed a fonda alongside the restaurant.  There are palapas that can be rented through the female "jefe" (boss) at the restaurant, which makes this place a worthwhile place to hang out on the beach!  Food, drinks, shade, changing facilities, and more.  The fried chicken and ceviche (corvina) was delicious and the service, for the most part being Panama, was pretty quick and efficient.  

Brief interruption here about the winds of Panama.  WOW!  Sitting on the porch with my laptop listening to the magnets that hold up the screens fly off the doors (there goes having our homemade screens up on the doors in summer/windy season), and I sometimes have to hold my laptop down during the cool gusts.  I just had to race to the other side of the porch, grab magnets and then race back making sure my laptop and other accessories on the table didn't fly off and break!  The laptop lid itself blows shut as well.  WOW!  No complaints here, because I love being outside on my porch.  

Banana boat in the pool.

Cutting pork ribs. 

Here are pictures of the beach and our day out Tuesday.

Man with aquatic jet pack on feet.  

Restaurant

Wide beach (I remember it well from 2012)

Fried chicken

Ceviche

Beach and island

The rest of the week has been the usual again with going to the gym where I met a wonderful Canadian couple.  They hope to move here to this part of Panama, so we made plans to chat at a Happy Hour soon enough.  Ray and I went to Picasso's happy hour.  We usually arrive after five pm, and this past Wednesday was the same, only this time (summer season), it was packed!  Not a table or chair to be found, but I think this was even better for us.  While standing and moving around the restaurant, we met several vacationers and others that have been living here in Panama for a year to nine years!

Thursday morning we recapped our Spanish with our teacher, and we reviewed what we had missed over the past seven weeks.  She added a few more words and conjugations to our already over half full notebook to learn, since we will miss our lesson in the coming week.  We then went to the CASA meeting where we were to discuss and suggest possible ways to improve the road conditions at the entrance to Coronado.  There is a woman that will go to the Mayor of Chame to ask what it is we need to do to start a safety assessment of this area.  At the end of the meeting, many people were going to stay to make and decorate crowns for the Kings Day party that CASA is holding for the children in San Carlos.  The date of the party had been changed to this coming Sunday, and because of our trip, Ray and I are now unable to participate or attend the party.  We decided not to stay for the crown making and decorating festivities.  We left the party with another couple to show them a new housing development that is being built ten minutes west of Coronado.  This couple lives in Sora (I have mentioned them before, Paul and Nancy), and they own a bed and breakfast.  I have "virtual" friends, or blog followers, that are staying in their bed and breakfast soon (I had recommended this to them), so I hope to visit soon with Paul and Nancy and meet this new couple.  Thursday night, while at the Bahia happy hour, Ray and I were able to put names to faces we have seen for sometime, and we were also able to meet up with many people that we continuously see at these outings and events, but we had yet to actually talk to them.   We then enjoyed a wonderful meal at Bluwater Bistro, and despite not having the pork chops we had originally ordered and longed for--they are just that good--Chef Sacha came out along with the owner, George, to apologize and cook us up Asian Beef stir fry using the last of the filets.  He couldn't have made anything better for us!  And this is where I lost my veneer.  So it goes.

Let's see if tomorrow is another day with a visit to the dentist in store for me, perhaps shopping, and packing up for yet another vacation in this retirement of ours here in Panama.

  Oh, and this is what I saw on the InterAmerican Highway, and at an outdoor furniture store the other day:

Those are two reindeer riding in that truck with garland along the base.  (The heads are facing my car.)

Pigs in the back of the outdoor furniture store. (Four of them)