Not only did Ray and I have the opportunity to have breakfast with our friends Nancy and Paul, Owners of Sunrise Sunset Bed and Breakfast in Sora, this morning, but we also had the chance to meet Brenda and Dave and enjoy conversation with them before they set off for the day to El Valle.
Go here to read and learn more about Sunrise Sunset Guest House Bed and Breakfast >>>> http://www.sunrisesunsetgh.com)
Brenda has been following my blog, and we have been email pen pals, for several months. She is now here for ten days touring Panama as a possible retirement destination. Not only did we have a lovely morning enjoying Nancy and Paul's delectable breakfast (I need recipes!) and staring at the amazing views they have looking out onto the Pacific Ocean along with up at the Machu Picchu Mountain in Altos Del Maria, but we had good conversation trading ins and outs of Panama. After reading my post about Woody's House of Hope, Brenda wanted to contribute to the young women living in the house in some way. She gave me two large tote bags full of school supplies for Woody's House of Hope, and she also gave Nancy and I gifts from Canada of Ice Wine. Ice Wine, as explained to me today by Brenda, is a dessert wine that is produced from the grapes being frozen while they are still on the vine. I echoed Nancy's comment of "the sweeter, the better". The production of it is difficult in that the grapes must be picked at a moment's notice when it's cold enough. There is a limited supply of this wine, and Canada and Germany produce the most of it. It truly was a lovely way to spend a Wednesday morning. Go to the link below to read more about Ice Wine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine
Before getting on with the rest of the day, I also have to give a huge shout out to Nancy and Paul for the wonderful meal they served us. This is much needed information for all those that are looking for a clean, fresh, homey, and beautiful place to stay when visiting Panama. First there was a bottomless cup of coffee for Carol Rockefeller over here (I guess soon I will have to explain that nickname given to me--have I explained it already?), all I could eat food such as sour cream coffee cake, biscuits and sausage gravy (which I have always declined when at Ray's mom's house, sorry now, but I did have the gravy on the side so as not to destroy my love for biscuits, if I didn't share the love for the gravy), and Nancy's to die for breakfast cheesecake. Eggs were offered, but who wants eggs when we can have all of that and more! Oh, I forgot to add that Paul made us "fresh off our trees" fruit smoothies!
I hope Brenda and Dave have an inspiring ten days here in Panama. I have been totally inspired and delighted by the friendliness of everyone that I have met here in Panama these past five months and also those I have met through this blog and the blogging world. Besides the friendships, blogging has provided me with valuable information about Panama, I have been taught many new things and learned important lessons, and to top it off (the best part), I am able to give back even if just a little bit here and there to Woody's House of Hope!
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| Coronado and Pacific Ocean |
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| Me, Dave and Brenda |
After our visit in Sora (this is very close to Altos del Maria community, another large expat community about thirty minutes from our house), Ray and I had a few errands to run and then I made a bee line to the gym. Can you blame me! Once again, I had the place to myself even though it was noon. There were quite a few men floating on noodles in the pool with women reading books on their tablets. With Carnivale approaching on Friday, many towns are getting the gear up and ready. Capira yesterday had the large statues lining the street ready for the parade. On the way to the gym, there were men uprighting a large overhead metal frame advertising Panamanian beer, Balboa Ice. This is the road to Punta Chame beach and Nitro City. There is another one up inside Gorgona near the entrance to Bahia Condominiums.
Back to valuable information (even though writing about food is always a great thing) about Panama City, and things that have to be done when living in Panama (required or just to make life easy). Ray and I ran into the city to accomplish a few more errands with one of them to get a Panapass for our car. Here in Panama there are two different toll cards. There is one for the Corredor Sur and one for the Corredor Norte, and now these two systems are going to merge into one with the Panapass. The Panapass is an electronic toll collection system. Every car needs to have this installed by July, 2015 (the month keeps changing, of course). It's a sticker that goes onto the car (in our case, it was stuck onto our sunroof window), and this will allow us to drive right through the toll booths (like the E-Z Pass along the East Coast of the US). There are two installation centers (one near Albrook Mall, and the other is near the Atlapa Convention Center), and the installation is free. We no longer will need to recharge the toll cards at the toll booths, and we gave authorization to have the charges billed to our credit card. There is a another option if you don't have a credit card or don't want to automatically have your credit card charged which is a pay as you go system. This is supposedly going to ease traffic during rush hour in Panama City. We chose Atlapa Convention Center as our destination for having the sticker applied, since this center was close to the other areas we had to stop at throughout the day. The good is that it is very orderly at this station. And there was the usual person there selling water, soda and Gatorade in case you get thirsty while you wait in your car in line. The bad is that no matter what...practice patience. No one is in any hurry. We arrived to the station at 10:30 and left at 11:15. First thing is being placed into a line by a man wearing a security vest, and then, once in this line, it's anyone's guess what line of the next three will be the first to move. Just pick a line. It's a lot like being at the airport and trying to decide if you should go to the left or right through security (or standing on line at an amusement park and having to que up--the rewards of this are more fun though). Once you are pulled up to the blue booth (like a drive through window at a fast food restaurant), the nice man then took our Cedula card (or have a copy of your passport and title to car with you) and put information into his computer. A girl (this is the slowest walk ever from the booth to the passenger side door) comes out of the booth like a turtle (our girl did, but maybe the others had more spring in their step) and places the sticker on the window. Forms are filled out, and there are four places to sign your name on these forms. This part takes all of ten minutes. Once you drive away from the booth, there is a stoplight. This light picks up the sticker, and if all is in good working condition, you get a green light to go (this is the test portion).
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| Approaching the blue booths |
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| Pick a line, any line |
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| The red light ahead is the light that will test the sticker. |
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| Many blue booths and many cars |
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| This girl puts our sticker on our window |
Having checked this off our list of things to do, we then stopped and shopped at Discovery Center, PriceSmart, and then once back in our area, we decided to stop in at La Teca for Happy Hour. At first I had no real desire to go last night, but Greta Sherman was signing her book, The Humpty Dumptys. As she told me last night, it is going to be a disturbing read since it is based on her life about child abuse, but the outcome is good obviously, since she was there signing books! She resides in Kentucky and also here in Coronado, and I recognized her as being part of the TV show, House Hunters International. I thought I would go to support her and her newest book along with Ray and I meeting other people at happy hour. And it didn't disappoint. The last few times Ray and I had been to La Teca for happy hour, it had grown quiet in the rainy season. Summer season has this place hopping, and we spoke with many people that frequent the restaurant not once, but twice a week. We will have to go and enjoy dinner there sometime soon.
Carnivale is approaching this Friday which means heavy traffic, crowded beaches and grocery stores, parties, loud music and fireworks. Ray and I have been frequenting restaurants this past week visiting with old and new friends catching up with Greg and Thea at Gourmet Pizza and meeting their dearest friends from the US along with dining with our newest friends from Canada (and winter neighbors here in Panama!) at Bluwater Bistro. This is all as a just in case we decide to stay locked in and be shut ins this coming weekend!
Tomorrow Ray and I are driving to Penonome (to beat the Carnivale crowd on the road) to Woody's House of Hope. I picked up the donation box tonight from Picasso's that was stuffed to the rim with bags and bags of donated supplies. I have the school supplies donated by Brenda to drop off as well! And I want to add a final coat of paint onto the one wall that was shortchanged some paint a week ago. I am so excited for MC to see the donated supplies! And then we may batten down the hatches and camp out here in our home in Chame for the holidays. Our town is having parties, and our hope is to walk the town and see the Queen crowned, or to see something festive at some point. We merely have to leave the house and walk a few blocks. It is our first Carnivale in Panama, and our only Carnivale in this town of Chame. In another post, I will eventually blog about our move to a town called Rodeo Viejo. I will blog about our mixing it up a bit and deciding to buy a new house in a community called Azura rather than "living here for six months and perhaps El Valle for six months and then maybe Boquete for six months". Words spoken a year ago by the both of us. But also said was "who knows what we might end up doing" in this thing called retirement.
Go to this link for a preview of our house--the Anton model--and the community we are moving into within the next two months >>> http://www.azurapanama.com
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