RETIREMENT CONTINUES

After our day at House of Hope last Saturday, Ray and I met up with Greg and Thea along with two other couples at Pantay restaurant.  None of us had been to this restaurant before, and with a jazz band playing, we thought it would be a great place to enjoy a good meal and conversation with our new friends the day before leaving for Cartagena.  The band was wonderful, but the venue was a little too small.  It's nice to have music as "background music", so you can still hear each other talk.  The band should have had a little bit more space, in my opinion.  But I enjoyed my meal of fresh grilled snapper, while Ray had a good dish of Panamanian wings and french fries that I could enjoy, too.  And again, it was fun getting to know everyone a little bit more.

The next morning we took a quick forty-five minute flight to Colombia (on Copa Airline, we were given food and drink for that short of a flight!), and for four days, we enjoyed the Super Bowl in our condominium along with watching half time and almost to the finish of the exciting game at an excellent Mexican restaurant around the corner (yes, Ray won the pool), Colombian food and Colombian super thin crusted and fabulous  pizza (thank you, Greg, for my coffee), walking and shopping in Boca Grande and inside the Walled City, drinking rum on the Chiva party bus and a little dancing in a club, a tour on the Hop On Hop Off Bus (the only way to go to get your bearings straight), and I can't forget spa services for $30,000-140,000 Colombian Pesos (this equals $15-70).  The money exchange was humorous, since we were told things cost "cien mil dolares" or one hundred thousand Colombian dollars (or $42).  Lunch one day cost $8000 CP, or $3.50.  It was hot and sunny, but a lot of the time, there were wonderful breezes.  The people were very friendly, although there were a few too many friendly vendors hassling us along the way.

While at the pool, I received an email from my dental office here in Coronado. They scheduled me for an appointment to get my brand new crown on Friday (the receptionist had written down that I would be out of town for a few days).   I added that to my busy list of things to do (humor there).
On Thursday, we shopped quickly and unsuccessfully for emerald jewelry before hopping on the plane.  By the way, the airport in Cartagena is small and easy to navigate.  Once in Panama City, we stopped at our insurance broker's office, and then we found a new Italian restaurant for dinner.  This was the first place we encountered difficulty with our Jubilado discount.  The waiter laughed when we told him we had the Pensionado Visa.  He called the manager/owner over to review the law with us.  We discussed the law with him.  He told us that I had to be 55 years and older and Ray had to be 60 years or older to receive this benefit.  We looked way too young to him haha No worries though.  We had a smartphone with us, Greg pulled up the law, and we received the discount.  While the young waiter was very apologetic and explained to the owner their misunderstanding of the law, the owner didn't show his face again.  This will be go into my TripAdvisor Review naturally.  Kudos to the waiter, and what an excellent restaurant we found called Stizzoli.  http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g294480-Panama_City_Panama_Province.html
After dinner, we tried to see a movie at MultiCentro Plaza.  The movie we wanted to see "Unbroken", was listed online but it had just left the theater the day before, and they hadn't updated the website.  Imagine that.  Being used to this by now, we enjoyed ice cream instead, and once back to Casa Cuarenta, the four of us watched "Scandal".  We facetimed with our daughter that night for an hour, and then we decided we should go through the shipped boxes to ensure no broken items.  All was secure and whole.  Shout out to Hilldrup International Movers and Canal Movers for a wonderful job of packing and shipping my precious belongings.  And yes, I will be needing, or maybe just wanting, everything we had shipped here.

Back to the real world of retirement, I went to my dental appointment Friday morning at nine am sharp.  Okay, honestly, I was ten minutes early (horrors!).  The door opens at nine and only when you realize you should ring the bell (the assistant was in the back).  The receptionist walks in a little after nine ready for the day, and I am seated at around 9:15.  I feel like I am back in the States.  My crown sat ready and waiting for me on my model on the tray in front of me.

#24 in the States, #31 here

 With the stone being blue, my crown really looked yellow (yellow stone is used in the States).  Dr. Wong came right into the operatory as soon as I was seated, he tried the crown in and made adjustments.  I told him which tooth (#9) was hitting where on my crown.  He told me about the numbering system used in Central America and Mexico (our tooth numbers are #1-32, while here they are #11-18, #21-28, #31-38 and so on, and children's teeth are numbered as well.  In the US, children's teeth are lettered "a-t", so there you go!).  He knew what I meant, because he has to know  all the numbering systems with the many foreigners being treated in his office everyday.  Back to my tooth and crown though---he sat me up to look at my crown, and I noticed it was still "long in the tooth".  He said "oh, I mean the color".  Well, the color was perfect.  Great shade!  Not quite so yellow in my mouth.  Then, he reclined the chair and told me that he first adjusts the crown and bite, next is the color check, and then it is all about the height and shape of the crown.  He didn't like the shape.  He asked me how I felt about the crown, and I told him I was comparing it to forty five year old teeth next to it, and while it stood out a bit, I also know how difficult it is to match one crown to one natural tooth in the front.  He told me he didn't like the shape, it was too bulky, and he was sending it back to the lab.  Perfect!  I am liking Dr. Wong more and more!  He will be in New York City while I am enjoying Carnivale here, but maybe I will get my crown before he leaves...or not.  This temporary crown, knock on wood, is doing just fine so far.

Walks on the beach, back to the gym, Happy Hour at Trypp (which might be no more, since there have been some change in ownership, service was poor, confusion of NON-happy hour prices--a glass of white wine was either $4 or $6 depending on the waiter--and lack of band or music), dinner with good friends at Bluwater Bistro (no pork chops to be found at the El Rey grocery store where the owner shops, but the best beef ever for Ray, and a huge piece of Coconut Crusted Corvina fish for me!)

and another dinner at Luna Rossa the next night (more fish for me, and more beef for Ray) followed by listening to  "Santana" music at Picasso's and drinking Sangria.  Ray and I were near Farallon on Friday (about twenty minutes or so west of Coronado area), and rather than going back to Beirut restaurant for lunch, we tried a new place called Woody's Beach Bar and Grill (where House of Hope gets the name Woody's from).  This is one of the few restaurants on the beach.  It pulls a lot of vacationers from the Decameron Resort and Sheraton, since these visitors can walk right up the beach to the restaurant.  I ordered grilled red snapper and asked for the head to be removed ("sin cabeza"), and Ray had nachos.  I think I have had my fill of fish this past weekend!

View of the beach from Woody's Beach Bar and Grill

View of the beach to the left towards Decameron Resort

Walking up to Woody's from the beach.

View to the right

Lots of seating here and large bar

Also, while out at Carlitos with our friends for lunch yesterday (yummy empanadas), we drove them to the Rio Hato fish market.  They are in Panama for just two more weeks, and since they are without a car until they rent one for a day or two here and there, we wanted to show them a few areas west of Coronado.  At they fish market, they purchased fresh red snapper and corvina filleted right there, fruit and vegetables (beautiful eggplant and green beans!) for under $25.

Prepping the red snapper

As seen in the ladies room  

Another walk on the beach today and just a lazy day today with more lazy days to come in this thing called retirement!