This Little Piggie Went to Market

This is the Tuesday Market in Boquete. The building is right downtown and run by the expat community. Thee are all types of vendors - prepared foods, baked goods, organic produce, local coffee beans, meats and cheeses. Also local crafts, quilts, native crafts, local honey, homeopathic ointments and more. Crowds of people milling around meeting and talking.

I enjoyed greeting some fellow Rotarians who have a chapter here in Boquete. They recently renovated a playground and are now building a house near Bocas del Toro. Right now they are selling tee shirts for the Jazz Festival and I got a pretty gray one with white lettering. I hope to get to one of their meetings. I belonged to the Rotary Club in Trenton, NJ and found it to be very important to me and the community as we did great work.

While I was shopping and gabbing, Jeff went to the weekly lecture. Inside the building there is a mid size theatre with raked seating. At 10:30 there is a speaker each week. Jeff heard two lawyers talk about financial matters. The local theatre group works here and they recently had auditions for their next show in March.

We left about 11:00 and had a quick lunch before school. We went back to Big Daddy's and ordered exactly what we had the last time. Today we sat in their back garden and it is lovely and shaded. Quite a crowd and every table was filled. We ate and then went to school. I am now in Jeff's class and really enjoyed it. We had two teachers, each for half the class time. Both were excellent and made learning fun. We played bingo to work with our numbers and I won!

We left right after class at 5:00 pm and headed home. We sat out on the terrace and enjoyed the birds chirping and then.... the power went out. It was out for a half hour and it got dark. Finally the lights came on and we seem to be fine now. We had dinner. I did my homework and now finishing the blog. Jeff is watching TV - The Wall - and soon we will go to bed so we can wake early for our hike.

School Days

School days, school days, dear old golden rule days...

Today we started Spanish school. Another gorgeous day and I slept until 9 and then took my time showering and getting ready. We left at 11:00 and had lunch at Sugar & Spice.

This is a great place with nice tables inside and out. You place your order at the counter and they bring it to your table. Help yourself to water with or without lemon slices. The gal at the counter spoke perfect English and the menu was in Spanish and English so this is geared to the ex-pats and tourists. I had really good, thick cream of mushroom soup and a delicious piece of quiche. Jeff had a BLT on a good looking roll. We sat and enjoyed their wi-fi and then walked two blocks to our school Habla Ya.

The student lounge is on the second floor with couches and tables and wi-fi. Our profesors came in and called us to the classrooms.Jeff went with one group and I was assigned to another. We had six people in my class and turns out it was a third week class and I was totally lost. I was able to understand some things and used the translate on my phone to find words I didn't know. At the end I asked to be put in the second week class where I will be more comfortable. Looking forward to tomorrow. I have never studied Spanish, but have been working online and it is paying off.

The school offers trips and dinners so we signed up for a coffee farm on Thursday morning and a student dinner also on Thursday. Across the way from the office is a tour company so we signed up for a hike this Wednesday morning. It is just under three miles and the people on the tour today saw a quetzel. Fingers crossed!

One-trick Pony

This morning is Sunday and a day to laze and enjoy the morning sunshine. Both the large pigeons and a reddish hawk are sitting in nearby trees along with several varieties of yellow and blue birds. Four flocks of egrets fly over and swallows are darting from tree to tree. I am able to watch the Sunday morning news shows on CNN and amazed to hear the Kelly Ann Conway interview with Chuck Todd about "alternative facts." That is  a new one and as Chuck said, "It is called a lie."

We sat outside and made lunch. We decided to drive into town and walk around some of the back streets where there are little businesses and restaurants. It is the last day of the flower festival and the traffic was unbelievably bad. There were large buses, small buses and cars everywhere. Vehicles were parked on the streets jammed in to any available space. So many people were milling around that it was difficult to drive. We headed out to Valle Escondido, a beautiful, gated condo community with golf course, hotel and all types of housing.

We headed up to the hills and took another loop road north of the city. We stopped at the embankment of an old bridge and got out to look around. There were villas there with a banana tree.

 It became extremely hilly and there were some gorgeous homes, a few B&B's and lots of native peoples walking and sitting on their stoops. Some great views of Boquete below us.

On the way back through town we got stuck in traffic near the fiesta grounds. Saw some adorable kids on adorable ponies and horses.

In a second the skies opened up and it began to pour. Poor horses looked so pathetic.

We went home, made dinner and spent the evening relaxing some more. Tomorrow we start our Spanish lessons. Hooray!

Big Yellow Taxi

There are so many taxis in Panama. In Boquete and David not all people have their own cars,so they depend on public transportation. There are buses and smaller shuttles that have routes to take you everywhere. But taxis are so popular. We were shocked to find a small parking lot at a supermarket and then saw shoppers loading their groceries into a cab.

At the flower festival there were food vendors arriving in taxis along with meat, rolls and condiments. We saw a taxi truck with the bed loaded up with food all packed in small plastic bags that the workers carried to their stall.

Definitely a different world than the US where we may have two cars to take us wherever we desire.

Circle of Life

Yet another beautiful day in Boquete. We hung around this morning and I sat outside listening to the birds. Today there was a flock of blue colored birds in our tree. I now call it "Etz Chayim" or Tree of Life. Just like the tree in Lion King and Animal Kingdom at Disney. So many birds visit this tree and eat the red berries. There were four tropical mockingbirds flying in and out of the tree all morning and they scared off lots of the other birds. Still I am able to add some more photos to the bird blog today.

I have the TV on today and following on Facebook and so proud of my sisters and brothers in the US and around the world who are marching for equality. Sorry that there is not a march here, but I am there in spirit. Yesterday we got an alert from the State Department that protests were expected in Panama City due to the inauguration and to be vigilant. Our sleepy town is busy with their festival, but Jeff and I are watching and cheering on those who represent us and others who believe that we are all created equal and deserve all the benefits of our Constitution and Amendments.

Since Boquete is so crowded with visitors to the flower festival we decided to go to David and also do some shopping. It is less than a half hour ride down the hill and a modern shopping center is right there when you arrive. This is where we ate at Friday's the other day. We continued straight into the centro of David which is the old town center. It was bustling with shoppers and we saw many upscale stores and boutiques. Lots of traffic, but we were able to find a parking space on the street next to the park. This is our first stop at  Parque Cervantes or Central Parque. The park is small and this sculpture is the centerpiece. It is lit at night and also is a fountain, but dry today.

It is very sunny and hot in David so everyone was sitting opposite the sculpture in the shade. This pretty church is across the street.

Jeff realized that his internet service was not working on his phone. Now we have both gotten Panamanian phone numbers and data plans to use while we are here. So now we have to find a phone store and get Jeff's phone fixed. We see a store across the street and head there. A lovely young woman tries to help us, but she speaks little English, and says we have to go to the Movil store and they have moved out of the town and she doesn't know where. She did recommend a place for us to eat lunch and it turned out to be a winner. This gal actually drew me a map so we wouldn't get lost going around the corner.

It was a cafeteria and great for us and we simply pointed at what we wanted to eat. We both had grilled chicken quarters with mashed potatoes. I had cole slaw and Jeff had salad. They even had Diet Coke which is not available just anywhere. Everyone is so kind and helpful. Surprising that so few speak any English, but then we don't speak Spanish. A young man came over to take away our tray and came back with napkins for us. We did take napkins and had them on our laps, but he was so sweet to do this.

I loved these two little girls making friends through the window. The child outside is sitting with her mother who is begging for money. They are dressed in tribal garb. The mom had been brushing her hair and holding her. The girl inside is with her parents and dressed nicely and wearing those sneakers that have rollers on the bottom so she has been gliding along. It was a really sweet moment.

After lunch we walked back to the car and use the GPS on my phone to find the Catedral de San Jose de David. I found the following description on Trip Advisor: David's cathedral is located in David's original centro historico, about 5 - 10 minute walk from Parque Central/Cervantes.
Catedral de San Jose de David. The tower was baptized on December 7, 1891. It was used as a lookout in the 1000 Days War. The remainder of the Cathedral is much newer, built within the last 25 years (my estimate). The tower was damaged by bullets during the war. This site is a National Historic Landmark.
Inside the Cathedral, there are many colourful murals depicting key scenes from the text of the Bible. The Bishop from this cathedral, 70 year old Jose Luis Lacunza Meastrojuan, was recently (spring 2015) named a Cardinal by Pope Francis. Bishop Meastrojuan is Panama's first Cardinal.

There was no one around at the cathedral and the doors were locked so we did not see the inside murals. We will try to go back another day

Now we headed off to find the phone store. It is now located in the modern mall next to Friday's. Inside we were greeted by a hip young woman who spoke no English and said no one in the store could speak English. She had on tons of makeup and very bright pink lipstick. We were a little skeptical if she could help, but don't judge a book by its cover. This gal could not have been sweeter or more helpful. She and Jeff both used a translate program and were able to figure out what was wrong with his phone. She and another tech got it fixed quickly.

Now we wanted to stop at the supermarket and decided to bite the bullet and buy a membership at PriceSmart. This is like Costco and has some Kirkland brand products. We got cans of Diet Coke, a rotisserie chicken, Bumble Bee White Tuna and Tropicana Orange Juice. Also some frozen foods and other necessities including skim milk in cartons that are not refrigerated. Last stop was a supermarket to pick up some produce and cleaning supplies. We chose the Rey today and I like it better than the 99 where we had shopped the other day. More American brand products. 

Finally headed back to our condo and ate our chicken and now watching TV and working on the photos and this blog.

Brigadoon

Another gorgeous day in Paradise. We hung around all morning waiting for the maintenance man to check out the ceiling fan in the second bedroom. He was supposed to come first thing, but this is the country of manana. Appointments are only a suggestion. I called around 11:00 and he said, "Give me 20 minutes." About an hour later he arrived and already knew the fan was broken. He found a portable fan in one of the closets and said we could use that. I had simply wanted him to know it was broken and we had found it that way.

I spent most of the morning sitting outside and walking around to see the birds that are constantly chirping in the trees. Today there were two large birds and they had huge pigeon faces. Turns out they are Pale Vented Pigeons and 12" long. I'll put the picture on the bird page.

We finally got out and stopped at the Jewish style bakery which is at our turn to the main road. We had met the owner, Barbara, last year and wanted to say hello. We got a nice welcome and sat down to chat. She had a real small world story for us and it is amazing. Her friend, who is from Beaufort, has a couple visiting and they owned the Beaufort Bread Company. Unfortunately we have never been there and they recently sold the business. Anyway they are staying in Panama for a while and happened to come in to visit while we were there.

We refrained from buying more baked goods today and went next door to a new restaurant to have lunch. The place is owned by a nice couple who came to this area with a large group who believed that the world was coming to an end and this area would be safe and have survivors. When the world didn't end, lots of the believers left. So this couple stayed and have an adorable place with good, healthy food. They make nice - to order - salads and good soup too.

We saw this cute guy in the parking lot hitching a ride. Lots of animals here and you have to dodge dogs and even goats while driving.

Next we stopped to fill our gas tank. Luckily an English speaking guy from Texas was at the pump next to us and explained that the owner at this station pumps for you and then you pay him and they even take credit cards. He also knew where "Fresas Mary" is located. This is a strawberry stand that Brian had mentioned to us. It was nearby so we headed over. It is a small house converted to a walk up custard stand with lots of outdoor seating. I ended up getting chocolate ice cream. I saw the berries smothered in whipped cream and definitely getting that the next time.

Back in the car we literally headed for the hills. We took Volcancito Road which is a 15 mile loop. Lots of high hills and curves. Many potholes too. Saw some gorgeous homes, greenhouses and lots of coffee plants and orange trees. There were workers picking the coffee beans and more walking along the road on their way home. We looked down and saw Boquete below us.

The name means bowl or gap and it is nestled among hills sort of like Brigadoon. We ended up back in downtown and then headed home. Still mobbed in town because of the flower festival. 

Dinner at home tonight and watching TV and blogging.

Home, Home on the Range

Our condo in Boquete Country Club

Boquete, Chiriqui Province, Panama.