Good Friday

So tomorrow the entire country of Panama basically shuts down for Good Friday. Nice!!!!!   Rumor has it that the liquor and beer shelves will be bare by 3pm and the party/celebration goes all weekend!!!   Hum......
more to come.
C4N

Dedication to gardening!!!!

This is my wife showing her dedication to gardening.  this is a torrential downpour!  Click on the link to see!!

Dedication!!!

Monday-Bite

Ah..... another gorgeous sunrise this morning, followed by some stretching some great coffee and then an eventful walk with the dogs!  I've been trying to rain a 6 year old Rottweiler.  He is basically a junk yard dog raised only to guard the house, never off the chain, never loved on or exercised.  He has bitten several people and added another to the list this morning!  I was talking with a farmer and is friend.  CAP was wagging his tail as the new guy petted him.   Then after sitting calmly for a few minutes he just exploded and to my surprise and horror, attached the new guy and bit his arm.  Fortunately, he barely broke the skin, but left a nasty bruise I am sure.  I slammed him down and he sat quietly while we finished our conversation, though I kept him very tight on the lease.  What a bummer.  I was half tempted to put him down.... Cannot have him around anyone or out in public at all.  Good to guard the house.  Will continue to walk him and exercise him and discipline him.  And just keep him away from people.
The kind of excitement I could do without!  Another day in the saga of settling in Panama!

Ciao for now!

Another Day in Panama

Woke up late at 6:40am this morning and missed the sunrise.   But what a beautiful day, slightly overcast with occasional sun and about 75 degrees.  Love it.  I am working on the computers and getting the internet working on them.   Whew, testing my patience! 

 All the while Cindy and Ruben are working hard planting bamboo along the driveway.  They are hauling Tierra Negra(black soil) up from the bottom to put in the trench we dug in the rock!  Hard work but it should be a very nice lining to the driveway in a few months!

 And then there is Ty, all feisty after his first bath!!!   He's thinking about biting the camera~

Well, signing off for now, hope you enjoyed today's post!

Good Morning and day

What an amazing wake up.   Birds singing at 5am, and the vista towards the continental divide was stunning.  The sunrise was the best sunset I ever saw!!!!   then into the day, walk the dogs and play a while then work some and then here was the view at lunch time!!!

And this was the home-made pesto bread by the amazing baker- Cindy!

Hot, out of the oven with butter!!!!

that is life for the first half of the day!!!
ciao for now!

Ty

Ty being introduced to CAP!  

So we got a new puppy, a 3 month old Rottweiler and named him Ty in memory of Mom!  now we have Cap and Ty which were Mom's dog's names.   Today I took him on the leash and let him run. he went a got a toy and played fetch and returned the toy, say down and dropped the toy on command- at least 15 times in a row.   AT 3 MONTHS!!!!  I was amazed!

Dishwasher soap

Who would have guessed?  Nobody knows what dishwasher soap is.  We went to 5 stores today, after many earlier in the week- no dishwasher soap.  Most did not even know what we were talking about- could have been our poor Spanish!!!!!   Well, we finally found some cascade at the last store we stopped at, Romero's in Volcan!  You cannot imagine Cindy's excitement so she had to buy all four boxes.   Of course they are hard as a rock!!!!   It then occurred to me that most Panamanians do not have a dishwasher! 

The saying goes that when you find something you have been searching for in a Panama store, buy it!   It may not be there when you return!
Ciao for now!
Blake

Toads out in forces this morning.

Awakened by the Dogs, we got up at the usual time before daybreak.   I took the new dog, Ty, for a walk and the patio was lined up with toads!  As the dawn broke, the Chakalaka's started in on their chorus and the day is off to a great start!   Loving our new life in Panama!

Car Service in Panama

Boy, talking to the locals about their car service experiences is enough to make you just want to walk- better for the health anyway!!!   So I was loaded for the battle when I took my car to the dealer for service in David!   I dropped it off on a Wednesday.  The service manager for the entire country for Nissan was there and actually took us to lunch and test drove the car.   They said they would look into it and get back to me with an estimate by Friday.  On Saturday I got a call.  I called back, was on hold for 25 minutes and hung up and decided to go down on Monday.  Well to my surprise on Monday, we discovered the work had already been done at $689 plus they were recommending another $986 worth of work!

They stated that they had called and I approved the work.  That set my off.  Every word of spanish (none of which made any sense) came out of my mouth in a flurry!!!!  Then to my surprise, they apologize and admitted fault and offered to have me speak to the manager.  after waiting an hour for the manager to show up we left.

I returned 2 days later, spoke with the General manager and they volunteered to reduce the bill to $300!!!!!

This, to me, is a great story of Panama service in the end!!!

PS  the car is fixed and working great.


So I extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to Panamotor Nissan, David!

Unpacking

Wow, been unpacking all week.  the container arrived on Monday a week ago and its been a busy week.  With all the possessions we have quite a bit of stuff left over and may have a yard sale or at least put them up for sale.  like a king beauty rest pillowtop bed, a 50" big screen TV, a recliner, a desk and more.....

 

The house is a war zone of boxes!!!!  But gradually it is getting there.

1st post

this is my first post in our new Blog, Ark Landing!!!