Daily Life in Boquete

Arrival in Boquete!

Five weeks in Boquete and it feels as if it zipped by in a day! Several topics mentioned below will be reposted with greater detail. For purpose of getting caught up, a summary of our observations and adventures….

We drove into Boquete just before sunset taking in the beauty of the lush surroundings and the colors of the setting sun. Much had changed since our last visit over one year before and much had not. New construction could be seen in and around the central village and some construction started long ago remained untouched. The roads were torn up to accommodate the water and sewer upgrades that I had read about in the expat blogs month back. Detours and gravel road were expected.

We thought we knew this house and where it was located from our previous visits. WRONG! After a 4.5 hour drive, we were exhausted. The dogs were waking up from their long snooze and were anxious to have their dinner and stretch their legs.

Kirsten and Ray had planned to meet us at the house with the keys but Kirsten had an emergency dental appointment in David. We had just missed one another meeting at Gringo Corner, a shopping mall whose content is known to cater to gringos. Ray had left the keys on their property and described the hiding place. We took that detour, found the keys and drove into our neighborhood. The spot where we thought the house was, wasn’t.

We called Ray and he guided us to a back corner of the neighborhood and we found the house set back from the road with a white iron gate at the driveway entrance. The keys worked and we were in!

After a warm meal, we fell into bed and into a deep sleep….until….

Panamanians Live Out Loud!

Panamanians live with their animals. Middle class Panamanians that own homes keep chickens and roosters on their lots and sometimes other farm animals. If you have never been around roosters…they crow…and not just at the perfect moment at sunrise…. they crow all damn night AND during sunrise. Next door we have Foghorn Leghorn. This is a rooster with a signature vocalization that sounds like the voice of that long-ago cartoon character. Dulcet, deep trumpet-like and f-----g loud! Once he crows, the rest of the neighborhood joins in.

A chicken that lives on the other side of our yard has a clucking vocabulary like two old yentas arguing. It was amusing at first but no longer.

Family dogs are chained out in front of their houses for security purpose. (More on this coming up.) The more the dog barks and howls, the more secure the family feels.

We haven’t been victims of loud music but it seems kids playing with firecrackers is a normal past time.

You get the picture.

It took a few days but most of this has now faded into background noise. Nonetheless, we have decided to move at the end of our lease in May and try a more remote area without close neighbors. Green Acres lifestyle is what we seek according to cousin Malori and Barry that visited recently. I can still hear that song in my head as the two of them would sing it whenever the excuse presented itself. We had taken them through River Ranch, the location of our next rental, a development at a lower elevation mid-way between Boquete and David. The area offers few homes, big trees and streams with mostly ‘off the grid’ living. Gotta try it! And we socialize with the owner and her circle of friends.

Reptiles, Insects and Missionaries, Oh My!

We are in a tropical paradise in the equatorial zone so we expected more stinging, buzzing, biting and poisonous things than we dealt with in California. Turns out that the most abundant of these things are the missionaries. OK..for those friends and relatives that are religious…smooth your hackles and let me explain…

But first, the non-human pests. Since our arrival, we have been visited by several local residents. Our bathroom towel bar was a perch for a non-poisonous snake of the garden type. Bryant stepped out of the shower and calmly called out to me. Now, Bryant is not typically calm when he calls me for something so I was very curious and walked into the bathroom and looked where he was staring. This is what we saw… no idea how it got in the house but suspect it was through a tiny hole in the screen once it shimmied up the adjacent tree.

I had the Panama snake team email at the ready and fired off a picture for identification. Within a few hours the answer came back that it was a Neo-tropical Racer, a type of garden snake and was harmless. It ate rodents and the team hoped we didn’t kill it. We didn’t.

During the time we waited for a response, Bryant fashioned a snake noose from a broom handle that had a hole to accommodate hanging the broom from a hook. He strung a shoelace through the hole and had his snake noose. My McGyver from Texas. The snake was coerced off the towel bar and fell into the bathtub below. I was amazed at how strong and mobile a 4 foot snake is that is only the girth of our thumb! Took a bit of practice but Bryant snared its head and released it by the river across from our house.

Next to show up were two huge cricket-like things that took residence outside of the bathroom window tucked into a corner of the frame during the day. At night they would disappear and we could hear them chirping like a cicada, loudly. EVERYTHING is loud here. I wrote a story about Grass and Hedda Hopper and their nemesis, Gordon Gecko. Find that on my Facebook page!

Then there is the hormigas… nasty little black ants that pack a stinging bite. I've been chewed twice unaware that I was standing on top of a nest. Vibrations bring them boiling out of the ground. Bear suffered an attack on her back leg that resulted in an allergic reaction and an infection. It required a trip to the vet and 14 days of wound tending and antibiotics. She is on the mend but I am making certain this is not repeated. Poor thing was miserable. The ant venom seemed to travel up her leg from the bite on the foot unless she actually sustained multiple bites..hard to tell. The venom left a trail of purple bruising that is just beginning to fade.

On the positive side of flying critters, we hear wonderful birdsongs every day and see many hummingbirds and other brightly colored species. Butterflies are everywhere as are dragon flies and bats, which we actually like!

Missionaries are a fixture here although the troops are constantly churning according to our friends in the know. Mostly Catholic but Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christians that follow the ‘resurrected’ Jim Bakker (yes THAT Bakker), Mormons and others. Many come with only their faith in God to sustain them and soon discover that finding a job isn’t a reality nor is free housing. God does not provide. Rather than starve or face humiliation, they return to their homeland.

Those that have the means to stay are doing wonderful things with the indigenous children along with the proselytizing. Few of the indigenous are converted. They have learned to accept the food and the hard goods and then go about their business.

A recent event was given at the park across from our house. I was invited and snapped a few pictures. The kids and their families were entertained, fed a substantial meal and given backpacks with school supplies for the coming school year. It seemed all was appreciated.

I also learned that several of the missionaries invite promising students to live in their homes for access to higher education through the university levels. Given the remote living of many of the indigenous families, educational access for grades above 7^th is very limited.

Regardless of the gates and the canine security measures in our neighborhood, we have been visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christians and Mormons looking to grow their ranks. When we are not home, flyers are stuck on our front gate. I had developed an approach to quickly dispense with their visits when we were in California. Seems that approach does not work so well here as everyone has more time to be patient and it has become their art form to find ways to stay engaged. I don’t want to be rude and that seems to be construed as interest.

The Jewish Community

Panama City has a large Jewish population. As posted in our Panama City blog, our flat was in a Jewish neighborhood and many synagogues dotted the area. Much of the commerce and finance in the city is owned and run by Jews. Not a surprise.

Here in Boquete, a small but thriving Jewish community welcomes newcomers. During Malori and Barry’s visit at the end of February, Malori somehow recognized the Rabbi’s wife as we walked through town and made the acquaintance. Since then, I have attended a Habad class on how the Jew’s view God. I will continue to listen to this young Rabbi and his wife, Hana. It is interesting and the Rabbi teaches from a viewpoint of understanding and learning and not about religiosity or piousness.

So, surprise! At this late stage, I am learning more about how we Jews view things.

Our Dogs and Perros Panamanian

There is a stark difference in how most dogs are regarded and treated in Panama vs our pets in the U.S. Plenty of pets are cared for here adequately but still many feral dogs roam some areas. Pets are left out to roam the streets. And they do. They lounge in the middle of the road, sleep on porches or under cars. I am very careful when driving into the neighborhood as they seem to have little fear of cars. Most of these pets are unwashed and our nicely groomed babies are a cause for staring!

Dogs are typically used for security purpose are chained to the front of a property. Neighbors learn to avoid those dogs and do not test the ‘amigable’ rating. Most of these unfriendly dogs are fed regularly and provided a dog house for shelter as they do not live in the house with the family. Some are occasionally taken off their tether to go with the owner somewhere, such as working on a farm, or to have a few minutes of exercise. They have a job to do and I have determined that trying to intervene or otherwise change their course of life could result in unintended consequences. Most apparent to me is that if the dog is no longer threatening to passersby, the family would have no use for it. Not going there. So I try to be an example of the changes we gringos would like to see with pet care.

I have managed to make friends with a few of the pet status dogs. They do not seem territorial and wander over to our gate to sniff on the newcomers. Bear and Max have learned to sniff and bark right along with tail wagging. So far, so good.

I didn’t mention Tasha because she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge late last month. She bravely made the trip to Panama with us and we had 5 wonderful and adventurous weeks with her. We knew her days were limited before we left the U.S. and we made the right decision to have her with us for that final day. She was almost 16. In the few days leading up to her passing her abilities sharply declined. Dementia had destroyed her cognition and joy for daily life and she lost her strength to go on. We knew it was time when she could no longer move around on her own, was confused and distressed and stopped nudging me for meals.

We laid her to rest in the Los Mininos Cat Sanctuary, with the generous offer of our new friend Judy, to be surrounded by life and joy and where we would be spending time as volunteers. A bright hibiscus tree will provide remembrance to us and shade to the resident kitties. Tasha grew up with our (long deceased) two kitties and we knew she would feel right at home here.

Max seems a bit lost without his buddy. He knew something was up and spent his time staying close to her. Bear is Bear. She seems happy to have less competition in the pack. Eventually, when we settle in a more permanent spot here in Panama, we could see adding to our family.

The Asmans Visit!

Malori brought an Amazing Journey's group to the Panama City area over the President’s Day week and a family visit with us was planned at the end. We followed the group’s activities on the Amazing Journey’s Facebook page and counted down the days before we would see her and Barry in the Boquete area. I had planned an itinerary for the two of them that I had hoped was worthy of the Amazing Journey’s standards set for their own clients.

We visited Finca Lerida for a rainforest hike and lunch in their beautiful café. We spent time at the Boquete Tuesday Farmer’s Market and walked the village. We caught the last act of the Boquete Jazz Festival (Spyro Gyra) and visited Raquel’s Ark in Volcan, lunched at Burricos Mexican Grill (owned by a gringo that understood gluten free), lounged and hiked at Rio Encantado in Caldera, and bought honey at the Boquete Bee and Butterfly Farm. We ended with a day at Las Olas at the Playa La Barqueta Resort.

(My detailed reviews of all of these places are on TripAdvisor and more pictures are on my FB page)

For friends and family reading this blog, c’mon down. We’ll keep you busy!