August Climate Sync

MaryBea Gallagher

Sep 1, 2023 • 18 min read

Boquete's version of last night's Blue Super Moon - the once in a blue moon type, second full moon of the month, super bright and gorgeous. They say the difference between the apparent size of a super moon and a regular full moon is the difference between a nickel and a quarter - a polished quarter with a light shining on it.

Rainy Days in August Always Get Me Down (a riff on a hit from the Carpenters, Rainy Days and Mondays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjFoQxjgbrs). Actually, I am not down, but I do feel a bit out of sync with the seasons. I am not used to Boquete's rainforest feel in August; it is the end of Seattle's summer, and I feel like I am waiting for the summer to start, for the overcast to lift - it doesn't feel like August. I want to refer to this as summer because it is August, but this weather doesn't feel like summer, nor Winter, Spring, or Fall. I am having a syncing problem.

In two weeks, we will have been in Panama for one year - we arrived here on September 16, 2022. It doesn't seem like it has been a year already, and on the other hand, it feels like we have always lived here!

This male Tanager is a year-round resident and comes every morning for papaya and banana. We are now year-round residents, and I also come daily for the papaya and the bananas.

Despite my August syncing problem, Boquete is definitely home, and I am not feeling the pining for Seattle that I expected. Not only does Boquete Panama feel like home, but it is starting to feel so normal that I forget that the bird calls are exotic, of course, fruit starts to go bad in a few days because it is picked tree-ripe, and hearing people calling "Buenas" at the gate has become a normal occurrence when folks need a dollar or two to make ends meet. Miguel keeps asking if I am happy here, and he reads on the four ex-pat Facebook groups he belongs to that people are leaving all the time - one or both of a couple giving up as unhappy in Panama. I miss having a view of the water. I miss good popsicles, readily available. I miss people, but not places. I am surprised how much at home I feel, even with the language and cultural differences. I don't care for sweating when the humidity goes up, but I don't have to be cold - ever, and I only once have even thought about finding a top with long sleeves, and I decided it wasn't worth the search. The effort to be understood is a challenge, and I have the tools; it is not a frustration, and I get by with the help of the computer in my pocket, hand gestures, and a lot of smiles and body language. I don't even have to talk louder.

Princess Flower. This lovely is about 4 inches across, and though she is said to like full sun, the plant pokes out from among a variety of other plants so she can get this gorgeous blossom into view. She is making her presence known and speaking up in a crowded garden.

Miguel is thrilled to be speaking Spanish as his first language, and he reads aloud in Spanish for at least 30 minutes a day to fine-tune his skills. Because he is learning French, and has been focusing on French since we arrived, he is gracious about my limitations in Spanish - I can listen to only so much before my ears wear out, and then I just cannot absorb any more and make sense of it. Also, when I am fresh, I can understand 40 times more than I can speak - I can make sense of what's happening, but I cannot put three words together into a sentence, often not even two. I am grateful for Miguel's better understanding of my language limitations than he had six months ago; he thinks in both English and Spanish and often doesn't realize that what was just said did not happen in English, and I didn't understand. Because of his own frustrations with French, I am grateful that he doesn't often get cranky about having to stop and translate or that I didn't catch the entirety of conversations barreling past between multiple people.

Peek-a-boo hibiscus are enjoying the sun and the rain. If you cannot see this photo, then you should go to the SeattletoPanama blog post site to view this post in a more colorful format because I made it too photo-heavy, and it cannot get into your email. See below.

No photos? If this got to you with no pictures, I might have made the post too data-heavy. Go to the site where all the old posts are sitting, and read it there - much more colorful. https://seattletopanama.digitalpress.blog/ghost/#/site If you cannot get in using this link, let me know, and I will send you an email invitation - it likes to know you are expected.

Sun exposure: The sun gets very intense around 10:00 am, and it is at its hottest between 11:00 am and 2:00/14:00. Actually, unless it gets overcast and rainy, the intensity doesn't go down until around 4:00/16:00. My ability to go wandering around midmorning and in the afternoon is diminished from when we arrived. My sun tolerance is reduced. Miguel's, also. I am not sure if this has to do with exposure, and our skin just got tired of it, or perhaps it is the season (but this is the semi-rainy season, and December - April is the dry season), or perhaps it just ignored the signs. My sunscreen is keeping me from burning, but my ability to withstand the sun's intensity seems to be saying, "Stay under cover," "Dash for that shade!", or "Perhaps the time for a walk is 5:30/17:30 pm, and not 10:00am". This was true for me in Hawai'i, also, but because I worked long hours in Hawai'i, I wasn't as aware of my diminishing capacity to withstand the mid-day sun for something like a walk. Will it cause me to move? Nope, just walk at different times, and work in the yard at the nether reaches of daylight. There is a reason for siestas, and I am going to enjoy my mid-day reading time.

Parked in the same location as last month - our new 2016 Nissan still feels like a surprise when we walk out the door.

New Car: Did we wander Panama? Not yet. Did we wander Boquete? A bit. We forget to drive about because we are not used to having a car. But, now that we have a car, we can drive the 45 minutes to David for shopping that cannot be done in Boquete, and we did make two big trips to David - basically because we filled the car up on trip number one at PriceSmart/Costco and had to return the following week to visit all the places we didn't get to on the first trip. We can go to the dentist and the doctor. We can grocery shop and buy ice cream without fearing it will melt while we try to find a taxi home. We can offer our neighbors a ride to their doctor appointments when they cannot find a taxi, and Ameth is busy. It has been a relief and a pleasure, and we have almost used a tank of gas in the past month.

In Panama, cars do not have front license plates, so you can use the space to play. Most often, you see either where the car was purchased or from where the owners hail. In our case, you get Miguel's origin story.

New Living room Furniture: After our trip to PriceSmart/Costco, on our second trip to David, we dropped into a furniture store to check out the couches because the couches at our house make our backs hurt - over-stuffed and way too deep for short legs like mine (24 inches deep is almost as deep as my legs are long, and if I sit back, my legs stick out like a 4-year-old's). Interestingly, every couch was brown, grey, or white in a country where bright colors are the norm. One of the ways to control the heat is to keep dark interiors, and that works, but it can be an emotional bummer. On the other hand, I know better than to buy white furniture. Over-stuffed furniture styles remains the norm in the stores, so after test-sitting a BUNCH of couches, most of which were way too big, we went the opposite direction and got the orthopedic version of a couch with no bounce or slouch at all, and in a light grey. Then, Miguel chose a recliner in a light grey. We hadn't thought we would buy furniture, we only went to see what was out there, but as of Friday, we have new furniture, and the delivery guys were kind enough to haul the old stuff up to the balcony, so we now have a lounge area where the pool table used to be. Now the living room is starting to look a little more Seattle-boring, and I don't sink up to my waist while sitting cross-legged on the couch.

After New Furniture: Our new living room furniture is clean-cut and grey, not over-stuffed, not bouncy, and not colorful. It does go nicely with the tile floor. When we go to Guatemala next Spring, I will look for some weavings and embroidery pillows to brighten the place up again. The general consensus so far is "elegant" and "modern", which I suspect is code for "blah" and boxy. Way more comfortable, and Miguel loves his new chair.

Before Photo: The previous living room furniture, which the delivery guys kindly moved upstairs to the balcony, where we now have an outdoor living room lounge area.

Balcony Before photo: What the balcony used to look like, with an unused pool table taking up most of the space.

Balcony After photo (the NOW photo): The living room furniture was moved upstairs to the balcony, so now we have an outdoor living room with a dining table off in the distance. We will have an electrician put an outlet under the window over the couch (about $70) to match the outlet under the other window, and we can add in a floor lamp for reading or mount our spare TV.

Around the property:

Man cave to gathering place: This month, the man cave in the center of the property that Jorge and Luly own turned from a small man cave just big enough for a chess game or for a chat over a beer into a community meeting place for 4 households (or more - so far, four).

I took this photo from where the old wall stood, and where Jorge's armchair is, a hammock used to stand with the armchair and the table pushed closer to the fridge. One of the first things to happen was that Ameth built a wrought iron cabinet for board games and implements like the ping-pong paddles, and then he painted a chess/checkerboard into a tabletop. Jorge, Miguel, Ameth, and Ed have been meeting a couple evenings a week to play chess and pool, teaching each other skills and strategy.

The new addition is everything beyond the green wall on the right, plus a bathroom which is way off to the lower right of the photo. The floor also got pushed toward the walkway. You can see our former pool table, plus there will be a ping-pong table that is going to be folded at the back so that it can come to the front as needed.

Here you can see Miguel's early gym equipment - his stationary bike, the weight bar, and mats. Also note the big barbeque for community cookouts, donated by Jorge, the owner, and brought today from his home in David.

Now you can see Miguel's pull-up bar, which Ameth finished this evening, and the "Gimnasio Lucia established 2023" sign that Javier painted. Miguel will keep his membership at the gym across the street for a greater variety of equipment, but this will give him the ability to get exercise time in during off hours and take a book to read aloud in Spanish or French while pedaling - something he would never do at the fancy gym across the street.

As the final touch, Javier, the mural painter, made this mural for the wall between the community area and Ameth's workshop (and the bathroom on the other side). This displays a toucan, Luly's favorite bird, and a quetzal, Miguel's favorite bird. Javier painted this in a day.

Chicken House - ready to populate on Monday:

Miguel and Jorge decided that chickens are good - eggs every day would be healthy additions. So, they decided to build a chicken house (not a coop, they told me, coop sounds silly). The first chicken house that Ameth built went from the wall to the first post, and Jorge decided it was too small and would probably hold only 7-10 chickens. He wanted at least 20 chickens, so he had Ameth more than double the size of the chicken house, and now it is ready. Apparently, hens are now liberated, and they no longer need noisy roosters to lay eggs, so that is the kind we are going to have delivered on Monday. We are starting with 14 hens, no roosters. If they don't behave well, we will eat them, says Jorge. In Panama, hens build their nests from papaya branch fronds, which are softer than I expect, they tell me, as I immediately said that if I were a hen, I would refuse to lay hens if my rear end were not sitting on soft stuff in my nest. I will report on progress in September.

Greenhouse for hydroponics is underway:

This is the frame for our community greenhouse for hydroponics. Hydroponics is the best way to grow things that are susceptible to bugs, like lettuce and soft-leaf veggies. I don't know what else they plan to put in the greenhouse, as it is not as far along as hoped since the hydroponics guy was fired for failing to show up. Hopefully, I will have more to show you in September. Hydroponics is very big in Boquete, and I especially appreciate getting my lettuce this way with the roots still attached - water the roots, and the lettuce stays fresh for 10-15 days, and in this climate, that is a real blessing!

Garden: The garden area got much more defined this past month.

The garden from the corner near the chicken house toward the community house at the back of the picture. At the bottom of the photo are the peppers (see Miguel's pepper plants below), to the left are some papaya plants, and as the rows lead away, there are cucumbers, carrots, beans, watermelon, and a whole host of items. Off to the right and behind the photographer (me) are a row of plantains and bananas, and the chicken house.

Miguel's fire peppers - Chiltepin. He has 12 plants of these, and the peppers are so hot, it took him 3 days to eat one with a grimace-filled tiny bite or two at lunch and dinner - and Miguel's preferred pepper is habaneros. Heaven forbid those 12 plants thrive, and we have a crop to deal with! For some reason, the bugs are having an easier time eating these peppers than Miguel/humans do. How hot are chiltepin peppers? I asked the internet: "For such a small size, they pack a pretty big punch. Be careful if you ever get the chance to pop a few of these peppers in your mouth. Chiltepin ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville heat units (or SHU), with the chance for a bit hotter if a crop has an ideally wet growing season. This makes it equal with Thai peppers in terms of overall heat and roughly six to forty times spicier than your standard jalapeño. Compared to that cayenne pepper in your cupboard (30,000 to 50,000 SHU), the chiltepin begins in heat where the hottest cayenne stops."

Geisha coffee of our very own: In January, Miguel and I went on a coffee tour and were given 4 Geisha coffee beans to dry and then plant. Two came up, and have gotten to the point where we transplanted them to the garden this week. They will grow in the shade of the papaya plants (geisha are high mountain shade coffee plants, and for some reason, coffee like papaya plants for company). Geisha doesn't produce coffee beans for 7 years, so we have a bit of a wait, but only 6.25 years to go. Here is an article on Geisha or Gesha coffee: https://www.craftcoffeeguru.com/what-is-geisha-coffee/

This is a plant in our garden called a Golden Trumpet - note its pointy leaves (the round leaves are from a separate plant growing with it). If left unpruned, this plant will grow to 20 feet tall! The Golden Trumpet plant is a native of Brazil and is the official flower of Canovanas, Puerto Rico. It blooms year-round, and it is poisonous if eaten in quantity, so don't add it to your salad! The flowers are thick and kind of waxy in texture.

Flowers July vs. Flowers August

Aloe Vera bloom:

Baby Aloe Vera plants - transplanted out of Mom's pot just a day before the July post.

July - Just one day out of Mom's overcrowded pot, the babies are getting their roots into some dirt of their own.

August - The babies seem to have settled in without Mom, growing green and happy. Only two of the many babies are still brownish after 30 days.

Giant Christmas Air Plant: growing out of a giant hibiscus plant

July photo. Jorge told me that this plant has only ever blossomed at Christmas before.

August - more development, but still waiting on blooms and color. We might still be going at Christmas.

Red Air Plant:

August - bigger, bolder, and much more red.

Espiritu Santo Orchid - national plant of Panama

August - lots of growth, but still waiting on a bud.

Bugs:

Katydid: Named George K. Metalhead

This is a Katydid and about 4 inches from snout to tail. He jumps like a grasshopper and likes to hang at odd angles or walls (or, in this case, the plastic clothes washer cover, outdoors) for hours on end. He is very smooth and almost looks to be folded like leaf origami. Every part of him is green - the same green. He seems to eat smaller bugs. I had Miguel hold his hand up so you could see the relative size of this gentle giant.

Sleepover Moths

Visiting bedside table moth. This is what happens if you leave the lights on and the doors open after 6:00/18:00 pm.

Projects around the house

Buying produce by the bag:

$5 at the roadside farm stand in Volcan, on the other side of Volcan Baru from Boquete, and continuing the "Breadbasket of Panama that is Chiriqui province.

What was inside our $5 treasure bag? This is like buying "ugly produce": Most of the items were not big enough or perfect enough to sell to stores and distribute throughout Panama via the farmer's normal sales route, so roadside sales to passersby are a good idea for everyone. We got turnips, carrots, two types of lettuce, cabbage, celery, broccoli, onions, shallots, chayote, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, one green pepper, and lots of small potatoes. All were very fresh and very tasty!

New murals by Javier - painted on the carport pillars next door. Valerie and Ed don't have a car, so they have filled up the carport with plants and patio furniture - hundreds of plants, and three murals:

What do I work on when I am not outside?

Cleaning paint from tile and woodwork: over-painting, splattering, and not cleaning up after yourself is just bad workmanship. MaryBea says. So, I have been cleaning up one tile and one doorframe at a time, for months. I have far to go, but these are looking more like someone cared.

Grout should be the color that it was originally mixed, not a new color dictated by wear and tear or worse. You might remember I undertook cleaning and whitening the kitchen and bathroom tile grout in January, February, and March. Some of it is coming due again (you will never stay ahead of bathrooms, or the grout around sinks, for instance), and I have not yet tackled the floors. If it is supposed to be white, I have a mission. For the floor tiles that were supposed to be one color of grey, I will need to get a steam cleaner, and the entire place is tiled floors, including balconies and patios, so I haven't yet tackled the floors - miles to go.

Decorative Ironwork cleaning: Once again, it was painted to be black or gold - it should be those colors, not rusty, dirty, or yucky. MaryBea said.

Do I get much done on these projects on any given day? Hell no, but maybe a tile or an iron flounce or two. I still have 6.25 years until the coffee plants produce - I don't want to finish too soon!

Fruit of the Month: Tetas de cholita (aka Peasant's Nipple)

I didn't name it, and it doesn't seem to have another name across Central America. It has a hard shell and a hard stem from which it hangs from a tree.

To open it, you grasp the stem and pull to one side - pull the skin off.

Pull out sections, like an orange, and eat each section. Sweet treat!

Flower of the Month: Brazilian Plume

I like this flower because it looks like a firework - happy to see you! A bush of these flowers grows near our house, and they bloom in bunches, brilliant and bountiful.

Next month is the official anniversary of our arrival in Panama. I will work on some ideas to create a special edition to celebrate. See you in September!

MaryBea y Miguel

FAQs and How to find us:

No photos? If this got to you with no pictures, I might have made it too heavy. Go to the site where all the old posts are sitting, and read it there - much more colorful. https://seattletopanama.digitalpress.blog/ghost/#/site If you cannot get in using this link, let me know, and I will send you an email invitation - it likes to know you are expected.

Replies to blog postings via email: If you hit "reply" to this email and get a "no reply" address, use the x to knock it out, type in MaryBeaGallagher@gmail.com, and I will get your response. Quirky.

Email: Use our Gmail accounts for email - For some reason, my Comcast/Xfinity doesn't work consistently in Central America.

MaryBeaGallagher@gmail.com

MiguelGiacomo@gmail.com

WhatsApp is the best route for texts and voice calls, but it is uncertain for video calls. We are officially in the Outback of Panama now, in a valley with mountains and extinct volcanos around, and the added interference of lightning and thunderstorms in the afternoons, so there are periods where transmissions will not get through. Find WhatsApp for your phone or computer at your favorite App Store.

Phone calls: In theory, our phones can connect, but the reality is that usually, it rings once, and then a voicemail transcription shows up, and sometimes it never rings, and a voicemail transcription shows up days later. Don't trust it. If you try and we don't pick up, we probably aren't seeing or hearing it ring. If you don't use WhatsApp, stick to email as more likely to get through. We are in the outback and reliant on many factors that may not all align.

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