Boquete July - July 31, 2023

MaryBea Gallagher

01 Aug 2023 • 17 min read

This is an unusual short-leaf hydrangea/hortensia for Boquete - more commonly, the hydrangea have longer leaves. This was a tiny plant when we moved in 9 months ago, and I was thrilled when it produced one small blossom in February. Apparently, coffee grounds made it happy, as it now has 4 large blossoms of an intense blue, and it's leafs are very healthy.

Hello! Panama is green and lovely. The northern hemisphere's summer months are a time of hit-or-miss rainy season in Panama; some days it rains, some days not; some days it rains for a good portion of the day, and some days it is summertime sunny from 06:30 to 19:00 as though rain never entered the forecast in this neighborhood. The forecast is eerily on target some days; other days, it will tell me it is rainy with lightning, and the sun is glowing in a cloudless sky. It is raining outside, and the forecast says to expect rain until 10:00pm/22:00, which is nice, as the garden won't need to be watered today.

The most noticeable negative about the weather is the humidity is around 85%, so I feel it should rain, please. This is miles better than the 90-95% humidity that Panama City often has, but I am not used to sweating, and Seattle's humidity, which sits commonly between 45% and 60%, allowed me to "glow" more often than sweating; much more ladylike to glow. The bugs like me more when I sweat - apparently, I taste better sweaty!

This is the hydrangea from the top of the post, but on February 5, the first time it had bloomed, it was ten inches across. Starbucks would be so proud of me for giving it lots of used coffee grounds, then potassium-rich fertilizer every two months to grow into the beauty she has become today (at the top of this post).

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Lightning and Thunder: One day, Ameth was driving us back from an afternoon shopping in David, and it was as though a lightning storm was chasing us back into the mountains - the flashes lit up the sky with brilliant light, but it seemed like we were outrunning the thunder. As we crossed the crest of the hills into the valley of Boquete, the lightning seemed to say on the outside, beyond the mountains.

Two mornings ago, I awoke at 05:13. For about 40 minutes, I watched a lightning storm flash in the valley as though it were ricocheting off the different angles and curves, light flashes chasing one another across the sky. There was no thunder, just the sky-filling light show before sunrise. I went back to bed around 06:00 and still saw more lightning flashes through the curtains, and then morning happened around 06:17, and the sun took over the lighting effects. Seattle's lightning is so seldom compared to here that I get very excited and run outside to watch; Miguel loves the thunder and is disappointed when we get lightning without the timpani effects of the significant thunder strikes. If there were a white noise offering of loud thunder, Miguel would find it very calming, I think, because he is inside and safe, and the storm is outside.

Personal Climate Changes: Miguel's comfort range has narrowed for temperature. He prefers 19-20 Celsius (67-ish) and will go up to 22 (71.5 F) before complaining, so long as there is a breeze. Anything higher than 72 (meaning after 10:00 a.m.) is too hot. And, when the humidity goes up above 70%, he starts stripping and complains no end about how hot it is, no matter the temperature, and how can anyone stand to wear clothes in this weather! For guests, he keeps a shirt by the door. He has fans around the house to augment the 6 open doors and many open windows.

On the other end of the spectrum, if the temperature falls below 19, or it hits 19, and then a breeze blows by, he complains of the cold. Amazingly, Miguel could exist in temperate Seattle for almost 50 years! I think that a red Mr. Roberts cardigan with long sleeves and pockets should be draped on the edge of the couch for evening walks out to check the perimeter before bed, right next to the fresh t-shirt that is draped there to clothe him for propriety should a guest arrive during a heat stroke.

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This is my screenshot of the current weather and forecast at 11:00pm/23:00. Miguel still has his shirt on, but he turned off the fan. He told me he hopes he can sleep tonight because it is just so damn hot! Oops - I spoke too soon, he just flipped the fan on!

My climate change notice is that my sun tolerance is back where it was when I lived in Hawai'i. I must stay undercover between 09:30 and 4:00pm/16:00 because the equatorial sun is too intense. I haven't burned since being here, but I am crediting some good sunscreen for that and my undercoveredness; it is not for lack of the sun's trying. I love to see the sun every day, but walking around in the mid-day glare is not suitable for me - I turn red and get a bit zonky. The hottest and most intense sun here is around noon, but I think because of the position of the mountains, I am comfortable outside until 9:30 and some mornings until 10:00 without feeling the effects much. However, walking into town for grocery shopping mid-day is not a good idea.

Miguel has a new friend who guards the garden. He is a large frog named Ranito (Little Frog, or Froggy). A local potter made the pots we transplanted his aloe upstarts into and offered him this giant frog for $15. Currently, Ranito is guarding the front entrance and portico, but my thought is to move him around the garden like Amalie in the French movie moves the garden gnome around the world. Ranito is a fierce-looking protector, and I am sure he will be effective at garden security. It will be interesting in mating season when we usually have lots of noisy frogs in the yard and stream bed calling out for mates throughout the night - will they be intimidated or encouraged by Ranito?

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Teeth - one down, one to go! Another month has passed in paradise, and I have a new crown (half of my chew back), so the world tastes twice as good as it did a month ago! On August 4, I get the stanchion portion of my new implant, which will fill the gap left by my extraction, and then in December, I should get a new crown fitted into the void, and I can chew on both sides again for the Winter holidays. I think that some jerky is what I want for Christmas this year, Santa!

Auto News

We bought a car last week! Whoop-de-doo! We have gone hardly anywhere, but I do feel a great sense of freedom. The Panama Relocation Tours (PRT) people say that the best way to find a car is to go where the cars are - over half of the population of Panama lives in Panama City. Do we know anything about cars? No, especially cars as they exist in Panama; without the USA's requirements and buyer protections, buying a car on your own is intimidating. So, in Panama, there is a "fixer" for everything. PRT has a couple of recommended buyers who take your order, locate a car or several for you to choose from, and can even deliver it to your door; finder's fees range from $300 to a couple thousand, depending on how complicated you make the request.

That is what we did! We contacted Miguel in Panama City on Tuesday. We told him we wanted a low-entrance SUV (I am short) with side-road capability (potholes), comfortable enough for trips, any color but silver, and not more than 7 years old, ballpark $20,000. Not ten minutes after making the request, the gentleman routed back photos and a description of our car - a pearl white 2016 Nissan Xtrail, with two and four-wheel drive, a sunroof, beautifully kept and ding-less, with 66,000 miles (106,000 km), having just been checked by his Nissan mechanic to great reviews, and $17,500. He had found it for someone else, and they chose another car, so we got it without waiting! We made the arrangements on Wednesday, transferred the money on Thursday, and the delivery guy and several of his cousins drove it from Panama City to our house on Saturday (that's a 7-hour drive!) for $300 more, which was about what it would have cost us to fly to Panama City to drive it back ourselves.

So far, we have been to the grocery store, gas station, the bank at the other end of town, and last night we went out to dinner. BUT we can go anywhere - ANYwhere we want, whenever we want! That sense of the open road has grabbed me!

And it looks so pretty in our portico carport!

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Birds

The birds are eating again. Remember I told you the birds were eating more bugs and worms and avoiding the fruit I put out? They kept up that behavior until about ten days ago when they started eating more of the papaya and bananas I put out and other fruits they have been avoiding (e.g.: mango, watermelon, and avocado). They always ate some of the fruit, but I only put out fruit every other day for a few weeks because they were eating so little. It is like they had been picking at their dessert for a couple months, and now they are expecting breakfast by 9:30, or they are coming into the kitchen and asking why it isn't out yet. The variety of birds is increasing again, but just the locals - no migratory birds when the weather is bright and hot in the north. I found a store that sells wild bird seed, but the guy said that the local birds don't eat it - some migratory birds will eat it in January and February, apparently when they miss their summer homes in the USA. I haven't gotten them to stand still for photos yet, though.

Fruits of Panama:

What is in our tummies this month? Two interesting fruits, Rambuton (aka mamón chino) and Mangosteen, are in our produce aisle, and chayote, a type of squash. Ameth brings us novel fruits and goodies from his parent's finca (farm) in Porton each week, and Jorge brings us some goodies from Luly's family finca in the highlands of Boquete. For some, we just go to the fruit truck at the end of the street! Here is an excellent summary of 15 fruits you need to try if you visit Panama: https://www.baconismagic.ca/panama/fruits-in-panama/

Chayote (chai-oh-teh): We have had a lot of chayote from a neighbor's fence line, where he plants chayote vines to cover the fence, create food for the horses, and apparently feed the neighbors. There is lots of chayote on our side of the fence, so I have been adding it to soups and slicing it to roast with chicken. Chayote is the zucchini of the Panama mountains - a type of squash that seems to grow happily wherever it is planted. People add it to soups in big chunks with the skin still on so it holds together; you eat it out of the skin and always keep a spare plate for the spare parts. In the soups, you also get your chicken or beef rib parts in big pieces with the bone-in, corn is still on the cob, and the soup is literally finger-lickin' good. After you get some of the big chunks out, spoon in rice to absorb some of the tasty broth. The chicken version of this omnipresent soup is the Panamanian national dish, Sancocho, and both chayote and yuca are required ingredients, along with the chicken and corn on the cob. Here is a link to more information on chayote in Wikipedia, where I learned it is grown worldwide, and one of the countries with the greatest variety is Guatemala - no wonder Miguel loves it! Here is a sancocho soup recipe if you want to try it: https://livinginpanama.com/food/panamanian-sancocho-delicious-chicken-soup/

I get a kick out of the old guy, toothless smile at the end of the chayote gourd - way back in November, Miguel drew two eyes on one, and I laughed at it every time I passed the Produce Aisle in the kitchen. That is where you know to make the cut to extract the "tongue" seed. While considered a gourd plant, the skin is not hard on this variety, and many people eat the skin after it has been boiled in the soup broth - of course, here in the bread basket of Panama, we tend to get the freshest, tenderest chayote and not the hardened and shriveled ones.

Rambutan, or mamón chino: This funny fruit looks like a hairy berry. The little feelers are very resilient, as though they are made of plastic or silicone. Inside is a jelly-like orb; you eat it, then spit out the seed. It tastes sweet but astringent. They are quite delightful, and with the little hairy feelers so bouncy, eating them is a very different sensation. Each one is the size of a small plum, and when peeled, it is slippery and gooey on your tongue (and on your hand getting to your tongue!). The Rambutan was brought to South America from Indonesia by the Dutch, who imported it to Suriname in the 1800s, and from there, it spread - happily, to Panama. Here is the Wikipedia page about this fruit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

When you squeeze them, they pop open to reveal the fruit inside.

Miguel ate the orbs outside, sucked off the juicy goodness, and was ready to discard the seed, which still looked like the fruit but had a hard seed core.

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Mangosteen (Mangostán, en Español): Another tropical wonder is a cutie about the size of a medium orange with that little cap on the top. The exterior skin is hard and lined with lovely purple insulation to protect the jelly-like seed pods in the center. You don't eat the pith (just like you don't eat an orange's pith; you discard it with the skin and go straight for the pods in the center. Often, only one of the pod parts has a seed, and the rest are fruit. It has a distinctive flavor, not like the Rambutan, but sweet and astringent. This is another fruit native to the warmer parts of Asia and India and imported to equatorial Central and South America in the 1700s and 1800s. It grows happily in Panama but prefers the hotter lowlands to the mountains.

Mangosteen insides! You eat the pods; in this case, only the big pod had a seed - all the others were just fruit.

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Flowers to come!

This is not really flower season around Boquete - even though there are flowers here all year 'round, this is low season and a time for fertilizing and re-grouping. We have hyacinths/hortensias, as always, and we have some hibiscus, but our yard and the neighborhood are not the colorful display they were a month or six weeks ago. However, there are some promises of great things to come, so I will tease you now and show you the results in August.

These air plants grow as "parasites" on the hibiscus and the orchid trees. This one is especially big, but there are several in the yard that I am looking forward to seeing come out.

Another air plant living in a different hibiscus plant. I am told this will be quite dramatic when it blossoms!

Espiritu de Santo orchid sprouts, which Luly and I "planted" into the orchid tree. Note the plastic we used to link it to the tree so winds whipping through the yard didn't uproot it before it could settle in. The Espiritu de Santo orchid is the national flower of Panama. We transplanted 4 around the yard in May and June.

Our pots on the Julieta balconies are putting out lots of leaves and creating buds for new flowers. This one has built a very sturdy branch that is heading indoors. If you walk out onto that balcony and feel like it is seeking conversation at eye level. Intense!

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Aloe Vera:

Miguel was given an aloe vera plant in December last year, and we placed it by the back door where it would be sunlight but not too much rain. It flourished and had about 300 baby aloes. This past week, Miguel finally bought some pots from a local artist, and we transplanted the babies into 4 pots and then some larger babies into three spots in the gardens. The kids are adjusting to their new home and having all that space, but Mama Aloe is overjoyed to have her space back, and she quickly put out a new bud that I think we will see blossom before the August post.

Baby aloes adjusting to their new lives with room to spread out.

Mama Aloe enjoying her pot to herself again - makes you wonder where all those kids fit! If you look carefully, you can see the bud poking up in the center of the upper third of the shot.

These are seed pods from the orchid tree. As they dry, they separate into two parts and twist into spirals, but litter the yard like streamers from a party. Perhaps we will have some saplings soon!

What is up for August?

After I get my screw/post inserted for my tooth implant, the world is our oyster. We have a car. We could go anywhere and do anything we want.

We would like to visit Santa Fe, south of here and closer to Panama City, but still in the mountains. The town of Santa Fe is smaller than Boquete, and some people who owned a restaurant here, and from whom I took a cooking class uprooted and moved there to set up a new business offering food and cooking classes. They sent us a photo of their new house and business and told us of their gardens and how they want to grow over the next year.

Another idea is that we have been somewhat housebound except for early and late day walks and taxi rides, and since taxi drivers like to go home for dinner, you cannot count on an after-dinner ride home. I would like to get out more just to be out, and cooking is not that much fun when you have to do it. I want to find out about all of the 76 restaurants in Boquete - ALL about ALL of them. I think we know seven so far, and two are ice cream shops.

Miguel would like to volunteer at a cat rescue sanctuary that is in the area - Los Mininos Cat Sanctuary is a large property that rescues cats, re-homes those that can be, and offers a life-long haven for those that are just not good human company - the real grumpy cats of the area, and those that would be euthanized in a city shelter. There are 80 - 90 cats at Los Mininos at any given time, and both Miguel and Ed (our new next-door neighbor) are looking forward to visiting and volunteering. Here is a link if you are interested in the Los Meninos Cat Sanctuary story: https://losmininoscatsanctuary.org/

I have some jewelry-making stuff with which I think I can do a bit of tinkering since my hands are warmer here. I cannot peel a lot of chayotes, but I hope I can hold a pair of jewelry pliers long enough to make some loops, and perhaps I can knot some pearls. I would like to be able to do some jeweling again after having so much trouble with my hands in Seattle - but I suspect that at least part of that trouble was arthritis affected by weather changes. We shall see. At least, I should be able to do some small pieces, and perhaps teach people to make some items that will make them happy.

Miguel has taken up chess. Ed (next door) is a chess player and hasn't had anyone to play with for the past year. Jorge (property owner and landlord) also likes to play but hasn't played often. Ameth built a chess set that is on the balcony above Ed and Valerie's house next door, and the guys meet there to play and discuss strategy and try out their poker faces - apparently, Jorge's needs work. They are all three enjoying the opportunity to have chess afternoons, and Valerie, Luly, and I enjoy having the houses to ourselves for a few hours. It is not getting out, but almost as good!

On one of our field trips, we went to a friend of Jorge's hotel in Volcancito, and they have this giant chess set in the gardens. Perhaps we can get the guys to move their game to the upper gardens - upper meaning to the mountain - after the rainy season.

Miguel is wary of driving in Panama, but as long as I don't have to venture into Panama City, the main highways and towns are not intimidating to me after being a city dweller and renting cars while traveling for 20-some years. The Nissan is very comfortable to drive, and we have a lot of Panama left to visit, so I hope we get out and about soon.

We may not have many flowers in our garden right now, but the hotel we stayed at when we moved here, El Oasis, has gorgeous gardens, and these Bird of Paradise mini-versions are abundant right now.

I will report next month - talk to you then! Aloha from our Panamanian Paradise!

MaryBea y Miguel

FAQs and How to find us:

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

MaryBeaGallagher@gmail.com

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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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