What I miss - June 30, 2023
I have been busy. The weather has been rainy - the rain did finally show up. I have been taking photos, though there are fewer flowers and birds this season, so they are the same subjects in multiple poses and not the variety I normally have. I thought I would hurry before June ends and get out a post on how my idea of HOME has altered, and what I miss about living in the USA and Seattle other than my favorite people. I will color the commentary with photos I have taken that don't necessarily maintain the topic but will show you the surroundings.
Miguel most misses two-day shipping, home delivery, and free shipping. We still have Amazon ship us stuff. There are things we simply cannot find here - like a memory foam mattress topper for the new orthopedic mattress that is too hard for side sleepers (me). Apparently, no one sleeps on their side in Panama, or their shoulders always hurt and they didn't realize that memory foam could help and would last for 8-10 years - because high-quality foam, and memory foam, just isn't available here! Even upholsterers don't have a source! So, when you need to get something through Amazon, you get a shipping company in the USA that forwards, like Mailboxes R US. Ours is ServiTechnique in Miami. Amazon ships to Miami in two days for free, then ServiTech ships via air ($4 per pound) or cargo ship ($2.50 per pound) to Panama City, and trucks the seven hours to Boquete. Figure about 5 days by air, and 12 days by sea to get to Boquete, wherein you get a text saying you have mail. You drop by their offices between 10:00 and 4:00, pay by the package/pound ($4 minimum) and pick up your packages. Expect wear and tear over the long haul - the US Post Office, especially, has a longer transit time and a rougher ride, than FedEx or UPS; some of the boxes my sister mails to us come looking like someone sat on them and then let dogs chew on the corners. We often pick up several packages at one haul, and like the day that we got the memory foam mattress toppers, we paid over $100 in shipping for our combined packages and had to have Ameth pick us up at ServiTech's office because we couldn't walk to the corner to flag a taxi. There are no mailing addresses in Panama because there is no mail service and no home delivery - when there are packages to get home, we REALLY miss the home delivery. What we DON'T miss is the junk mail!
Berries: We have many fascinating and exotic fruits here. Berries are fascinating and exotic fruits to Panamanians. Except for strawberries, which grow here year-round, berries like raspberries, blueberries, black and marionberries, huckleberries, salmonberries, elderberries, cranberries, cherries, and the many, many berries of the Pacific Northwest are exotic fruits. They are imported here, from Chile, sometimes, and they are not as good as I hope. Sometimes they are available frozen, but they are not from home, and not as good as Washington's. There are some greenhouse blueberries grown here seasonally, but they are the over-blown ones - not the wild, small ones that have lots of juicy flavor; perhaps because there is no cold season to temper them, the greenhouse blueberries grown high in the mountains only grow big and bland. At any rate, berries have become exotic fruits, and what are to me totally unknown fruits, are dropped off by Ameth every weekend after his trip home to the farm/finca at Porton.
Currently on our Produce Aisle: No berries
Great Apples: While we are on the topic of produce, gosh Washington produces the best apples! I miss Cosmic Crisp, Fuji, and Honeycrisp, and being able to put together a variety to make a pie where the Yellow Delicious will dissolve into the sauce, the Newton will add tartness, and the Fuji and Honeycrisp will play off one another to sweeten the body. It will never happen in Panama with the apples available here. They are too small to bother eating around the core, first off, and then, there is only one kind - whatever Chile is sending up in the summer months, and whatever small Red Delicious apples Washington can spare in December. So sad. People here are kind of wary of big apples like the Honeycrisp or Fuji - they see them as GMO and totally faked. When I mentioned that carrots are only all orange because of hybridization, I got blank stares. Apparently, big apples are on steroids, and look at what happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger - he ended up with heart surgery and became a vegetarian!
Car: I miss having a car and being able to get around just because I want to go for a drive. This is fixable. We now have our cedulas, our driver's license credentials are transferred and we have Panama licenses. We even got a bank account and in a few weeks, we can prove that we can transfer more than a couple thousand dollars and buy a car. But, knowing we can finally do that, and it is within reach has made me really miss having one. Also, the rainy season arrived, so when I want to leave the house, a deluge is certain to start just as I get three blocks away; just the idea of being rained in has increased the craving to have more flexibility about my/our comings and goings. Which car? No ideas, yet. The best recommendation here is to pay a "finder" to get one from the big city, where used cars are bountiful and prices are flexible. Out here, cars are less plentiful, there are more expats with money so the prices are higher, and if you buy one without knowing a lot about cars, you are likely to be taken because you have no legal protections. Buyers are fixers, too, and charge about $500-$1000 depending on how long your list of requirements is, how expensive your car is, and how long it takes to find your dream car; they will haggle, and they will have it verified by a mechanic and for history. We should have a car in the next few months, but I suspect I will be quite antsy by the time it happens; I want to hit the road!
Field Trip: I want a car to take more Field Trips. Jorge took us on one for our birthdays, and we sent started out in one direction, turned around when a restaurant was closed, and headed in another, and I can only tell you we had a wonderful day in the mountains. Here are some photos.
We have new neighbors: Valerie and Ed moved in on June 1 with their small ShiTzu dog, Macy. They have about 300 potted plants, antique furniture, and a bunch of stuff that they shipped from Pittsburg - which has made us very glad that we didn't do that and only saved a minimal number of items to ship, mostly boxing some of Miguel's books and a few artworks into storage - which we will audit next year one more time before shipping. Whew! Today, Bart moved into one of the three townhouses, and he has only a few suitcases and a bicycle to cart down from his former apartment on the north side of town.
To celebrate Jorge's 73rd birthday and our new neighbors, Miguel organized a party today that was a big success. We had 10 people around the dining room table eating Chinese food that was delivered, a cake from the bakery, and even Macy the dog enjoyed the food ("She is a ShiTzu", Valerie, said, "Of course she enjoys Chinese food!"). Miguel did all of the planning, MaryBea did all of the cleaning, and it went off without a hitch! I cannot remember the last time our household hosted a shindig.
And speaking of neighbors - it is Bug Season: It is not that we have new bugs, we just have more bugs. Since we leave the house open 12 hours a day, all of the doors, and most of the windows are beckoning to the world, "Come, see what we have to offer!" My hope is that most of the bugs will fly in, note that we offer little, and fly right on through, like the neighborhood birds do. The Produce Aisle is under a net cover. We are very careful to not leave food out or counters sticky. Bugs are happier outside the house than in - that is not the problem. There are just more of them about! Big beetle bugs, little flying bugs, tiny-grey-invisible-ant bugs, leaf-cutter ants, bugs, bugs, everywhere! For the most part, they don't bother with the house, but some days they like to gnaw on me, especially my ears, knuckles, and my elbows. We don't have many mosquitos because there is little standing water - the babbling brook babbles because it is constantly moving. The bees are not honey bees, and they like the hummingbird feeders, but they are not aggressive, and will not sting me, even sticking with the feeder as I carry it off to refill it. Some of the bugs are obvious, and some are not. Miguel sent me this photo of a bug that has eluded me so far, but you can see why.
HOME: Surprise! I feel at home here. Every day there is sunlight. It is a very unusual day that I don't awaken to the sun shining and the birds singing. The sun goes down and it is dark by 7:00, but I got to spend at least part of the day in the sun, every day. Every day of every week, of every month we have been here. Rainy Season, whether the late Spring version in May/June, or the Hurrican Season version (October/November) has sun in the morning, even if the heavy rain starts at noon instead of the expected 4:00. Should the rain start at 11:00, it often times will end at 4:00 so you can enjoy a rainbow of forgiveness and a bit of sun before nightfall. I didn't realize until living in Hawai'i from 1998 - 2001 how big a difference the sun makes in my day, and in my life. Life is happier here; no wonder I am healthier! This place and this house feel like home. I realize we are renting, and I trust that the day will come when we cannot climb the stairs to the bedroom(s) and will need a single-story home, but this place feels like home, and Seattle feels like not enough sun. My needs have changed. My definition of HOME has changed. This is home, and I am here.
So, from our home to yours, happy July 1!
MaryBea y Miguel
How to find us:
No photos? If this got to you with no photos, I might have made it too heavy. Go to the site where all of the old posts are sitting, and read it there - much more colorful. https://seattletopanama.digitalpress.blog/ghost/#/site If for some reason 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.
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Email: Use our Gmail accounts for email - for some reason, my Comcast/Xfinity doesn't work consistently in Central America.
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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