Glad I am safe!

Went to pick Ronnie up from his flight back from the US. I left with plenty of time, stopped in Chorrera to gas up and continued on my way to Tocumen (airport). I thought everything was fine but all of a sudden I felt the car behaving strangely, and within seconds I felt as if one of the tires went flat. I knew I had to pull over to the edge as soon as possible and so I did. I waited on the side of the road in total darkness, for about 1.5 hours. I called our car insurance company and they said someone would be coming. In the meantime I called a friend of ours, also a neighbor in Altos, who decided to get in his car immediately and come to my rescue.

While I waited I kept looking at my watch noting that the airplane would arrive soon and Ronnie would have no idea of what had happened. Then I decided to take out a prayer and pray. Eventually my friend arrived as well as the insurance car both ready to help me change my tire. When I got out of my car and went to take a look at my tire, I was in total shock. Keep in mind that it was very dark but it was clear the tire was blown.

At that point my friend gave me his keys and off I went with his daughter to Tocumen to pick Ronnie up. As I approached Tocumen I received a call from Ronnie asking me where I was and I told him I had a small situation but was getting ready to pull up. When he saw me getting out of a car that was not mine he did not know what to think. As I explained what happened he was in total shock. It did not take long before we started on our way home and ran into my neighbor that was driving my car back home. When we finally pulled in front of our house, he called us over to show us my tire. With the entrance lights on and car lights on we all took a good look at the tire.

You can see in the photo what the tire looked like. We were in shock. My friend insisted I must have driven the car for a long distance for the tire to end up like this AND he could not believe nothing had happened to me, i.e., no rocking of the car, no hitting other cars or other cars hitting me, and not ending up in the median ditch! I thank Padre Pio for my safety. Many weird events and conversations happened before I left for the airport but I have to give credit to Padre Pio for saving my life and keeping me safe where I could get off of the highway and get to the side of the road.

Weather in Altos del Maria

Over the last few weeks we have had quite a disturbing weather pattern. Nobody knows whether we have a very early rainy season or if summer will last through end of April. If you visit up in these mountains frequently or reside here permanently you are quite familiar with the weather changes. Just as the photo on the left shows, a few days ago I woke up to very nasty weather. Two days later it cleared up to what the other photo shows. That is usually the game that weather plays on us here on a daily basis lately.

I tried to get the same location but you can tell the difference. Of course, when it rains it becomes very humid. Perfect to get our dehumidifier going and see buckets and buckets of water being removed from the house. Amazing huh?

From coconut to palm tree!!

I recently admired a huge beautiful palm tree at a friend's house. He said he just got a old dead coconut and planted it and he got this beautiful palm tree.

So I asked one of my workers putting up my fence if any of them had a coconut. So far I have found that these very simple and humble people will do anything they can to please you. So just as they showed up with the fruit this time they showed up with a coconut. And as you can see it has a leaf already growing out of it.

As I mentioned to my housekeeper that I had gotten this coconut that was on the side of the house sitting in a bowl of water as per the instructions of my gardener so we can keep it in "good health" for another week or so, she offered to bring me another one so I can "balance" my backyard and not just have one huge one. She said that this way I can put one on each corner of the bottom of the backyard. And the other 2 smaller ones in between and it would look more balanced. So you can see that out of a half dead coconut, that I have received for free I will make it into a beautiful palm tree.

I find most people here are so grateful! That they will do whatever they can for you if you just treat them right. My housekeeper this morning brought a list of terms that she asked if I could research on the internet for her daughter. She said her daugther did not get her allowed internet time at school so she asked her this morning when she was leaving home who she was working for today. My housekeeper told her my name. Her daughter told her that since she was working for the nice good lady maybe I would not mind helping her. Keep in mind we are up in the mountains and the closest internet access is all the way at the bottom of the mountain and you pay for it. In order to get there you have to sit at a small maket and wait for a "taxi" and pay to get down the mountain. These people cannot afford to pay for a $5 round trip to the bottom of the mountain and they are not going to let their child go down by themselves, so it gets very expensive for them when you think that they only make $10 a day and that would all be spent in a trip to the internet.

So I sat down and spent a couple of hours looking up all these terms and finding photos to go with them. For example, archeology, anthropology, etc. This is probably why she offered the coconut because she felt very appreciative that I actually spent the time to help her daughter. The last time I saw her daughter in church she came over and gave me a big hug. If you only could see the conditions these people live under you would be amazed. It is hard for them and they appreciate anything youn do AND just like you and me, they will do anything so that their kids dont have to live the life they live. Her daughter got a scholarship to go to a school in another larger town next year, she was selected because she was very smart and she will have to board during the week days.

As I have been cleaning up my scrapbooking supplies of papers I have been giving my housekeeper papes and stickers and all kinds of stuff to take home to the girls. She very proudly told me this morning her daughter had an assignment and she used one of the flowered papers I had given her. And her paper was posted on the board along with everyone else's. The only problem was that everyone used plain white paper and she was the only one that had flowered paper so her teacher asked her where she had gotten the pretty paper and she told her she just got it from somewhere. But I could see that my housekeeper was very proud that she had stood out among everyone else in the class and put some thought into how to present her assignment. It is the simple things we all take for granted that are so difficult for these people and it is such a pleasure to see them be appreciative for what you give them.

Cashews? An unusual fruit.

Earlier you read where we are in the process of building a fence in our lot. The man that we hired and brought his crew showed up yesterday with a funky looking "thing." We had no idea what it was. When I asked my housekeeper she said it was a "maranon." So what is that, I asked. Did some research and this is what I found.

It's seed, the cashew nut, grows on top of it in a tick rubbery shell. Cashews must be roasted before they can be eaten, they are poisonous when raw.

Ripe fruit can be made into a shake or can also be fermented into wine. My housekeeper squeezed the juice into one glass and Ronnie drank it. He said it did not taste bad. Now we have the cashews that we can plant if we wish and have a tree like this grow in our back yard.

Unusual tree.....

Chorisia speciosa - or silk floss tree is an unusual tree that I have run into up here in Altos del Maria. In Spanish it is known as palo borracho, arbol botella or arbol de la lana. It's blooms are beautiful pink flowers. The things that look like sticks are capsules that hold extemely small black seeds inside that are surrounded by a "cotton" that aids in propagation by flying through the air. You can see below a more close up photo of this capsule. You can take it apart and you will see all the millions of tiny seeds inside. Many villagers up here in the mountains use the "cotton" like material to stuff their pillows. If you look closely you can see the tiny seeds on the photo below right.

A pretty busy day!

Woke up to our new gardener's arrival at 6:45am. I love him already! Very methodical in his work, organized in how he tackled the yard, bushes, flowers, and he even cleaned all the gutters. The gutters are a big deal because they normally get full of dirt, twigs, flowers that want to start growing, pine needles and anything else. My previous gardener only cleaned the gutters when I asked him to. In addition he swept my entire driveway. WOW what a way to start! Gave him some coffee at 10am and lunch at noon.

Then we had to make plenty of trips to our lot, which is literally just down the hill, to take gallon jugs (6) of water with ice cubes to the workers that are building our fence. As usual, we find out that we did not get enough galvinized posts - we are 8 short - so we are going to try and exchange some of the cement blocks for the posts. Seems that when they started to dig a trench for the blocks they discovered the "normal" boulders on my property line and although they tried, they just could not move them. So we will have to put the fence "around the corner" ofthe huge rocks - so to speak! Anything is possible in Altos......

Many trips were made to take them water with ice, cups, etc. At 3pm we had to drive by to pick up all the jugs, cups and see what tomorrow's plan would be. We will see what happens with the fence tomorrow.

Just prior to that we took the gardener down to Sora at 2:30pm. On the way we stopped at the bottom side of our lot and I got out and walked the bottom with him and discussed the planting of the palm trees that I have that need to be planted. One of them is a coconut with roots and some kind of leaf coming out of it. It should grow into a huge palm tree. (Photos to follow) He is going to complete the cleaning of our lot by running the weed eater at least once through and then will plant the 3 palm trees and told me he will also start helping me plant all the ferns I have and will also make hanging baskets to hang from the trees - Lord knows I have plenty of them. He said that slowly he will help me start giving the bottom of the lot some life. Of course once the rainy season begins I will be able to transfer the rest of the plants I am babysitting on my terrace. Then the bottom of the lot will start taking some shape.

As you can see this is what a typical day may look like uphere or down here depending on your perspective. The next thing you know the day has passed.....time seems to be flying by. Getting ready to go to a dinner invite!

Lent in Altos del Maria

Lent is a special time for many in Hispanic countries. As you drive up to or down from Altos del Maria you will drive past many white crosses. Some have flowers on them as these posted and others have a purple ribbon or fabric wrapped around them. I rather like this custom! A good reminder of the time of the year and plenty to meditate on!

As I drove to the bank today I had to park behind another vehicle because the parking lot was full. As you can see from the photo this is what I parked behind - a truck with a bull! Seemed normal around here!

This boulder will reside under our terrace. No way to remove it or even push it to the side so I can use it decoratively!

I hear many stories from more and more people that they also have huge boulders under their homes.

This one is NOT moving for sure. If it could tip the bulldozer it just ain't moving! Makes for interesting days though!

Have started building a chain-link fence on one side of the lot and will be getting ready to start planting soon. The only reason I can start planting soon is that the entire bottom part of the lot is available to me from the side that faces Piombino Street and provides full access for any other projects we want to work on between now and the time when the house is completed.

A busy sunday!

The day started with me sorting out a ton of plant cuttings that I picked up yesterday from a friend. When I mean a ton I mean a ton! You can see at the bottom of the photo the ferns that were removed and I packed in my car along with cuttings of other types of plants. So I planted some of them in individual pots to get them started again while I can plant them in my own lot. By early May I should be able to since that should be the real start of the rainy season.

Some of the cuttings went to my Panamanian neighbors as they are starting to plant their own back yard. They immediately planted them in between the huge rocks and it won't be long before they have ferns and other plants growing and decorating their yard. So when I took the cuttings to them we ended up having a late morning breakfast of eggs, bread, fried tortilla, coffee.

From there we took off to visit our artist friend here in Altos - Vera and Ricardo. I took some ferns that I knew were different and she would totally love them and Ronnie took the usual supply of salsa. We intended to drop off and come home but it was impossible. Once here you quickly learn that once you drop by you need to plan to stay and visit. We had to come in and chat but in the meantime a "Rum and Coke" appeared in front of us. As we tried to leave, Vera came running out of the kitchen with a plate of canapes, salsa and crackers. She loves the salsa! As always we end of talking of food and we agreed that we would make the typical Chilean "pastel de choclo" with tomato and onion salad and empanadas. They agreed and suggested we go over there and bring our portion, they would add some meat and sausages for a BBQ as well as make pisco sours! This will probably not happen until Ronnie gets back from his visit to the US. We spent about 2 hours there totally relaxed. Their house is a mini paradise and it is really hard to leave. We can totally understand why they love to come every weekend!

We left, came home, took the dogs out, got in the car and left to go to our other friend's house also in Altos. He is Panamanian (Rey) and his wife is Chilean (Cristina). She is an artist also and teaches art/painting at the University in the city. They had quite a few relatives visiting including a cousin that just flew in last night from Chile. We exchanged a lot of thoughts on the earthquake and the current situation. One of those there is an owner of a restaurant in Panama City - Estilo Campo - which we decided we must try. Also we met Clelio who is a well known artist and interior designer from Panama City. Rey and Cristina also had a BBQ along with a few other dishes. Always plenty to drink!

It is always fun to visit them and Rey recently decided that in order to make a drink it must be decorated with a flower or plant. So this time it was a rum and coke to be followed by many glasses of wine. There was some rain that was actually going sideways due to the winds coming from the top of the mountain, I have never seen the rain doing something like that. Although the rain was not coming down hard it was amazing to see. We stayed there till 7:30pm and saw a beautiful sunset. A lovely way to end a very busy but relaxing day!

Chile - get back on your feet! Juntos podemos!

Been glued to the Chilean TV channels and have seen a too much of a close look at the real devastation and needs in Chile today. Not only is new construction needed but with rains and winter coming so many without even a tent! There is a telethon going on for 2 days now and there has been overwhelming support from so many that don't have themselves. Especially from those that are in Chile in areas that were not affected.

We went online to donate and I urge all of you to give from the heart even if just a little. There is dramatic need of diapers, milk for babies, food, water, clothing! Towns and villages have been literally swept away not just by the earthquake and continuous aftershocks but also the tsunami that washed away so much.

We have considered flying down to Chile to volunteer our help however it is difficult once you arrive in Santiago to get to the south where the devastated areas are. You need to request permits, etc. The country is trying to keep areas secure but in the meantime they had 6 aftershocks yesterday, one was 6 on the richter scale and another one was 6.6 so you can see the country is still rocking!

Together we can help! Juntos podemos! Arriba Chile! Volveremos a reconstruir! Keep Chile in your prayers.

When all else fails - drive to Sora for Chinese food!

Today was a lazy day. It was cloudy, and quite blah! So took naps and met with Faith, who just got back from Florida and was kind enough to bring Ronnie some meds and what else was there to do?! So we drove down to Sora for chinese. WOW it sure hit the spot: tea, soup, chow mein, an order of friend wong tons! The drive down was pretty foggy but doable. The drive back was a bit worse. You just sort of hope and pray that you will be able to see enough of the road so you won't drive off the deep end literally and figuratively! LOL...Already have plans for a new road trip. Back to Penonome on Saturday for cigar shopping, lunch and you just never know what might come up while you are outand about!

Manny Sanguillen

Photo of Ronnie, Manny and Elaine at Lenos & Carbon in the Amador Causeway. He is getting ready to fly to work in the Pirate's training camp to help the catchers as he views them as his own sons. It was a pleasure to meet him - what a simple man!

You never know who you will run into....

We spent most of Monday renewing our visa. We were doing fine until we got to immigration and discovered that they changed the rules (no surprise) and we now needed a new piece of paper. So we had to sit there for 2 hours until our lawyer could bring us a copy of that paper. So that was about it for that day! The great surprise is that we got a visa for one year and we don't have to go every three months for renewal.


Wednesday (today) was spent renewing our driver license! Thanks to friends who told us we could renew them in a town very near us we actually showed up and both of us renewed our license in about one hour. The testing in this location was a bit different than at our previous location but it sure was faster! We were happy that we also got our license for an entire year because our visa is good for one year!


After we got our license we headed into town to meet with our lawyer,pick up another set of papers and pick up some lunch with them. We decided to eat at the Amador Causeway, at Lenos & Carbon. We drove through the three little islands, Naos, Pelicano and finally FLamenco where the restaurant was located. There is an incredible yatch club there and amazing boats that dock there.


As we finished lunch our lawyer a VIP was pointed out to us and it was suggested we say hello on our way out. Who was this person????? his name is Manny Sanguillen also known as "Sangy." He was the catcher for the Pirates ('70-'78) and played with Stargell and Candelaria but mostly was best friend with Roberto Clemente. He even dove in the waters when Clemente's plane went down in an effort to try and find him. He currently helps the Pirates train catchers and heads out back to training camp tomorrow. We found him to be the nicest person, for being so well known, he was a very simple and friendly. He did like the fact that we had gone to West Virginia University as he LOVES the Mountaineers. Manny hails from Colon, Panama and made a few comments about me being from Puerto Rico.

As we left he asked if we had a camera so we could take our photo and as we chit chatted in the parking lot, Manny and his friends pulled out in their car and once again stopped, shook our hands and wished us well. What an awesome person!

Getting ready for our trip!

We are taking a cruise on RCCL departing April 11th our of Colon, Panama. It is a nine day cruise that begins in Colon, and the Enchantment of the Seas will take us to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; Cartagena and Santa Marta, Colombia; Oranjaestad, Aruba and on to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (US).

We are lucky to have familiarized ourselves already with all of our ports of call and have made a list of the most important things to see and do in each one. In addition, we will be joining another group headed by Gail who is a well travelled passenger also on our RCCL cruise touring Cartagena that she has arranged. There is quite a bit to see there and we know we cannot see it all during one stop but we hopefully will manage to get a pretty good glimpse of many amazing sites. Please keep tuned to our blog during our trip and we will post photos upon arrival back home.