Apr 19, 2017 - Panama Canal

We are at sea for a couple of days before reaching the Panama Canal. My legs still ache from riding the horse but I battle on with the sunbathing in 30+ degrees. I'm still playing darts and have now started playing virtual bowling with the Wii. My darts is getting worse but I win a couple of times on the bowling! We are still pretty successful in the quizzes with our various teams. The day before transit of the Panama Canal the Commodore announces it will commence at 4am. Lots of guests set their alarm to witness this but we decide against...

Feb 7, 2017 - Panama City

Flew from David to Panama City. Flight takes about an hour. It would take about 6 or more hours depending on traffic or other events on the highway. We checked in and spent our last day by the pool. We have checked other places near by which are about the same cost but the pool area keeps drawing us back. It feels like an Oasis in the middle of the city. You can hardly tell that you are right beside a major highway. Occasionally you will here truck Jake brakes but for the most part you feel quite isolated from the city here. I also love...

Feb 6, 2017 - Begining the treck home.

On Suncay we spent most of the day in the pool. When we were not in the pool we were starting the process of packing. We have to divide between what is staying and what is coming home. As Cliff and Yvonne have rented for the year they will take care of some of our goods until our return. We brought a bunch of Kitchen utensils and bought some as well I bought some dresses and there is no call for them at home. We also left eh guitar and the Mandolin in their care until our return. Today we spend the night in David and tomorrow we fly to...

Feb 4, 2017 - Good Bye Party and Cliffs Birthday

Today we celebrated Cliff's birthday although it is early. We celebrated today as many of us will be gone by his birthday which is on Tuesday. Barry and I are headed to spend the night in David so we don't have to get up at O'dark hundred to be at the airport. Our Flight leaves David at 930 at which would mean a 7 am departure and a Ohhhh five hundred wake up... No not ready to do that. Anyway we had a lovely evening with music and great food. Barry made Chili Brian made Pea soup, there was a coleslaw and a green salad as well as Deviled...

Feb 3, 2017 - Back at the Condo

We got back to the condo in time for appies at the pool. The Howlers were hanging out today see pics. I will post the video on Face book when we return as it is upside down and i need the software on the other computer to process it. I forgot to mention earlier that the vegetable guy comes in his truck on Friday mornings. He has a loud speaker and announces his arrival. Parks right by the condo. Today we bough 2 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers and a pinapple for a total cost of 2.50. Had some fun with fruit.

Feb 1, 2017 - The beach

We are glad we decided to stay another day. We walked the beach this morning. We walked a Km away and back. We only saw two or three other people on the beach and this was about 10 am. This is a lovely beach it goes for a long way. In fact this beach is 14 km long and when we were out the water was a good 500 feet from the high water mark. A person could pitch an umbrella bring a cooler full of beer and snacks and sit there most of the day. We were outside at the pool from 11ish until 4 pm.. tough to live this way. We will have to spend...

Jan 31, 2017 - Headed to Las Olas for the Beach

We headed out before 10 to get to the Las Olas resort. There were only two beaches we wanted to check out yet. This one and Las Lajas. We tried to book Las Lajas and there were issues and we had to phone Booking.com to get our money back. The hotel emailed us and said that the hotel was booked fully and they could not accommodate our reservation even though Booking.com confirmed that the hotel room was booked. when the only way to cancel was to forfeit all our money. Booking straightened it out and gave us a full refund. Apparently the...

Jan 30, 2017 - Jan 30

Today we headed into David (Dah veed) to do some shopping. We found the pork store which is good as some ribs had been ordered for us and we needed to pick them up.. OMG you should see the ribs... I will post on Sunday coming as I will be making them for dinner. We had ordered 5 lbs and we got 8 total cost 29 us... The biggest ribs I have seen. St Louis style. We also did some shopping. There is a store here called Conway which has great deals. We will head back later this week to shop for some summer clothes. Note pictures of the "lock...

Jan 26, 2017 - Out and about at the ranch

Since we arrived the other residents kept on saying that we should go down to the river as the river is beautiful. So yesterday Gerry took us all for an excursion down to the river. The river is not as beautiful as everyone said but that is because it is now dry season and mostly rocks with a tiny stream. Jack the owner of the complex allows one of the neighbours to graze his cattle here and so on our wild life tour we also saw cows. Bird nesting... We got pretty close and she did not move. Gerry took pictures last week of the eggs so we...

Jan 24, 2017 - Since Saturday

Most of this week was spent in the pool or going shopping. You can see by the picture it is a tough life. Yesterday we went to check out a new place to rent for next year. We really like this place but it is more rural then we would like. We did luck out in that the neighbours all 10 of them are great. Turns out that they are all from Canada. This is one other couple here but they are from Slovenia and have not joined any of the community meals or functions going on. I understand they speak very little English. Regardless we continue to...

Jan 21, 2017 - Jacks Birthday

So yesterday was Jack's birthday. We enjoyed appetizers at the pool on Friday and today we celebrated with cake and Pizza. Brian from across the pool used to own a pizza parlor so he made pizza for the evening. He used his oven ours and Cliff and Yvonne's. I did not take a picture of it but it was terrific. Best Pizza I have had in this country. Sharon made a chocolate cake which was also scrumptious.

Jan 17, 2017 - Boquette

Today we headed to Boquette with Cliff and Yvonne. Unfortunately we ran out of time to go to the coffee and flower festival. We will do it next time we are in Boquete. Boquete is in what they call the green mountain highlands. There is a huge amount of Americans in this community. We attended a meeting to learn about the medical coop that had been arranged.After sitting there for an hour and a half we discovered that unless we lived in Boquete we would not be eligible for many services. Boquete is at about 1200 meters so our time there was...