Haircuts, Expat Living, Prices, Effigies, Christmas 2010 and...

Christmas Eve Day luncheon on an outside patio in El Valle.

adios Panama!

Whew, we made it to Panama City! We drove from Altos to the airport hotel without any big problemos. It's precarious to drive because of all the potholes and lack of signage. Luckily, we "kind-of" remembered the way and traffic was light. I'm blogging in the business center of the airport hotel and Bob is happily watching football on TV with Spanish announcers.  Sort of like using Rosetta Stone to learn footbal lingo. Ha. Ha.

This has been a VERY  quiet lovely week for us. Since our vrbo did not have TV or internet, we've been reading on the Kindle, doing puzzle books, reading articles on Ecuador and South America, listening to our iPods and  enjoying the views from up high while in the middle of nature. We've seen 2 cars come down our street all week. Yup, it is a very remote place. We've loved the week in Altos, but Bob will be happy with our return to TVland for a day.

We drove into Coronado one day to  grocery shop and to get haircuts. We figured it would be easier to do here instead of in the big city of Quito. We found a shop and asked if they spoke English. No. So, I said, "Corte de pelo por dos?"  haircut for 2?  The gal said, "Si" and 30 min. later we both had a nice haircut. Bob also got his head oiled and massaged AND his ears and eyebrows trimmed. Quite the treatment for a total bill for 2 of $17.00.

Overall, we find the prices of things in Panama cheaper than the states. The grocery store prices are well below what we pay in the states. The only pricey things here are products that are special imports like Johnsonville brats or organic lettuce, etc. Basically, things you don't have to have... wants.  Otherwise, everything is cheaper, including the American items that we buy at home like Campbell canned goods, Dorito chips, and many other American brands. The fruit is fresh and extremely inexpensive. A tasty pineapple costs about a dollar.  The Chilean wine we buy at home is $5.00 here, Finlandia vodka and  local beer are very very cheap to buy in the grocery store. At a restaurant, a local beer (very good) costs $1.00, while a coke costs $1.50. Regular gas went up the second day we were here. It's $3.47 a gallon for 91 octane. It was over $4.00 a gallon in Costa Rica. Of course, the distances to drive here are short so gas goes a long way.  In Altos Del Maria, housing prices are all over the place, depending on what you want. We heard that electricity is expensive, but haven't heard how much. The Americans/Canadians we've met are happy with their way of life here and how cheaply they can live, so that tells the best story.

It's understandable why so many expats of all nationalities live here, especially Americans. The Panamanian government has a special deal for retired expats; if you go through the process to become a pensionato and resident, you get huge deals and discounts. For example, all of your airline flights are discounted 25%.  We've been reading about International Living Communities throughout the world for about the last 4 years via blogs, magazines. and books.  Panama is and has been touted  as THE place to retire to live cheaply on your social security payment. From what we've seen, it's doable. Check out www.internationalliving.com if you are interested in learning more about it. We've met a few expat Americans/Canadians since we've been here and they love it. 

Our "take" on moving abroad is from the standpoint of the weather, culture and social conditions . Bob and I are not fond of humidity, bad roads,  garbage piled up in the streets (as we saw in Panama City; huge piles of decaying garbage in the slums), creepy crawlers inspired by the humidity and feral dogs/chickens running all over the place. These are the things that you have to experience and see before you decide where in the world  you'd want to live and retire. For us, it's fun to live and learn and get a feel for a place. So far, we are contento in our hearts to travel. 3 years ago we experienced Vilcabama, Ecuador and fell in love with it immediately. However, no golf course nearby meant we crossed that one off of Bob's list. However, we are going back there next week because it grabbed hold of our hearts and we want to experience it again. Ya never know where in the world we may end up. It's a lot of fun to dream, wander and see what there is to see in this great big beautiful world of ours.

We ate at a great Mexican place called Chollos in Coronado one day for lunch. It's owned by an American and the food was topnotch with homemade chips/salsa. We can't get enough Mexican or spicy food because we know that once we hit South America, the spices disappear. The SA food is Italian influenced. Chimichurri sauce on steak will be about the only thing you might find spice-wise and that's basically garlic and onions.

On Christmas Eve Day we decided to take a drive over the mountains to a quaint town called El Valle. We heard that there was a great restaurant there as well as it being a neat village set in the middle of an extinct volcano. We headed for the mountain pass a.k.a. the "shortcut" road and stopped to ask if we were on the right road. A man asked us, "quatro y quarto?" We answered, "NO, dos." He pointed to our car and shook his head and said, "quatro y quatro." We understood that we needed 4 wheel drive for the road, so we headed off in a different direction to try something else for the day. Low and behold, we noticed a sign for El Valle and ended up taking the long way there on a nice paved road with lots of good scenery. We found the restaurant called Lourdes and had a fabulous lunch/early dinner of baked sea bass. We knew that the place was booked for dinner so we were happy to have the whole restaurant to ourselves. Sitting outside in the gorgeous patio was fun. The whole place was beautifully decorated for Christmas. We remarked that a year ago we were with Kendra enjoying Christmas in Australia. Wonder where we'll be next year at this time?

Our Christmas Day 2010 dinner was most untraditional. We had fresh shrimp premavara. I bought 10 huge shrimp for $5.00. We could have purchased a Butterball turkey, but since we were leaving the day after Christmas to drive back to Panama City to spend the night at at hotel before we leave the next day for Quito, Eucador, we decided that all the left overs would be problematic. We had a sunny day so we ventured out on the steep roads and took a nice walk before the clouds came in with a bit of rain.





Driving along the Panamerican Highway and on some of the back roads we spotted effigies propped up along side the road. I found out that nothing drives off evil spirits like a good fire, or a good effigy representing yesteryear.  Locals burn effigies of well-known people/characters in New Year's bonfires. 

Well, that's it from Panama. Tomorrow's flight takes us to the high altitude of Quito, Ecuador for the next 3 nights before we fly off to Vilcabamba.
Adios,

Massage and a haircut, 2 bits!

El Valle area in the extinct volcano.

Effigies. Oh-no, they're going to burn my favorite childhood doll.

Our Christmas hike. It's all uphill in Altos!

Fresh and cheap.

Our vrbo in Altos.

We hope that your Christmas was beautiful.
Mary and Bob