Last blog before Navidad

Local Fishermen at Santa Clara

This is our last blog before we head back to Canada. Everybody ask Santa for good weather between Diciembre 20th and Enero 4th. Before we come back we will be celebrating Mother's Day, Diciembre 8th; it is a holiday here!

This week, the theme is "less hair" or "to the wood" A couple of days ago Bob decided to try the local barber at Coronado, where we do all our business-- such as collecting the mail, buying groceries, applying for medical at the clinic and paying bills etc. Sometimes we drop in on our friend, Alcides, who works for a local realty company and was the first person we met in Panama. He was our rental agent when we stayed at the Royal Decameron earlier this year and lived on the same street. He is fluent in English as he lived in Canada for 20 years and even had friends near Grand Valley....a nice guy and very helpful.

I digress. Bob took $20 in cash for his haircut knowing it would be a bit less than at home. He went into the barber shop while I forged ahead to El Rey's to do grocery shopping. When Bob was finished, he found me in the store and I could see immediately that he had got his money's worth. His haircut looked good and was "to the wood". The effect was achieved for the grand sum of $3.00, toilet paper around the neck and beer bottles at every chair. The barber shop was very plain with 3 old chairs and two couches. The cut was what the barber called "normal" and the shop definitely catered to the locals. That's the way to live "en plan barato" ... on the cheap.

I understand from Jeaninne, who is the amiable French Canadian co-owner of the Mail Boxes Etc. outlet, that there are no places for women to get a haircut nearby, so I'll have to drop in on Tracy when I am in Canada soon. The alternative is to grow it long and wear it up, like every Panamanian woman I have seen.

I am proud to say I successfully made an appointment for Gracie and Maggie for haircuts on Tuesday and did it in Spanish. The vet's assistant speaks no English at all. I asked for a "classico" cut, so stayed tuned. It may also be "to the wood ". The girls won't mind as they are currently very hot in their fur coats. Theirs will cost a whopping $24 for both, compared to the Canadian price of $90 for both.

The camera is broken so as soon as the new one comes, I'll post pics of all the new haircuts.
Well, we are getting ready to come back to Canada. You're having great weather for our return.
First thing we have to do is find our socks and winter cloth. We have physicial scheduled tomorrow for our health plan. I will ask if we are healthy enough to return to cold weather.
See you next week!
Feliz Navidad