Here Comes Carnival

A view of the Town Centre at Playa Blanca

Well here's a bit of this and that. To follow up from last week, we attended the lunch social at El Paraiso Restaurante on the road to El Valle and enjoyed it a lot. We spent the afternoon on the patio, yakking, eating and of course having a few frosty Panamas. We met two couples, whose company we enjoyed. One couple, Steve and Barb are from the US and Sherry and Ken are from Alberta. We have their numbers, so will give them a call one day soon. The mariachi band was good too, compliments of the restaurant. The organizer of the event, Louise, had 100 RSVPs and 140 showed up. The kitchen was slammed but put out an excellent lunch. Louise first contacted us through a comment on this blog. I followed up with email and found the Playa Community website where I found info on the Mah Jong group, the social functions, which we have started to attend and a lot more. This week we are also going to a business meeting of the social club in Coronado.

 We're pretty busy this week too. Yesterday we were at the dentist for cleanings, $36 each with our "Jubilado discuento" of 20% (Do you like that one Jon?). The dentist, Dr. Atencio, was very friendly and funny and his English was excellent. He lived in Toronto for 5 years and has been back in Panama for 18 months. His practice is in Santiago, about 2.5 hours from here, but he also works at the Clinica San Fernando on weekends. We expected a dental hygenist, so were surpised that in Panama, the dentist does your cleaning also.

The Clinica San Fernando is great because all the staff speak English, there are doctors for routine visits and an emergency room as well as a pharmacy. Normally the clinic is open 24 hours Friday night and Saturday but because of Carnival coming up Mar 4 to 8, they will be open 24 hours everyday until it is over. Those who know say it is a wild party. People stay up and party 24 hours( including the kids).We are advised to stay home and stay off the roads because of the drinking and driving. We have stocked up on groceries and I will forgo my Mah Jong group until it is over. There is no way I could get a bus during that time so we will hunker down. We were in Canada but our neighbour, Justin, said that on New Years Day, our neighbourhood was bumper to bumper traffic and fireworks all night long, so we think it will be the same except for 4 days straight. Can't wait!. A lady I heard of, had to tranquilize her dogs because they barked themselves sick every time fireworks went off.

Yesterday we went over to Playa Blanca in the afternoon to see our house. No body was around so we walked through and had a good look. It's far from being ready. Our sales agent, Farid, called today to say he checked with the contractor. He says best case 6 weeks, worst case 12 weeks, translated to the local dialect, I think that means "Not a hope it will be done before 12 weeks! Anyway, I felt excited to be standing in our house, none the less. We will be able to see a bit of the ocean from our living room window and backyard. After our tour of the building site, we went to the ocean club and enjoyed our membership there. We lounged in the shade and floated in the giant saltwater pool for a couple of hours. Ah bliss. Going back tomorrow. We need a car to get over to Playa Blanca so really want to start looking.

We took the girls for blood tests and grooming today.The bloodwork was fine and they start taking heartworm tablets every month now that they live in a hot climate. While we were in town, we saw that the kids are starting back to school today. Lots of parents with kids in their white shirts and navy skirts or pants. The high schoolers wear light blue shirts. Despite some changes to the education system, Panama still ranks among the world's worst education systems. Because of this problem with the public schools, it would be a terrific opportunity to open a private school. There is a new english language school opening in Coronado in August.That doesn't solve the problem for the average family though, who make very low wages. The country's economy is booming but won't be sustainable until  everyone can get a decent education and qualify for better paying jobs. There is expected to be a real shortage in trained workers for the booming tourist industry, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

Special treat: Pulled over in a radar trap today, didn't realize we were in a lower speed zone. He didn't come right out with a request for money but did everything but draw us a picture. He said something about how hot it was and how they needed cold drinks. No ticket if you give the cop some money for refreshments. We were pretty slow on the uptake but a guy we met the other day told us the same thing had happened to him. Bob gave him $10 and we avoided a $100 ticket. I guess we have been initiated. Yikes!  Hate to abet that sort of behaviour but the thoughts of going to Panama City, well they have you there. They should be ashamed, especially when their vehicles have the logo same as in Canada, "To Serve and Protect".

The Sea Club Pool at Playa Blanca 

You may be interested to know: People are reading this blog in  USA, Germany, Canada, Panama and India. over 610 have viewed it.

Hasta luego, mi amigos