Category Archives: Punta Chame 2017

Ah, Nature!

Wildlife encounters for the week:

  • Had to slam on my breaks to allow a decent sized lizard to cross the road. Apparently the signs warning of such things aren’t kidding.
  • Found Chick-fil-a waffle fry-sized roach in kitchen sink first thing in the morning. Allowed husband to deal with it.
  • Waited a good 45 seconds for 4 ducks to follow each other, single file, across the main road heading toward the grocery store.
  • Saw a large flying something come down from upstairs into the living room. Husband was in shower and unable to assist. Proceeded to hide in closed bedroom. Did not hear from husband for 7+ minutes after he set out to investigate large flying something. Called out, fearing the worst. Husband replied that large flying something was dead and seemed to not want to explain further for fear of losing his wife to the next American Airlines flight to Miami. Lessons learned: 1) Giant roaches can fly and are even more terrifying than originally perceived. 2) Husband will understand if I need to return to Raleigh sooner than he does.
  • Near simultaneous salamander scares. Entered master bathroom which, admittedly, is Sammy the Salamander’s territory. Frightened Sammy, who fell off the ceiling, landing directly in the trash can. Would have been hilarious, but I was too busy screaming due to previous scary encounters with cucarachas. Upon hearing my scream, husband ran upstairs to see what he needed to kill. Upon arrival, admitted that he too had just been startled by another Sammy the Salamander (yes, they are all named Sammy) who ran up the wall behind his desk as he sat down at his computer.
  • Rocco is still a hilarious bulldog who does not seem to have mastered the art of breathing properly. He did, however, have a bath and looks years younger. During our most recent encounter with him, he claimed Eric as his own, as his owner Itzick is out of town and Eric has been known to scratch his rear for him (Rocco’s rear, not Eric’s).

Kite trip 2017 – Round 2

We are back in Punta Chame after a 10 day trip back to the States. Eric’s grandmother turned 90 years young on February 25th, and we insisted on being at her party to celebrate with her and over 100 of her closest friends and family members! We also had the chance to see the Solms and Paris families, all the nieces and nephews, to catch up with some friends, and to watch Carolina beat Dook at my sister’s house! Woohoo! Additionally, we welcomed not one, but TWO new nieces (or as Eric insists on saying, first cousins, once removed) into the world – one from each side of the family! Congrats again to Ashley and Ian, Shawna and Kevin! We can’t wait to meet Chloe and Kenna!

I also really appreciated our home while we were there. I am finally embracing the fact that I am not the outdoorsy girl that I’ve always wanted to be. I love that our walls and our ceiling connect. I love my shower and fluffy towels. I love my dishwasher. I love sitting in my chair with a book, a blanket, and my dog.

While we were home I voiced these thoughts to Eric. In response, he commented that I’m more attached to the material comforts than he is. I didn’t like hearing that. I was offended, actually, when he said it. But it’s true. I don’t like that about myself, and I don’t know what to do about that. Maybe it’s okay to like things clean and comfortable. But maybe I can work on the part of me that thinks I need a dishwasher. Maybe that’s part of what I’m doing here in the middle of nowhere. I hope to continue to be intentional about that over the next three weeks.

It’s amazing and strange how normal the flights down here are getting for us. We know the Miami airport well. We know to ride the train two stops down from our usual gate to get Wendy’s for Eric and that my smoothie place is past the Cuban restaurant. I take comfort in the fish themed art on the walls and the familiar brass inlay on the floors. I know that Miami will be the coldest part of our journey – that airport is always freezing! We’re continually reminded how blessed we are (this sounds trite even as I write it, but I really do mean it) that we can have these adventures.

Yesterday, Eric finally got to kite in some decent wind! He was thrilled. There isn’t much that gets him as excited and emotive as kiting. It’s a lot of fun to see. He had a couple of good jumps too – one about 2 feet off the water that he landed, and one about 4 feet that he…did not land so gracefully. As the sun began to set, Eric was out on the water with only two other people, his instructor and another instructor. A few minutes later, he had the whole beach completely to himself. THIS is why we’re here.

I guess I haven’t announced here that I have a couple of new jobs. I have been thinking for a long time that I would enjoy editing novels. Finally, a few months ago, I decided to go for it. After applying to some internships and not having much luck, I sent out emails to a few publishers that I found through a random Google search saying that I was willing to read and evaluate the manuscript submissions they receive from prospective authors. Within a couple of days, the Editor in Chief of a publishing house in Colorado wrote back offering to let me do exactly that. I started almost immediately, and it’s been a great thing for me. I read synopses of novels plus the first three chapters, usually from a hammock, and then evaluate them. Don’t get me wrong – some submissions are boring, some are terribly written, and some have so many comma splices that I want to scream – but it’s the kind of work I can see myself doing for a while. The best part is that my editor is willing to answer all of my questions about publishing and editing. She seems like she’s willing to be a sort of mentor to me as I set out into this new field – and that’s exactly what I need.

While we were in Maryland for Gram’s birthday, I received an email from a larger publisher in London offering to let me review mainly mystery and crime novels that are nearly ready to be published. With these books, I am getting to practice some actual editing, in addition to evaluating the story. The two gigs complement each other well, and I am learning a lot from them. Did you know that in the UK, they generally say, for example, “the whole group are going to lunch,” as opposed to “the whole group is going to lunch”? Like I said, I’m learning a lot…both about editing and about UK English and grammar.

Yep, it’s about to get super interesting, folks. Stay tuned for more grammar trivia.

 

David kites and Rocco plays fútbol

I’m fighting with WordPress a little. That’s why I haven’t posted in awhile.

Eric’s cousin David was in town from February 8-12. It took us about 2 minutes to get him to the fish market for an afternoon snack of ceviche for Eric, ceviche and patacones for me, and a whole fried fish with yuca for Dave. The boys made me walk through the inside of the fish market for the first time ever, in flip-flops. Ugh. Fishy water – at least I choose to call it water – all over the floor, carcasses strewn across tables and scales, goodness knows what else b/c I just tried to focus on keeping my head down and holding my breath. Yuck. Luckily patacones are pretty good at lifting my spirits and erasing bad thoughts from my memory.

We showed him the Cinta Costera…

Then we headed to Casco Viejo where we had dinner reservations. We walked around the old part of town to show off the excellent architecture and let David soak up a bit of the culture, as well as some of the touristy bits, then I got in touch with Jessie from my capoeira group. She lives in Casco, and she invited us to visit for a few minutes before dinner! It was great to see her and her mom, Tonette, who was visiting from El Valle de Antón, nearish to where we are staying this time around. Tonette and David, both from the Silver Spring, MD area, talked about….terrapins and crabs, I imagine, while I had my first chance to catch up with Jessie since we moved back to Raleigh last April. And of course we had to take advantage of her apartment’s views!

We had dinner at a new place (to us) that was right on the beach. I had made reservations, but you might be able to tell that we were almost the only people there. We then hit the grocery store and headed back to our rental house in Punta Chame.

The next morning, we headed out to the beach for David’s first kiteboarding lesson with Nino! Eric was excited for his cousin to take an interest in his new sport. I enjoyed bonding with Rocco.

 

 

I had warned David weeks in advance that he would be in town during the Carolina/Dook game, and I laid out for him exactly what that meant in my house. An excerpt from my email to him on January 19th: “just realized that the UNC/Dook game is Feb. 9th. A couple things: I get hateful on these days. I do NOT tolerate teasing or any pro-Dook talk in my house. I will have a UNC shirt for you to put on and, barring any moral reasons why you cannot wear it (appropriate reason being that you are a hardcore MD fan and you have always hated UNC – which I don’t think is the case), I must insist that you wear it and either A) watch the game quietly with me, B) cheer for UNC and hate on Dook, or C) get out of the house for the evening. I’m fine with any of those.”

For those of you who don’t know David, he’s not exactly the go-with-the-flow, I’ll-do-my-thing-and-you-do-yours kinda guy. He likes to pick at people. He enjoys debating. He’s my worst enemy on game days. Becca, you would kick him out of your house. And folks, that’s not to say anything bad about David or about Becca. David just did not have the privilege to grow up a Tar Heel fan, so he doesn’t know any better. Becca is my college basketball soulmate and, like me, she requires very specific etiquette out of fellow game-watchers. This is why Becca and I generally prefer to watch games together at one of our houses with no one else around. It’s better for everyone this way.

Anyway, David was very respectful considering his complete lack of understanding of the passion I feel for my Heels. Thanks, David. And that’s all I want to say about that game.

When David and Eric are together, they play board games. Prior to David’s arrival, I sent the following Onion article around to the boys, plus Eric’s brother, sister-in-law, and cousin (David’s sister, Kristin): “SCHENECTADY, NY—Repeatedly seeking to ease his friends’ growing skepticism and disinterest, local man Joel Mayhew peppered his explanation of the rules of the board game Pandemic with reassurances that it will be fun, sources confirmed Friday.”

  1. Eric had been telling me for a few weeks that his new game was going to be fun, and even more important that that, it would be short.
  2. David brought Pandemic after seeing my email. I instituted mandatory drinking rules promptly after the boys made my participation unnecessary by strategizing together and deciding what my moves should be on my behalf, then getting disappointed when I wasn’t invested in the game. The night got a little better after that.

On Saturday, we drove to El Valle de Antón, where we have taken many visitors. This time, however, we did something new. We hiked up La India Dormida, the Sleeping Indian, a series of mountains that together supposedly look like a woman lying down and sleeping. I’ve never really seen it, but whatever. It was a decent hike with steep slippery hills and giant boulders. I made it about 7 minutes in before I rolled my ankle. Not badly though, just enough to look silly.

We were rewarded at the top with incredible views and REALLY strong wind.

 

That night, we went out to the beach for David’s last Panamanian sunset.

And as a bonus, we got to see Rocco playing fútbol with some of the folks around Machete. He doesn’t often move fast, but he’s hilarious when he does! They tell me the death rattle-type breathing patterns are normal for a winded bulldog…

The following morning, we set off to take David to the Canal, and then on to the airport. As we drove, we passed a few cars that each flashed their lights at us. Eric slowed down, wondering what kind of hazard we might come across. All of a sudden we turned a corner and saw this!

You know, just a bunch of cows out for a morning jog! Oh Panama! You always deliver when we have guests!