The Journey South

We’re here! We made it to Punta Chame, 90 min southwest of Panama City (20 min as the crow flies). We have our rental car, we’re in the house, and I even made us a gourmet breakfast!

But let me back up a bit. We found out on Sunday night that our flight from RDU to Miami was delayed 75 min. We would be arriving in Miami at 9:43 and our flight to Panamá was scheduled to take off at 9:44. No bueno. This meant taking the next flight from Miami, arriving in Panamá at 4:00 pm. Perfect! That way we could get our rental car and get on the road by rush hour!!!

We began the day/night with 3:30 am wake-up call to ensure that American Airlines hadn’t suddenly found a well-rested crew in order to keep our flight on time, followed by a 45 min snooze (Eric in a whiny voice: “I can’t sleeeeep!”), then a 4:15 alarm, and 5 am departure for the airport. The first flight was BUMPY. And Eric was checking for the airsick bag in his seatback pocket by the time we were over Florida. Luckily, we landed (hard) with empty airsick bags and had 3 hours in Miami to recover.

The next flight was fairly uneventful, though it was on a smaller plane than we are used to. This change made the trip about 3.5 hours instead of maybe 2.5 or 2.75. Whatever, we made it.

Next step: car rental. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that rental car insurance is expensive and a big pain in this country. I argued my way out of $500 worth of unnecessary insurance (which our credit card company already covered and which the sales guy tried to slip by us after I told him we didn’t want it), and we set off towards our Kia Picanto. Don’t get too jealous. Petey, as we’ve named him, is pretty rockin’. Unrelated question: can cars run on 2 cylinders?

We went to the home of the Uruguayan owners of our rental house next and spent a lovely 30 min or so with them signing final papers and giving them money. It never ceases to amaze me (wait for it, this is going to sound SO American and white) how many differences there are among each of the Latin American countries. I’m not particularly proud of that fact, but there it is. In just this short visit, we learned about mate (pronounced “mah-tay”), or yerba mate, a highly caffeinated tea-like beverage that is essential to Uruguayans and drunk in varying quantities by Argentinos, Bolivianos, and southern Brazilians. This guy was serious about his mate. He drank it from the traditional small gourd with a straw that looked like the stem of a pipe. He explained to us that you’ll usually see Uruguayans carrying a thermos of hot water under one arm and the gourd in that hand, so they do a lot of things one-handed.

Although the wife, Marcela, has been alternately communicating with me in Spanish and perfect English, the couple spoke only rapidfire Spanish to us. Eric kept up impressively well, although he noted that the husband’s slower, relaxed speech was easier to understand, at least until Marcela entered the room. I loved their accents and clarity of speech, although that could be due to their formality in our company in comparison to my capoeira friends.

**Sidenote: As I’m writing this, I am discovering more and more blog-worthy things about this house. Stay tuned. It will get more interesting.

We decided to delay our battle with traffic until after dinner and grocery shopping. We sat down at Habibi’s, a Lebanese restaurant that we regularly frequented last year. They have a nice outside patio, passable curry chicken, decent hummus, and a bi-weekly belly dancer. You know, the usual.

So we are seated next to a large tv. No sooner do we order when we saw this:

We were there in perfect time for tip-off! Crazy, huh? Now Eric, being the kind and loving man that he is, immediately offered to trade seats with me so I wouldn’t have to see Satan’s face (some of you call him Coach K…but those who do have simply not had the pleasure of a proper education by yours truly) during dinner. I declined and just sat in complete shock that a game being played not 20 min from where we had been that morning was on, over 1000 miles away. So bizarre.

Another strange thing at dinner was this:

I know it may look completely normal to many of you. Many of you are wrong. Green salads just don’t happen here in Panamá, as you may remember from last year’s blog. This is the most lettuce I’ve seen together on a plate in this country, ever. Super exciting.

I’ll spare you my whining about being dehydrated and actually shivering a little at dinner (Eric: “did you bring long sleeves?” Me: “I don’t understand.”) because I think I’m getting a cold and chances are I’ll wine whine about that later.

We had no trouble getting out of town and over the Bridge of the Americas, which leads west towards Punta Chame and eventually, Costa Rica. 90 min later we pulled up at the locked gate of our house for the next two months: Casa Ukaiki. Watch for our first impressions, surprises, uninvited visitors, and more photos in the next post.

 

Panamá is always a good idea!

Welp, if you haven’t heard, we’re heading back to Panamá! And this time it was ERIC’s idea – no, seriously.

If you paid attention in early 2016, you probably noticed that we spent a lot of time at the beach. A specific beach, actually, called Punta Chame. We first went there in January with Eric’s brother Ray and his wife Jennifer. Eric had been wanting to try kiteboarding for a while, and in Jennifer, he finally found a buddy who was also up for it. Five trips to the beach later, Eric was absolutely hooked on kiting and I was hooked on being a kiter’s wife. Long story a little shorter, Eric got kiting gear for Christmas and we’re looking forward to summer in January again!

I got this picture at work the day Eric got his harness and board…gifts which I made him put away until Christmas Day.
Eric may or may not work on his kiting muscles while standing on his board in the living room. He’s a little excited.

Punta Chame is about 90 min from Panamá (the city) by car, but since it’s on a long peninsula, it’s much closer by water. You can see the city from the beach on a clear day. The population is about 400, and nearly all of the visitors go for the extreme sports, namely kiting. The biggest and most commercial thing in town is a sports resort called Nitro City. Aside from that, there are a couple of kiting schools, an adorable B&B run by a French couple (so there’s awesome food at their restaurant), a little hotel with a small restaurant, and a convenience store. That’s about it. Maybe 30 or 40 minutes away is the beach town of Coronado with its fancy resorts and beach houses, 3 grocery stores, and any other shopping or restaurants you’d want.

We’ve rented a house from January 23 through March 31 with enough room for visitors.  Just by a plane ticket and we’ll pick you up and give you a place to stay! The house appears to be about 2 km down the road from Machete Kites, Eric’s kite school. Eric has been in touch with the head of the school, Itzick, so he knows we’re coming back this year. We were also excited to learn that Eric’s former teacher Nino, an early 20’s guy from Austria, is already back for the season. It’ll be fun to already know a few folks. I’ve also talked to Itzick about working around the shop or at their little bar. He’s very laid back, as you might imagine, so he just told me, “we’ll find something for you to do.”

Upstairs
The kitchen in the rental house.
Our little pool in the backyard.
The rental house!

 

Itzick. If you want to look like this when you’re 50, kite for a living and do pull ups for fun.
Itzick and Eric
Punta Chame in all her sunset splender.
Eric and Nino 2016
Eric kiting in 2016
Machete Kites

Eric will still be working – please dear God let the wifi be reliable – and I will be studying for a personal training test. When I left my civil rights litigation job in August of last year, I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. Actually, I still don’t know what I want to do. I have been interested recently in the idea of health coaching though, and getting certified as a personal trainer is the first step on that road. Will I actually ever work as a personal trainer? Highly doubt it. But if I’m still interested once I pass this test, I may go on to the health coach certification. I’m completely up in the air on this one, but I’m enjoying getting back into anatomy and physiology after years of being away from biology classes.

I’ve been working as a contract attorney for a document review firm since August. Unfortunately, their security precautions prevent me from being able to do that from home – or rental home, as the case may be. The nice thing is that I can easily take the time away for our trip.

I’ve been dealing with some pride issues since I left my litigation job. While I was really stressed out and rather depressed from all the horrible things that go on in the prison system, I was also very proud of my work. I enjoyed telling people what I did and spreading awareness (for whatever that’s worth) of my clients’ struggles. Now, the cases I work on are huge and corporate and not my own, so I don’t quite know where I fit. After 6+ years as an attorney, I am facing a question that many lawyers struggle with – do I actually want to practice law? I’ll let you know if/when I figure it out. In the meantime, I am very grateful for a flexible job that does not follow me home. I am incredibly blessed to make my own schedule to some degree, and to take off two months to follow my kiteboarding husband back to warmer weather. So while I battle my pride, I’m hoping to dive into studying and enjoy being a bartender – or whatever it is that Itzick comes up with for me.

We already have one visitor booked! Eric’s cousin David will be coming to stay with us in February. I encourage each of you to consider taking an impromptu trip to our little secluded beach (and Panamá City).

Eric's cousin, David, dressed as Dasher for the Christmas Eve murder mystery. There were 20 of us and everyone dressed up. Too funny!

Eric’s cousin, David, dressed as Dasher for the Christmas Eve murder mystery. David, I just wanted to use the most recent pic I had of you!  🙂

 

 

 

 

Back in Raleigh!

We’re back in Raleigh!  We’re currently living back in our old house downtown, but in one of the bottom apartments instead of in the whole upstairs like we used to.  We’re doing the minimalist thing while we search for a house, so it ain’t pretty, but we’re comfortable.  And Addie has finally calmed down and settled in, which is important.  The poor dog has gone from this house to Asheville (with my parents) to Panamá to Asheville to this house (but the wrong part of it – she keeps trying to go upstairs where she belongs) all in the past 16 months or so.  She’s a little confused.

Addie

She obviously suffered at the hands of my parents.

It’s been exciting to reconnect with friends and family over the past week.  We were able to hang out with Eric’s parents, brother and sister-in-law, and their kids on our first day back.  My parents came the second day.  We visited my sister and her family on the third day.  During the following days, Eric reconnected with his frisbee group, I visited my dear friend Becca and her 10 month old, we had sushi with DRay and Sarah – who are soon to be married! – and spent another evening reconnecting with my sister’s family.  It’s been a great week.

Summer and Eric

Our 10 month old niece, Summer.

It’s been funny to see what cultural differences have made an impression on us.  I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that the grocery carts here are HUGE!  Panamá had two choices – a smaller and a larger size – but even the larger is no match for Kroger or Target’s carts.

 

And of course the driving has been different.  Although driving in Panamá is pretty intense, Eric and I both developed a deep appreciation for the mindset of drivers there.  Nearly every Panamanian driver pays close attention to the road at all times…because you kinda have to.  People don’t seem to get as angry with each other because they just expect that other folks are going to do crazy things – turn left from the right lane, ignore stop signs, turn a 2 lane road into a 3 lane, turn out in front of you, etc.  When you’re prepared for that, not only do you not get mad when it happens, but you start to do it too…which can be kinda fun.  I’ll miss it, for sure.  I’m a lot calmer and more attentive driver in Panamá.  Working on that one…

 

Another thing is my feeling of security.  I VERY rarely felt unsafe in Panamá.  I was cautious, of course, but I can’t remember a specific time when I felt nervous or worried about my safety.  Oddly, I think I felt more alike most of the folks there.  Or maybe I just didn’t notice the differences among others there because everyone was different from me…language, culture, color, everything.  Here, it’s easier to pick out the folks that I am alike and distinguish them from the folks that are different from me in smaller ways.  We share a language and a geographical background, so I focus in on the smaller details.  I’m not sure.  It’s a strange feeling and something I’m trying to work through as I’m writing this.  It makes me remember Panamá fondly, but also makes me realize how comfortable it is to be back.  I’m not sure if any of that makes sense…

Anyway, a couple of notes about the end of our Panamá adventure.

We went to our last Panamá fútbol game vs. Haiti…and WON!  We had lost the previous two games that we attended, so it was really cool to win our last one.  We got covered with celebratory flying beer, and loved it.  I also managed to get us two free tshirts from the group next to us, which came with an invitation to be in their group photos.  Fun!

IMG_7709

 

During our last weekend, a good part of the capoeira group gathered at our friend Auri’s place for a going away party.  Auri made arepas and empanadas – amazing – and Eric was happy.  Jessie also gave me a mug that says “Fula,” which is Panamanian for blondie.  Very sweet.

Kike! Again, pronounced Key-kay.
My girls!
Mahalia, Jessie, Paola
Dario’s former brother-in-law, Auri, Auri’s daughter Vicky, Mahalia, Jessie, Paola, and me

 

The next day, Eric and I took Lourdes just outside the city to her mom’s house so we could pick up her daughter Cari.  On the way back to the city, Lourdes began to feel really sick and had a lot of abdominal pain.  She insisted that she would be okay and just needed to go home, so we dropped her off, bought a few groceries for her, delivered them to her house, then left with a promise to check on her the next day.  Early the following morning, she texted me to let me know that she was heading to the emergency room because she had been sick all night and was still in a lot of pain.  I rushed out of the house, picked her up at work, and took her to the ER.  Luckily, she turned out to be fine – it was a gastrointestinal thing that they said could be cured by laying off the greasy food.  Hard to do in Panamá.

Eric and Lourdes – sweet friends.
Poor Lourdes in the ER waiting room.
Check out the wooden wheelchair!

 

The night before we left, we tried a restaurant called Donde José in Casco Viejo.  Only 4 small tables plus 4 seats at the bar.  10 courses.  Pure amazingness.  Definitely competed with the Fearrington House Restaurant outside of Chapel Hill, which had previously been my favorite splurge restaurant.  The food was absolutely spectacular.  Interesting combinations, wonderful flavors, very creative.  And beautiful!  Look!

The couple from Birmingham with which we spent a good deal of the evening talking.
Pork belly – usually not my fave, but this was just perfect!
Pulpo – octopus. I just can’t do it. Left this one for Eric. But the shell/crust thing is just milk. Very strange.
Can’t remember what was special about this, but isn’t it the cutest chicken wing ever?
The tiniest pot of a “levantamuertos.” That literally means dead-raiser, and is a word used for a hangover cure! Oyster stew.
This was one of the best courses. A yuca waffle with yogurt and some kind of…maybe honey syrup?
Course #1, a cheese fritter with truffle sauce and flowers….because flowers.
We fancy.

 

After dinner, our sweet friends Lourdes and Mono came over, as well as our British neighbor Elliott from upstairs.  As is always the case with them, we had a great time talking and laughing.  Elliott ended up staying until nearly 1…then left with plans to meet us at 6 am for the sunrise on the roof of our building.

 

5:55 am came and Eric and I actually got out of bed.  We banged on Elliott’s door on the way up…no answer.  We went up to the roof anyway, and it was just gorgeous.  We each made one last climb up to the very tip-top of the building, a place with one skinny wobbly handrail and a tilted inclined walk up to the point.  It’s scary, but the view is worth the climb.

 

Now that we’re back home, I have about a week and a half more before I return to my old job at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services.  I’ll be doing civil work, which is what I was originally hired to do back in 2011.  It is also exactly what I want to be doing.  I’ll also be serving as our intake attorney, which means working with my dear friend Elizabeth, the paralegal with whom I worked on my big class action case for about 5 years.  I’m very excited.

 

Eric has his office set up at a folding table in the kitchen of our little apartment and seems happy enough for the time being.  His office is just a short walk from here, so he also has the option to actually put on pants and go in, should he chose to do so.  Kidding…he’s actually very good about hopping up, showering, putting on real clothes, and going into work mode at home.

 

Thanks so much for all of your support over the past year and a half.  It’s been an adventure, and we were so glad to have all of you checking in on us and following our story.