Tag Archives: Doggies

Kiting, a bulldog, and forgotten coffee

So now for the news you’ve been waiting to hear about: Eric’s kiting! He had his first chance to get out on the water during a lesson with Nino on Thursday afternoon. The plan was for the lesson to be two hours long.

Eric had zero trouble getting back into it. Twenty minutes into the lesson, Nino called me over and said, “I don’t even know what I’m going to tell him to work on. He’s doing great. Great transitions, great control of the kite.” After 30 minutes, Eric came back to shore and Nino basically told him that he should keep practicing on his own and they shouldn’t waste their time continuing with the lesson that day. Yay! I was very proud.

After this success, and knowing that a busy weekend (read: crowded beach) was coming up, we got up the next morning in time for Eric to kite again. The wind was much lighter, as it’s been all season up until we got here apparently, but our hero managed to complete his 2nd and 3rd jumps that day! He was about a foot out of the water on the larger one, and landed both. His goal is to be able to jump and get a little hang time like we see the pros doing out there.

I, meanwhile, decided to walk to the beach to meet him instead of driving with him since it was still, in theory, early enough not to die doing so. It was warm, but also still and quiet. I made the mistake of thinking I could make it in flip-flops – not my best choice after trying out a new brand instead of sticking to the old reliable Rainbows – but it was still nice. It’s only 2 km, so about 4 miles once you convert to our measurement system and adjust for Panamá heat and humidity.

When Eric finished kiting, we sat down on the grass at Machete (the kite place) until this happened:

Eric and Roco, the unofficial Machete mascot.

This dog, Roco, is awesome. He belongs to Itzick, pictured below, who we all know by now owns Machete.

Roco is hilarious to look at because, well, he’s a bulldog. The underbite is amazing, and sometime he can’t quite keep track of where his tongue is supposed to be. Secondly, the poor thing has these mangey looking spots on him where fur is missing. No idea what did that to him. Either way, Eric and I figured he was about 10 years old. Nope. Only 4.

He’ll slowly tromp around the grass at Machete or follow Itzick down to the beach when he gives lessons or goes out to kite. My favorite is when he gets underneath the blue building (pictured above) and just rolls around in the dirt on his back. As Itzick said following once such time, “We could all learn something from Roco.” Indeed, sir. Indeed.

On a down note, we saw two people in those two days of kiting who had been stung by stingrays. The shallow waters get pretty lousy with stingrays during lowtide, so it’s not a beach for swimming. All beginning kiters wear thick rubber boots – just in case they didn’t look silly enough with their helmets and lifejacket and harness – in order to avoid stings. The more advanced kiters go barefoot, but shuffle their feet along through the sand. It’s apparently much better to accidentally kick a ray out of the way than to step on top of one. That’s how you get stung.

Look for the guy sitting down on the steps behind the guy in the white t-shirt. Check out his knee, then look at the pain in his face. Ouch. No good.

We spent Friday afternoon running errands in Coronado in order to get ready for weekend guests. On our way towards town, we passed an overturned car with two guys standing on the side of the road beside it. They looked to be fine and weren’t flagging us down or anything, so we kept going. We realized later that maybe we should’ve stopped just to be sure. More on this in a moment….

We spent made 3 or 4 stops in town, including a cowboy store so I could buy a hat. As a side note, the hat is just a normal sunhat, but for some reason the only place I could find it was in the store called Vaqueritos or “little cowboys.” Awesome.

Anyway, we drove the 45 min back, or almost all the way…then realized we had forgotten to get coffee for Raúl, the caretaker of our house. We had asked him if he needed anything, then completely forgot to get it for him. So, we tucked our tails and turned around, drove 45 min back to town, and got the silly coffee. I guess it was good though because by this time we had decided that I should sew ribbons onto my hat so I could tie it underneath my chin. It wouldn’t last for long in the wind otherwise. So we got ribbon too.

On the way back the second time, emergency vehicles had arrived and were attempting to recover the car. I snapped this photo out of my window. Heartless, I know, but I have to give you guys something to look at!

And as far as we know, the two guys who were in it walked away from it. Amazing. And a good reminder to be careful on these deserted roads.

Coming up next: our weekend with some of my capoeira friends! I have photos of Eric dancing, so stay tuned.

 

 

I think that’s a cricket?

We found the house without much trouble on Monday night around 9:30. After a few minutes of yelling his name, Raúl, the caretaker, appeared and came to open the gate. Also at the gate was a cute, if very skinny, dog who was eager to meet us. I have forgotten her name at the moment, but I’ll get back to you. She’s super sweet and I’m glad for her company.

Our vicious killer of a guard dog.

Raúl let us into the house and immediately my mind went into snap judgment mode, as I imagine (hope? selfishly, for the sake of making me normal, not because snap judgments are good) it does for most people when they arrive in a new place. The first thing I noticed were the very clean and shiny stone floors. Then the huge thatched roof. It feels like we live in a big tiki hut, honestly. Those were some of the positive parts.

As we continued exploring, I found both positive and negative elements. Or maybe I’ll just say positive and interesting. That’s a better way for me to handle it.

Interesting: outside of the fridge is quite rusted and gross looking. Positive: the inside looks clean and feels cold.

Positive: there is a desk and chair for Eric! Interesting: the seat of the chair is not parallel to the floor.

Positive: there are screens on the windows to keep bugs out. Interesting: It doesn’t really matter because various portions of the roof do not completely come together, leaving fairly large spaces for creatures to enter.

Interesting: The GIANT cricket on the wall just outside our bathroom. Positive: My husband is trained in the art of capturing these guys in towels and releasing them outside…so as to challenge them to re-enter via the roofline.

Positive: Salamanders/various lizards are not harmful. They’re not even gross. Interesting: They will scare the absolute hell out of you when they sneak up on you in the water closet.

Positive: Eric is willing to go after these with his patented towel method…at least until they hide behind the toilet.

Positive: I feel safe here. Interesting: Rusty barbed wire outside our window. This one isn’t actually so bad. I’m pretty used to seeing this around here. Doesn’t bother me.

See the rusty barbed wire just outside the window?

Positive: Really beautiful and fun tiki-style thatched roof. Interesting: No windows to open upstairs to allow for the amazing Punta Chame breezes to come through the 2nd floor. Positive: We have a 2nd floor. It’s pretty silly.

Positive: We have a stove and oven. Interesting: We have completely unlabeled knobs. How hot is the oven supposed to be for those potatoes? 425? Well, fun. I’m going to set it on plain white kinda far away from the dot. Positive: Eric is a good cook. Last night we had a lovely meal of rosemary potatoes and various fried things filled with meat. Man, did we miss our fried things filled with meat!

Eric was the first to have a go at the shower yesterday (Tuesday) morning. We had been told that we would have hot water, which was pretty special. We weren’t surprised to find out that it was one of those plastic contraptions stuck onto the pipe as it comes out of the wall…I’m not a plumber, I don’t know how to better describe it. Let’s just say it’s a fairly basic system. Not a problem…until the water just stops. Yes, we have hot water, but only for 2 minutes at a time. If Eric didn’t have time to finish his shower, I knew I was doomed.

Last night I gave it a try. I immediately realized that buying separate shampoo and conditioner had been a big mistake. It turns out that I can either wash my hair or my body, but not both in the same go. I’ll have to work on a solution to this one. Currently I have 12 hour old hair and the rest of me is freshly washed. Well, freshly washed with a thick coating of 100% deet.

If you didn’t know it before, you are now realizing that I am not an outdoorsy kind of girl. I desperately want to be. I grew up in Asheville and played in the woods every day when I was little. I love the idea of camping. I love hiking, as long as there are no bugs or spiderwebs. I love fresh air and quiet. I love that I cannot hear any cars right now and that the breeze blows through the [first floor of the] house in the evenings. But gosh, I do not like any kind of insects. I hate the feeling of grass on my wet feet (Mom, remember how I was never good with slip-n-slides on the front lawn?). I think my parents have photos of me on the beach with one foot in a bucket of water. Apparently I would wash the sand off of one foot, then switch feet, only to have to do it all over again. I like to think that maybe that made me an easy kid to keep busy. I was diligent at least.

And yes, this is a completely different type of experience from our last time in Panamá. I knew that coming in, and I am prepared to do some adapting. We’ll get to that part.

But first, the most unsettling thing by far…the smell of the toilet paper. Yep. Seriously.

What is evidently the most common brand of toilet paper in this country has an intensely strong smell. It’s not a bad smell. It’s a bit like baby powder and a bit like a cleaning product. The problem for me is that the smell is intricately intertwined with my month-long illness and week-long hospital stay in early 2015. More on that in a later post. For now I’ll just say that it brought back some terrifying memories and added unnecessary anxieties to this new experience. But, I’m making small changes to alleviate my anxieties. Don’t like the toilet paper? Get new toilet paper! Done. Think all the dishes are gross? Wash them all and clean out the drawers (*we don’t have a pantry or cabinets, just drawers).

So today, I am making a list of ways to work through my worries and anxieties about the house and being here in general. Here’s what I have so far. I’m sure I’ll add to the list as the days go by.

  1. Deal with one anxiety at a time.
  2. Blog your way through those anxieties. Find humor in the inconveniences. Or at least allow others to find humor in it.
  3. Clean one thing at a time.
  4. If the spoons look really disgusting, buy new spoons.
  5. Deal with bugs when you see them, not when you imagine them coming.
  6. Remember that you do NOT have c.diff. this time around. And even if you get it, we now know what to look for and how to handle it a lot more quickly.
  7. Locate the closest medical facilities, just to put your mind at ease.
  8. STAY HYDRATED.
  9. If the smell of the perfumed toilet paper reminds you of having c.diff., get new toilet paper.
  10. Accept that cleanliness is relative (i.e. clean + bug spray + sunscreen + whatever kind of dirt blows in through the windows = clean).
  11. When overwhelmed, stick your feet in the pool, pet the dog, and read a book.
  12. Don’t pee in a shower that doesn’t drain properly. The next day will not be awesome.

And now, a few more photos of the house. It’s a weird shape, so it’s hard to get your bearings with just pictures, but here goes:

This morning I was a little groggy from cold medicine when Eric left the bedroom to start his day. I picked my head up to see him go. He stopped abruptly and said, “I think that’s a cricket?” I went right back to sleep, but remembered his words later in the day and decided to ask about it. His response? “I mean, I think it was a cricket! I just think it was injured or something. So it was just laying there, flopping all silly.”

So there’s that.

In other news, Eric got his kite today! Very exciting! He hasn’t fully unfolded it yet, but it’s blue and a darker blue and kinda reddish. Photo coming soon. We went over to the kite school around 3:30 today and caught up with Itzick – “the Ab Master” – Millie, who is responsible for keeping the school running, and Nino, Eric’s adorable 20-something Austrian instructor.

Machete Kites

We went for a long walk along the beach, then headed up to the “Machete Swing Bar.” Calm down, it’s nothing kinky. It’s the outdoor bar at the kite school that has swings instead of seats. The temperature was perfect and the sun was starting to go down. Beautiful. We discovered something slightly unnerving – the bar no longer carries Balboa, Eric’s Panamanian beer of choice. It now carries only Quilmes, an Argentine (Argentinian? I’m never sure) beer. Luckily, it’s not so bad. Whew!

Real men drink beer on swings.

We walked down to the beach to watch the sunset. I’m not usually a sucker for sunsets on the beach. To me, most beachscapes are boring. There’s water, there’s sky. That’s it. But here, there are beautiful mountains across the water. There are brightly colored kites all over the sky. It’s always exactly the right temperature. There’s always a nice breeze. The instructors usually go out to kite, so you’re also watching a pretty spectacular show. Tonight Eric gestured for me to stand in front of him so he could wrap his arms around me. At the same time, we both sighed. Perfection.

More Parises in Panamá

Eric’s parents flew in on Wednesday, November 4th, right after our Flag Day/NC BBQ party and stayed until the following Tuesday, November 10th. We started off our visit with a trip to Casco Viejo on Thursday even though it’s way too hot to do that around lunch time.  Although the purpose of the outing was to show Susan and Ed the area, point out the building that was featured in Quantum of Solace, and grab some lunch, Eric and I ended up finding a mola (traditional textile art form of the Kuna people here in Panamá made using a reverse appliqué) that we both really liked.  We decided months ago that it would be nice to find a piece of art at some point to commemorate our time here, but we just hadn’t found anything that we loved.  Susan recognized that it was a meaningful moment and she and Ed generously offered to give us the mola as a Christmas gift!

I’ll spare you the details of my feeble attempts to negotiate with this 4 foot-nothing hard-as-nails Kuna woman.  Point is, in the end, we came away with this beautiful mola.  Gorgeous work, none of the corner cutting appliqué that you often see in the touristy areas like the little market we were in, 4 or 5 layers of fabric, beautiful colors…we love it.  Thank you so much, Ed and Susan!

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The woman told us that her sister-in-law Raquel had made it and that she had worked on it for a year.  Now, who knows if that’s true, but when you look at all the tiny stitching all done by hand and see how these things are made (by starting with as many full pieces of cloth as there are colors, then cutting away the parts that you don’t want until you get down to the color layer that you want to show, if that makes sense), I believe that it’s possible for it to take someone that long.  I’m choosing to believe that there is a woman named Raquel who put a year’s worth of work into our beautiful piece.  And I’m grateful to her.

After a nice lunch of ceviche and various other seafoods and rice, Eric and his parents headed off to the Canal while I went to capoeira practice at the Canal Administration building.  But…there was actually something new at the Canal!  I missed out!  There’s a new movie there instead of the same old 3-D one that says that the new locks will be completed by 2014.  (FYI – they’re now scheduled to be open around March or April 2016).  Never fear though, my cousin Branson gets here this Friday so I’ll have another chance to go see it.

At the Canal!

At the Canal!

As an aside, Jennifer Paris, Eric’s brother’s wife, texted me on Sunday morning to let me know that she and Ray, Eric’s brother, are planning to come down for a visit in January!  They found incredible prices on plane tickets and we urged them to book them the same day.  We are so thrilled that they’ll be able to join us!!!  Jennifer and I are already planning to go out dancing…and Ray and Eric are already planning to sit on bar stools with a couple of Balboas (Panamanian beers).  Perfect.

So anyway, on Friday we got in the car for the two hour drive up to the mountain town of El Valle de Antón, which I’ve mentioned several times before.  We rented a gorgeous house there with three bedrooms, three baths (too many, but hey, we got a good deal), a pool, a sauna, an outdoor shower that was lovely even though it had no hot water, an outdoor hot tub, an extra out-building for…I dunno…probably meditating or something because the whole house had Buddhist decor and random scented oils and whatnot.  Did that sound religist?  (like racist, but with religion?)  I can’t decide.  I didn’t like the way I said that, but I’m not sure why.  I’m not saying that it was weird, just distinctive.  And there were definite Buddhist aspects, but also miscellaneous other I’m-trying-to-create-a-peaceful-atmosphere aspects.  Does that make sense?

One of the non-theme conformative aspects of the decor was the GIANT EIFFEL TOWER built out of wine corks!!!  A fun surprise – perfect for a PARIS family getaway.  I know the rest of the family is used to the name, but it’s still new and fun to me.

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There were also three dogs and a cat who lived on the property.  They freely entered and left the house as we left the doors open for the mountain breeze.  Luckily, we’re all dog people.  The tiny rat looking one was Rhett, a huge pingpong ball fan.  Very smart, despite the look on his face.  Ed renamed him Fetcher.  The brown one on the couch was Gigi, but I called her Princess because of her affinity for her place on the couch under the chandelier.  The big white one was Gray…or Tripper, as she came to be called.

Gray/Tripper took to laying on the floor in the middle of the huge kitchen.  As we prepared lunch on Saturday, I tripped over her a couple of times, as she blended in with the rug on the floor and was, well, sprawled out in the middle of the floor.  Anyway, I obviously should’ve asked the silly doggie to move because Susan soon followed in my clumsy footsteps.  She, however, went down and hit her head on the refrigerator.  Ouch.  Not fun.  She’s a trooper though, so after a few minutes of sitting on the floor with frozen veggies on her knee and forehead, she recovered and we went hiking!

Eric and I decided to show Ed and Susan the short waterfall hike that we did with Angela and Ashley when they were here several months back.  It also has a zipline through the trees that would be fun to try someday.

After that, we hit up the small zoo in town.  Actually, for the size of the town, the zoo is pretty big.  We had been told that we should remember that many of these animals are rescues, so if we thought their conditions were poor, we should think that it was better that they be there than dead.  Uplifting, right?  Well, like many things Panamá, it was best to go in with low expectations.  I was prepared to be horrified by this place, but I ended up really enjoying it.  There were turtles, crocodiles, monkeys, random giant rodents whose names I can’t remember, tons of parrots and toucans, leopards, an ocelot (Archer fans?  Anyone?  It was awesome.), and a few tapirs.  If you don’t know what a tapir is, they’re worth looking up.  Think of a giant hog/hippo body with an elephant head, cute but giant pig feet, rhino ears and an anteater nose.  Super cool.

Ed made friends with a monkey who was hanging right on the edge of his cage.  He touched his hand and even was close enough for long enough to inspect his fingerprints!

Susan, Eric, Ed, and a Monkey. I’ll let you guess who is who.
Paris men and a monkey. There’s a joke here somewhere.
Involuntary piggybackery.
This thing is about the size of a beagle.

After the zoo, we grabbed much needed showers (coyotes are REALLY stinky if you leave them alone for too long) and headed to La Casa de Lourdes, our favorite restaurant in El Valle.  Y’all have seen pics of it before b/c we went there with both Angela and Ashley and with Sarah and Dan.  This was the first time we went for dinner.  Eric was excited to introduce his dad to the “Christmas ham” (a giant piece of pork), and I got my regular corvina.

Susan and I took a walk up through the hydrangea bushes to see the view of the building from above while the boys finished their hams.  On our way, we saw a couple of frogs perched on the side of the pool.  With my encouragement, Susan scared one of them (nothing evil, plus she felt guilty afterwards.  Blame me.) and he jumped into the pool!  This is probably one of those really boring stories in writing so I’ll cut it short, but we ended up getting both frogs in the pool and watching them swim the length of it.  Very fun for some reason.  I enjoyed it.

We ended both evenings in El Valle with the same board game…Terra Mystica.  Yep, just as cool as it sounds.  🙂  Just kidding, Eric.  I love you!

Monday was dedicated to a trip from the Pacific to the Atlantic then back again.  We drove from Panamá City to Colón, checking out the locks on the Atlantic side of the Canal on our way.  It was actually pretty cool because they had made a lot of progress on the new bigger locks since the last time we had been there.  We got to drive across where one set of gates will be when they open, something no one will ever get to do again once they start working.  Really cool.

I dropped Susan, Ed, and Eric off at the train station in Colón and drove home while they took the train back along the Canal, something Susan had been excited about doing.  It’s been fun to see how each set of guests have wanted to do something a little different from every other visitor we’ve had.  This place sure has a lot to offer!