Jan 13, 2020 - Panama City, Panama

WOW, are we learning a lot!!! Geography, history, geology, etc is much more interesting when you're actually there! Panama, like the other Latin American countries, is populated with Mezitos, white, and black. No Chinese here. They have two seasons - rainy and dry. They speak Spanish. The are mostly Catholics but have freedom of religion. They use the US dollar. Panama is a small country with only 3 million people. What's been interesting on this trip is the emphasis on the indigenous people. All the countries we have visited have reached...

Nov 8, 2019 - UPDATE AMAZON

Just published in Resilience October 2019: Latin America becomes repository for Obsolete Technology AND THIS FROM 2014: More to add to the Climate Crisis

Jun 17, 2019 - Panama City

Our original plan was to tour the Panama Canal by boat. At the last moment our reservation was cancelled by the vendor. Since we only had one day in this beautiful city and wanted to make the most of it, we decided on a bus tour that would take us to the Panama Canal instead. We walked down to the ticket and bus pick-up for Hop On-Hop Off Red Bus Sightseeing. We figured this would allow us to see as much as possible. Our first stop was an hour at Albrook (Koala) Mall. We saw the largest mall in Panama City, window shopped, and ate lunch at...

Jun 16, 2019 - First Day - To Panama

My husband Steve and I took the red-eye on the Aero Mexico airline from Sacramento to Guadalajara to Mexico City to Panama City, Panama. Total hours = 12 hours, 3 airplanes. Whew! We tried to sleep but needed a nap upon arrival. We took a taxi from airport to Bristol Hotel. After the short nap, the hotel staff recommended a little Italian restaurant around the corner a short walk from the hotel. Boy is this a global world. We came all this way to eat Italian food. LOL. It was called La Vespa decorated with an actual Vespa and pictures of...

May 17, 2019 - Last day in Panama

We left our wonderful beach resor this morning and returned to Panama City via the Bridge of the Americas. We had nice views from Amador Causeway of the canal and city sky line. Our first stop was at a Guna tribal market. There were about 40 stalls in the building. They all had similar souvenirs. One of the handcrafts they made were Mola’s. These are a hand sewed panel with bright colors, depicting animals or nature. They were beautiful and very well done. They had beaded items and clothing of the area. We arrived at our hotel for tonight....

May 16, 2019 - Beach Day

Today was what they called a day of leisure. We enjoyed all of it. Up and out on the beach about 8. One of the pools is right close so we went between the pool and walking on the beach. Such a beautiful place. We can see many ships waiting to go thru the canal. Seems it is a never ending line. We enjoyed the pool and beach for a couple hours then went in for breakfast about 10. Nice to have any and all the drinks we want. There is a bar right at the pool. I had a Cosmopolitan, Margarita, Atlas beer- Cliff had Balboa beer, Pina Colada,...

May 12, 2019 - First look at Panama Canal

Our flights from Great Falls were all just fine. We went to Denver, Houston and Panama City. We were a little late coming out of Houston as there was huge rain storms, and had a little turbulence. Made it to our hotel about 930 there was one other guy with us from Grand Junction. It was so nice that all the arrangements are made and we can relax. Someone met us at the airport, shuttle to the hotel, tour guide met us at the door with our room keys and offered us a late dinner from room service. Felt like we were royalty. Neither of us can...

Apr 29, 2019 - Crossing the Panama Canal

The 51 mile Panama Canal starts near Panama City in the Pacific Ocean and travels southwest to northeast to Colon, Panama and into the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Three sets of locks at each end of the canal raise and lower the ships 85 feet so that they can sail across the Continental Divide via Gatun Lake. The canal reduces the Pacific-Atlantic sailing distance by over 7,800 miles. The original locks were opened in 1914. The new, larger set of locks were opened in June 2016. This was the first time our ship had passed through the...

Apr 28, 2019 - Fuerte Amador, Panama

The farther south we got, the hotter it got. And, of course, being on the coast it was humid. During our tour in Panama City it was 95 with 75% humidity. We docked in Fuerte Amador to sightsee in Panama City. We were surprised at the modern, big city atmosphere of Panama City. It is one of the largest banking centers in the world. Later that evening our ship went out into the bay and waited for our turn to enter the Panama Canal locks the next morning.

Mar 31, 2019 - Musings and other tidbits we have learned

So we have now been here over 5 months and have settled into a regular pattern. We have had issues with Barry's portable oxygen machine and so we have been reluctant to do any more day long or long distance trips. We want to be sure that the portable machine makes it home. The cost to get home if the portable breaks will be 1000.00 extra for the airline to provide him with oxygen. It seems excessive however there is not much we can do other than hope that his machine makes it. BUSES So I have over the months learned a little about buses in...

Mar 17, 2019 - St Patrick's Day

So I heard that there was a big deal at La Ruina for St Patrick's day so a bunch of us planned on going... Silly me thinking that the restaurant would have the celebration on the 17th. they actually had it on the 16th and we were a day late. Oh well. We had a lovely dinner and then Derek, Judy, Tom and ROse and I headed to our place. We had planned a sleep over so no one had to worry about drinking. We had a fun night and there was some Jamming too.

Mar 15, 2019 - Road Trip

We headed down to Bugaba where we stayed most of last year and the year before. We were off to visit our friends Cliff and Yvonne. We also wanted to visit Las Olas and update our car plates. I was hoping to do some cross border shopping in Costa Rica but this was not possible on this trip. All the more reason to come back again next year. The drive from Gorgona to Las Olas is 6 hours on divided highway. It is a nice drive, better after you have gotten past Santiago which is the half way point. The pavement between Coronado and Santiago is...