Back Home At The Playa

After spending two lovely weeks in Washington and California, I'm happily back home at the beach in Panama. Some memories include: birding with Carol in Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge (saw my first Yellow-headed Blackbird and Common Yellowthroat); jumping into Kelsey Creek on the Fourth of July (after a hiatus of 45 years); travelling with Mom through airport security (yes, Mom really did tell the TSA agent who patted her down that she thought she was falling in love after all the "touching"); finding a plethora of bikinis to buy at Wal-mart because nobody who shops there is my size; birding with Chris Thaub and talking with him about his feature film Samira (wishing I could invest in the film before it becomes a hit); spending a week at True North Health and finally perfecting my diet (good-bye salt, sugar and oil); buying "The Kiss" from Artist James Zimmerman (Santa Rosa High School classmate) after seeing it in a San Francisco art gallery in 1978 for $300 and not being able to afford it.

The weekend I returned to Panama, I had the pleasure of "hosting" two Learning Enterprises (http://www.learningenterprises.org/) interns named Kelsey and Emma. Kelsey is from Anchorage (her mother works with a Dancing Bear friend named David) and is a Junior at Brown while Emma is from DC and a Junior at Georgetown. They are teaching English in the province of Los Santos for 6 weeks. While at the beach they enjoyed kayaking (pictured), eating vegetables (it's rice and fried food when you live with Panamanian families), and dancing at the Las Olas bar (it was karaoke night).

I am back into my routine of walking the beach with Chester (yes, he did miss me), birding with the Boquete Birders (we will walk the Caldera River this Friday), catching up with friends (Pauline is in Panama for a couple of weeks), and enjoying the sun/fun/adventure of living in Paradise!

Simple Pleasures

The more time I spend in Panama, the more I appreciate the Panamanians and their simple lives in this rich country. It touched my heart when 2 workers from J&J Windows walked down to my beach after repositioning the screens on my windows from inside to outside (better for keeping bugs out). They returned from the beach with a very used, deflated soccer ball. They wanted to know if they could have it....! Sweet, small pleasures.
Soon I return back to the US for the 4th of July. I'll be with Mom for a few days in Washington, then escort her to Sacramento (my brother's house) then on to Kelseyville, CA for a family reunion. The week of July 7-14, I'll be at True North Health Center in Santa Rosa healing from whatever bad things went into my mouth this last year (mostly chocolate bars and sugar). I always have fun there making new friends (with like-minds), birding, shopping and reuniting with old high school buddies.

Lunch With Noriega's Ghosts

Yesterday, I had a very interesting lunch that included a few ghosts who were murdered by Noriega in the 1980’s. A friend of mine (Dr. Jennifer Daniels who you might recognize from previous blogs) is caretaking a house (pictured) that was once “owned” by Manuel Noriega. I use the term “owned” loosely because he really seized the house when he was the military dictator of Panama from 1983-1989. Dr. Jennifer prepared an amazing lunch (at least if you are vegan like me) that included cucumbers dipped in guacamole, out-of-this-world split pea soup (which I hope to duplicate), a huge fresh fruit salad (with star fruit from her neighbor) and her famous oatmeal cookies. After lunch, she and her new husband Gary took us on a tour. The views were unbelievable (I could almost see my beach house) and the garden was one of the nicest I have seen in Panama. One of the bedrooms once housed Fidel Castro. It was a much better outcome for us than for Noriega’s guests of years past. They would be invited to the mansion for a meal followed by a party. You guessed it. They would be lead out to a beautiful vista and killed.

Sunny on the Divide

It was a perfect day on the Continental Divide trail… highly unusual any time of the year and particularly unusual in the wet season. Fourteen of us saw 57 species of birds. Almost more enjoyable than seeing golden browed chlorophonias and hearing prong-billed barbets was simply being immersed in the lovely cloud forest on a sunny day. All pictures are mine except for the broad-billed motmot that was taken by Kay Wade.

Three Marks and a Black George

I know, the title of this blog sounds like a deadly cocktail, or at the very least, a hallucinogen. And in a sense, it is. My five week visit to the States culminated in an 8-day Colorado River trip through the 277-mile long Grand Canyon. If you’ve been on a Grand Canyon river trip, you’ll remember the hallucinogenic quality of that time.

It started with an Arizona Shuttle van ride from my sleazy motel room on Rt. 66 in Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. Mark Harris was the driver and within a very short period of time, we were reminiscing about “the good old days” in Yosemite (after he discovered I was once a ranger there). You see, Mark Harris spend a lot of time climbing in the Valley in the early 90’s. He taught me some “tricks of the trade” climbers use to stay in the Valley for free (like nailing the recycling bin closed, forcing park visitors to leave their nickel cans and bottles in the nearby trash can; climbers gather the goods and take them to the recycling center for payment). Eventually, rangers (no doubt some of my friends who still worked there) escorted Mark out of the park… to greener pastures.

The other two Marks (Pillar and Yeston) were boatmen extraordinaire who lead the 32-person (River Management Society professional river managers), 8-day/300 mile, 4 motorized rafts (3 J-rigs/1 S-rig) trip through the Canyon. Piller was the trip leader and drove the 37’ S-rig. I rode on his boat a lot because he was always telling jokes, reciting cowboy poetry (how does he remember it all?) or recounting stories of the gazillion (or was it a Brazilian) days he has spent on the river in the last 11 years. Yeston was even funnier because his stories were based on real life….! Yeston’s description of taking a Government “bean-counter” down the river (she only made it one night before she had to be hauled out by helicopter) had me laughing so hard I was crying!

Black George is a legend (see http://www.hcn.org/issues/355/17258 or http://www.22local.com/2009/07/08/the-legend-of-black-george/) and a good friend of Yeston’s. He will be 87 years old in September. He told some absolutely amazing stories around the “propane” campfire. All I can say is Yee-Haw!

In case you are wondering about the pictures, in order from top to bottom, left to right is: Martha Moran in National Canyon, me under and next to waterfalls in Travertine Canyon, Rob and Jason on the front of the S-Rig, view from Nankoweap, Deer Creek Falls, Yoga on the beach lead by Rachel Peters, graneries at Nankoweap, Vasey's Paradise, and Black George (new boyfriend) and yours truly in Redwall Cavern.

So, I’m back in Panama, enjoying every second of the ocean, my friends, cool breezes and walks with Chester. After suffering through 3+ weeks of bronchitis in the states, it’s good to be back to such a healing place. I head back to the states July 4 to take Mom to the family reunion in Kelseyville. Will I be ready?

True Love

I have found a lot of love here in Panama, and this is the truest! A few Blogs ago, I talked about Chester (the larger English Shepherd) and Miss Piggy (Jim's Panamanian wild puppy). Although Miss Piggy lives in Boquete with Jim, she often finds her way to the beach where she spends some quality time with Chester. If you see her hitchhiking along the Pan-American Highway, please resist the urge to pick her up!

The Dentist Dr. Spiegal

Yeah, yeah... it's been a while since I last blogged.  Sorry!  It's the busy life of a retiree that gets in the way.  Hummmmm... Since I last blogged, I joined Jim Hatch's acting class in Boquete, took on a mini-job as Associate Producer of Jim's latest play "Sylvia" (a huge success that ran for 6 sold-out nights in Boquete), put many miles on my cool new Kona bicycle (riding around this flat farmland, waving to the friendly locals is fabulous), studied more Spanish, and was voted back on to the Las Brisas Del Mar condo association board (lucky me). Of course, the most rewarding thing I’ve done recently was going to the dentist in David. How could that be, you ask? Well, not only is Dr. Spiegal a good dentist (highly recommended by many of my gringo friends), he’s efficient, friendly and replaced two damaged crowns for only $250/crown. Right before I left Alaska, I had two crowns put in for $1,200/crown. The savings more than makes up for the cost of a plane ticket, if you get my drift.

Speaking of drift, I’ll be drifting back to the US in less than a month. My last trip there in October involved snow in Montana, so I’m hoping for better weather. Here is my itinerary:

• Leave my beloved Panama and dog Chester in the hands of Jim Hatch – April 13

• Spend time with Mom in Winlock, WA April 14 to April 21

• Attend the Juice Plus Conference in Phoenix April 21 to April 25 (I’ll get to see Pauline!)

• Back to Winlock to see Mom & dance at some Portland contra dances April 25 to May 6

• Return to Panama by way of a week-long Grand Canyon River Trip May 7 to May 16

• Back home May 17

I'll only be back home in Panama for 6 weeks before I head out again... this time to take Mom to California for the yearly 4th of July celebration. 
Time to take the dogs on yet another beachwalk! 
P.S. if you are wondering about these 2 pictures, the first one is Jim, John, Pauline, me and Chuck at Pauline's 50th birthday party (Thai catered food) and the second one is a picture of killer bees that my friend Nina took (this tree is located just a few houses from me).  If you study up on killer bees, you'll find out that they swarm at several locations before they build a nest (the queen is in the middle of the swarm).