Bud

I now am told that the black fire truck is from Dolega.

Late yesterday afternoon we drove by the area where this fire was located. To us, it appeared that there was only one house that was affected, and fairly substantially. We do not know, but from what appeared to be a torched sofa now located in the front yard in front of a window, one might conjecture that someone fell asleep while smoking. Sad. The houses in that neighborhood are built very close to each other, and so we think it was very fortunate that other structures were not damaged. We have no information as to injuries, if any. That house now is uninhabitable. Don't know if it is salvageable. Here are some pictures, taken in between the rain drops.

Marcelyn and I had to make an unplanned trip to David earlier today for business reasons. On the way back to Boquete, literally while at the Caldera checkpoint, the older policeman signaled -- energetically -- for me "adelante, rapido". The adelante part was expected, but the "rapido" part caught my attention. Within a fraction of a second I then heard a siren behind me. We pulled away from the inspection area and then a fire truck went through the inspection area with the blue lights flashing and the siren wailing. Certainly an unusual scenario. All of this began earlier today, Saturday, June 29th, about 11:45AM. Also interesting was the fact that the fire truck was black, as in solid black. Never in my life have I seen a black fire truck. Red, green, various shades of blue, etc., yes, but solid black was a first for me (and for Marcelyn). The sign on the back of the fire truck said "Cambria". Marcelyn noticed a logo on the side of the truck as it passed us, but I was keeping my eyes forward. Below picture is of the black fire truck just after it had passed us, a bit north of the Caldera checkpoint station. Okay, a bit of excitement, but we thought that was the end of it. Then as we pass through Bajo Boquete to continue on to the El Santuario area where we live, we noticed some smoke off to the right. The smoke was in the area known as Bajo Lino, which is after the Los Naranjos/Alto Lino "Y" intersection (we take to the Alto Lino route to get to our home). As we began curving around toward the right it was clear that there was at least one building on fire. We eventually had to slow down because of the pedestrians looking down from the roadway, and one car had been stopped and abandoned for the looky lou people to do their thing. We took some pictures, which are posted below. The following pictures were taken about 12:10PM. One person told us three homes were on fire. However, given that we could not safely move forward Marcelyn looked very carefully at the area and concluded that three buildings (they did not appear to be residences) were involved in smoke. The black fire truck that had passed us was there on scene, along with one red fire truck (presumably the Boquete Bomberos fire truck). We presume that the Boquete Bomberos called for assistance. We did not see any open flames, but there was a lot of smoke. We saw no ambulances. After we got home, we checked with Google to see what the significance of the word "Cambria" might be, and low and behold we found not only that word, but also the exact same font used on the back of the black fire truck, as well as the logo/symbol that was on the right door of the black fire truck. Here is that information from Google: There sure were a lot of unusual and interesting things happening today on our way home from David. We presume that there were no human casualties, given the absence of ambulance, and no urgent expressions on people's faces.

Marcelyn and I attended this June 15th concert at the library. This was an exceptionally good performance (not wanting to detract from others, but this just really was our kind of music). Here are the pictures and videos that were taken during the performance. Note that only a few of the songs were recorded, partly because I had only one camera and can do only one kind of multimedia recording at a time, and partly because the lighting was such that I felt the visual part of video recordings would not be attractive (that turned out to be the case). The performers were well received by the audience as witnessed by the many energetic standing ovations. Our community owes a huge "thank you" to Elsa Castillo for bringing such talented musicians to our special community in the Chiriqui highlands. Here are the pictures. And here are the videos. And finally, here is the program brochure.

Based on personal experience, this news put a big smile on my face. Thank you to all who made this happen, and so successfully.

Three of us recently tried out the cuisine at a relatively new "food truck" called El Turko. El Turko is located across the street from Tres Scalini, which is one of the many high end eateries on "restaurant row" in Bajo Boquete. Besides El Turko, there are also Mr. Burger and Fabrica Cubana in the same general patch of land. Parking was off-street and no charge, even though there was a sign saying $3 parking. Tony is the proprietor of El Turko. From the business name one would be correct in thinking of Turkish cuisine. Food prices were quite reasonable, the food quality was excellent. Can't say much as to authenticity because none of the three of us is an expert on Turkish food. But we enjoyed it and will go back. If there is any complaint it would be that the servings are quite large, and so all of us had some doggie bag food going home with us. Tony assisted with packaging of the food for our doggie bags. Here are some pictures taken during our first outing at El Turko.

Donna has given permission to provide her email to you. Please see the PM (private message) that has just now been sent to you.

Will contact Donna to she if she is okay with releasing private information.

Interesting posting. In my 18+ years of living in Boquete this is the first news of a waterspout in Panama that I can recall. As a long ago navy guy (don't ask), I learned that a waterspout is basically a tornado that has formed over water. There are two kinds of waterspouts: tornadic and fair-weather. Once a waterspout comes over land it is then a tornado.

I ***DO*** appreciate all of the postings here. Good information. After this transaction is completed, I will post as to the procedure used and the outcome. It is quite nice to have people, some of whom we don't even know, helping in this journey through life in Boquete. Thank you.

Thanks to both of you. Will let the sender decide which method works best from the sending end.

A friend is wanting to send us some cash. That friend lives in South America and would be sending US dollars. The question I have is how to get that money to us? We have zero experience in this kind of business transaction. We are not talking about a large sum of money, so hopefully we wouldn't raise any concerns about money laundering, illegal activities, etc., none of which apply. I think there is (or was?) a Western Union office across the street from Multibank. Is that service still available, and if so how does it work? I thought about suggesting PayPal, but don't know if and how that works either. Some Google searches this morning were, at best, confusing. Suggestions, recommendations, information about reliability and timing and fees, etc., solicited.

I’ve read this topic several times and still do not understand what the problem is. I do understand that Skype does not offer Panama phone numbers like they do for some other countries. To answer your question, we do have Skype, but don’t use it very much because of the quality of the audio when talking. We have and use all the time a “business” phone service using VOIP technology through a company based in Arizona called Nextiva. That service allows us to pick any state for our phone number (we selected a 713 area code number since we vote in Houston) plus unlimited incoming and outgoing FAX service (also using a separate 713 number) that has saved our bacon on several occasions. They also provide an app for our iPad that means the Houston number “follows” with us while in travel mode anywhere in the world, providing we have [good] Internet access. Both phone numbers are unlimited calling to anywhere in the US and Canada, and very attractive rates per minute for international calling (meaning any number outside of the US and Canada). I sometimes even use our Houston line when calling to PC because the quality of the audio is so much better than using our Panama landline service. (We are not big on using cell service.) The expensive part of Nextiva is buying the phone instrument itself, which is a one-time thing. You do need good Internet service, but that applies to Skype as well because they both are VOIP technology.

Wow, bring on the chicken pot pies. One of my favorites.

I was recently provided a paper straw at Mike’s Global Grill. It seemed to hold up well during our entire dining experience.

I talked with the bank manager for our bank (Multibank) earlier today and she assured me that there are no plans by their management to make any changes. She was aware of reports from others that some other banks are making changes, some with onerous fees and others with dramatically high minimum balance requirements. She even mentioned that if the idea were to come up within Multibank that she would advise management against it because she knows many of her customers would go elsewhere. We were relieved to hear her feedback because that is how we get our funds into Panama from our US bank. (For us we just write a check on our US bank account and deposit it in Multibank, then a five day hold, and no fees involved, but with a $3K limit at each instance; never been a problem for us.)

So pleased to see the above responses on the topic of education. I have maintained for almost my entire time here in Panama (now 18+ years) that education is the number one priority that needs "fixing". Just never seems to happen. And then there is another posting from the newspapers here on CL this morning reporting that the Chamber of Commerce is saying that education, health care, and Social Security should be the top priority for the country and the political aspirants in the upcoming May elections. I agree, as long as education is the first on that short list.

Yes, we are definitely interested. Have used Miele for decades. We don’t “do” whatsapp, etc., and are not available right now. Can we contact you in about a week? Or we can PM (private message) here on CL if needed.

As a former navy guy here is a good definition: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Semi-submersible

Sounds like it to me, assuming it passes.

While running errands in Bajo Boquete yesterday, we did see an “Open” sign on her office door. Would have parked to go in to chat with her in person but there were no parking places anywhere close.

Another update on the increased Internet speed topic that I recently started.I have been routinely monitoring the download and upload speeds. Seems to be consistent at about 145+MB down (sometimes ~180MB) and 9.5MB upload ). There is an occasional blip in both speeds, but a follow up measurement within a minute shows things back to normal, meaning 145+ and 9.5. I’m a happy camper with my CabeOnda service. .

Thanks for posting. Will check into this for our next oil change. Not only did the price sound attractive, but you added a comment that tweaked my interest -- about checking the car over for other problems. Some people complain about that because they see it as an opportunity to "up sell" or "do unnecessary work". I like for others with auto experience to tell me what they see (in case I am unaware of a problem) and then I get to decide what if anything is done at that point. Just the way I do things. Others may experience other outcomes.

Thanks Keith. That was an aspect that I had hot considered. As I wrote, not much experience or knowledge on my part -- proven true again. For Panama to make its own concrete makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.

Speaking personally and without much experience or knowledge of the concrete business sector, but my gut tells me there is something wrong with the numbers in the above chart. Panama at the bottom of the list given all of the construction that we see going on throughout the country? And Nicaragua, which is going through some serious internal turmoil and economic downturn as a result, at the top of the list? This doesn't pass the smell test. But then I've been wrong before....