Bud

A group of three of us patronized El Sabroson in Alto Boquete yesterday late afternoon for dinner. It was a pleasant dining experience. The facility obviously is very new, quite large, and clean. The tables and chairs were impressive, and probably custom made for the restaurant. Food selection was good, the staff was friendly but spoke no English, however our Spanglish worked very well. Prices were nice for our pocketbook, and without requesting it, the cashier asked if we were jubilados and after our response was very happy to apply the discount. Marcelyn and I had dinner for about $9.25 total, not each, and that included the drinks (coffee and Coca Cola). Had we not included the two fruit salads then our dinner would have cost $6.75 total. In other words, very economical. The food was tasty. Sabroson had no alcoholic beverages (wine, beer, etc.) and we do not know if that is because they are awaiting permits or by choice prefer not to offer alcoholic drinks. The only "complaint" would be that food quantity was very large even though I asked for smaller serving sizes, and so we got a take out box for the leftovers. Here are some pictures taken during our first visit to El Sabroson:

Finally made time to discuss this matter with CableOnda at their office in David at the end of last week. Without going into all of the details here are the highlights of our visit to their office, and is for information purposes only: Yes, our account (and by inference all/most CableOnda Internet customers) are getting bandwidth upgrades. Our account now is 160Mb downloads and 10Mb uploads. Again, we are heavily dependent on the Internet, and so we did not downgrade anything here. There are other Internet plans at different billing rates, one lower (60 down, 5 up) and two higher (350 down, 10 up; 600 down, 10up). Yes, there are ways to reduce a monthly bill, and ours will be going down about $8.00 monthly, but that is because of changes in our television channel selections, and having nothing to do with Internet service or our home telephone (which is serviced by CableOnda). BTW, the CableOnda office was quite busy, but as jubilados our wait time was only about 20 minutes. The agent who helped us spoke no English, but my Spanglish was more than adequate with one exception, at which time the agent asked her neighbor agent to assist with translations. (The translation was needed because of the complexity of conveying the idea that our account is in the middle of a billing cycle, and she was trying to tell me that the rate reduction is not pro-rated, but will become effective with our next billing cycle.) It was a very nice experience in terms of customer service, and for us it was counted as a successful visit. Here are scans of one of the CableOnda marketing brochures in case you want more details.

I've recently been noticing faster Internet speeds, and so started measuring performance. Note that we have two ISPs because we run CL and depend heavily on the Internet for both CL and our business needs, which includes commercial VoIP telephone service out of the US. Because of our dependence on the Internet we have a "high end" network setup that includes industrial grade networking components by Peplink that includes a gateway router that supports up to three WAN connections, and which shifts between our two ISPs based on measured performance of our two WANs. The router does not combine the bandwidth of the connected WANs, but only switches between them. We also use four 8-port Peplink Ethernet switches. We pay for 30Mb download and 5Mb upload on our main CableOnda account. To my surprise we frequently get 150+Mb downloads and 10+Mb uploads. As broadband technology (meaning sharing of bandwidth among the users), CableOnda does tend to be faster in the morning hours (especially the wee morning hours) and then slowing down during the evening hours, presumably when a lot of people are watching Netflix type multimedia. We use two network performance monitor applications: Speedtest.net and DSLReports.com, both of which are free. I actually prefer DSLReports because it seems to be more realistic (personal opinion) by simultaneously testing multiple ping servers around the world. Here are some screen shots showing our recent network performance. Being a curious type person, I started asking friends about their experiences with their ISPs. And then we also get [unsolicited] feedback from some CL members who have difficulty accessing our website. Two general themes are presenting themselves in this feedback. One theme is that "the word" is that CableOnda is upgrading its Internet infrastructure and increasing speeds for customers, but doing so without announcing these improvements. That statement is something that we are hearing and I cannot attest to its authenticity. But if true, it would explain what we are beginning to experience. The second theme from the feedback is that there are some areas of the Chiriqui highlands that have very poor performance with CableOnda as their ISP, and in some cases not able to get service at all. Two areas of poor service in general are the Brisas Boqueteña area including further south approaching Los Molinos, and the other area is parts of Potrerillos; we don't have many data points in the Palmira area, but suspect a similar scenario as those in the Potrerillos area. Some people in the Brisas area say they go several days at a time with either painfully show or no service, which has to be a major ouch for them. And some people say they cannot even get CableOnda service even though nearby neighbors have it, and in one case a situation where there is literally a neighbor on either side of their home having CableOnda service, but unable to get it for themselves. Have no idea what that is about. The above two paragraphs are anecdotal in nature, as I have not done any rigorous research, nor do I intend to do such. The primary reason for posting this information is to see what others have to say about their ISPs. And one footnote, I have been told by two people that CableOnda may be reducing their Internet rates, but not sending out notices to the customers, nor automatically reducing the bills. Those two people have indicated they learned about the rate reductions while at CableOnda in David. They learned they could request a rate reduction (which they did, and apparently successfully with no complaints). I don't plan on making a special trip to David, but will stop by to inquire about rate structure changes the next time I am in David.

Good info. Thanks, Al.

Good vibes in driving around Boqueteville now. We recently returned home after some medical travel, and were pleasantly surprised to find road conditions not bouncing between dangerous to barely tolerable, but actually quite good. More work to be done, for sure, but streets are orders of magnitude so much better than they have been in a long time. PTL.

I like Morgan Freeman. Great actor. Just watched another of his performances via Netflix.

What about Juice Mi, across (formerly) from Banco Nacional? And Delicias Chiriqui on the river bank next to the Feria bridge? I suspect there may be others. ? Regarding Juice Mi, I recall having several conversations with David Hatton about his "fights" (plural) with the city and specifically including the mayor about the road conditions, dust, lack of water, etc. We really liked Juice Mi because it was good (healthy) food, good service, and good value.

Initial reaction: Bad news for the community about an important utility. Second reaction: Glad that we are not on the Boquete water system. Third reaction: Public notices such as this without dates, areas affected, and more specific details about the contamination are, IMO, not good communications procedure.

Yes, go to the bank where you filed the beneficiary statement, and ask that they confirm the filing and names(s) shown thereon. As Marcelyn wrote, you can imagine the surprise (alarm) expression that we experienced when learning that someone we did not even know was listed as a beneficiary on our account. And we do keep the written documentation that was signed by the branch manager, just in case of another mess up. I/we would like to believe that this was an honest mistake.

I wish I had posted this earlier. White taking our housekeeper into town last Thursday afternoon about 4:00PM, I had to come to a complete stop on the road just below the castle (we live in the El Santuario area) because of a large group of young persons walking up the hill into our residential area. Have no idea where they were destined as there are no churches, restaurants, or venues of significant interest (to the best of my knowledge). Perhaps someone was having a reception for the group at their home??? The lead people in this processional were carrying a fairly large wooden cross. I saw no adults; the majority of the group, estimated to number about 150 to 175, were probably mid-teens to very early 20s. They were smiling, some carrying cell phones and a few had cameras, but none of them were talking or texting while in this processional (that was a refreshing thing to see so many young people NOT consumed by their electronics). I waved to several of them, and got smiles and waves in return. Rosmery (our housekeeper) immediately recognized the group as "peregrinos" (pilgrims). I wish I had had my camera so that you could see this group. All well groomed, smiling, and enthusiastically involved. (I believe there is hope for the future.)

No on the blood tests for license renewal. Given that we needed to see our doctor for Marcelyn's license renewal, I decided to turn that visit into a general physical exam/review for both of us. Thus the blood work was done. BTW, we use Dra Diaz here in Boquete (she is the only doctor we are aware of in Boquete that can certify for driver license renewal), and it was a very thorough health checkup for both of us. Glad that we did that. We also use Dr Gomez across from Melo when we want a consult quickly without an appointment. Both are great doctors.

Good news to see this reply. I definitely am interested in hearing more (pardon the pun) about your services for vets. The VA had me go to Panama City about a month ago. Having something local (well, David is almost local for me) would be a tremendous plus. Please post details of your upcoming open house event during January 2019 here on CL.

An interesting topic, and some of the replies have caused me to think about things previously not considered.

I've always been fascinated by rainbows (and then upon arriving in Boquete long ago, also with moonbows). Here is a shot taken with a low quality cell phone late afternoon last Thursday, December 6th, on the street where the eShop and Multibank are located. Subjective opinion is that the image does not do justice to what we saw that afternoon. It was much more vivid than depicted here. The rainbow season has started in Boquete. Isn't it wonderful!

We wanted to check the status of our car battery, given that it is several years old, but did not want to go through the car dealer in David because of the hassles and time involved. And so we went to La Casa de Las Baterias in David yesterday to inquire if they could perform such a diagnostic. They smiled and said yes. It took only about two minutes for the diagnostic procedure, and they provided me with a printout from their diagnostic equipment. Fortunately for us the battery tested good. Below is the printout. No English spoken (that I could determine), but my Spanglish worked fine. We went to the store that is on the one-way street across from filling station in the center of town. Total time involved at the store was about ten minutes. No cost. Smiles and good service. The time delay (if one could call it that) was that I was second in line for the customer queue. No big deal as I sat down and waited my turn. Really good service, and good news for us.

H O O R A H !

Alison, your comments about the "drop offs" is another main concern. I didn't mention it in my posting because I get taken to task for being "too negative". Not only can vehicles become a victim of the sharp and deep drop offs, but pedestrians can as well. Try walking from across the street into any of several of the businesses on Avenida Princpal here in Boquete. Not only scary, but down right dangerous.

I agree upfront that the roadways in Boquete are [slowly] getting better. However, I have concerns about the long term viability of some of the repaved roads. For instance, here are two pictures taken yesterday showing an edge of a street (behind the car lot that is behind where Banisto used to be located), and the edge of the pavement is already eroding from rain activity. Toward the top center of the first picture where there is a faint image of a car there is a section of the roadway itself (not the edge) that has literally disintegrated. I estimate that missing pavement area conservatively to be about 40 to 50 square feet in size. Are we getting quality road work?

In general I agree with Doug’s assessments. This article makes me wonder what the real agenda is for the Chamber of Commerce. Are they positioning for next year’s elections? Something else?

Any chance that the Millicom takeover of CableOnda has something to do with these outages? See http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/10681-millicom-buying-majority-shareholding-in-cableonda/ Just a thought.

This is a relatively important discussion topic that applies not only to Panama, but to many countries around the world. Not taking sides here, but we see the end result of Chinese influence/expansion as we travel around various parts of this wonderful world we live in. Recommendation: remain alert and inquisitive. Insist on transparency of governmental agencies and elected officials.

Marcelyn and I recently had dinner at the Papa Rico's place across the street from the Feria here in Boquete. While there we had an interesting conversation with Yaissel Carracedo, who used to work at Mail Boxes, Etc., here in Boquete. Yaissel decided to go out on her own, and now operates a custom tour service providing 4x4 tours primarily to Volcan Baru area. We thought we would post this information to help get the word out about her tour services. She markets her services via the Internet, principally Facebook and Instagram. Here is her Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/ycarracedo. You may contact her via cel to 6981-1339.

While attending the first performance of The Olde Timey Radio Show (OTRS) on Friday evening, I used my Nikon D5600 to take video clips of the performances. That camera is a still camera, but it can take movies of limited duration. Some of the movie clips I took did not work because the lighting and/or people in front of the camera caused the focus mechanism to go crazy, but I figure that something is better than nothing. And so, here are the video clips of many, but not all, of the musical pieces, skits, dances, etc. Enjoy. If you did not attend this show, you missed something very entertaining. We are looking forward to the next OTRS. Our hats off to all who made this show such a success. Thank you.

Interesting feedback.