Tom and I arrived safely last night...we are finally in Panama! After a flight delay at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, a very long line at immigration, collecting the luggage and going through customs, we met our driver, Jose. With Jose's English limited, and my Spanish even more so, we relied on Tom to do most of of the talking. By the end of the cab ride to our guesthouse, I was already speaking Spanish..."Si, bueno!" I exclaimed repeatedly as Jose pointed out the new Trump Tower, Casco Viejo and other landmarks. What a vocabulary I have.."aqui", "gracias", "necessito un bano" (haven't used that phrase yet, but I am sure I will bust it out within the week).
Seriously, I am very thankful that Tom speaks some Spanish...it's obvious that he will be fluent very soon. And maybe it will rub off on me. [Tom sez: "Oh, Monkey - you'll do just fine in no time at all..!"]
Upon arrival at our guesthouse around midnight, we discovered that my Dell laptop crashed during the flight from Dallas to Panama...we have tried to revive it, but it's not looking good. Right now I am very very thankful that I bought my emergency netbook for $100 at Music City Pawn back in TN. And wondering if it will be able to fit the Rosetta Stone Level 1 Spanish program that I just got around to loading onto the Dell just before our departure...sigh...trying not to stress. Especially after waking to the calls of strange new birds out in the garden.....
Our guesthouse is The Balboa Inn, right near Cerro Ancon. It's in a residential neighborhood with lots of trees, birds and the cute little critters known as agoutis. They look like guinea pigs, and probably are closely related, if not the same thing!(I will have to research this further.) You can see one in the picture above...the guy and his buddies joined us for breakfast along with more kinds of birds than we could count. Several types of hummingbirds and lovely little blue parakeets clamored around the patio when food was offered by Mieke and Bill, the owners.
Now it's time to go exploring! The weather forecast is for temperatures in the '90s, with quite a bit of humidity, but we are undaunted. Tonight at 6:00 pm, we have a date for drinks with a gal named Liz Taylor who is here from the UK for the big jazz festival that is taking place mainly in the Casco district --I made Liz's acquaintance via an expat forum, while talking about starting a book exchange for expats down here. I am expecting that it will be very interesting down in the Casco today with all of these "jazzy" people around, and we will have some good photos and stories to tell!
I'm sold. As soon as I get off the "no fly list", I may be on my way!
ReplyDeleteYou guys are inspirational in the extreme. Some folk talk about "wanting to do" - you guys cut the nonsense & "did".
(Is that a capybara eyeballing the bird in the pic above?!?)
Carry on! .. remember: in Spanish there is a right & a wrong way to ask for your eggs scrambled.