Day 13—Lunch in Capira at Delizz

Driving back from Punta Chame.

Before we came to Panama, Sean and I did a lot of research on this place, and followed a few blogs by expats living in Panama.  One in particular, was wonderful because it was of a couple, Terry and Clyde, who left Texas in September of last year, and Terry decided to blog about their transition in to Panamanian culture.  It is a very informative blog, and Terry has been great about blogging frequently.  Her blog is called “Along the Gringo Trail”.  So I know they have met other people like Sean and I, who are exploring the place for retirement, but I hesitated about emailing them.  It just seems a little weird to email someone who doesn't have the slightest idea of who you are, and you know quite a bit about them.  It would be like, “I’m going shopping in Beverly Hills, I think I’ll email Kim Kardasian and see if she would like to meet for lunch”.  OK, nothing like that really, but I thought it would be just as weird.  Then I decided to check out what Terry and Clyde had been up to while we were in Panama, and it turned out she had been to beach, literally in front of our beach villas.  I took that as a sign.  (Well as sign that this country is a pretty small place, and we would probably run into them sooner or later, so we may as well email them.) 

They were very gracious, and agreed to meet us for lunch.  We went to a place called Delizz on the Pan-American Highway in Capira.  It was easy to find, and only about 20 minutes away from where we are staying.  We all sat down and had a lovely meal, and talked for two hours.  Here is what we ate there:

This is how Emma's lunch came. I'm not sure if they actually wanted  us to stay and eat.

This is what was inside the foil swan, Yummy!

This is a shrimp stuffed chicken breast in a cream sauce with patacones (traditional twice fried plantains).

Sean had pork chops, in a tomato sauce that was amazing.  

Our lunch came to $33.00.  Pretty reasonable for the quality of the food.  

They were both so open and helpful with all kinds of practical advice about Panama.  And it turns out, the expat community is pretty close, and everyone pretty much knows everyone.  That is the part that I think would be very cool about living down here.  Then they asked us back to their house, which was really cool, because, we had been reading the blog, we had vicariously lived through the purchase and fixing up of their house, so it was great to see it in person.  It was a lovely property, with tons of trees and plants.  We met their dog, which looked uncannily like our long departed Freya, the Doberman- whippet mess. The house is traditional Panamanian architecture.  Clyde and Terry had worked hard cleaning the place up and painting, and even cutting a hole in a cinder block wall to open the kitchen up.  I really enjoyed seeing all of their hard work in person.  And, best of all, when we went home, we left with a bag of ripe mangoes!

When we got back to the villa (I've decided to call it a villa now because it sounds so much more sophisticated than condo—and is probably more apropos). I noticed that we had left some lights on.  I walked over to the fridge to get water, and when I opened the door, I noticed there was no fridge light. I thought, “How weird, when did that go out, and then I realized that the lights I had noticed 30 seconds before, were no longer on.  So, this time, for real, the electricity had gone out.  Luckily the temperature had gone down to about 75 degrees with a light breeze.  I didn't panic this time, but decided to enjoy life unplugged for as long as it lasted (as long as it didn't last past bedtime!).  It was an evening filled with candle light, and night swims, and lots of fireflies (and a damn bat that kept eating the fireflies—EAT the mosquitoes! LEAVE the fireflies!)  For about 5 minutes, I actually did panic thinking we were going to have to sleep in the humid heat, but just then all the power came back on, and I wasn't the only one in the villas who cheered!

Overall, a pretty cool day in Panama.

On the road to Punta Chame.