Day 5—A Whole Lotta Lazin’ around!

View from our terrace.

We had a great night of sleep last night …NO MUSIC, thank god!!!  I feel like I am over sleeping every day, but who knows it could be a slight cold, or the fact that this balmy, sultry weather makes me feel as if I have had two glasses of wine at all times.  I can’t believe it is only 6:30pm, and the sun is setting. Pretty much year round, the sun rises at about 6 a.m. and sets at 6:30 p.m. ( No wonder these people think we are crazy, we eat when it is still light outside.) 



Yesterday, when we were leaving for El Valle, we met Jesse, a very outgoing young lad.  He is a writer, living here with a wife and two small children.  We also (sort of) met  the guy and gal who live across from us with their very sweet pit bull.  I still don’t know the guy’s name, but he said he sells condos, and his wife/girlfriend’s name is Kate, and their dog's name is Apollo.  She works for RE/Max and specializes in rentals.  Really, this is a very intimate setting.  I am not used to this at all, but I don’t hate it either.  

There are about 16 units here.  A lot of them are empty rentals. This is considered the low season.

Today was a total lay around, straighten up, do laundry, take frequent dips in the pool kind of day. 

Sean and Emma headed out to explore Gorgona (a complete and utter disappointment, and waste of time according to them) and then picked up some snacks, and subway sandwiches for lunch.  The sandwiches were ok, very similar to the US, but the bread (just like on the Egg McMuffin the other morning) was much better.  This country sure knows how to do bread (even the bun  I had on my hamburger was more like brioche than the dry, smashed .99 Hamburger buns at Safeway!) While my Husband and Emma were at Subway, an older Panamanian man walked into the store.  He immediately identified Sean as “King of the Gringos” (hmmm...giant, sunburned, red-haired man with blond daughter, what stretch), and showed him a shriveled, unidentifiable piece of fruit—a child of a banana and a mango according to Sean.  The man kept pointing to his toothless gums, making an um, um, um sound and chanting $1. My hubs was unsure whether he was selling fruit, or making a pass. He declined either way. 

I loved today.  It was sunny, and hot, and beautiful, and tropical breezy.  It was magical. I actually took a nap today.  Unfortunately I  woke up to ”nameless dude who sells condo’s” blasting Panamanian rap music.  Ugh, my heart sank...it will seriously ruin my vacation if "closet drug dude with untrained pit bull" starts playing rap at all hours of the day and night. I know they just moved into the place a week ago, just my luck. Dude, I could have stayed in El Cerrito if I wanted to listen to that sh$%. But, somehow I lucked out, and he turned the music down very quickly. Maybe it was the look of utter horror and dismay on my face when I opened the door to see what the racket was, and then promptly stomped back inside. 

In the afternoon, Jesse, wife, kids, "nameless drug dude", Kate, and an unidentified couple parked themselves in/near the pool, which is right outside our condo.  It was weird, but I felt uncomfortable going to the pool while they were there.  I need to get over this, as this is a community pool with equal access.  Geez, I think I’ve been isolated in the El Cerrito hills for too long, where neighbor barely tolerates neighbor. 

This is the view of the pool from our front door.   

At 4pm, the noise died down, and we went into the pool for a swim. Then we cooked garlic potatoes and Chorizo hot dogs (a Panamanian experiment) for dinner.  It was good, but I am missing veggies. Egads! Did those words really just issue from my fingertips?

We went for a last swim in the evening.  The unidentified couple, who turned out to be Donna and Dick, were at the pool.  I asked if they were Jesse’s parents. No, it turns out that they met Jesse online through a Jehovah’s Witness web site, and they are here visiting from Tucson, Arizona.  Of course I thought they said Utah not Tucson, and somehow I always get Jehovah’s Witnesses  and Latter Day Saints (i.e. Mormons) mixed up—too many words in the name of their religion I guess.  Make it short like Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist…I get it, but start adding too many adjectives and you lose me.  So, my jungle addled brain instantly changed them from Jehovah’s Witnesses in to Mormons, and I went on about how half my family are Jehovah Witnesses, living in Utah. The husband yelled, "No, we’re from Tuscon!", and the woman replied, “Really, living in Utah, that’s surprising…” (Well only if you are Jehovah’s Witnesses and not the Mormons I thought you were!) Geez, I couldn’t even admit my mistake to them, “Oh, you said Jehovah’s Witnesses living in Tuscon, I thought you meant Latter Day Saint's living in Utah, how silly of me, I always get those two religions mixed up.” Brilliant..I blame the humidity.