Annalisa en Panamá

 Running! The saying "when it rains, it pours" seems particularly apt in Panama, so perhaps it's not so surprising that my search for running buddies was doubly rewarded last Saturday.  First, I got to run about 6K with a new friend from church.  She warned me that she was kind of out of shape, and I gave my favorite reply: I can run slower than anyone I run with .  It's my super-power.  So when Sofí wanted to walk up some of the hills we faced, I was 100% ready to support her. Sweaty and happy.

 Forecast:  86°/76° with thundershowers in the afternoon;  Humidity :  93% Sunrise  6:07 am.,  Sunset  6:12 p.m. I might have mentioned once or twice that it rains a lot here. If you're wondering whether that's true, . . . well, . . . it is. The fact that it rains a lot here has influenced both the architecture and the built landscape a lot. Here's some examples of how it looks different walking around Panama than walking around Pennsylvania, just because of how people here deal constantly with the rain. For one thing, there are these culverts everywhere. A culvert with a recent rainfall running through it. A culvert next to a building. A culvert in the grassy strip near the side of the road. (It's a bit overgrown, but that really is a concrete culvert, and not just a grass-and-dirt ditch). If there's a soccer field, it has a culvert running around the edge between it and a sidewalk or another field or whatever.  If there's a playground, there's culverts nea

The neighborhood I'm living in now used to be part of the American Canal zone, and it still has a lot of English-speaking people living here (as well as people from Germany, France, Holland, and a few other countries).  It's a pretty wealthy neighborhood with only one point of vehicle access, and that point is monitored by a guard who checks that people coming in are actually allowed here.   There is no bus service in this neighborhood anymore, but clearly there had been at one time.  The bus stop shelters are all made of concrete, and the shape is very artsy.  Even though the stops don't get used for waiting for buses, people who walk through the neighborhood sometimes stop and rest a these shelters (and sometimes use them to duck out of the rain).  About 5 or 6 years ago, the neighborhood commissioned an artist to paint these shelters, and so they're an extra lovely addition to the area.   I thought I'd take you on a tour. Enjoy these bus stops that have no buses

There's a lot of greenery around me, and so this continues to be a fun place to check out nifty animals.  I have had multiple sightings of iguanas, lizards, butterflies . . . but I never manage to get pictures of them.   Insects If I sit out on the patio long enough, I now start to get visited by mosquitos -- not a lot, but one or two.  I've been told mosquito season is coming.   I still love watching these leaf cutter ants cross the paths in my shortcut.  It's easier to see the leaf than the ants, so their little trails look magical. 

This set of thoughts is so random and miscellaneous, I'm going to try to format them semi randomly, too. It didn't take long after I arrived in Panama for the ads that pop up on websites I visit (even on "Fitness Blender") to start appearing in Spanish. One month into being here, I'm starting to dream in Spanish, too. A speed bump here is called "una policia muerta" (literal translation: "dead cop").  One of the guys who drives us around tells us that, when he was growing up here, he thought speed bumps were actual grave sites of police officers.  

 Forecast:  88°/77° with thunderstorms likely after 11 a.m.;  Humidity :  92% Sunrise  6:07 am.,  Sunset  6:17 p.m. I had another tourism-rich weekend; this might end up being a pattern.  I've put out lots of feelers along the lines of, "want to go to a museum with me during the week?", and everyone responds that during the week they have to go to work.  So my "work weeks" have been largely unstructured, and my weekends have been jam-packed.  Ah, the life of a retiree ex-pat! At any rate, here's a whirlwind tour of my past weekend. Friday night, Bailes Tradicionales On Friday, my host Jeanette took me and a visiting speaker to a restaurant that features traditional Panamanian dancing, music, and also a tour of the traditional dance clothes. In the first dance, I was struck by both the swirly skirts,  and also the "traditional" jeans that the men wore.  One of the musicians was an award-winning drummer. This guy, when he drummed, he did it so fast

Just over the hill from my Airbnb, a 2 km walk, is the Crossroads Bible Church. I chose this place as my first church visit here because I'm an "Eco Christian", and I like going to a church that I can walk to. Having said that, I've been fortunate in my life to have found really lovely churches that by geographic coincidence suit me well. The church, seen from the direction I walk The Crossroads Bible Church is an interesting example of how the history and geographic location of Panama play important roles in the lives of people here. 

One of the reasons I was excited about coming to Panama is that (a) I try, when I can, to eat local food, and (b) I love mangoes, and so (c) I'd get to eat lots of local mangoes in Panama.  Yay!  When I'm in Pennsylvania, I hardly ever have mangoes.  In fact, if I'm eating a mango in PA, it's most likely to be in our local Rescue Mission where I serve breakfast; I have no problem at all helping to eat donated mangoes that will just get tossed in the garbage if someone doesn't appreciate them.   So, picture me all ready to find myself in a street paved with mangoes!  Like this:

I recently wrote that I was going to try to (a) widen my Panama friend circle and (b) do some touristy things.  Who knew I'd start making inroads on both so quickly? Jessie (short for "Yesenia") was one of the volunteers who attended my practice-run workshop, and she mentioned that she had tickets for a . . . (I'm going to do the dramatic pause thing here, because for me this is so cool) . . . for a Chocolate Tour .  Was I interested in joining her?  Oh, man, WAS I!   Turns out Jessie also likes public transportation, and even more likes walking all over, so the two of us had a total blast.  The chocolate tour was only a small part our 5-hour excursion together (6-hour if you count my bus rides to and from the main terminal to meet her).  By the time I got back home I was more happily exhausted than I'd been so far during my times on the isthmus.  So here's a glimpse of what our lovely day was like.   Metro My bus card also works on the Panama City metro, but