Panama City and Stuff!!

Well going to Panama City. Now this is a chore and an experience in it's own.
They say if you can drive in Panama City you can drive anywhere. This is a fact for sure. What a madhouse this city is. Geez, you take your life in your hands every time you hop into a car.

Anyway, we had to go to meet our builder and the Architect to pick out all of our fixtures/flooring/wall tiles, etc, etc.

So we got up at 4 am on Tuesday morning for the 'so called' 4 hour trip to the City. We also had Sadie with us as there is noone here to look after her, and I was not about to leave her here with the vet who butchered her. Goodness knows what she would be like upon our return.

So off we go. 

We had only driven to the City once before and when we did we got instructions as to where we turn when we get to a town called Divisa. We were told to turn right there and NOT to go over the bridge. 

Well the first time we did NOT turn right and we DID go over the bridge.

This time we were told again and when we got to Divisa I said to Don, we need to turn right here. He of course being a 'man' said, No, I think we go over this bridge...What the????

So I said nothing. We had Erick the Architect with us (a really nice guy who speaks pretty good English and gave me Spanish lessions along the way) and I asked him and he said no, we are going in the right direction, I think! I think? Ha Ha. I still said nothing.

About a half  hour later, Erick looked around and got on his cell phone speaking to a friend of his gibbering in some foreign language, (Spanish I think, lol) and then got off the phone and guess what?...Yupper, we are going in the wrong direction. I still said nothing, but they both knew. I was right! I am not a 'gloater', but one day, one day!! :)

So we had to turn around and drive back another half hour so this brings as I said before, our so called 'four' hour drive not up to five hours. We are supposed to meet the builder at 9, and now it will be 10.

Men...Sometimes I just don't know. Are they programmed not to listen? Are they programmed to just tune out all sensibilty and reason and just go with their 'gut instinct'?

When we got home and spoke to the guy who told us the first time to NOT go over the bridge, all he said was, why did you not turn right? LOL

Anyway we got there, Sadie in tow and started the beginning of our 20 hour stint of going store to store, store to store, taking our lives in our hands in the truck and not eating or drinking for all of that time.

Poor Sadie. She was a trooper though. All she did was follow us around and lie on the cold floors. She was actually no trouble at all.

We finally finished at around 7:30 and got quite a bit accomplished. We got our kitchen cupboards picked, our flooring, and all bathroom tiles.

What really took long was that we would look through all of the samples, and after arguing and hitting each other, lol, finally came up with something we both liked and told the girl, ok, we will take this. Then she toddles away and comes back in a few minutes and says, 'We are sorry we don't have that anymore'. What the again? Why wouldn't they tell us that at the beginning?

So back to square one with the bickering and hitting, lol.

Ok, I know this pic below doesn't really have too much relevance, but the guy in the middle is the guy who owns the kitchen place. Now who, I ask any woman who, would NOT buy a kitchen from this guy? lol I just looked at him and said, ok, whatever you think is best:)

I just hope he comes to install!



Don, Sadie, Lalo(the kichen designer) and the cute kitchen guy:)

So we begin the drive home and God bless Don, I feel so sorry for him. The traffic in this God forsaken City is brutal and he has to maneuver his way out of there. It was pitch black and when you get out of the city there are virtually no street lights. We finally get to the Pan American highway that we were told to stay on and then come to a fork in the road with a sign that you cannot even see until you are right up on it that says, Pan American highway to the right. So Don starts to go left and I say "No", we need to stay on the right as we were told to do. So ok, he gets to the right and we end up practically in the ditch. My Gosh!

We were terrified. There was traffic left, right and on top of us honking horns, waving, and saying something that I don't think was complimentary to us and poor Don was trying to get out of this ditch of sorts that we were in. All we could hear was the bottom of the truck scraping on cement or something of that nature.

He put in in 4 X 4 and finally got out and then had to wait for the traffic to break to get back into the right lane. 

We then travel for 15 minutes or so and then come into this rather large town and then knew that we were not on the right road. We stopped and asked a man who barely spoke how to get to Chitre, and he just pointed thankfully in the direction we were going. We then realized that we should have stayed on the other road as it was a 'bypass' through this town.

Sheesh!! Ok, it's Panama!!

Then it started a torrential downpour and lasted for about an hour.This place has virtually NO street signs. You really just have to 'guess' where you going. Maybe I will run for office, lol.

But we got home safe and sound thanks to my great Hubby.

Yesterday Kevin, the man whom we are renting our home from asked us to go deep sea fishing with him. I am not interested in fishing at all, but I just LOVE being on the water. I could spend day after day after day in a boat. 

Yesterday morning it was raining cats and dogs, but around 10 it stopped and by the time we left at 11am, the sun was shining and it was an absolutely beautiful day.

We were on the Ocean for about 4 hours and we saw so many whales. It is the season of Whale Watching here and you can see them a lot from August to October when they then migrate up North to feed. They are here now in the warm waters of the Pacific to breed.

We also saw a lot of porpoises and they were swimming along with our boat, jumping out of the water. What a sight this was! The pictures I have are not the greatest as I had only our small camera and it's difficult to snap as they are fast.



Isla Iguana, a protected wildlife preserve off of our coast





Hubby reeling in the big one, :)

Me doing what I do best....observe and navigate:)

Porpoises swimming alongside our boat..so beautiful!

So that was our day fishing! Was just fantastic. I could be out on the water every day, I just love it so much. We ended catching 4 Dorado's and we split the catch and had enough for two dinners which we had last night. There is absolutely nothing better than fresh fish caught fresh right from the Ocean.

One of the great things here is that you can buy fresh fish just steps down the road from the local fishermen, and then take it to one of the local Panamanian's who will filet it for you free if he can keep the heads and tail. Now tell me, what the hell would I want with the head and tail anyway? 
Does it get any better than this?

Here is a picture of this beautiful crab we found yesterday on our walk. I think they call them the 'Hallowe'en' crab, for obvious reasons.

Crab we found on the beach

Washed ashore piece of wood with some kind of crabs attached to it. Pretty amazing! 



Pic taken yesterday in high tide



The boys who are working on our home drinking beer which Don brought down to them after a long hot day at work! 

Well I guess I hd better go now. I have lots of 'not much to do' today, lol

Goodbye for now friends, and remember to 'Stay in the Light' 



  

Just skipping along:)

Hi everyone.
Well all is well here. Don is out with a couple of his buddies deep sea fishing, so since I haven't written in a bit, I thought I would write a short blog to keep you up to date with a few little things that had happened with a few pics as well
Friday and Saturday we had a really nice couple, Karissa and Trav rent a room here from where we are staying. They were from California and had been here for a month and were just working their way back home so stopped in here to stay for two days before heading to Panama City for their flight on Monday.
They were the nicest young couple and we spent the two days with them chatting, laughing (a lot) and of course indulging in some of our $2.50 wine.



Karissa and Trav and their Beer:) 

 They were telling us about a place near Playa Venao where they stayed and when they left on Sunday we decided to take a drive.
We had been to Venao Beach many times but hadn't gone past it. The drive was nice and when we got about an hour past we came to this most amazing place. It is called Sambutal (pronounced "Samboota) and had the most amazing beach and hotels/restaurants.



The incredible Beach




Hotel Pool and Sadie of course




Hubby at Hotel Lobby having a Cerveza

 We stayed at the beach for a half hour or so and had been driving for a couple of hours so decided to work our way home. Don had driven down so I kindly said the I would take the wheel for the remainder of the trip.
I was driving in my usual wonderful manner, when I took a left turn. Don immediately says, "Why would you turn left there when we are supposed to go straight?".

I did not know we were supposed to go straight so not wanting to appear kinda stupid, lol, I just said, "No sweetie pie, you wonderful man you, we needed to turn here, so is it ok if we continue on this nice road my love?", (Ok, maybe I didn't say it in those exact words, but you catch my drift, right? LOL)

I forgot to mention that on our trip down the roads were awful and full of potholes and the road that I took was just freshly paved. Ahhh. What a relief.
Anyway Don reluctantly went along with me with my new found 'chartered course' and we found it to be a very nice drive.
We started ascending and ascending and realized that we were now going up the mountain behind Las Tablas that we had wanted to see since we had been here.
The scenery was getting beautiful and as we got higher up the temperature was falling too. By the time we got to the top of the mountain it had dropped 6 degrees.
Wow!! What a view!!


Sadie and I at the Edge...Incredible




Wow!!

 This scenery was something that I had never seen before anywhere. If you are on my Facebook you can see more pic's that we took while climbing the mountain.
Panama is such an incredible place with so many beautiful places to explore. And we have only started.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself to be sure this is not a dream!
Anyway we kept driving and finally got near home and got this torrential downpour. It had been just gorgeous all day but of course when I take the wheel I have to drive through the hardest rain one has ever seen.
All is well though and all three of us got home in one piece.

I hear that there is 'Dangerous Heat is invading Ontario and Quebec' and I just want to say that I hope all of my friends and family are ok and stay cool.
I have been following the weather back home of course and its been cooler here than there in the past week or so.
The weather here has been beautiful and even though it is the rainy season we really haven't had too much and when it does rain it usually rains and thunders at night. I must admit that I just LOVE so see a good storm though and can't wait until we get into our  home on the Ocean to see them there.



Keeping it real!

 I like to put these kinds of pic's in once in a while to 'keep it real' and to make me realize how incredibly lucky I am to be able to not only write these blogs on a computer that most here don't even own, but also to be able to live here and see with my own eyes the absolute beauty that this place affords us!
I totally am in love with Panama and the beautiful natives that live here.
Life is good!

Well I  need to go now and hopefully the U-Haul rental place will have a big enough truck for me to rent to pick up Don's 'catch' of the day, lol

Have a great day my friends, and remember to 'Stay in the Light'

NEWSFLASH!!!
I just found out when going to the beer store which is within walking distance, that if you buy 'warm' beer then it's CHEAPER than cold beer.  What the?
Now the $.35 beer is only $.32. I hope I live to be 150 years old, lol

Easing into the life of Relaxation:)

Well I haven't written in a bit but thought I would write a short one today.
The last time I blogged we had just bought our X Trail and had the accident and I have to report that our truck is still in tact and we are enjoying having a great new vehicle although Don did lean on the front fender talking on his cell phone the other day and almost fell right through it.
He then learnt after talking to others that both front fenders on the cars here, (most cars) are made of flexible plastic like the bumpers are in Canada. Not sure why but they are!
You remember me telling you about how inexpensive the beer and wine is here. Well I have to share with you what my friend Ian in England said to me after getting the truck. Quote "But will your blood alcolol level ever be low enough for you to drive it?" LOL
He breaks me up!!

Speaking of a little drinky poo now and then, we found a really nice little beach bar within 5 minutes of where we are staying and the other day we met our new friends Christine and Wayne there and enjoyed 12 beers and the total bill was $7.80. Yup, no typo here..... $7.80!!!



View from the Beach Bar



At this bar you can bring your own beer/wine and whatever you want to eat or drink. They don't care at all, so the other night we and our new friends Christine and Wayne went to the bar and Christine and I brought our own wine with us (they only sell beer), and we sat for a couple of hours chatting and laughing overlooking the Pacific Ocean while the guys drank their $.60 cervezas. Life is good in Panama, lol And as you can see Sadie is also welcome:)

Hubby and Sadie at our Beach Bar

The other day we went exploring the nice quaint town of Pedasi where we live. It is a small town with a population of about 3500 people with many nice restaurants/hotels and gift shops etc. We were driving down the streets just trying to get our bearings when we spotted this gravel road kind of going a bit out of town. Seeing as we now have a 4 X 4 and of course Don needs to try it out we venture down this road. I wasn't happy as the gravel was loose and hitting the undercarriage of our truck, but Don says not to worry..things are ok.

We travel down this old gravel road for about 15 minutes and then look ahead and see this brand new building on the left and a brand spanking newly paved highway ahead, so we thought.

We got onto this beautiful highway and drove for for a few seconds and I said, "Wow this is a big beautiful new highway...I wonder where it goes?"

Then we noticed that the middle lines were about three car lengths long and also very wide. We then both looked at each other and said...."This is a  RUNWAY!!" We both looked up in the sky to make sure we were not going to be "landed on" and Don thought, what the hell, we have never driven a runway before so let's go, lol

What a hoot that was, and the one end of the runway there were a few cows grazing. I don't know what happens when planes begin to land.



The next day we went touring the Azueros Peninsula where the rich and famous live, or at least have homes there. Apparently rumour has it that Brad Pitt/Mick Jagger/Mel Gibson all have homes there as well. Pictured below is Michael Jordan's house.



Michael Jordan's House





The not so rich and Famous house

The Panamanian people are such nice friendly people who would give you the shirt off of their back if they even had a shirt.

Yesterday we went into Chitre to buy a charcoal bbq as Don has been dying for a filet mignon as we have heard from so many people are very cheap to buy here.

I need to learn Spanish!!

I go into the back of the store where they have all of the meat and I ask the butcher for some filet. He had no clue what I was talking about but eventually got a piece of beef from him that didn't look like filet but did look ok.

I also brought two nice chicken breasts for myself as I really don't like steak.

We cooked the chicken and whatever the 'red meat' was and was so tough the Don could not eat it so he ended up eating one of the chicken breasts instead. I REALLY need to learn Spanish.

Today we are having beef stew, lol.

Well the rain/lightning/thunder has stopped and there is now a nice breeze blowing so we are sitting under Kevin's porch enjoying the gardens as seen above.

Thanks for reading and remember to 'Stay in the Light'









You wouldn't believe our day!

Well our day started out leaving for Las Tablas at 7:45 am to make an appointment for 8:30 to open our bank account which we had started on Tuesday. Seeing as Don had forgotten to bring two pieces of necessary documents we needed to go back today which she said would be no more than half an hour.
This is why we made the appointment for 8:30 as we needed to be in Chitre (which is half hour away) for our appointment to pick up our new truck at 10 am.
It was just Don who went into the bank as we had Sadie with us and couldn't leave her in the car as the temp was too high without the car running.
Now keep in mind the girl at the bank took all of Don and I's information as we were opening a joint bank account. She photocopied passports/reference letters for both of us/personal references, etc etc.
Now the time is now 9:45 and still no Don. He finally comes back out and says we both have to go back to the bank again as she didnt realize that it was supposed to be a 'joint' account...Oh, sigh, Oh sigh.
Don did manage to get one account open so that we can wire money down here as we NEED IT BADLY, lol
We are only allowed to bring $20K cash with us into the country, and we had spent some and needed to buy the car.
We maxed out our new US Visa that we had opened and had to use most of our cash so time is of the essense regarding money, lol
Ok, so off we trudge to Chitre to pick up our brand new sparkling clean Nissan XTrail.
We went to buy the car on Tuesday and we could have taken it with us at that time but they said it would take two days for the plates so we said we would wait until today then so we didn't have to come back for the plates.
So we get there, and they had not sent the forms in for the plates....Sigh, Sigh, Sigh.
(but we are in Panama, remember)
Ok so we sign all of the papers...payed our money and everything of course is in Spanish, so hopefully we have bought it and not leased it, lol. We also took our insurance out with the dealership as it was convenient and the nice guy who sold it to us was so kind and tried so hard to explain everything in English for us. 
We have our insurance!
Little did we know that in a few minutes we would need it!!
We needed to wait a few minutes (Panamanian Time) to get a piece of paper to replace the plates if stopped by the police so we thought we would go up to a local market to buy some fresh fish/veggies etc while we were waiting.
We got into Kevin's truck that he is renting us to go to the store, and as we were pulling out a senior in a big truck BACKED RIGHT INTO THE SIDE OF OUR TRUCK!  Yup..I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach.....
Here we are in a place that barely speak English with damage to our friends truck.
Oh my!! Hysteria is setting in.
The guy t-boned us and the whole side was dented in.
So now we have to go back into the dealership to fill out one of the forms that the insurance broker told us we would have to fill out if we ever needed it, and again all in Spanish.
Sigh again!
Again with the  passports and drivers licenses being photocopied again. We then have to wait for the  insurance adjuster to come from God knows where to  fill out yet ANOTHER form and to take pic's etc.
By the way the guy who hit us said it wasn't his fault and so if that was his story we would have had to go to court, but the adjuster talked to him in Spanish and explained that YES it was his fault he then decided to take responsibility.
That took about 45 minutes.
Now after having filled out MORE forms we had to go to the body shop down the street to get a quote to fix the car/truck.
It didn't take long there, thank God, and the guy took a quote on a writing pad and said it would be $150.00 (took 4 guys to arrive at this number), and then we went back to the dealership to hopefully pick up our  new truck which by this time seemed so very old!!! lol
So off we go to get our fish.
Easy three right turns and we are there...piece of cake.
Not so easy coming home.
I was following Don who professes to be the best driver in the world and I find myself going down a one way street in Chitre with people honking and waving and shouting stuff that made no sense to me. I thought they were just being friendly.
Oh Boy!
So I had to back up (in a very busy street) as I was following Don to turn into another street so we could get out of that mess we were in.
Ok, so we got ourselves out of that mess and continued on on our quest to get out of this God Forbidden town and back to our quiet little house in Pedasi.
All seemed good!
I was driving our brand spanking new truck on a highway that we had become acquainted with. 
All is good! I was even listening to a Spanish radio station just rocking to the music whose words I didn't understand when all of a sudden the lightning and thunder start.
Oh No. I don't even know how to turn the wipers on the new truck.
It started raining SO hard I could barely see.
Don had turned on his 'flashers' and in turn so did I. It was harrowing for about 10 minutes. Honesly it was very scary, but then the rains subsided. (this seems like a story from the Bible), lol
Finally we got home where I immediately kissed the soggy wet grass.
All is well though now. 
I just finished cooking our 'baby shark' fish for dinner. If you have never tasted this you must. It was so delicious.
Don and I, and of course Sadie are sitting outside now enjoying a nice glass of $2.75 wine taking in all of the days adventures.
Thank God for wine.
I can only imagine what will be in store for us tomorrow.



After the Day from Hell, this is what we got....:) 


Thanks for reading, and remember please to "Stay in the Light"
P.S.
Thank you Kevin for understanding about your truck. Even though it was not our fault when things like this happen it always seems like it is.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you!

Well these past three days have proved very informative to say the least.
On Friday we went into Chitre to look for a truck/4 wheel drive to buy. It is a little difficult to do this when we have a language barrier, but there was always one person in each dealership that we could get to translate for us.
We wanted to buy a year old truck but we learned that it was very difficult to purchase used. We found only one in the three dealerships that we went to.
We did find the trucks are not a lot cheaper but they are a bit as the tax is lower and they don't charge freight and delivery.
One thing I found hilarious was that when you buy your vehicle you may or may not get a license plate as sometimes they don't make enough, so you can MAKE YOUR OWN!! LOL
Yup you read it right. You can make a plate and as long as the numbers match what they put on the sticker on your front window then you are good to go. You can make them out of whatever you want. I am still smiling at this one.
Could we do this in North America? I think not!
We didn't buy yet as Don wants to check out the Ford dealership that we couldn't find on Friday so we will go back to Chitre tomorrow.

Saturday they had the 'BillaBong' parade here in Pedasi. It was quite a spectacle with over 30 countries participating. There were surfers everywhere, and the parade was very well done with lots of Panamanian Men and Women donning their native dress.

Our Candian Surfers in the Parade

We left the parade and then went to our new friend Joaquim's Hamburger cart in town to have one of the best burgers in town. He also sells Burrito's and they are delicious as well.

All for $2.25 plus a drink. Of course Don had one of each..being the dainty fella he is:)

Yesterday we went into Playa Venao where the Surfing competiton takes place. Now that was so great seeing surfers as I have never seen this before. These guys are crazy. They could hurt themselves, lol.

They had a huge Red Cross tent there and a helicopter running just in case. This tells me it may be a tad dangerous.

We left there and were invited to our friends who live in our development, Pierre and Beth, for a spaghetti dinner to meet our other neighbours who live there as well.

It was a fun night with laughter, great food and lots of wine.

Our development is going to be full of such tremendous people. I can't wait to get into our home, but for the interim we are staying at our friend Kevin's home which is absolutelty perfect for us.

He is such a great guy who is very accommodating and does his best to make us comfortable.

Sadie is getting used to it slowly. I feel so sorry for her as we have dragged her half way across the world and she hasn't a clue what is going on. She hardly eats, but I know she will be ok and will adjust.

Today we went into Las Tablas to open a bank account that we were told would be such a chore.

It turned out to be a breeze. Don forgot a couple of pieces of paper otherwise it would have been set up immediately but will be done tomorrow after we bring the necessary paperwork.

Now we are just sitting outside with Kevin enjoying a cold beverage.

I wanted to post a video of Sadie chasing a crab on the beach today but it wouldn't download, as the internet is a bit slow here.

Thank you for reading, and 'Stay in the Light'

P.S I forgot to mention to you that when we landed at the airport in Panama our friend Kevin was waiting for us and when he went over to pay the attendant for his parking at the airport, we went and said we would take care of it as he was good enough to pick us up. I asked him how much and it was....get ready for this.....48 cents...Yup .48 cents.

In Toronto it would have been close to $20.

Panama rocks!!! LOL

Roadtrip to Florida and more Stuff!

 Well we are finally here in Pedasi, Panama in our little piece of Paradise.
Let me start from the beginning.
Firstly I need to share with you the picture we took on our day of moving to show you what we ended up bringing with us after 33 years of being together. This is it folks....Three suitcases two carry on's and three boxes. Yup you are dealing with 'crazy people' :)


Of course Sadie had to be there to make sure we didn't leave her!

Well our drive from Hamilton to Florida went very well. Very uneventful but filled with laughter and chatter with my wonderful brother and sister in law who so kindly drove us there.
We spent two nights and one day getting there, the first night in Virginia, the second in St. Agustine Florida and then off to Lauderdale by the Sea on the third day.
We were met by our Aunt Ruth and Uncle Jim who have this beautiful condo on the beach that they so graciously let us stay in.
We could not have been treated better.
The first night Aunt Ruth had organized a cook-out on the beach with the most huge steaks you could ever find, corn on the cob, salads, and of course lots of drinks. ( you do need to drink a lot when the weather is very warm). Well that is my story and I am sticking to it!
Let me get back to Sadie.
If you follow my blogs you will remember that Sadie is a very nervous dog and she did not like her cage with the door closed and that is what she had to be in to go into the 'belly' of the plane, so the vet had prescribed some pills for her to help with some of her anxiety.
He gave us two different strenghts and told us to experiment with them on her so we would know if we needed to give her just the one or perhaps one and half of another one.
Before we left on the road trip we gave her one and she was fine. A little 'dopy', like Don, lol, but otherwise just fine.
The first night of the cookout we gave Sadie a whole pill as she needed to stay in the condo by herself and she had been under a lot of stress and was just a very nervous dog.
We went down to the beach and after a couple of hours Don had to come up to the condo to get something and when he took Sadie out for a pee she ran up to the top of the hill which was the underground parking garage and went through some bushes and perhaps because it was dark and also because she was very drugged she jumped over the wall which was 12 feet tall.
All Don heard was a 'yelp' and thought that something had bitten her, but when he looked over he saw Sadie on the ground not moving.
When I ran down and around the hill she was up on her feet, but not very steady. I then took her back up to the condo and Sadie was breathing deeply two or three times and then not breathing at all.
Uncle Jim was also there at that time and Don told him to please come down to the beach to get me as he thought Sadie was dying in his arms.
I came up and was so sick I thought that I was going to die. I was so scared thinking that we had killed our beautiful dog by giving her too much of the drug.
Anyway we went to bed and of course neither Don nor I slept the whole night and in the morning I really thought we had lost Sadie. I picked her up and she was still limp and her eyes rolling back in her head.
I went into hysterics!
Don had tried to calm me down and then took Sadie out for a walk to see how she would react.
She was very slow at walking in the beginning, but on her way back she picked up a bit of speed but she seemed a bit better.
She slept all of that day and then the third day the life began to creep back into her.
OMG, I was so relieved. We had our baby back!
She was still sore, but who wouldn't be after falling 12 feet onto a cement driveway?
But, all is well now, and she is here with us safe and sound, but she hates the sound of pill bottles being opened, lol.
The next day we met with Don's Mom and Grandma who we don't see often either as they live so far away. 
We had a great visit and shared many laughs and caught up on a couple of years of things that we had missed.
That night we met up with more of Don's relatives and went to a restaurant in town and filled up on 'happy hour' stuff and of course more drinks.
Our last day there our beautiful Aunt Ruth had another cook-out on the beach. The weather had been beautiful the whole trip. No rain, just sun and fun!
That night was sad for us as it was going to be our last night in North America and we were embarking on the next phase of our life.
It was sad also as we were leaving all of our family there including the best brother and sister in law in the world who did so much for us and helped us tremendously along the way in more ways then they will ever know.
We love them all so much!
We were also very sad to leave our daughter Bobbi and her boyfriend, but also kept in mind that they will ALL visit us here and will probably see more of them now then we did then.
So Wednesday morning my brother picked us up at 5 am to take us to the Miami airport to take our flight to Panama City.
There were a few accidents on the way and a couple of times we thought we may be late as our flight left at 8:25 am and we had 'all of that luggage' to check:) and had Sadie too.
We made it in good time and got there at about 6 am.
Don scared the life out of me there again as he said we had forgotten our passports at Uncle Jim's and Aunt Ruth's. Geez..Men!
I should have known they were under his seat. I think he is testing me somehow to see how much I can take, lol.
We got all of our stuff on two luggage racks and after a very emotional 'goodbye' to my bro and his wife we meandered into the airport to head over to the check-in counter which had a very surprising short line-up, unlike Toronto.
For the past 4 months Don has been calling and calling every airline possible to see if we could buy a seat for Sadie as we did NOT want to put her in the belly, not only because of her anxiety, but also because it was so hot on the tarmack it may be very hard on her.
He tried relentlessly but got nowhere as they all said 'no' that they either had to go under the seat (which she was just a tad to big for) or go in the cargo.
Ok, we had accepted that!
It took forever to check our baggage as we had the three boxes too and they had to be weighed and tagged etc, so we just waited and waited and we had Sadie on the leash the whole time.
The girl knew how anxious was too about putting Sadie in the belly and at one point I had tears in my eyes as I was so afraid for her, and Then at that point the supervisor had come over and said "Why don't you buy a seat for your dog?"
What the?????????????????????????
We could buy a seat? They had told us over and over and over again we could not do that.
I was ecstatic!
It cost us $125 to put her in cargo and the seat only cost $300, so for $175 more we had Sadie with us on the plane.....Glory Be!!!!
Well this was great so we walked Sadie on a leash right to the plane which was just about to board.
(by the way we walked Sadie the whole time through the airport on her leash and NOONE said anything)
It turns out her cage was to big to put on the seat and I had a duffle bag for a carry on with my clothes etc, so the flight attendant said why don't you take your things out of your bag, put them in Sadie's cage and put Sadie in the bag, so Sadie's cage now became a suitcase (which they checked for us), with all of my bra's underwear, hair dryer, etc, and the duffle bag was Sadie's cage...
This was too funny for us.
We had to zip it up so her head was just sticking out and Sadie being the dog she is, she just sat there and didn't care.
We took her to her seat which was in between the two of us and she was quite content. She slept the whole way and never moved.



Sadie on the plane with us

 What a wonderful thing this was for Don and I....and of course Sadie.
Then the breakfast came and Don being the one who doesn't like to eat very much:) made sure that the flight attendent knew that he had bought the seat for our doggie and he wanted her breakfast.
So Sadie had some toast, ham and eggs on her flight. This was fun for Don and I .....We couldn't stop smiling the whole flight, and poor Sadie just slept and of course never will know what we saved her from.
We carried her off of the plane and then walked her on her leash through the rest of the airport which I had never seen before. We then had to take her to the vet at the airport and got through customs without a hitch which I was surprised at as I thought they may question our boxes etc.
Oh, by the way all of the flight attendents that we spoke to said they had never seen a dog in a seat before. Maybe we have started something:)
All is good!
Our friend Kevin picked us up and drove us to Pedasi, our new home.
We got here yesterday after all of this and I must say that we are more in love with this place than we ever were before.
We love our rental place and today the three of us went for an hour walk on the most beautiful beach in the world, stopped at a local beach restaurant and had red snapper and beer.
Ok, now this is the most important part of this. The snapper was $5 and the beer was SIXTY CENTS!!  Heck we even bought Jose and George (two workers) a beer....I mean for $1.20 why not? :)
Life is good my friends, and I hope that those of you who have read this enjoy it as much as I did writing it.
Tomorrow I am sure will bring something more and I will be sure to share.

A special thanks to my brother Gary and his wife Irene for everything they have done for us and Aunt Ruth and Uncle Jim, you know:)
We love you all.

Stay in the Light!

Yesterday..A day from Hell, LOL

Well yesterday was just the most stressful and horrendous day. If you are following my blogs then you know that in order to take any animals to Panama you need to get papers signed in Ottawa. It's the closest to us which is still a 5 hour drive one way.
I have been asking Don for months if he had all of the paperwork ready and if he knew exactly where he had to go to get the papers signed and with the typical male attitude, lol, he gives me the look and says of course I do.
Well after we went to bed on Monday night my mind was racing and I had the feeling that something was wrong, so at around midnight I got up and turned on the computer and when I checked the Panamanian Embassy page I discovered that yes, he had missed a step.
I woke him up and he still said NO, that he knew what he was doing.
Then about 15 minutes later he got up and realized 'could he actually have made a mistake?' No.....not him!
Poor Don. The step he missed was that he had to get the papers signed first at the Canadian Food and Drug Inspection Agency that if we had of known was right here in our town.
We then had to scramble to see if there was one close in Ottawa to the other two places that he had to go anyway.
We found one that was fairly close and after a couple of hours of hysteria, and at 2:30, Don was headed out as the one place opened up at 8 am and he wanted to be the first one there.
He arrived at 6:30 am and sat there waiting and reading up on his new camera that we had just bought and to discover that there was no line up at all.
He goes in only to be faced with the fact that the vet had given us the wrong forms and they said 'We cannot sign this' and after Don almost had a heart attach, they said they had a vet across the city that he could go to for the Vet to sign the proper documents, only to discover then that the Vet said, "Where is Sadie"? and he would not sign it either as he had not seen Sadie.
Don called  me at this point and was beside himself, he had no blood left in his face and he was close to being sick to his stomach. What do we do now?
So then through rush hour traffic he goes back to the first office that sent him on this goose chase and he had to convince them (by the paleness of his face) to break their own laws and forge the proper documents for him. It wasn't an easy task to do, but with the look on his face and the close to 'begging' that he did he got that part signed.
Now he was off to the Embassy to meet with the Panamanian Embassador whom he had become friends with through online conversations and on the phone, only to discover AGAIN that he didn't make the second stop, the Dept of Foreign Affairs as the Canadian Food and Drug said he didn't have to. 
Don now didn't have a clue where he was going as Ottawa is a big place and his vision was getting impaired due to lack of blood circulation and virtually no sleep.
The Embassador graciously left his post after he took a look at Don's face and drove him to Canadian Dept of Foreign Affairs, (as well as picking up his son from school, and his wife to take her to a function and to also stop by his house, lol) where he had to get the first 'forged' papers signed again.
They discovered then that the paperwork was not up to their liking, so after a while of a few people speaking Spanish the Embassador got the papers signed for Don!!
Remember this is all for Sadie, to allow her to come with us to Panama, but it ended good with the papers signed and Don got to have a nice with the Embassador who will be visiting us in Pedasi as he knows it well, and goes there on a regular basis.

Don and Carlo, his new friend in the Panamanian Consulate, in his house yesterday!

He was on the road for 18 hours and was certainly glad to get home yesterday and have a cold beer! Ok, he had 8, lol

Ok, I am now off to do the rest of the packing. Yesterday though all of my tears and stress I did get a lot done. Today it's just getting suitcases packed and the last odds and ends.
My brother and his wife will be here tomorrow morning to pick us up and then it's off to our new adventure.
I will be of course touching base along the way with pic's and news.

It's on the way!! :)

Thank you all for reading my blog and remember to 'stay in the light'

6 More Days and we will be headed to Florida:)

Our favourite restaurant in Pedasi. The one where we signed the papers to buy our lot in September, 2008 and also the one that Brad and Angelina have visited on a few occasions. 

Well I can't believe that the time is almost here. When we sold our home back on December 8th I thought that 6 months was sooo long and would take forever to get here. People would tell me that it would go by fast but I didn't believe it would until just today! The time is now here and I'm stress beyond belief. 
I am also very, very excited. To be living our dream seems so surreal. Last night I was telling Don that I can't believe we are really going to do this...really going to be leaving the country I have spent my whole 38 years (lol) in...and moving to paradise.
We already have our 50th anniversary planned. It will be on Friday, October 7th, 2033, and we will celebrate either on our porch overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean with a drink in our hands, or on the beach saying our 'I love you's'
I know I have said before that I have the most wonderful husband walking the earth, but I truly mean it. He loves me unconditionally and he is so industrious and has worked so hard in the past three years (and all of his working years) making our dream become a reality.
I love you Don!
Oh and he does all of the packing too....:)
Ok, enough of the mushiness, let's talk about some things only men can do.

The other day Don lost his debit card so no biggie....He asked to borrow mine. No biggie either, except that he LOST MINE TOO!!
So he goes to the bank to get us new ones and he finds out that he has also LOST HIS DRIVER'S LICENSE.
This is just great!
A week before we leave and now we have to go and get a temporary one and of course it takes 4 to 6 weeks for a new one to come and we don't really have an address yet to send it to Panama when it comes, but we did work that out with our friend who lives there now. They will be sent to him.
So now he has to drive around with a 'paper' license and when the girl that gave this to him he says and I quote, "Don't I have to have also have my drivers license with me when carrying this paper one"?  What the? If he had his driver's license we would not be here!!
Men!!

The fantastic group of people at Don's office gave him a surprise going away party yesterday. Everyone showed up and it was so nice that they all were genuinely happy for both of us.
I think our hotel will be full with just our friends and acquaintances that I hope come and visit. It's going to be awesome!
The owner of Re/Max, Roger Anderson, gave us a gift card for $100 for a restaurant down the road that just opened. We have been wanting to go there for a couple of months, so tonight we are finally getting to go. Wine, best of food, laughter..just as long as it doesn't go over $100, lol. 
Thank you to everyone. So nice that we have such good friends who really care.

Don's out doing last minute things so I had better go and do SOMETHING before he gets back. I am really not a slug, but when you have a hubby that does all of that ugly packing stuff what is a girl to do but sit back and watch, right? That is my story and I am sticking to it:)

It's a beautiful day here in the neighbourhood. Oh yes, I forgot on my walk again today the Mom and Pop geese and their 6 babies were prancing across the road again. I have never seen anything so cute....That makes me smile!!
I also saw a snapping turtle crossing the road, albeit very slowly....:)
I had to keep Sadie away as she is very inquisitive and wouldn't need it snapping at her and taking a piece out of her nose.

Have a great day my friends, and remember to 'Stay in the Light'

On my walk this morning, and Stuff!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Are these not the cutest things? 

Well we are getting down to the last few days here in Ontario.

We have 15 days until we move out of here and make our trek to my Brothers near Hamilton and then on the next day we are on our way to Fort Lauderdale to visit with Don's Mom, Grandma and some Aunts and Uncles. I am looking forward to seeing all of them.

Don just filled up our rental car (I sold my mini on Saturday) and took a whole pile of paint cans and other things to the dump but it was closed on Monday's. What the???? Now we have to drive around all day with a car filled with crap, lol.

Our house is a total mess!! Stuff everywhere, suitcases here, suitcases there......I hate living like this but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

We are having a 'special pickup' from the garbage on Thursday to pick up large items that we have accumulated over the years and once that is done both the garages will be cleaned up.

Now it's just packing clothes and a few personal things that we are putting in boxes.

I am scared/nervous/excited and worried..all at the same time. It's scary to move so far away from my 'home' but the excitement is taking the forefront. I spoke to Kevin, the guy we are renting from and his home is going to be just perfect for us.

He has a huge covered porch where we can sit and do emailing etc when it rains as now it is the rainy season.

It's cool at night now apparently and great for sleeping.

The whales will be starting to migrate too just as we arrive so we will once again get to see them jumping from our property. It's awesome!!

Our friend Kevin also does fishing tours, and has said that I can come with  him at times when he goes out. I will be looking forward to that for sure. Fishing on the Ocean, seeing the porpoises swim by the boat, watch whales jump, and catch the nights dinner.......does it get any better than that?

I think not!

The weather here lately has been just perfect with warm days, light breezes, and no humidity. Yesterday we kind of took it easy and sat around our pool for the day. We actually went for a swim even though we do not have a heater and the pool was only 75 degrees. It sure was refreshing, lol.

Today it's packing a few more things, cleaning out my closets and then enjoying the rest of this beautiful day.

Better go as I can hear Don outside packing stuff and the last time he came in he kind of 'glared' at me....lol I think he wants me to help...

The nerve of him!!

Oh yes, and I am very 'STRESSED' too...thank God for wine!! :) 

Have a wonderful day, and 'Stay in the Light'