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Meats at the Fonda

In our previous posts we learned that the Fonda will have sopa, and possibly a variety of meat offerings. Carne (meats) are typically served asado (grilled or roasted), or frito (fried). Hey, we just learned a couple of new words in Spanish. We suspect that in Panama you may also find Pescado (fish) as a meat offering, due to its availability. Panama is considered to have excellent sea food. Sea bass can be found in many places and will usually be served grilled or ceviche (raw and marinated in lime juice). Our daughter is a great fan of ceviche, and I believe that we will muster the courage to give it a try. Ceviche can be found in Panama made from all types of seafood, including octopus and shrimp. At the Fonda, you will be served arroz (rice) and frijol (beans) along with your carne. If you are lucky your plate may also have a roasted plantain which is considered a staple.

panama ceviche

We fear that the recipe and food thing may get old for some of you, so we will move away from it next time and begin looking at our possible destinations to explore on our visit this winter. Let’s review our Spanish for today. Carne are meats. Asado is roasted or grilled and frito is fried. Pescado is fish and ceviche is raw seafood marinated in lime juice. We are all ready to check out the Fonda and try the native foods of Panama.

Thank-you for sharing our Panama adventure. Please, remember to like share and comment on our blog.

Sopa en la Fonda (Soup at the Fonda)?

We have explored the breakfast offerings; now lets see what’s for lunch. We know from previous posts that most fonda’s will have a sopa offering every day. Sopa is the Spanish word for soup. Wow we learned another Spanish food word. Sancocho or sopa de mariscos are a couple of sopa’s popular in Panama. Sopa de mariscocs is seafood soup. We searched the internet for a great recipe for this, and can imagine that a typical fonda in Panama would have something similar to the recipe below. Seafood in Panama is plentiful. The fishermen sell their daily catch right on the beach near our condo so we will definitely be giving this recipe a try.

sopa de mariscos

Sopa de Marisco Recipe

Ingredients

2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 ¹⁄₂ white onions, chopped
1 poblano pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 ¹⁄₂ tablespoons olive oil
1 ¹⁄₂ cups chopped tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons saffron threads
cilantro
1 dozen fresh muscles
1 lb fresh shrimp, with shells and heads on
2 large clusters snow crab legs or 8 salt blue crabs
2 -3 fresh white fish fillets
¹⁄₂ lb fresh scallops and or ¹⁄₂ lb fresh squid
garlic sea salt
4 cups fish stock

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pot and add onions and red peppers.
After they have softened a little add the poblano pepper, jalapeno, garlic and saffron threads.
Let soften a little and add the tomatoes and heat through.
Place all of this in a blender with the cilantro and puree.
Return to pot and add the fish stock.
Heat to boiling and salt to taste.
Add mussels, shrimp, fish and top off with crab legs or blue crabs.
Cover and heat up to near boiling again.
Add scallops and cover for just 2-3 minutes.
Serve in bowls garnished with cilantro.

The second sopa that we have decided to talk about today is sancocho. Panamanian Sancocho is considered Panama’s national dish and it can be made using a variety of ingredients depending what you have on hand. The fonda may make a version like the recipe below using chicken and other ingredients on hand. In Panama you will find that the sancocho is not spicy like other parts Latin America. The Panamanian people prefer less kick than Mexico and Columbia. Just like the U.S. chicken soup is considered to be a cure for all that ales you. This one looks like a soup we would make using fresh chicken and vegetables that we can buy at the farm market.

Sancocho-Recipe

Panamanian Sanchoco Recipe

Ingredients:

1 chicken, cut into pieces
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 garlic cloves
2 Tbsp fresh oregano (2 tsp. dried)
1 tsp black pepper
4 Tbsp cilantro
1 large onion, chopped
3 pounds of starchy vegetables (otoe, name/yams, yuca/cassava, green plantains)
2 ears corn, broken into 1″ pieces
salt

Instructions:

Season the chicken with the garlic, oregano, and pepper.
In a heavy pot, brown the seasoned chicken in the oil over a medium flame and allow to sweat.
Set a little cilantro aside for garnish at the end. Add the rest of the cilantro, onion and water. Make sure water covers the chicken.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a low simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the root vegetables and cut into bite-size pieces.
After chicken has simmered for 20 minutes, add the root vegetables.
Cook until everything softens, about one hour. Keep adding water so the veggies stay about an inch under water.
Add the corn and cook 15 minutes more, until corn is tender.
Stir in salt to taste.

After the sopa there will be a meat option. We will explore the meat options and how they are prepared next time. We hope that all of you will some day be fortunate enough to visit a Panamanian Fonda and taste the flavors of Panama.

Let’s review our Spanish lesson. Today we learned sopa de mariscos is seafood soup and sanchoco is soup that can be made with a variety of ingredients; probably chicken in Panama. Our Spanish vocabulary is rolling.

Thanks for checking back, liking, and sharing. Try these recipes and let us know what you think. Are you ready to prepare authentic Panamanian cuisine? We have come to the realization that the vegetables and meats available may differ from what is available here in the U.S. These posts are preparing us for an awesome adventure.

Breakfast at the Fonda?

In our previous post we talked about the typical offerings for breakfast at a Panamanian fonda. Our research finds that you will enjoy hojaldres, tortillas, empanadas, huevos, and friojoles, along with fried chicken and meat for breakfast. The Spanish word for chicken is pollo and meat is carne. It will not be long before you will recognize these two words, as when talking about food in future posts we will be referring to all food by their Spanish names. Huevos, friojoles, and tortillas are all commonly known in English as eggs, beans, and tortillas. By process of elimination that leaves two common breakfast offerings that may be a mystery to some of the readers: hojaldres and empanadas. Hojaldres are Panamanian fried bread. They are a bit like a fritter, however, they are made without yeast and dusted with powdered sugar. Hojaldres are usually eaten in one or two bites and are very enjoyable with a cup of great Panamanian coffee. We would like to share the recipes for Hojaldres and Empanadas below. Making the dough is time consuming so most fondas will make the dough the day before and store it refrigerated until the morning.

Hojaldres Recipe

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
3 cups vegetable oil
1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk the milk, 3 tablespoons of oil and the egg. Pour the mixture into the center of the dry ingredients, stirring in with a spoon.

Knead the dough until it turns into a ball that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. Adjust consistency with a bit more flour or a bit of water if needed.

Once the dough has formed a ball, turn it out on a floured counter. Knead until the dough is elastic and soft.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for a least two hours.

Heat oil to a 2-inch depth in a large straight-sided skillet. Oil is ready when a pinch of dough sizzles and bounces immediately to the surface.

Pinch off 1 1/2-inch sections of dough and flatten them to your desired size. Some cooks like to flatten them thin then roll them up, but that method tends to retain more oil.

Drop the dough into the oil and wait for the pieces to rise to the surface, about two minutes. Note cooking time, turn the pieces over and cook the other side.

Drain the hojaldras on a cooling rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Empanada Recipe

Dough:

4 ounces of butter, plus more for brushing tops
1 ½ teaspoons salt
6 Cups all-purpose flour, more if needed

Filling:

1 pound beef chuck, cubed or coarsely ground
Salt and pepper
Olive oil, for sautéing
1 cup diced onion
2 ounces diced chorizo
½ pound potatoes, peeled and diced
4 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste
2 teaspoons chopped thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon paprika
Generous pinch cayenne
Beef broth
½ cup chopped scallions, white and green parts
¼ cup chopped pitted green olives

Preparation:

Put 1-1/2 teaspoons salt in large mixing bowl. Melt butter and dissolve salt. Cool to room temperature.

Gradually stir in flour with a spoon until dough comes together. Knead for a minute or two on a floured counter, until firm and smooth. Add more flour if needed. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour. This can be done the night before.

Make the filling: Season chopped beef generously with salt and pepper and set aside for 10 minutes. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide heavy skillet over medium heat. Add beef and fry until nicely browned, stirring throughout to keep pieces separate.

Add onion and chorizo. Keep turning mixture with a spatula until onion is softened and browned. Add potatoes, garlic, and thyme. Stir well to incorporate. Season again with salt and pepper and let mixture cook for 2 more minutes. Stir in tomato paste, and cayenne, then a cup of broth. Turn heat to simmer, stirring well.

Cook for about 10 more minutes, until both meat and potatoes are tender and the sauce coats them. Taste and adjust seasoning for full flavor. Stir in scallions and cool. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Divide chilled dough into 1-ounce pieces and form into 2-inch diameter balls. Roll each piece into a 4 1/2-inch circle. Lay circles on a baking sheet lightly dusted with flour.

Moisten outer edge of each round with water. Put about 2 tablespoons filling in the center of each round, adding a little chopped green olive. Wrap dough around filling to form the empanada, and press the edges together. Fold edge back and finish by crimping with a fork.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place empanadas on an oiled baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Brush tops lightly butter and bake until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

You should get about 3 dozen Empanadas

Empanadas can be filled with many different toppings. Search on the internet for other creative topping ideas. We will try these with Pollo, la carne de vaca (beef), and fruta.

Let’s review…We have learned a couple of more Spanish words, and we won’t be hungry. Empanadas are like a pasty here in Michigan and Hojaldres are like a donut. Next time we will explore the lunch offerings at the fonda. Please enjoy these recipes and let us know what you think. As always, stay tuned in, like, share and take this journey with us.

Today we learn our first and possibly most important Panamanian word FONDA

The dictionary defines Fonda as an American actor. That’s not quite what we were thinking when we said “most important”. In Panama a fonda is a small roadside stall restaurant that offers Panamanian food. These are small open air food stops that are usually only open for breakfast and lunch. They are known for their low prices and authentic Panamanian food. The establishments usually prepare their offering early in the morning and when it is gone they close. The reason we thought this most important is because one has to eat. Finding a cheap meal that we don’t have to prepare ourselves has always been high on our list of important. My research tells me that most meals at a fonda will be under $4 including water. Tipping is not customary. Fondas rarely have alcohol, however there are a few where you will find Panamanian beer. Fondas do not have menus. If you’re lucky there will be a chalkboard listing the 3-4 offerings and price. Go early because as the day goes on the offerings will become less and less until they’re gone. A typical breakfast at a fonda may include hojaldres, tortillas, empanadas, huevos, friojoles, as well as fried chicken and meat. Do not panic if you do not recognize some of the menu. It is our goal to break the Spanish lessons down to small easy to learn pieces. A typical lunch will start around 10 am. There will almost always be a soup option such as sancocho or sopa de mariscos. Most fondas will have a meat option such as pollo or carne. These will be served either asado or frito. Most options will be served with rice or beans. Stews are another option at most fondas.

Jen and I are planning to immerse ourselves into the culture of Panama, so we are anxious to try some of the native foods. Visiting the fondas, as we explore, will be one of the way that we accomplish that goal. The other will be to find recipes of native cuisine and try to make them ourselves. While in Panama, we will need to understand enough Spanish to know what we are eating and buying in the store. Many people in Panama speak English, but appreciate an effort at Spanish by the visitors. Future blog posts between now and our arrival in Panama, in February, will have daily Spanish lessons, interesting facts, and recipes that we will try.

Today we will share a simple recipe for a popular Panamanian side dish, Tostones. Tostones are chunks or pieces of green plantains thoroughly fried. They can be enjoyed much like we enjoy french fries. People eat them with ketchup. They may also be eaten much like potato chips.

As we wrap up for today, think about the 2 new Spanish words you learned…fonda (a place to eat) and Tostone (french fries or potato chips). Please check back often for more fun stuff.

We are celebrating 1000 hits today!

We didn’t know how popular this blog would be, and judging by your response it is going crazy. A few of our readers have mentioned that they are having trouble navigating the blog. Today we will try to explain how to read it and catch up on things you may have missed. If you have not subscribed to e-mail notifications, that is the easiest way to receive each post when it is published. You can do that by scrolling down to the “SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA EMAIL” near the bottom of the 1st page. It is simple to subscribe; just enter your e-mail address. We will not spam you and you can unsubscribe any time. If you prefer to just check back, all you need to do is save the link http://2RetireInPanama.com to your favorites. For those of you checking back, you can catch up on any missed posts by searching the “RECENT POSTS” on the sidebar column to the right. They should be red, and you can click on each one to take you to that post. We started writing this blog in August, and the past posts are a little further down on the same column titled “ARCHIVES”. Once you click on an archive link you will have access to all the posts for that archive period. We certainly love to have comments and suggestions. At the bottom of each post there is a row of icons where you can click to share, and a like button. Further down you will find a comment section. You must be logged in to see this and leave a comment. We will not share your e-mail address when you comment and we reserve the right to not display all comments. That keeps the spam out of our blog. We do want to keep it positive and entertaining. We do, however, want to hear about negative experiences if you find that you do not agree with our findings. We will post a bad experience that you may have had with one of the things we write about. Let’s be fair here. Everyone doesn’t always have the same great experience.

For the next few months we will be learning our Spanish, researching the country of Panama, and learning about the native food. Our blog will have a Spanish “word of the day”, some recipes that we will try when we get down there, and other great things. We hope that some of our new friends on the ground in Panama will weigh in and share some of these things as well.

As always we hope that you will all enjoy what we are writing about, and share this experience with us.

The Panama Canal Tour

This is the post that we couldn’t wait to deliver. Please be patient with the content, as it was difficult to make it all come together. There were 35 pieces of video and a bunch of pictures. We will build the story putting a few of the pictures and about 20 pieces of video throughout to let you all see why this was the pinnacle of our trip. Feel free to visit our u-tube site to see the video that we chose to leave out.

The tour started at Panama City on the Pacific Port of Balboa on the Gulf of Panama. The Panama Canal is 48 miles long and the passage averages 8-10 hours. The average wait time for a ship to enter the canal is 28-30 hours. Our pictures in previous posts, that were shot from our resort, shows the ships lining up to wait their turn. We will be entering the Mira Flores Locks with the ship pictured above. The canal runs north to south from 4 am to 12 pm, south to north from 12 pm to 8 pm, and smaller ships pass in both directions during the night. We were one of the last boats going north. Panama Canal Tour 1 The videos are short and have a bit of narration. When any boat enters the canal it will be boarded and piloted by a boat pilot from the canal authority. According to our guide, these pilots have an average salary of $500,000 per year. Once the pilot enters a vessel a red and white flag will fly indicating that it is being piloted by the canal authority. Panama Canal Tour 2. After our pilot entered the boat we waited for a large container ship to pass. Panama Canal Tour 3. Off to the west we can see Panama City. Panama has about 4 million residents with 2 million of them residing in Panama City. The city ranks 3rd in the Americas for skyscrapers per square mile. New York and Chicago have more. We are going to let a dry goods carrier pass next. In the video you can see the bridge over the Pan American Highway. This highway extends about 40 km further to the south where it ends in dense jungle. The jungle is too dense for the highway to continue. Going north it ends at mile marker 1 in Anchorage Alaska. If you were to drive north from Panama City to Los Angeles it would take 9 days going 40 miles per hour with no stops. Panama Canal Tour 4 Panama Canal Tour 6 . The US Coastguard protects the south end of the Panama Canal to control drugs from South America Panama Canal Tour 7 . We are waiting to enter the first lock of the canal. Notice in the video that there is a cruise ship in the first lock just ahead. Panama Canal Tour 8 . We will enter the Mira Flores Lock with the ship in front of us. The Mira Flores lock is the first of 2 locks that will take us up. Mira Flores has 2 chambers that will each take us up about 27 feet each. Panama Canal Tour 9 . Once inside the lock the door will close and water will be fed into the chamber raising us about 3 feet per minute. The lock doors were made by US Steel in Pittsburgh. Each door weighs 60 tons and is assembled with rivets, not welded. Panama Canal Tour 10 . Panama Canal Tour 11 . The ship that we will share the lock with is in the next video. It was led into the lock by tug and tied down. You will see the mules that guide the ship during the time in the lock. There is less than 2 feet on each side of the ship. The mules keep it from floating against the chamber walls. This ship requires 4 mules; 2 in front and 2 in the back. Panama Canal Tour 12 . The Mira Flores locks took us up to the level of Mira Flores Lake. Mira Flores Lake provides about 30 percent of the water supply for Panama City. We have crossed the lake and we are about to enter the Pedro Miguel Locks. Pedro Miguel has one chamber that will take us up about 31 more feet to the level of Gatun Lake. Panama Canal Tour 13 . Panama Canal Tour 14 . Just past the Pedro Miguel Locks we are passing the 2nd bridge which crosses the canal. The Centennial bridge is one of only 2 that cross the canal. We will see a 3rd bridge later that is under construction. Just past the Centennial Bridge we began the 7-3/4 mile trip through the Culebra Cut. This is the part of the canal that caused the French to abandon the project. They were unable to excavate through the mountains and jungle due to problems controlling the dynamite and disease. Malaria, Yellow Fever, and blasting killed around 5600 workers before the completion of the canal. The United States took over the project in 1904 and completed it in 1914. The pictures below are the best we got of the Culebra Cut. This is the narrow portion of the canal. The narrow pass commands constant maintenance due to erosion.

Panama Canal Tour 15 . Last year the Panama Canal opened an expansion to accommodate the Panamax ships. On the south end of the canal the new locks are called the Cocoli Locks and on the north end of the canal they are the Agua Clara Locks. We did not get pictures of the new locks, however we saw some Panamax ships along the way. Panama Canal Tour 16 . Following the exit of the Juan Miguel Locks we traveled for more than 3 hours across Gatun Lake. The lake is about 15 miles of the canal passage, and covers about 180 square miles. It is the passing zone for the larger ships. We got a lot of pictures of the big ships, but the trip across was rather boring. The enclosed ship pictured is carrying 15000 automobiles. These ships pay in the neighborhood of $200,000 for passage through the canal.

Gatun Lake was formed by creating a dam across the Chagres River and flooding the valley. The lake took 7 years to fill. The Dam provides hydro electric power, which is the energy source for the canal. It is positioned near the Gatun locks, which is the last set of locks as we exit out to the Atlantic Ocean. Panama Canal Tour 17 . As we moved toward the Gatun Locks, we learned that we would be going in to the lock ahead of the big ship that we had passed through the locks with earlier. The next video shows us slipping in ahead of it. The Gatun Locks are the locks that will take us back down to sea level so that we can continue out to the Atlantic. Panama Canal Tour 18 . Once we entered the lock the big ship slipped safely in behind us. Panama Canal Tour 19 . The final video provides an interesting perspective looking out at the last lock chamber and the Atlantic. If you look carefully you can see the construction of the Atlantic Bridge. Panama Canal Tour 20 .

The tour was packed with interesting facts about the canal. Every passage of the canal requires a toll. The lowest toll ever paid was 36 cents. It was paid by Richard Halliburton who paid it to swim the canal in 1928. He had to be escorted by snipers to kill the alligators that were a danger to him. Today swimming is not allowed in the canal. The dense rain forest surrounding the canal protects it and provides an accessible habitat where native Central American plants and animals can be observed. It took more than 30,000,000 pounds of explosives to clear the way for the canal.

We hope you have found the Panama Canal Tour interesting. Please continue to follow our blog as we prepare to spend this winter in Panama. There will be no shortage of great information to share. As always, comments, likes, and shares are greatly appreciated.

Indigenous Dance Show

Friday we were allowed back on the beach and in the pool area after the tropical storm had moved on up the coast. In the morning we checked out the low tide. The Pacific Ocean has extreme tidal activity compared to our experiences in the Caribbean.

As I mentioned in the previous post we were able to relax and soak up some sun. It was windy and we did not realize how strong the sun was. Jen got a little more sun than she would have liked. Thank God for SPF70.

On Friday night we were privileged to see a live show from a team of dancers in original costumes of Panama. The evening was filled with the great company of our travel buddies and great local Panamanian cuisine. Following dinner we were treated to a great dance show. My ability to get good pictures was affected by the lighting, but I wanted to share a couple of images and a video. The masks and costumes were amazing. Indigenous Dance video

Our travel buddies were awesome. We have traveled with these two couples for several years. The Panama vacation experience would not have been the same without having had them with us. This trip came straight from our bucket list, and was an awesome way to spend our anniversary. We hope that they will not be upset that we found a place in the blog for them. I seem to remember telling them that we would keep them off the internet. Thank-you Ray and Diane Barber & Ron and Linda Tyler for spending this special vacation with us. All four of you were great sports.

In our next post we will share our Panama Canal tour. We wrapped up our week in Panama with a full excursion from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The tour took around 12 hours and we got a lot of pictures and video. Please continue to like, share and check back often.

What happened to that Panama blog?

Truth be known, the last 3 days of our vacation were packed morning to night with adventure. We took 4 gigs of photos and video which caused me a great deal of grief during the download process. All of this is part of the “learning curve”. I have spent the last couple of days organizing the media and storing it on an auxiliary drive because it overloaded my computer. Our goal has been to deliver only original high quality material here. We made the decision to go silent rather than try to just post something. Enough of all that. Let me tell you about how we spent our Thursday…

Panama Hat — The hat with the slightly inconsistent stitch size was fine with me.

22196216_10212726255848750_6048663633145233721_n[1] — #PanamaGreg

…For those who were paying attention to the weather in Panama, or our Facebook posts, Thursday morning we woke up to a Tropical Storm Warning. The beaches and pools were closed. We enjoyed a great breakfast with our travel buddies and decided to take a shopping excursion to Panama City. What a great time we had. Communication outside the resort was problematic, but we managed to find some terrific things to buy. It was my lucky day. I was able to speak enough Spanish to learn about how to choose a Panama Hat. The more consistent the stitch size the higher the price. Being the financially responsible individual that I am, my hat is on the lower end of the price range of $50-$250. I chose the hat that I liked the best, regardless of the consistency of the stitching.

The day ended with another great meal at the resort and cards with our travel buddies. We were hoping for better weather on Friday, which we got. Tropical Storm Nate moved on up the coast of Central America and out into the Gulf of Mexico where it turned into a Hurricane. One of Jen’s friends accused me of being a storm chaser wanna be. With the Tropical Storm behind us, we were able to enjoy the beach and soak up some sun on Friday. We were all thankful that Panama is never in danger of being hit by a hurricane. We will explore and try to come up with the technical reason for Panama never having been hit by a hurricane in a future post.

Thanks again for following along. If you are liking what you see, please, like and share. Sign up for e-mail updates. We continue to be excited to share.

We have found a temporary home in Panama

Yesterday was the day of our vacation which we had set aside to look for accommodations during our 2 month stay this winter. February and March are high season here and it is a bit more expensive to rent for 2 months. They like long term rentals of at least a year. There are ways to find short term, but the prices are a bit higher. Jen and I have been communicating with Beth McGuyton at Try Panama for several months. Beth had our budget and knew our plans. Beth is a real estate professional and found us the perfect condo in budget. We were both relieved to know that we have a great place to live here, while we explore the great country of Panama. She found us a place that met all the “must haves” on our list. We will be on the beach in Coronado about 1 1/2 hours (33 miles) from Panama City. The traffic out of the city is terrible. The infrastructure here is excellent, however there are not enough roads to accommodate all the cars. We are anxious to explore the city while we are here next winter, but have decided to use a guide or public transportation. We will have a rental car for our exploration, but driving in Panama City is best left to the professionals.

Our guide yesterday was Marc Vargas. Marc is one of the professionals, whom I mentioned earlier. Our trip yesterday was mostly business, so we saw only small parts of the city on our way to Coronado. Marc used his knowledge of traffic and travel in Panama to safely deliver us to Coronado. The entire trip Marc was telling us about the Panama Canal, and giving us helpful information for our winter adventure. Marc introduced us to a couple of people here, and took us to a great open air seafood restaurant. We found Marc to be very knowledgeable and capable. We believe that Marc will consider us friends, and continue to be at our service when, and if, we decide to put down roots here in Panama.

It is a blast down here, and we are having a great time sharing our adventure. Please like, share, and join the conversation.

The View — This is the view from our guest room balcony

roof view — This is the view of the Pacific from the roof of the condo.

Panama Vacation Day 1

We are just starting day 2 of our Panama vacation. Personally I love to vacation at all inclusive resorts. The cost seems prohibitive when making the reservation, but when you are there you never have to reach into your pocket for money. I am not going to review our resort other than to say it is nice and we are being well cared for. It is the rainy season here in Panama and the resort is less than 1/3 capacity. We relaxed by the pool most of the day yesterday and it sprinkled for about 2 hours in mid afternoon.

Our resort is close enough to the Panama Canal that we are watching the huge ships line up for miles to await passage. I am impressed by the engineering of this great wonder. On Saturday we will be taking a full passage tour of the canal. I am excited to share what I learn on that trip. I am planning to also share some video and fun facts about the canal. If I Google Panama Canal I get Wikipedia telling me it is about 48 miles long. I am not a big fan of Wikipedia so I will refrain from just regurgitating what it says there in favor of waiting until I can see for myself how it works.

Tomorrow we are planning a trip to Coronado to look for a place to spend part of the winter. Coronado is about 1 1/2 hours west of Panama City on the Pacific ocean. We chose to look there because it is closer to where we think we may ultimately want to live. There are also entire communities of English speaking people. We are working on our Spanish language skills, however we realize that it is a slow process. It is important to the Panamanian people that we try to speak a little Spanish. Our server at dinner last night was very appreciative when I ordered in Spanish. She helped me when I struggled for a word for something, and complimented my effort. I have found at this resort there are many employees who speak no English. I encountered 1 employee yesterday who spoke about as much English as I spoke Spanish. He wanted to have a conversation with me in English so he could work on his English skills. It was amazing, to me, how well we could understand one another. Kudos to you Vladimir! You are a great asset to this resort. While we are in Panama this winter we will be traveling around the interior where there will be less people who speak English so we know that our ability to communicate in Spanish is a must.

Please, remember to like and share our blog. We would love to have some participation here in the way of comments and advice. We are so appreciative of our new friends here in Panama who are joining in and sharing. As we grow and become better at this blogging thing our content will improve. For now it is our hope that you find it entertaining.

Author: gkitz89

Meats at the Fonda

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