Tropical Dreaming

Further communication with Roger led to a visit to Punta Chame so that we could meet him and Liz and they could show us around Punta Chame. The four of us really hit it off! We’re very likeminded, share many interests, and I think the future is bright for our friendship.

Known primarily for its pristine beaches and kiteboarding/kite surfing, Punta Chame is a beautiful, sleepy little beach town. And while it seems to lack one of the key items on our checklist (live music), that would be largely offset by having good friends nearby. (Neighborhood karaoke, anyone?) Of course, a lack of a live music scene is something that can always be addressed by simply making it happen — and I’d enjoy that very much! Once the nearby Margaritaville resort opens up, they’re bound to have live entertainment, too.

The upcoming Margaritaville resort, however, is a double-edged sword. With all the cement mixer trucks and huge semi-trailers laden with cinder blocks, it’s responsible for making the road to Punta Chame almost impassable. The potholes and ruts are so bad that even in a 4-wheel-drive SUV, you have to watch for potholes like a hawk, driving at sub-5 mph speeds, crawling slowly and carefully over many, many stretches of road. It’s not a drive you want to make after the sun sets — and that imposes some serious limitations. 

Ultimately, Punta Chame is still a possibility for us. It checks a lot of boxes. And eventually, Margaritaville will open, the road will be repaired, live entertainment options will expand, and supermarkets and other places will pop up nearby. (At a cost of tearing up of the newly repaired road, though?) We’re sure to spend more time with Roger and Liz in the future. That could influence our decision as well…

Police checkpoints in Panama are completely legal. Everyone gets stopped; everyone shows their ID. If you’re obviously not Panamanian, you show your passport so they can verify that A) you haven’t overstayed your welcome (180 days for Americans), and B) you’re not still driving after being in Panama for more than 90 days.

My big problem was that I was only carrying my U.S. passport card — which I honestly thought was good enough — but of course, it wasn’t since they’re unable to look at the entry stamp to see when I arrived in Panama. I explained that we were in the process of getting our Pensionado visas and the officer told me to get our attorney on the phone. So I called Will Alonzo and Carol Janeth Gonzalez (who had told us, “if you need me, call anytime, it doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night” — try finding another attorney in Panama who not only talks that talk but walks that walk!) and Will answered immediately.

Will backed up my explanation to the officer that, while Krista had her actual passport, there was no entry stamp because the immigration people at the airport forgot to stamp our passports on arrival. (We later found out that this wasn’t true; they actually did stamp our passports!) The officer (who had been so nice and so friendly throughout this process that we felt obliged to give him a gift of $20) decided not to give us a $150 ticket and allowed us to switch drivers and continue on our way — but it was certainly a stressful situation.

I can’t begin to tell you how stressful this moving day was. Ultimately, we ended up in the common area with a ton of stuff hastily thrown into reusable shopping bags and faced with this conundrum: If we can’t transport ourselves, our dogs, and all our stuff in a single trip, how do we keep the stuff we’re leaving behind from disappearing before I can get back there to get it?!

What we needed was a luggage rack. (There were additional problems inherent in that solution but those were problems for another day.) So I left Krista with the dogs and all our stuff and off I went to buy a luggage rack.

But first we needed crossbars (which attach to the roof rails and give the luggage rack something to attach to).

At the first place I went, they looked at the car and told me that universal crossbars won’t work with the roof rails on a 2016 Acura MDX. It requires crossbars made specifically for our car and the only manufacturer$ that $ell them are Thule and Yakima. And they $ell for almo$t $500!!! I tried another shop and they gave me the same story. It didn’t sit right with me, though. I decided to go back and do a little more research.

I found YouTube videos that talked about OEM crossbars. One of them even gave a part number. A Google search on that part number turned up several listings — all in the U.S. — starting at $65 (with free shipping - but not to Panama).

Armed with a cost-effective solution that wasn’t going to help us today, it was back to the drawing board. Our next home wasn’t far away, so we decided that Krista would ride in the back seat with the dogs and I’d fill the passenger seat and footwell with all those reusable shopping bags full of food, kitchen stuff, laundry stuff, and misc/other stuff.

It wasn’t a lot of fun but it worked. Until next time.

It was stressful and time consuming (that applies to getting around Panama City, in general) but we finally bought this 2016 Acura MDX from its original owner. (She had had all the regular maintenance done at Panama City’s exclusive Acura dealership — and gave us all the service records.)

Clearly not a new car but it’s (like new and) new to us. It has less than 65,000 miles on it and every option available - dual-zone climate control, power leather seats (with heating AND cooling), power tilt/telescoping steering wheel, memory (based on each of the two key fobs) for the seat, steering wheel, and side mirrors (a feature I’ve always wanted!) moon roof, active cruise control, blind spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist system, full-time all-wheel drive, and more! It’s the nicest car we’ve ever had; runs and drives like a dream and just incredibly comfortable! (Hallelujah considering all the traveling we have planned!!)

Silver wasn’t our first pick and we really tried to avoid black interior (although with the dark tinted windows — very common in Panama for this exact reason — it really doesn’t get super hot inside) but we’re so pleased with our purchase!

This morning (moving day - we say goodbye to Playa Venao), I ran up to the mini-super to buy big garbage bags for covering all of our luggage. (It’s the rainy season in Panama and since we have #TooMuchStuff and had to rent a pickup truck for our trip to Playa Venao, most of our belongings will be exposed to potentially torrential downpours.)

On my way back, a Panamanian White-faced Capuchin monkey ran in front of the truck. The cover photo for this post is not a photo I took - it all happened so quickly there was no way I could have gotten my camera out in time. It crossed far enough up the road (and I wasn’t going that fast) that it was never in any danger of me hitting it —but I was definitely close enough to see that it looked exactly like the monkey in this photo.

I doubt that I came close enough to even scare it a little but I hope that in the future, it will use one of the monkey bridges that they put between trees across the roads here.

Not knowing what we'd need – but knowing we would not have unlimited funds for rebuying a ton of stuff – and carefully evaluating the things we wouldn't want to do without...

Sure, you may not choose to travel with a media server, voice assistants, and home automation/other gadgets but we really like our media library. We enjoy watching something almost every day! (Usually when we sit down to eat dinner.)

We came to Panama with all the luggage you see above - and we've been (ADDING TO IT!!! and) paying the price ever since!