Time Flies

Our week at the beach is coming to an end and tomorrow we drive back to Panama City in preparation for our flight home to Vancouver.

As planned, while we were here, we literally did nothing but kick back, relax and enjoy listening to the sound of the surf. We made a couple of trips into town for food and one longer excursion to Pedasi, 42 kms from here, but other than that, the car sat untouched. We'd start our day with some meditation followed by a long walk on the beach, a breakfast of fresh fruit or a fruit smoothie and a shower. After that, it was whatever we felt like doing. Hanging in the hammock, reading a book, listening to music on my laptop, learning to play dominoes or returning emails.

Around noon I'd start preparing something for lunch and then it was more of the same easy life as in the morning.

Typically, the beach here was almost completely deserted. During the course of our walks we would usually pass three or four people over the 9 kms we sometimes covered. Some of the permanent residents would at times be outside working on their property and would wave and greet us, but for the most part, it was just me, Brenda and the crabs.

We had been forewarned that the weekend would see an influx of Panamanians to the beach, but we didn't see that many folks out on our Sunday morning stroll. However, as the day wore on, they made their presence known, LOUD and clear. Each family or group had their own car sound system blasting Latino music, seemingly loud enough to drown out any competition. From our vantage point, the music was a cacophony of sound and rhythm all mashed together and entirely indistinguishable. Most of the din stopped at sundown, but some of the partyers carried on until 4:00 AM Monday morning. I hope they didn't have to be at work at 9:00.

On Saturday we ventured into town to explore the weekly local farmer's market. It opened at 7:00 and we arrived at 8:00 to find the locals lined up to buy produce. We decided to give it a miss and went about exploring what else the town had to offer. In our wanderings we came across a little public market that had excellent fresh produce and great prices. We also found a lady selling baked goods on the street. She had a huge vat of large obviously homemade cookies, another one of doughnut shaped glazed cookies and people were buying them up like hotcakes. I bought two of each and packed them away for later enjoyment. Total cost $1.00. As it turned out, the cookie was anise flavored and the doughnutty one was similar to Italian Taralucci cookies, but less sweet and without the hint of lemon in the glaze.

Pedasi is a little town of less than 3000 inhabitants located about 42 kms southeast of here along the coast. For some reason, a lot of foreign retirees and expats have adopted this place as home, so we felt we had to go and check it out. Unfortunately, we went on Monday when a lot of the shops were closed, including a bakery that is allegedly out of this world. We walked all around Pedasi, which truly has that small town feel about it. Everyone we passed on the street greeted us with a "Hola" or a "Buenos dia" and a warm smile. There are a couple of very well stocked independent supermarkets that clearly cater to the expat community with merchandise imported to suit their tastes. The homes are often painted in bright colors or adorned with beautiful murals on the exterior walls. The feel of the town was very reminiscent of Valparaiso, Chile, with its many artisans, friendly locals and rainbow of colors. This little burg, and Panama City are probably the only two areas in the entire country where real estate prices are on the high side.

During our Sunday morning walk, Layla Dog abandoned us near the eastern end of the beach and we didn't see her again for the rest of the day nor all day Monday. We were a little concerned about her, but she eventually resurfaced Tuesday afternoon. Brenda had bought her a little bag of dog food the other day and we've been giving her small portions each morning, despite one of the neighbors telling us not to feed her. She is always grateful as she dives into the food with great gusto and it makes us happy to bring her a little comfort. After all, hers is a dog's life no one would envy.Read more