Ojo de Agua, Panama

La Casa Verde

A good friend of mine from back home in Pensacola took a side trip to visit me here and catch some waves with him and his family. I don’t think the kids were ready to leave back to their vacation house in the wave rich area of Santa Catalina, Panama. Above is a link to his website. Take a look if anyone is thinking about taking a trip to Catalina, they rent the house and have it for sale. The house is perfectly located for access to town and of course the point. Below are some photos of me on my twin fin fish and of his daughter riding her first wave at Venao.

We had a nice swell in the middle of last week. Glassy, powerful overhead rights peeling off the sandbar at Venao. What a refreshing way to cool off after a hard days work in the sun. Of course I got out of the water right before dark. Here are a few photos I snapped while changing out of my wet baggies. Another beautiful sunset.

Here are some updated photos of parcel one, the premier ocean view titled parcel we have available here in Ojo de Agua, Panama. This parcel has one large home site and several other building sites. The property has basic utilities on site and is covered in native fruit and hardwood tree species, some mature, but most trees planted during our intensive reforestation project started four years ago. Take a look at the real estate section of the site for details.

Here are some nice photos showing the vegetation difference at the entrance of the property after a few years. The before photo is right after we installed the fence about three and a half years ago. The after photo is from about a month ago. The pampas style grass in the photos is Vetiver or locally called Valariana. Vetiver grass is amazing at retaining moisture, controlling erosion, shading out weeds, has medicinal qualities and is used throughout the cosmetic industry. Also, the root can be dug up, cleaned, boiled into a tea and drank for a pain reliever. I have never tried the tea, but someday I probably will. I bought about 60 small sprigs of Vetiver a few years ago and have propagated it all over the property. I lost count, but I must by now have nearly a thousand of these plants along the road side and on many slopes. It stays green all year, never needs watering and the seeds are sterilized so it does not spread. It’s a wonderful plant. I look forward to planting more each rainy season.

For more information about Vetiver and it’s uses take a look at Vetiver Network International, vetiver.org.

Here we are, the third month working on the home here in Ojo de Agua, Panama. Since my last blog update things have been moving along steadily. We had to take about two weeks off due to the weather and other responsibilities, but for the last week we have been going strong. All the posts and beams are up, all the rafters are up, nearly all the blocking is finished and we are starting on the 1 x 6 tongue and grooved sub-roof. If all goes well we may have the roof completely finished before the end of the year. The weather has finally improved here in Los Santos so rain should not be a factor, we hope to maintain a brisk pace. Here are some photos of our progress.
Enjoy,

In the interior of Panama, here in Los Santos Province, a common practice for the small town folks is to get together and all pitch-in to help one another harvest the annual rice crop at the end of the rainy season. They call this cultural tradition a “junta”, to join together. Nearly always these juntas are on the weekends. All the available men meet in the morning after breakfast and start cutting rice while the women prepare, on open wooden fires in huge pots, fresh soup and rice for lunch afterwards. The owner of whichever rice field the junta is in always provides plenty of Seco, a local cane sugar rum very popular here in Panama, to all the men while cutting rice in the scorching tropical sun.

I participated in the junta for the rancher’s family that I purchased land from here in Ojo de Agua. It was great being a part of a community event as important as rice harvesting. Here, as in most of the developing world, people do not rely so much on cash to go purchase there basic food needs, they actually plant, maintain and harvest the majority of what they eat. It was a beautiful thing, pitching-in helping the community. On the other hand, it seems strange to me that getting “hammered” on alcohol while harvesting rice for your neighbor is part of this important cultural tradition. There were about twenty men cutting rice, including myself, and I calculated about five gallons of cold water and about ten gallons of warm Seco was consumed from early morning till around one o’clock. The guys had a great time singing, yelling and cracking jokes at one another. Strong cane sugar alcohol really keeps everyone’s spirits high and the work pace accelerated. I guess if the Seco was not on hand no one would have shown up.

This was my first junta and I was told I did a good job for my first time. I cut my fair share of rice and in the spirit of things I took three pulls off the Seco bottle. Unlike my junta counterparts, I don’t actually think drinking straight liquor while working and sweating in the hot sun is a good idea, but why not, as the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans or in this case the Panamanians.

It was a good time. I highly recommend it to anyone living or visiting in Panama who has a saturday or sunday morning free and is not scared of a little work. Just make sure to bring your own liquids to rehydrate if your not into shots off the bottle while working.

After a couple of weeks of the worst rains this year, I know I have probably said that at least once this year, it appears dry season is around the corner. There is nothing more enjoyable than working a short time and having to stop and cover everything from the wet weather, three to four times a day. Sarcasm.
Although the weather was not helpful, we did manage to finish the floor and start on the post and beams for the house. Soon we will be starting on the roof and hopefully by the middle to end of December we will have a roof to work under. The house is really starting to take form, I can now easily visualize the design coming to life.
Below are photos of the weeks work. I had to throw in some photos of the new table saw I purchased as a fine example of one of the quirks of doing business here in Panama. I ordered the saw from a hardware store in Chitre, the only one that had a table saw, or at least said they could have one for me by monday morning. This was on friday afternoon, impressive statement here in Latin America. They could send the saw from another of their stores located in Colon, on the Caribbean coast, about a eight hour drive, on the other side of Panama City from the Azuero. Monday morning while working I get a call from the hardware store, “the saw has arrived and it will be delivered in the afternoon at the work site.” Sounds great. Then they ask me if I want them to put it together or would I like to do it. Now at this point I think about where I am (third world) and how many times I have bought tools off the shelve here in Panama, tools that were put together by employees of the store. Must of the time the display product is the only one they have at the store and it takes weeks to order one out of the box. I buy the display and the seller can’t find the manual, instructions, box, nothing, and once said tool is brought home to be used it is missing something or some screw is stripped or something is wrong and I have to fabricate/invent missing or damaged part for tool to work properly. Bosch Miter Saw as latest example. Anyways, so I am thinking, how hard can a table saw be to put together, I will take my chances, “send it in the box and do not open it, don’t touch a thing” I say. It arrived in the box and only took a few hours to put together. Every part was there, nothing was missing. Works great. Awesome!

Charlie

Here is another group of photos taken the other day of a beautiful sunset here in Panama. These pictures were all captured from the bar at El Sitio at Playa Venao located just a few minutes drive from Ojo de Agua.
Enjoy,
Charlie

Here are some photos from one of the parcels here in Ojo de Agua during a recent sunset. A beautiful evening.

Well, after a few weeks off waiting for lumber, we are back to work. The treated lumber imported from Canada finally arrived and we have been working on the tongue and grooved flooring this week. It is looking good. We are pre-drilling at an angle back into the tongue of the two-by-eight boards and nailing a four inch small head nail into the floor joists. We would have used a four inch finish nail, but we are in Panama and fasteners are not easy to find here. It took a entire day driving to multiple hardware stores, in three different towns, to find the nail we are using on the floor. Of course the weather has not been cooperating, it has been raining at around lunch time everyday but, we are making headway. We have finished nearly half the floor.
Also, Dexter (my builder friend) and I have been camping on site to save time, energy and gas money. It has been really enjoyable sleeping on the land, listening to the coyotes and the surf rumbling in the dark distance night and waking up to the sound of the howler monkeys in the morning.
What a life!
Back to work.