Ojo de Agua, Panama

There is no job as monotonous as painting. First coat of primer, then second coat, then first coat of paint, then second coat, rolling, brushing, trim… jeez when does it end! Okay I cant lie, I only painted about ten percent of the house, Dexter was a little faster then me and he painted about fifteen percent before we threw in the paint rag. I had to bring in professionals. Two brothers referred by Uri Valdez, the dependable electrician, came in to finish up and they did a hell of a job. Clean, fast, mess free and had their own brushes. Hired! In a couple weeks they knocked it out. The house is shining like a new diamond! Sasha Cole, a professional designer friend, helped me pick out the exterior colors, thanks Sasha, the house is looking great.

A few months back while spending a sunday afternoon at our local beach, Playa Venao, Pucha and I were interviewed by an american couple, Brian and Leela Gill, working on a trailer for a television series about expat’s relocating to foreign lands such as Panama.

If it were not for Pucha they probably would have not been interested in me, I do not have much star power, unlike my girl.

You can watch the video trailer for the upcoming television series with a short section of our interview below.

They recently returned for a more in-depth interview for the Panama show. They interviewed Pucha at her house and store in Pedasi, me at the project in Ojo de Agua and all of us together at the beach. This time I think they got some better shots of us surfing. It will be interesting to see what the final show looks like.

Expats Paradise – Panama – v2 from Brian Gill on Vimeo.

Here are some photos of me from a few weeks back taken by a friend named Fidel. Fidel takes amazing professional water shots here in Panama. Check out his site.
Fidel Surf Photography
The one photo with the wave peeling in the distance with the palm tree is one I took from an afternoon session at a reef break in the Pedasi area. The quality is nothing compared to Fidel’s but I had to throw it in.

My lovely lady has opened her on store here in Pedasi, it’s called Pucha’s. Pucha’s rents bikes, surfboards and snorkels, sells clothing by Hurley and carries organic cosmetic and bath products from Burt’s Bees and Alba Hawaii. The only store with in 25 miles with organic products. Wow, Pedasi is really changing. Maybe one day Pedasi will have more than one kind of fresh vegetable at a time in a market. That would be amazing. I digress. Anyways, she also has a ton of different Pucha memorabilia, it sells like hot cakes. In case you do not know, Panamanians love Pucha. Almost as much as I do. I am really proud of her. The store is located on the main road next to the gas station as you come in to town on the left. When you come to Pedasi remember to stop by and pick up some Puchadise.

While walking around, coming or going from the project, or running errands, I can not help myself from snapping photos of random points of beauty, or at least things at that moment that I think look beautiful. And of course, since I am trying to sell gorgeous ocean view land located in Panama and always in need of new material for my website ranking, these aforementioned photos end up on this blog. Whether it’s my neighbor’s tractor bailing hay for his livestock to chew on at the end of the dry season, photos of near-by churches or the sun shining through a cloud, if I think it’s beautiful it’s my duty to share. So, enjoy the sharing.

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 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