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.
Progress! I no longer need to use the generator to fill the tanks when the spring can not keep up. Yippee! Although the spring can keep the nearly 4000 gallons of reserve tanks filled all year. Here towards the end of the dry season, with all the plant and tree irrigation and concrete work going on, the spring just can’t do it alone. This is the first time this dry season that I have had to fire up the well to fill the tanks. How nice it is to switch a switch and nothing more. First time the power has had to be used. Electricity is good.
The project is moving along good. Our only real issue so far has been the hardness of the wood we are using. We have material that needs to be milled into smaller pieces and no one will touch it, it’s just to hard. For today we are stopped on the carpentry until the wood situation is figured out.
We are finding a lot of indian artifacts around the building site, I guess the ancients liked the view as much as the new owners do.
It is such a nice feeling to be working on one project and having others working on another. I keep the materials arriving as needed by the contractors working hard in Ojo de Agua while me and Dexter move forward on our other project near Pedasi. I admit I worried about leaving the project for any extended period of time, but so far all is well. Rubiel, Luis and their prospective employees are doing a great job on the house and garage. Both are capable, responsible contractors. Rubiel is nearly finished with the stucco on the house and Luis is moving along at a good pace on the construction of the garage. They both are only a little behind schedule, for here in Panama that actually means way ahead of schedule and much better than can normally be expected.
I choose to build the garage out of all concrete and metal. Although I feel confident, that with careful maintenance the house will hold up under the constant threat of termites and other wood loving tropical bugs, I do not want to worry about the garage as well, so no wood construction on this building.
As the stucco is applied on the insulated foam panels sheathing the house the average interior temperature has dropped substantially, better then expected. My theory of having a comfortable non-AC house may be proven. A few fans and it may get cold. We shall see.
Ojo de Agua, Panama