Blog

Cerro Azul

Tue, 19 May 2009 18:59:14 -0500

Last weekend we went to Cerro Azul for a picnic - it’s only 30-40 minutes from the city and at 950 masl it’s nice and cool but it was the first time I’ve been there!
As you drive up, you get some spectacular views of Panama City. Once you pass the village and the ‘touristy’ area near a very pretty lake you start to pass more and more poultry farms - so much for having the windows down for a breath of fresh air! BUT if you keep going past the farms onto a road where four-wheel drive is definitely recommendable, you get to the really beautiful part of Cerro Azul - sweeping views, few houses and lots of birds flitting around in the sun - really great place for a picnic!

What to do if your bed starts moving

Thu, 7 May 2009 12:13:15 -0500

This morning I was reading about a cat who steals socks: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/8030168.stm (which is very similar to the cat who steals gloves) and realised that my cats haven’t featured much on panemma.com lately. So here they are with an educational video on what to do if your bed starts moving (note: this may not apply if the movement is caused by intoxication).

Sis in Panama

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:27:59 -0500

Zo came to Panama last week. It was a quick surprise visit but we had lots of fun and it was great for me to finally have a family visit after over 7 years in Panama!
We managed to fit a lot into a week as well....
Monday: First on the programme was shopping for kid’s clothes, which is really good fun ‘cause there’s lots of nice stuff and it’s cheap. I recommend El Costo, El Titan and Conway at the Albrook Mall. We had lunch on the Causeway and went to Casco Viejo - the beautiful French Colonial part of the city.
Tuesday: A trip to the visitor’s centre at the Miraflores locks and watched a big container ship go through the locks.
Wednesday: Up early for a forest walk on BCI up to the ‘Big Tree’ (photo above).
Thursday: We took the road past the Madden Dam out to the Caribbean coast and visited STRI’s Galeta Marine Research Station where we saw blue crabs and mangroves before visiting the ruins of the Batteria Santiago in Portobelo - a Spanish Fort built of corals - and the best ever garlic shrimp and coconut rice at Restaurante Los Cañones overlooking the Portobelo bay.
Friday: Lunch with Arturo and his Dad at the famous chinese restaurant “Lung Fung” in Panama City before heading off to El Valle - a picturesque village in an extinct volcano crater. This was the only crap adventure we had: after a walk on Corona beach on the way I managed to drive 40 minutes past the entrance to El Valle and we only just managed to get to El Valle before dark. We stayed in the Golden Frog Inn, which was gorgeous.
Saturday: After a lovely breakfast and a chat with our super-friendly hosts we went to see the famous golden frogs (sadly now only surviving in captivity, read more here), the petroglyphs and the El Macho Waterfall before looking round the artisan's market and heading back to Panama City.
Sunday: On Zo’s last day in Panama, we went to the Gamboa Resort to enjoy the brunch buffet on a terrace over the lake and counted over 20 turtles milling around waiting for guests to throw some scraps of bread. Oh, and we played lots of Scrabble before driving out to the airport....

We also took lots of photos, have a look here!

Dry Season

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:47:09 -0500

I’ve been back in Panama for two weeks now and I think I’m finally getting used to the heat. It’s sunny, and windy and usually between 30º and 31ºC indoors by mid afternoon.
Just before I arrived there were wildfires around the house. Our house is in a sort of circular street at the bottom of a bowl. The hillsides all around are covered in wild sugarcane which dried out and a huge area burned down. Here are a couple of photos showing how close it got to the houses (above), and the devastation in the field right across the road from our house.

All the neighbours were out fighting the fire for 2 days with garden hoses and water buckets. Arturo got on the evening news helping the fire brigade. Here’s some (overly) dramatic footage of the second, calmer day of firefighting and the evening news report featuring Arturo.

Good and bad news for PanEmma in the world of entertainment

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:21:50 -0500

Well in the absence of anything else to write about, today I heard the good news that Faith No More are getting together again 11 years after they split up. Having been at their very last concert I’m tempted to go to the first reunion concert (in the UK in June).
The bad news is that ‘Gil Grissom’ is leaving CSI, which basically means that the series won’t be worth watching anymore...

... I feel kind of bad about how much I love having a car...