Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Dead Rooster Bucks and Wrong Wedding Clothes Woes

Randy went to his first Panamanian cock fight and bet some bucks on the bladed birds. He ended up winning $40! He wants to take me with him next time, but it sounds pretty brutal to me. If he ever does manage to convince me to accompany him to a rooster brawl to the death you can be sure there'll be a blog update recounting it.

Also we received an invitation to attend [our first] Panamanian wedding. We were thrilled to be invited and looked forward to this special event. When we talked to Juan, the groom (our first mistake but we didn't know his bride to pose the question to her) we asked him what type of duds we should wear as the invitation did not give us any indication as to the appropriate attire. To our question he replied, "It's a free country, wear what you want."

Since it was a wedding, we got all spiffed up. We were looking good for our first Panamanian ceremony, or so we thought. When we got there though we realized that what Juan should have said was that the dress was "Black Tie". ALL the other guests were in full length sequin ball gowns and their most expensive suits. I mean dressed to the HILT. We felt very uncomfortable and obviously stood out as "the Gringos" who didn't get the memo.
THANKS A LOT JUAN!

Friday, May 2, 2008

Deposito Completo

A smiling Don Randy in front of his new deposito. Until today we have not had a place to house our tools. Our machetes, rake, wheelbarrow, weed eater etc. were all being stored under a bright blue tarp. However with the addition of a deposito door today our tools now have a roof over their heads and a locking door behind which to rest at night.

The Rainy Season Cometh

Because we originally arrived in Boquete in late July of 2007, we missed the beginning of the rainy season for last year. From what we understand, the rainy season usually begins between mid April and mid May. Sure enough, May 1st brought with it an obvious change in the weather. The afternoon rains seem to have begun, slowly now, but gradually as the months progress the rain volume will continually increase and the hour at which it begins to fall will gradually creep from 5pm to 12pm by October. For the sake of our house construction, we hope that the rains will stay away for the most part until we get under roof at Casa de Pigott. Our little garden and plantings however are smiling we're sure at the gift from above.
Here you can see our view of the volcano totally obscured by rain clouds.