March 16 to 25- First week in Panama

So here we have been in our virtual paradise of Cerro Azul ( Blue Mountain to our English speaking friends) for more than one week. It is a truly beautiful place, a large subdivision 3000' up above Panama City which is about an hours drive away.
The link below belongs to a fellow Canadian who now makes his home in Panama, Paul Franklin. He runs a Real Estate business and his wife, Carolina, is a lawyer. When we bought our lot here, we bought from Paul and Carolina handled the property transfer for us. The link will give you some idea of this wonderful area.
http://www.panamacanadarealty.com/

Another link is below- this actually has a map that shows the entire subdivision.
http://www.losaltosdecerroazul.net/homesite.aspx

We are renting an apartment in the home of Paul's brother Dave. Here is the house from the road.

Our view from the back deck on a clear day goes all the way to the skyscrappers of Panama City.

This is also a gated subdivision where a guard checks your access- we have cards with our name, picture and lot number. Here is the Guard house.

The road goes for several kilometers before you get to the first house.

On Saturday we went to the Clubhouse for lunch. Really nice facilities- this is the outside.

              
                                 And a great inside dinning room.

We then walked along the many paths to the pool- too full of kids during the weekend.
                                         Maybe we'll try it during the week.

                                       The path to the pool

                      We've also met many of our neighbours- mostly all Canadians.

There seems to always be a party/get together at someone's house- great people.

                     We've done lots of walking and hiking- can't get enough of the scenery.

So we, per usual, love where we are now. If only we were rich and could afford a house in ALL our favorite places- LOL. However, there is always the possibility of renting........

March 15- Arrival in Panama

We arrived in Panama at around noon on March 15th after leaving Guayaquil at 11:55PM the night before. It is usually a 2 hour flight between the two cities but......
Because we had booked a round trip from Miami  we decided to keep the return trip to Miami and then go to Panama. For a pair of seasoned travellers this was beyond stupid!!!
Oh well, we just love airports- NOT

At the Tucomen airport we picked up our car rental previously booked- no problems- plus bought a new Panama cell phone plus minutes and left the airport towards the nearest grocery store on our way to our rental apartment in 'Altos de Cerro Azul'. Even though our new landlord had sent us a map, I remembered the way. We bought some essentials- dinner, beer, wine- and headed up the mountain to our new home for the next six weeks.

After a 50 minute drive and following Dave's written directions ( follow yellow line, turn left at top of first hill, left at old green shack.....) we managed to find our apartment which had an incredible view over the countryside.
                          Here are some views from the large deck outside our door.

 We can actually see the lights of Panama City at night. And the towers of skyscrappers during a clear day.
                                       The house our apartment is in
                                        and the road leading up to the house

We took a long walk around to the lot we had bought 2 years ago.  It is very hilly and has lots of trees on it that would require removing if we decide to build here.

Lots of decisions to be made! The subdivion is only 30% built up and huge and very very quiet and scenic. We even saw a Tucan fly by. Our neighbour assures us that these forests have monkees that we have yet to see.

March 1- 12- Final weeks in Salinas

We finally had all of our work done! We had the power changed to our name and paid up to date. We had our taxes paid and the proper stamps put on our registration papers. Both our internet and HOA fees were paid a year in advance. So finally we could relax and enjoy our beach lifestyle. And enjoy we did.

                                       Sitting on our beach with our friend Connie

Dinner with Connie after she arrived home from the US

One day the local army/airforce base beside us was having parachute training sessions. At least 10-12 plane loads of jumpers came down in front of our building.

Here is the plane pooping parachutists

Some were the colourful wide kind

                                         Some were the plain white kind

It went on for hours.

On our last Saturday, we went to get our teeth cleaned. Our friend Eddie's wife Paola is a dentist with an office in La Libertad. She did an excellent job with both Uwe & I.

Here is Paola at her office.

Her email is paolabarretof@hotmail.com and her phone number is 2781912

cell 093687886

We highly recommend her services.

Afterwards we met Eddie for lunch. He and Paola treated us at a great local place in Salinas- very fresh sea food and great cold cervaza!

Feb.28- Our Renovated Condo

As mentioned in my last post, the beach front condo that we had bought in December now had all renovations completed. We had bought with the idea of renting it out for short term rentals for now,and using it sometimes ourselves until we decided where we finally wanted to settle down.

The condo is quite large , 2100 sq feet with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 3 balconeys and views in three different directions. We are located on the end of the Salinas' penisula on Chipipe beach so we can see ocean in all direction. We get a view of both the sunrise and sunset. We also bought new furniture and some original local paintings. We like it so much we hate to leave however our 6 month visa is up so no choice until we return.

                                I'd like to share some pictures with you.
                     First of all, dinner on the main balcony watching the sunset.

The beach in front of our building- Chipipe- is thought by some including us to be the best beach in Salinas- wider, cleaner and less busy.

Our building is the tallest on this beach.

Our living room with paintings by an 80 year old artist from Guayaquil.

The kitchen and bar area- we had a wall knocked out and bar built.

Guest bedroom with view of beach.

Guest bathroom

Master bedroom

Ensuite Bathroom

I guess you can tell how happy we are with our unit plus the wonderful results of the renovations! And we are already rented through until the end of September! Since we want to return in December that doen't leave much more room for rental availability.