Globetrotters

For those of you who don’t know us, a bit of background:

Some 30 years ago Hans picked me up hitchhiking in Cameroon, West Africa, for the ride of my life! For the next few years we lived like gypsies out of whatever vehicle we found ourselves in at the time: Hans’ VW through West Africa; a Dodge van through much of Mexico & the southern US; 2 Mercedes 5 ton dump trucks with a Peugeot mounted atop the one I drove serving as sleeping quarters carried us through the Sahara & the Sahel; a Ford pick-up with a camper cab criss crossed the US with us searching for a place to call home.

We landed in Arroyo Grande California where we moved up to live in a 10×50 mobile home for 3 years, while Hans operated a sawmill & I taught Montessori at a nearby school. With our noses pressed to the grindstone for the next 20+ years it’s a wonder we can even still breathe! From California, to Pennsylvania, onto Georgia we worked various jobs in search of the elusive American dream. Finally in Florida Hans’ entrepreneurial endeavors paid off & he found his niche with a retractable screen business. His hard work & my frugal habits have allowed us to semi-retire here in Panama, where we jokingly call ourselves ‘Gringos in Paradise.’

This blog is mainly for friends & family to follow our adventures but if you’ve stumbled upon it by chance-WELCOME! We hope you enjoy the stories! Mostly I hope this blog encourages you to have fun adventures of your own! In the words of Helen Keller:

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” If a blind & deaf woman can be so bold why not go for it too?

So here we live in a condo in Playa Blanca, Panama. It’s a resort development on the Pacific coast about 1 ½ hours’ drive from Panama City-the boonies! Everyone says you can get by speaking English here….WRONG! Maybe that works in the city but out here it’s Spanish all the way. In a former life I spoke fluent Spanish but at 56 I’m challenged to remember words in English, never mind Spanish! I’m also hard of hearing (geezerism sucks) so our normal ‘conversations’ go like this: Someone speaks to us in rapid fire Spanish, Hans repeats to me what they said in his Swiss accented Spanish, after a few moments of mental translating I attempt a response in Spanish. This little circus delights the locals no end. I think they start talking to us just for the fun of it-LOL! Everyone is so friendly & helpful we don’t really mind providing entertainment. As my mom Rose always said: “Learn to laugh at yourself & you’ll always have a source of amusement in your life.” We’re easily & endlessly amused!

Last week Hans hit 59 so we celebrated by taking a road trip….”ON THE ROAD AGAIN”! We bought a used Toyota Fortuner-a PPV 4 WD, translation: A pick-up passenger vehicle 4 wheel drive. Basically it’s an SUV mounted on the chassis of a Hilux Pick-up truck-sturdy like a tank for driving off road, as we like to do when exploring the countryside.

We headed for the Azuero peninsula, southwest of us. If you look at a map of Panama the Azuero region sticks out into the Pacific & is a mecca for surfers-NOT that we did that! There’s only so much daring adventure I’m willing to engage in & risking my neck is not on the list.

As we bounced over teeth chattering bone clattering rutted roads, Hans beamed at me & yelled “Just like in Africa, Gail!” I smiled back “Not really! Now we have A/C!” Since my body has become an internal combustion engine, I can’t imagine how I traveled through the sweltering heat of Africa with no A/C or even fans, yet remained always cool as a cucumber & never broke a sweat! Ain’t youth grand? But the creature comforts of geezerism aren’t bad either-LOL! The tough traveler of my youth, she who slept out in a sleeping bag on the sands of the Sahara & hitched rides atop trucks exposed to the blazing sun is long gone! I’m a cream puff these days!

So instead of camping on the beach we stayed at a lovely B&B on the beach, with A/C!

Hans & I are of the ‘buzz ass’ school of travel…we don’t do well lounging around the pool. So we had no sooner checked in than we set off on a brisk beach walk. I had thought about staying 2 nights but as we hauled ass down the beach Hans said “What would we do tomorrow? Walk the beach again? I can do that home for free.” Too funny.

The next day we decided to drive home through the interior of the country, rather than return along the coast. What an awesome drive! A bit of a rough road but dazzling landscapes-hills reminding us of California with few trees & rolling grasses. Then up up & away into the mountains! The people there seem quite industrious with most of the land either cultivated with crops like corn & sugar cane or used to graze cattle. We saw ‘cowboys’ riding the range on horseback while chatting on their cell phones. Old fashioned milk containers dotted the roadside for pick up/drop off by big trucks with guys jumping on & off for delivery.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand to eat with the locals. Enormous piles of rice, beans, cooked to death meat & fried blobs of dough for just $3! We probably overpaid as gringos too but what the heck. Then we bought about 30 pounds of fruit for $5-amazing! The guys at the stand were laughing their butts off as we drove away-thinking how much we’d paid for their fruit, while we were thrilled with our deal! I hardly bother to bargain anymore-though I was the haggle queen in our travels. Now it seems almost mean to try to pay less for what’s already so cheap!

Next week we cross the border into Costa Rica for a visa renewal trip. I’ll let you know how that goes if you care to keep reading!

Happy trails!