Spot is under the weather . . .

. . .  and thinks wearing this disgusting plastic lamp shade around her neck is for the birds!  Spot was out with Alfonso, our Indian guy, on the back of the farm, digging furiously for something, and ended up instead on a piece of glass.  Her foot got infected and I had to take her to Chely, our local, and wonderful vet.  Chely really loves animals!  She was lovingly bathing an ancient street dog when we arrived.  It had somehow survived, unloved and uncared for, to a very old age, and was patiently sitting enjoying the warm bath.  Spot on the other hand . . . let’s just say was not eager to have her foot attended to.  With a muzzle, me with a half nelson on spot, my glasses having been knocked across the floor as 80 pounds of Dalmatian fights both of us . . . and Chely is saying, in English, “It’s OK, baby!”  Anyhow, we got Spot taken care of and just happened to have an old “lampshade” left over from two years ago when Monkey was the sick dog and our Valle Escondido neighbor, Jeff, a vet from Colorado, had to operate on Monkey. 

Don’t you love dogs? 

Thankfully we have a wonderful vet like Chely.

Boy, do we have parrots!

I should forget about dreaming of parrots along the Amazon River (on my upcoming contract with Princess on the ROYAL PRINCESS Amazon sailings), and just look out the window.  This is the time when trees on our farm the parrots love have fruit, and the parrots show up big time!  Like hundreds of them descending, almost like a plague, albeit a welcome one.  The squawk, and eat, and fly around, the sun glinting off their iridescent green feathers as they twist and turn in flight.  I’m not exaggerating with the “hundreds” bit either!

And then there are the hummingbirds . . .

The most aggressive, territorial, anti-social, and dumb, animal on the planet. They are fun to watch at the feeders, but don’t get in their way when they are attacking one another. We have four feeders, but only one is the hot, trendy, new restaurant in town where everyone is standing in line for a table. Not a “community” animal by any stretch of the imagination. It’s almost like watching a World War II areal “dog fight” when they go into action. I think they have to eat so much because the waste so much energy protecting their feeder. You have no idea how hard I had to work to get four of these selfish little creatures eating at the same time!

And dumb. Our house is very open and hummingbirds are always flying inside. We try and catch them before the dogs do, and send them back outside . . . but the stupid birds fly right back in.

Panama and allergies . . .
If you have allergies, like me, either forget about Panama or consume lots of allergy medicine, especially now. Pretty much it’s all the time, but some months are worse than others. I’m allergic to pollen and mold, so in a lush tropical environment . . . bingo! Usually one antihistamine a day works, and occasionally, like now, one in the morning and one in the evening. When I’m at sea guess what? No problem! So the allergy medicine makes me want a nap in the afternoon. Hey, it’s usually raining and I am retired!

Pot and saving California . . .

According to AP,

SAN FRANCISCO – A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to an official analysis released Wednesday by tax officials.

The State Board of Equalization report estimates marijuana retail sales would bring $990 million from a $50-per-ounce fee and $392 million in sales taxes.

The bill introduced by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano in February would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess, grow and sell marijuana.

Ammiano has promoted the bill as a way to help bridge the state’s $26.3 billion budget shortfall.

“It defies reason to propose closing parks and eliminating vital services for the poor while this potential revenue is available,” Ammiano said in a statement.

The way the bill is written, the state could not begin collecting taxes until the federal government legalizes marijuana. A spokesman says Ammiano plans to amend the bill to remove that provision.

The legislation requires all revenue generated by the $50-per-ounce fee to be used for drug education and rehabilitation programs. The state’s 9 percent sales tax would be applied to retail sales, while the fee would likely be charged at the wholesale level and built into the retail price.

The Equalization Board used law enforcement and academic studies to calculate that about 16 million ounces — or 500 tons — of marijuana are consumed in California each year.

Read the whole article

Additional savings would come in the criminal justice system and prison system if at least pot were legalized.  Decriminalizing, not legalizing, the rest of the drug biz, would create additional savings while cutting off the drug cartels at the knees by removing the vast profit motive and taking away all the billions used to buy off police and government officials around the world, as well as in the US.

Critters . . .

Oh yes, we got ‘em, and it seems new ones that we haven’t seen are popping up every day!

Alfonso, our Indian guy, tells us this guy is very “venemosa”, of course ” Alfonso says every creepy thing is poisonous, including the five baby snakes he found in the mani yesterday.  Trouble is, maybe they are!  

I stole these from my friend Shaun’s Facebook . . . I was sitting on this chair having drinks with Shaun and Julie and when I got up Julie noticed this scorpion that had been crawling up behind my legs!

Here it is after I stepped on it.

Air New Zealand, hardly the world’s largest airline, has probably done more for airline safety with their new, all nude air safety visit.  Claiming “nothing to hide”  your standard pre-flight safety video is presented by five crew members wearing nothing but body painted uniforms and painted on smiles.  They “bare all” cheerfully telling you how to happily prepare for the plane to go crashing head first into the sea.  Since most people find a zillion things to do other than watching the safety video . . . well, now the whole world is watching on YouTube and the special Air New Zealand “Nothing to Hide” Web site.

There’s even a “blooper role” and a “behind the scenes” roll along with a new gay icon, Will ["You sound like my husband!]  who gets his willie “twisted” in his seat belt, which is probably why you wear pants on a flight in the first place.

I’ve always thought we could find a more enjoyable, memorable, and unique way to do the life boat drill.  This might just work!

BTW, the tag line is “Some low cost airlines tack on extra charges to their fares, but with us, what you see is what you pay.   Our fares have nothing to hide.”

Once a year, every year, for almost exactly 30 days, Boquete’s dreaded “fly season” arrives.  Yeah, like any place in the world we always have a few flies, but when fly season arrives it’s like Moses called down another plague!   Suddenly flies are obnoxiously everywhere.  If you leave a plate of food on the counter it’s almost like 50 flies descend to pick it up and carry it off.  And it’s not just us, or because we have animals, or grow coffee.  [These flies are the common house flies, not the tiny coffee flies which are another story.]  Everyone is inundated simultaneously. 

Then, almost exactly a month later, the flies are gone.

But during fly season it is a constant battle.  We drag out the fly swatters we haven’t needed for a year.  We string up fly paper until the house looks like an Iowa farm house.  One of our most effective fly-killers is our Dalmatian, Spot.  A fly gets near Spot and lightening-fast she grabs it and swallows it.  That technique doesn’t work for us however.

The one product I’ve found that really does work are these fly traps.  I know, it is the ugliest picture you’ve ever seen, but these things work.  We hang one up on either side of the house and fill it half way with water.  For about three days nothing happens . . . and then, the flies start entering the trap.   And in a month the trap looks like this, filled with dead flies while their compatriots happily enter the trap . . . and are doomed.  That big band of black?  Dead flies.

There really is a lesson here folks for anyone tempted to get involved with hard drugs.  When they talk about being “trapped” by drugs, this is exactly what they are talking about. 

The traps are good for a month and ONLY a month.  The directions tell you to dispose of the trap after a month and you had better follow the directions because after a month it is the most horrible, rotting smell you can imagine.  But in Boquete a month is all we need.  It’s nice to find a product that works as promised!

Super Sunsets!

Now that I’ve grossed you out with that totally disgusting dead fly picture, I’ll share with you some sunset pictures.  The past few days the wind has been blowing from the North and we haven’t had our usual evening rains, so we’ve enjoyed some beautiful sunsets.  This is what I see when I’m sitting on the back porch in my hot tub sipping wine and watching the sun set.  Ah, retirement in Panama!

Senior Noriega . . . The General of an Army of One, Himself

Panama abolished it’s army after the US invasion and the Noriega episode. Panama has no army. But Noriega, when captured by the US and whisked off to prison in Miami was a General and captured as a prisoner of war. As such, for all these years that he has been in federal prison in Miami, he has been treated as a POW, entitled to be called “General Noriega”, wear his generals uniform and live in a classy prison suite of private rooms, in essence living in prison like a general. Only trouble is, he is a general with no army! Having completed his US prison sentence, with time off for good behavior, the US now has to decide what to do with Noriega. Noriega claims to be a born-again Christian and wants to return home to Panama. Panama says it wants him back, but with Panama on an economic roll, the last thing it wants is Noriega back. Aside from the host of legal problems Noriega faces if he comes back to Panama, the Panamanian government has already sold off most of Noriega’s homes. France wants Noriega for 10 years on money-laundering charges. The problem for Noriega is that if he goes to France he won’t be a POW, won’t be a “general”, won’t get any special treatment, but just be another inmate. So for months this has been kicking around in the courts, meantime Noriega gets a nice room, and board, in a Miami federal prison.

According to Associated Press . . .

MIAMI (AP) — Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his extradition to France to face money-laundering charges.

Attorneys for Noriega filed papers Tuesday seeking a Supreme Court review. Three federal judges in Miami and a federal appeals court have refused to stop the extradition. The Supreme Court will likely decide whether to hear Noriega’s case in the fall.

Noriega contends that the Geneva Conventions rules for prisoners of war require that he be returned home to Panama. Noriega was declared a POW by a federal judge after his 1992 conviction on U.S. drug racketeering charges. Noriega finished serving his prison sentence in 2007.

Noriega was ousted from power after the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.

Richard just wondering how the road into Boca Chica is now? Will be down in July for Vacation. Road used to be pretty bad. Jiamesmcmil

Jim, You would not know it was the same road!! It is paved all the way from the Pan American Highway to Boca Chica! Gone are the days of getting stuck in my 4 wheel pick up behind some big ice truck headed to Gone Fishing or Seagull Cove without 4 wheel . . . so the truck is up the the axles in clay mud . . . and everyone behind it is stuck until it gets unstuck . . . if it gets unstuck. It’s actually cut about a half hour off the trip from the highway to Boca Chica!

Property tax in Panama and hospitals . . .

Hi Richard, My husband and I are beginning our investigations into life in Boquete,  from the perspective of a full time resident. However, as you must know, we have zillions of questions….but just this for you. How much is the real estate tax for your Casa #56 and what is the Boquete real estate tax rate per $100K value? If you can steer us to any particular website that would give us a good overview of such a move (including available medical facilities), it would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Linda & Josef Bruder

Linda & Josef, Thank you for prodding me on medical facilities . . . I had promised a blog on medical issues in Panama, and I promise I will deliver on that . . . and the long awaited Embera page. Right now I’m deep in projects on the farm, and with my ROYAL PRINCESS gig coming up in November have a whole list of lectures to work on.

The house I have for sale in Valle Escondido has 15 years of property tax exemption remaining. That goes with the house and gets passed on to the buyer. As to other property tax rates in Panama . . . This is from www.panamarealtor.com

Article 764 of the Panamanian Tax Code indicates which properties are exempt from property tax. These properties include:

• Properties registered at a value of 30,000 USD or less including improvements to the land, i.e. construction
• Land used exclusively for farming and registered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Development at less than 150,000 USD

The tax basis should be understood as being the value of the land plus the improvement. Article 766 of the Tax Code goes on to establish the property tax table to be the following:

If you have a property valued at 100,000 USD you should pay the following in property taxes:  2.10% of 100,000 USD (0.00 USD for the 0 -30,000 bracket which is tax exempt) + (349.98 USD for the 30,001 – 50,000 bracket at a rate of 1.75%) + (487.48 USD for the 50,001-75,000 bracket at a rate of 1.95%) + (524.98 USD for the 75,001 – 100,000 bracket at a rate of 2.1%) = a total of 1362.44 USD for annual property taxes

So $1362 for a $100K property is more than I was paying in property taxes, Under Prop 13, for my Ventura hillside house overlooking the ocean. The 20-year tax exemption, which is now 5 to 15 years on new construction with the higher exemption going to less expensive homes, obviously more beneficial to middle class Panamanians, is they key consideration in my opinion for purchasing property in Panama.

Yes, Panama can be “cheaper”, a lot cheaper, but not necessarily so. It depends on where you are living in the States or elsewhere in the world. The reason for thinking of moving to Panama should not be because it is “cheaper”, but because it is a spectacularly beautiful country, with a temperate climate, and what can be a very “tranquil” quality of life. If you are thinking of retiring quality of life should be your primary consideration. Of course for most of us the “quality” is going to be better if we have sufficient funds to enjoy retirement.

Where are the criminals?

Richard, I enjoy your blog concerning life in and around Panama. I’m considering retirement there. However the injection of your political views is a bit much. I am a firm believer in Free Speech etc,but this reminds me of the daily “hate fest” rantings of Olberman/Maddow etc. Just where should societies criminals be?????? Michael W. Paulin

Michael, I have no idea who Olberman/Maddow are . . . ???? . . . Forgive me, I live in Chiriqui and am somewhat, intentionally, out-of-touch with, I assume, US television? But, as we’ve all just discovered, many of the big criminals have been sitting in Wall Street and corporate offices! Yes, we do need prisons, hopefully to reform, redirect and rehabilitate (of course that costs money) where possible . . . and we need alternatives to prison. What’s wrong with our society when we lock more people up than anyplace else??

I don’t expect all readers to agree with me . . . hell, I don’t always agree with me . . . but it is my blog and that’s what blogging is about.

Tooth aches . . .

I’d like to know the names of some dentists in David. We’ve been going to Mexico for dental but since we are considering a trip to Panama and David in particular, maybe we can do just as well there. Karen Coppes

Karen, I hate to tell you, because he’s already the most expensive dentist in town, and I don’t want demand upping his prices any more, but after some frightening and frustrating experiences with local dentists, I discovered Franklin Halphern in David. He is excellent, better than my dentist in California who I loved. He trained in Rio, speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and enough English, and is always going to seminars to keep up with the latest techniques. A lot of expats use him. He is expensive, by local standards, but good.

Soothing the aches of . . . is it working . . . or age?

One of the things I really enjoy is sitting in my spa on the back porch, looking out at the coffee and Volcan Baru, relaxing, sipping wine and reading what I call “trashy books.”  They aren’t really “trashy” but they aren’t real intellectual either . . . just “escape” reading. [I really do more reading in the spa than on the john, but I thought the picture was cool.  What can I say: I have a "white trash" sense of humor.] When I was on Holland America for five months I really missed being able to sit in the spas.  Ordinary crew on Holland America isn’t allowed in the spas.  Unless you are a “four-stripper” [actually the spell check doesn't like "striper", but, believe me, they are "stripers" not "strippers"], senior officer, i.e., Captain, Hotel Manager, Chief Engineer, Chief  Officer, you aren’t allowed in the spas, and none of these guys would be crazy enough to get in the spa with guests and be inundated with silly questions.  One of the nice things about my next contract on Princess is that I will have full guest privileges . . . so that means I can sit in the spa, and sit on a bar stool, and enjoy the piano bar.  Unfortunately I won’t have access to the “entertainment account” to buy guests drinks.  Oh well, nothing is perfect.

Back to the reading . . . once in a while I come across some writer’s prose that, well, just strikes me.  This is Len Deighton in MAMista, “The International Bestseller” which I know all of youread 8 years ago, but I move slowly.  This seemed strangely appropos to poor Barack Obama . . .

“There was a time when the president of the United States of America was required to apply an almost philosophical mind solely to the affairs of the nation.  But now he’d become a supermayor as well for a malfunctioning township that stretched from coast to coast.  His daily concerns still encompassed the wider issues: his party, the budget deficit, the balance of trade and foreign policy, civil rights and the environment.  But now he was expected as well to take care of drug abuse, abortion, pollution, savings and loan accounts, urban blight, day care for infants, and even layoffs in Southern California.”

And that was eight years ago when the job was easy!

My first cruise was on a ship leased from NASM [the original parent company of Holland America] by the Dutch Student Travel Bureau [NBBS] to provide cheap trans-Atlantic transportation for students from New York to Europe.   I worked my way to Europe on the ship, then called the WATERMAN, as a member of the NBBS cruise staff.  I spent three months seeing Europe on $5 a day, or less [I actually averaged $4 a day including food, lodging, museum entrances, TIME magazine, and letters home!], and moving around Europe First Class on a Eurailpass.  And to think, today you can’t even buy a cup of coffee for $5 in Europe!

It was the last summer NBBS ran the student ships because the Boeing 707 was just coming on line.  Suddenly it was cheaper, faster, and easier just to fly “across the pond” to Europe.  So the next year I flew over to Europe, and spent 4 months, at the highly inflated rate of $5 a day.

I graduated from seminary and took a little all-black church in the South Bronx and began spending my vacations working as a chaplain on Holland America.  The old ROTTERDAM, NIEUW AMSTERDAM, STATENDAM and all the other old Dam ships were sailing from Pier 42 in New York and Miami.  Talk on the ships was of a passing era of steamship travel.  Soon all the passenger ships would be history, replaced by the 707.  And one-by-one the great passenger ships began disappearing from their berths on the Hudson.

Then some interesting things began to happen.  The few passenger ships that remained began doing primarily cruises.  Ships left New York for the Caribbean and Bermuda.  Then, avoiding the long and often cold and dreary sail down the Atlantic coast, began sailing from Florida.  Great ships hanging on for dear life.

Three somewhat concurrent events were to prevent the extinction of passenger travel by ship and create a dynamic new industry.

1965 Stanley MacDonald charters Canadian Pacific ship that would usually have been laid up for winter, calls it the PRINCESS PATRICIA and begins offering cruises to the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles. The “Princess Pat” lacked air conditioning, so the next year the new company, named Princess Cruises, charters another ship called the PRINCESS ITALIA. Princess will go on to become part of shipping giant P&O, find television fame as “The Love Boat”, and become part of the Carnival family of cruise lines. Today Princess Cruises Princess “offers approximately 1.3 million passengers each year the opportunity to escape to the top destinations around the globe, aboard a fleet of 17 modern vessels.”

1966 Knut Kloster and Ted Arison begin with a cruise ship/car ferry offering low-cost Caribbean cruises under the banner of Norwegian Cruise Line. Arison soon left, while Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean service. NCL made history with the “white ships”, three ships, tiny by today’s standards, that were designed expressly for cruising the Caribbean. Ownership of NCL has bounced around in recent years. Notable for its brightly decorated ships and “Freestyle” cruising concept, NCL currently “operates 11 ships with over 23,000 berths.”

1972 Ted Arison starts his own cruise company takes a Canadian Pacific ship, the EMPRESS OF CANADA and renames it the MARDI GRAS. To save money he repaints the ship stack red, white and blue, following the lines of the original CP logo, accidentally and for all time creating the famous Carnival logo. The MARDI GRAS sails for the first time from Miami filled with travel agents . . . and promptly runs aground on a sandbar just off Miami. From that inauspicious beginning, Carnival has emerged as the dominate powerhouse of cruising with 88 ships and 86,000 employees (including the Princess fleet).

“Carnival Corporation & plc is a global cruise company and one of the largest vacation companies in the world . . . leading cruise brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Line in North America; P&O Cruises, Cunard Line and Ocean Village in the United Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; Costa Cruises in southern Europe; Iberocruceros in Spain; and P&O Cruises in Australia.

These brands, which comprise the most-recognized cruise brands in North America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Southern Europe and Spain, offer a wide range of holiday and vacation products to a customer base that is broadly varied in terms of cultures, languages and leisure-time preferences. We also own two tour companies that complement our cruise operations, Holland America and Princess Tours in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Combined, our vacation companies attract eight million guests annually.”

So much for the death of passenger travel by sea!

That was my ice-breaker question for Sail-Away parties on board ship.  And it’s a question I wonder when I look each morning at how many folks visited my blog the day before.

Writing a daily blog is addictive, and a whole lot of work!  If you doubt it, go to WordPress.com, sign up for a blog and get started.  It’s easy!  Really!  But . . . if you want it to look good, be interesting, and get lots of readers, well, it takes lots of work.  But when it gets tiring I remind myself that my daily audience on the blog is a whole lot greater than my weekly audience used to be in church!

So, where is everybody from?

A year ago I added a little application called Cluster Maps which shows with various size red dots some of the folks who are coming to visit my site.  Comparing the Cluster Maps statistics to the more accurate WordPress statistics, I would say Cluster Maps catches about half of the visitors, but it does give you an idea where folks are coming from.  And it is not called the WORLD WIDE WEB for nothing, as you can see!  

The Cluster Maps application records visitors for a year, and then resets and starts all over again, which is what it will do today, or tomorrow.  So, before it resets, I thought you’d like to see where you, and some of my other readers, are from . . . 

The list of countries reads almost like the United Nations!

It’s a good life . . . living on our little coffee farm high in the Chiriqui mountains . . . running off for a few months at a time to lecture on luxury cruise ships around the world . . . I love it!

The coffee is looking good and with all the rain it will probably be an early harvest. I’m catching up on little things that need to be finished around the house and remodeling a little casita on the farm for my brother. Looking forward to Europe in the fall, the three continent cruise on ROYAL PRINCESS, and winter on the Amazon. All that means lots of research and work on new lectures and Powerpoints.

Mornings in the rainy season are generally beautiful in Boquete. As the rainy season moves on the clouds build up earlier, and rains are now starting around 2PM, which is a good time to get to work online. I had a professor in seminary who used to say, “Genius is applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair and staying there.”

The ROYAL PRINCESS has been compared to a very nice country club, or an upscale boutique hotel.  In a world where cruise ships just keep getting bigger and bigger, ROYAL PRINCESS is a ship that, well, looks and feels like a cruise ship, not like a massive hotel afloat.  For one thing ROYAL PRINCESS is only 31,000 tons, carries 710 guests, in mostly outside, verandah staterooms. The ship has:

5 Bars and Lounges
4 Dining Rooms
Spa & Fitness Center
4 Pools
9 Hole Putting Course
Casino
Princess Theater

The ship was originally being built for the now-defunct Rennaissance Cruise Line.  She sailed for a while under the Swan Hellenic flag, but was transferred by the parent company of Swan Hellenic and Princess to the Princess fleet in 2007.   Princess has three smaller ships described thus, “The small cruise ships of Princess evoke a contemporary take on a more refined, bygone tradition of cruising. Each sparkling vessel carry around 700 mostly adult passengers in a relaxed, sophisticated style.”

As presently scheduled, I will join ROYAL PRINCESS as Port Lecturer in Civitaveccia (the port for Rome) on November 28th on a 21 day voyage from Rome to Manaus. [Itinerary here - should you want to come along!] Then the ship will do a series of 15 day cruises between Manaus and Ft. Lauderdale, cruising the Amazon and Caribbean through the end of March. [Typical Itinerary here]

While I love Holland America, and loved being on the VOLENDAM, ZUIDERDAM and VEENDAM, and thoroughly enjoy doing the Canal itinerary, this will give me the opportunity to experience working on a small ship, re-experience Princess and get back to Europe and experience the Amazon.