My body is sore. As I understand the Pilates moves I did in my first lesson on Thursday, my legs should feel stretched and my core should feel tight. While I feel a little tightness in the core, my shoulders are SORE. I had a feeling this might be a problem. Even with many reminders to loosen and relax them, my shoulders were up under my ears almost constantly. You see, I am wound just a little tight. Full relaxation is often very difficult for me. Why? I surely don’t know. Sometimes as I’m lying in bed trying to sleep I realize how tense I am – like a pork chop I could almost be picked up by my ankles only.
If I learn just one thing, to let go a little bit, Pilates will be a valuable form of exercise for me.
There is so much city here to explore. Over the weekend we walked. And walked. I wore sandals I don’t often wear. Oh, blisters–I felt them forming. But we go prepared; Stan had Band-Aids and fixed me up. This place, especially its skyline set on the water is beautiful. It is fantastic! It’s breathtaking. There is nowhere else like it. Well there might be; locals fondly refer to Panama City as Miami of Central America.
Across the horizon, west to east there are many, many awesome looking uniquely designed, tall multi-story buildings. They make the landscape incredibly stately and beautiful, especially at night. Frankly though this city is dirty! Whole city blocks and some neighborhoods are kept pristine, yet so many other streets are dumping grounds for bagged trash, bagged doggie litter (why do they bag it then drop it??), Styrofoam takeout cups and food containers, food scraps, and discarded masks. It is shocking. What is even more shocking is that there is a lot of money and resources here. There are 78 banks in Panama, 29 of which have international licenses. Bank buildings are some of the most elaborately designed buildings. There are huge shopping malls. The Multi Plaza Mall near us has 500 stores with names from Claire and Zara to Gucci and Hermes. Although we have not met any yet, Panama is a mecca for American expats. Among the commercial buildings stand absolutely fantastic gated condominiums where beautiful cosmopolitan people and their pampered pooches make their homes and second homes. Lamborghini and Ferrari dealerships within walking distance from us. There are huge hospitals and medical complexes in every direction throughout the city. But we have to walk on trash littered sidewalks almost everywhere we go. Why?
There are articles that offer explanation . . . lack of public trash containers. And where there are trash bins, the city does not service them with regular or required frequency. Trash cans quickly become overflowing. This seems to create an attitude like . . . if overflowing trash bins don’t bother the city, then they don’t bother me. I’ll just add mine to the pile. The mound of litter often seen around a public trash receptacle is horrible. Probably first and foremost, a huge reason for so much garbage is that much of the population cannot afford their own trash pick-up service. Five to six dollars a month is a lot and simply cost prohibitive to many, many families. Their trash goes into ravines, rivers, and the ocean and along the street. If there is a vacant lot, it soon becomes a trash dump.
Yes, the good news is that city is implementing improvement plans such as public awareness programs, no liter/no basura dumping signs, educational programs in schools, community clean-up initiatives, elimination of plastic bags, and new goals for zero-waste, etc. The bad news: this is a long term initiative that needs short term results.
After church on Sunday we planned to visit Segundo Muelle, a Peruvian restaurant, for lunch. It was highly recommended to us by our friends. Specifically we wanted ceviche and Peru has the world’s best ceviche. As a very nice gesture, Ricardo and GG from church offered to drive us there. No we said. Finding our way there by public transportation is an adventure for us. Besides what else did we have to do? I was hungry though. It was easy enough to catch the bus to Abrook but Lord, finding the pick-up spot for the second bus on to the district of San Francisco was challenging. We use the MiBus app and also Google Maps. Both tell you the name or name & number of the appropriate bus and where and when to catch it—just not on Sunday.
The trip took a little longer than we expected. Instead of arriving at Segundo Muelle for an early for lunch we made it there about 12:30. We left church at 10:30. Perfect! Except by this time I felt like I was starving.
What a nice, nice place. As we were seated at our table, a tray of plantain chips and a smooth green chili salsa was brought out. We tried our Spanish with the waiter to determine if the seafood ingredients were heat cooked or lime-cooked. We explored his recommendations for cervezas. Later I asked and learned (amazingly) in Spanish how the salsa was made and was told the name of the drink the man sitting at the next table was having. I was curious. Pisco Sour. Communication happened!!! Simple things are very satisfying.
We were so hungry we didn’t stop to take photos of the pretty plates. We simply dived in. It was muy delicioso!
Time goes go by so fast! Today is Monday. I had my second Pilates lesson today. I like it. It is a righteous workout. It is going to take a long time for me to learn to relax all my body except the engaged core while pushing the reformer backward with heels, toes or arches and pulling the machine back with only engaged upper and lower abs. If you have ever practiced Pilates you will know this is just beginner stuff.
This is Thanksgiving week. Our best wishes to everyone for a wonderful and grateful Thanksgiving Day. The holiday is mentioned here but as expected not widely celebrated. Because of the reported large number of expats, some restaurants advertise turkey dinners. November 28 however is an important holiday this month. It is Independence Day, celebrating Panama’s 200 year independence from Spain. But what Panama is really gearing up for is Christmas. Elaborate decorations are up already and even small shops have Christmas trees. and season’s greetings. I’ve always enjoyed seeing holiday decorations. I’m sharing a few photos of the more commercial displays. Watch for more throughout this special season.
We are packing today and leaving tomorrow for that trip we are so excited about. We considered hiking to the rim of the Baru Volcano there but we learned through more careful research that the hike is about 13K almost straight up to the top and 13K back down. That’s about 17 miles. We’ll just do the waterfall hike instead. Everyone tells us we must have the strawberries and cream while in Boquete . . . and gelato. At Bocas del Toro I look forward to actually getting to swim in the clear Caribbean waters.
What a beautiful city!
Looks like a beautiful place!You folks are doing a lot of walking!! Have fun! Ann
Hi Ann! Yes, we are indeed doing a lot of walking but it’s so good for us plus we get to see things up close and personal. Hope you are well! Thanks for following along!