Odds and Ends
- Managed to get the tire patched ($2.00) and on the way back to the apartment picked up another nail. Two days, two flats (same tire) - Jane thinks we should take the rental car back and exchange it for one that doesn’t have the special magnetic tire option.
- Explored a different grocery store - Thirty-Five (yes 35!) checkout lanes. The real surprise - thirty of them were open, including ten express lanes. Had the usual armed security guard (very common in Panama, regardless of the type store) - this guy had a M16 slung over his shoulder.
- Had a DQ Blizzard while we shopped for groceries.
- Jane needed some Imitrex (migraine medicine). In the USVI it was $22.00 a pill with a prescription. In the grocery store’s Farmacia (same exact medicine, same manufacturer, not a generic) $3.56 a pill without a prescription. Isn’t the U.S. health care system great!
- Had a very nice late lunch (early dinner) at a tipico restaurant on the way back up the mountain - $13.65, for both of us.
The highlight of the day, we found “our house” here is Cerro Azul. The current owners must return to the states for some specialized medical treatment and need to sell their dream retirement home. Much of the interior finish work was done by the owner, who is a woodworker, and he personally supervised the house’s construction. The wife (and her gardener) have done a spectacular job with the landscaping. It has almost everything on our wish list - the PROBLEM, we haven’t decided if we want to live in Cerro Azul, Panama City, or some yet unseen part of the country. Time will tell if this particular house was meant to be ours. We also reminded ourselves that the adventure has just begun.