In the yard....

Alexandra, Doris' dog, found this potential playmate hanging onto a philodendron leaf
The little guy never did come down to play.
Then, Paul spotted this on a leaf next to our door .... anyone have a clue what it is?
I had to look at it from the other side, but Paul saw right off that it was a praying mantis.

Some rainy seasons get SO wet that -

The local kids looking at the way the last gully-washer changed the creek that runs behind our house - this is actually about 1/2 a kilometer downstream from our house --- see how rocky our soil is? Also note that whatever einstein designed the new bridge, actually created quite a fine dam!
This is a closeup of where the bridge joins the dirt road - looks to me that if someone doesn't do something, that bridge could end up being an island. I'm not kidding you, that truly was a bridge - is now an odd sort of ford.

And this shot is a closeup of how every little rock protects (at least long enough for a photo) the ground underneath it:

Despite the rain, interesting new bugs are appearing in the garden

& Our peach-colored Angel Trumpets (about a foot long) perfume the air.

In the area -

This is a portion of one of our local hydroelectric projects ... very picturesque and functional, too. Unfortunately, many of Panama's water rights are being purchased by other countries, and the newer hydroelectric projects that are going in are not so picturesque - worse, the electricity will be sent to other places and the profits will go there, too.


View of Paso Ancho from the coffee farm that's up the mountain from our house - soon, coffee beans will be ripe and the sounds of workers picking will join the bird's songs.

Wiki Map -

You should be able to click on the title of this post - if not, the link is below, as well. This Wikimap link gives you a topographical map of our part of Panama - the square in the upper left corner is where our house it.... As I type this, I'm listening to birds singing, which is why Paul titled our block 'birds, birds, birds'.


http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=8796444&x=-82641993&z=14&l=0&m=s&v=2

OR you can google casa foguth and the link.

Snippets ...

Big news is that we'll soon have human neighbors - a lovely Canadian couple is building this home about 100 meters up the road from us.
Below is Yoli & her 'new' baby ... I think the little guy must be getting close to 6 months old, since Yoli and Victor are bringing him out ... he still doesn't have a name. Now, I'm no expert on Ngobe-Bugle culture, but from what I can piece together, due to the high infant mortality rate, until any baby reaches about 6 months of age, it's just referred to as 'a baby' ... found this very confusing when Yoli and Victor had Myrna and I kept being told 'it's too early for a name' ... now, I accept that it'll be a while before I learn what this little fella's name is.

It's now the 'heart of rainy season' and the tarantulas are engaged in romance - Paul discovered this little guy in his garage, and quickly chased him into an empty coffee mug using a coverplate for an electric wall switch as a 'shield'...

Paul let the little guy go out on our rock wall - assured him that there would be lots more lady spiders (they're easy to identify since they're about twice as big) in the wall than he'd find in a garage ... the little fella tried to fight Paul on that one (that's the switchplate in Paul's hand) ...


& we all know how Jeanne loves flowers and is particularly interested in the sculptural aspects of banana blooms - well, this is another type of banana flower - according to locals, the fruits of this smaller variety of banana are small and red skinned ... they may have a medical aspect, too:

This n that

This is the path that runs behind the house and the drainage channel (just to the left of the gravel walkway) we built to deal with the rainfall we get this time of year.
We're just starting these steps, which will eventually lead up to a seat overlooking the river.


This section of path is on the back side of the house:
AND the following photos are some of what one sees when they walk through the garden:

Catching up....

We know we've been neglecting this blog for too long. Sorry about that.

Rainy season, which started in April, has brought a few floods - In general, I don't mind them, and consider them far less destructive than what we were used to in SC. That said, we do live on the side of a mountain - a very rocky mountain - and when the water gets going, some of the rocks in the stream move ... a couple days/nights have sounded like we live next to a bowling alley .... that said, I was not pleased to discover that a couple VW sized rocks had headed down stream... fortunately, they were replaced by interesting new rocks:

While we haven't been inconvenienced by this relocation, others have because they need to get to their properties by crossing the bridge ...

So you see how half the flow is plugged with rocks? And, let me assure you that those tubes are MUCH smaller in diameter than the rocks that got washed away... Don't know who was brilliant enough to design that sort of bridge for our type of river. The old bridge was much more sensible:
Yes, it's falling to bits due to old age, but the interesting thing is that when the flood was at it's worst & going over the new bridge, the old one was out of the flow & despite its ffy looks, is still strong enough to hold a full dump truck.

At the local hot springs...

Now that we have Jimny Cricket, we are investigating all the 'hot spots' off the beaten path - uh, this is the particular path we followed, today:
Which took us to this river
Which had a park like area next to it & a changing room
The facilities were for the hot springs, which this family was enjoying

Meet Jimny Cricket...

After much research about what vehicle would be ideal, yet economical to drive, we decided on a Suzuki Jimny (I call her Jimny Cricket)... once she gets broken in, the manufacturer claims that she'll get 70 kilometers per gallon. The ride is more like a truck, but she's got high ground clearance & the option of 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel high or low, so we can get lots of places... we need this because roads we wish to investigate often look like this:

Once she survived the rigors of the trip home from Panama city (lots of crazy drivers on the road), we took her up to Baru's old theater (the old caldera, which was the epicenter of the explosion which littered this area with rocks about 700 years ago)



Since it's currently 'dry season', it's windy and dry - you can 'see' the wind gust by looking at this tree's branches :

Bananas ...

Bananas are in bloom & you can call me strange, but I think they look like living sculptures -

And life goes on...

This past Sunday afternoon, we went to a local benefit for the needy, which featured a the 'New Generation', a mariachi band of 5 guys from David. (yeah, I know there are only 4 in this first photo - #5 is in the 2nd photo ;-)
Doris, Pierre & Alexandra went with us & one of the singers singled out Doris for a serenade -

While all of the band were talented musicians as well as singers, I thought this gentleman had an exceptional voice:
During a break, Alexandra, Doris & Pierre's dog, met many local kids and puppies ... we're not too sure what she thought of that, but she was polite -
AND, during the break, Doris and I were busy photographing the event:

Of concrete, paving stone & patios...

When we phoned Pierre early Monday morning to ask if we could borrow his wheelbarrow, (yes, we could), Pierre & Doris also volunteered to help with our patio project - that's Pierre in the far back, Rolando in the middle and Doris cleaning slate pavers.
It was difficult to get a good photo of Rolando because he was always hard at work - by trade, he repairs shoes, but he's really good at working concrete - and he cleans up, too!
Doris was tricky to 'catch', as well.

As the project progressed, the pile of paving stones we had stacked against the wall diminished -
This is the 'almost finished' back patio - stones still need a final cleaning and flower bed needs plants, etc., but the hard part is done.
The project also covered construction of a concrete trough on the west (high) side of the house
The trough curves around the west side of the patio before the water goes down a drain & into the creek -


& this is the view from the living room out the front door - blue tarp was up because it started to rain --- more on paving the front in a later blog.