TheExpatJournals.com

One thing I do miss a lot about Panama was spending New Year’s Eve in Portobelo at the home of my friend, Sandra Eleta .  Being the great lady that she is, it was always fascinating and since I spent a one night with her when I was in Panama a couple of months ago, missing it was felt all the more.  Her Portobelo compound was always filled with the most interesting people no matter when you visited, but New Year’s Eve was special.  It instilled in me an appreciation for new spiritual traditions.  The custom of burning a muneco (doll in English, but almost a life-sized scarecrow-like rendition in real life or as most foreigners here call them: effigies.) of someone you dislike was something I adored in Panama, so I was very glad to see it’s just as much of a custom here in Ecuador.  In Panama, they’re called munecos.  In Ecuador, they’re called ‘Ano Viejos’.   (more…)

It took two days of bureaucracy to finally get my Ecuador driver’s license. The main reason for me to do this was two-fold: A. A driver’s course is mandatory and cost $160 up until May 1 when it was rumored to shoot up to $900. B) My US license expires in July and I’m not so sure I’ll be back in time to get it renewed. So the double whammy added up to ‘just do it.’ And boy did I ever break it in! (more…)

I’m coming up on a year of living in Casco Viejo and boy is this a very different neighborhood from the one I moved into. Yesterday was the most perfect day, a rare and beautiful bright blue sky filled with clouds of all configurations. I decided to go out and take a few pictures as it’s a rare opportunity to shoot with a blue sky rather than a white or grey one. The flame trees are in full, orange-red bloom. Later, they’ll turn to a deeper red, but for now, orange is the more dominant hue. I walked up the Paseo, stopped at the tree where I shot a pelican last summer and know them to roost when the trees are in bloom. Apparently they nest there, too! A large baby pelican was sitting in the exact spot I shot the adult pelican last
year.

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Well, it feels akin to that in-between hair stage on this board right now. There are lots of things happening in the neighborhood, but I’m not well enough informed to actually write about any of it.
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It’s been nearly 7 months since I took my apartment in Casco Viejo.To recap, for the better part of a year, I researched Panama and was absolutley smitten from afar. By the time I came down to spend a month exploring, I felt like I knew the place fairly well; it was just a matter of seeing and experiencing the information accumulated in my head, making it real as it were.
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Yeah…the Panamanian attitude of Manana is hitting me. Actually, when I opened this, it was in lieu of having the skill set to build a website and horrible baggage from nightmares with developers in my all too current previous life in NYC. So it was mainly for sharing my photos and journals as opposed to me expecting it to get the kind of activity VEW and CEW and AIP get. Having said that, I do hope to put together a killer website that might offer a lot of comprehensive information without soliciting tour packages or hiding behind fake magazines to sell overpriced real estate, etc.

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