HP repairs their reputation...

Before I get to the rest of my trip I have to tell you about my computer saga.

I bought a new HP Pavilion lap top when my trusty old Dell was showing signs of giving up the ghost.  I did a lot of research and wavered between HP and Dell but the Pavilion ultimately won out because it had absolutely everything I wanted.  I don’t do a lot of video or play games, so I didn’t need the fastest processor or a gazillion MB of memory.  The Pavilion has a backlit keyboard that I find handy if I want to do some writing at night.  It has an Intel core i5 and Windows 7 so it covers the basics.

I bought an extended warranty (thank God) and had been using the computer for well over a year when I began seeing a problem with the screen.  It would occasionally dim and the images became blurry.  This began to become more and more frequent so I called HP to find out what to do.  Like any good-sized organization, they want to see problems resolved at the lowest level possible and the tech lady did her best to probe me for information that might give some clue as to what the problem was and, hopefully, a fix that she could talk me through over the phone.

That turned out to be a waste of time and she even managed to delete some files that I really couldn’t afford to lose, but at least I was able to reconstruct them.  (Note to self -- get a good cloud-based back-up system!)  So I had to send it in for repairs.  HP sent me a special box to ship it in and it included the label to get it to the repair location overnight.  Although I was not happy over the fact that I was without my computer, at least I had my little ASUS netbook as a backup and the whole process was handled very efficiently.  I received my laptop back on the appointed day, fired it up and the screen immediately dimmed and white streaks shot across the display from left to right.  So… over a week without my computer and it still wasn’t fixed.

The next day, a Saturday, I called the special repairs number provided and got their interactive voice response unit that claimed they were open, but no one answered my call.  The system also stated that I would have an opportunity to leave my contact information, but that didn’t happen either.  Perhaps I was supposed to call more than five times throughout the day to prove my sincerity in wanting to reach someone.  I finally reached a human being on Monday and we again arranged for my computer to be picked up and taken to the repair facility.  I wasn’t happy.  There were things going on in my life that required that I have access to OneNote, but I have the 2007 version on my netbook and the 2010 version on my laptop and, conveniently, they are not compatible (thank you Microsoft).

So the following Wednesday came with some anticipation of finally getting my computer back.  The day came to a close and no computer.  Hmmmm… maybe I misunderstood and it was being shipped on Wednesday.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  Thursday came and went and still no computer.  The handy-dandy HP repairs website gives practically no information about the actual status of your repair.  As I sat and seethed, I became more and more angry about the situation.

I finally got ahold of someone in Mumbai or some other sub-continent call center.  She was very polite and offered to send an “urgent” email to the repair facility to get to the bottom of this.  An email.  No information was available regarding the status of my repair.  She could not contact the repair center.  She had no way to research the matter.  What she could do, was the modern version of push papers around on the desk… send an email. 

Not being satisfied with that response, I called back and spoke with a gentleman who was actually less helpful, which took quite an effort.  Based on the horrible experience I had endured, he suggested that I take out another year of warranty service.  I did, but did not feel right about the way it was presented.  I still could not speak to anyone in the repairs area who might be able to say if or when my computer was fixed, when it might ship or anything else one might want to know about a computer that had now been out of commission for nearly a month.

Enough.  It may not pay off, but I decided to send my own email to Meg Whitman, president and CEO of HP, and politely but firmly vented (no point in ticking off the one person who may be able to help).

To my great delight and surprise, I got a call the next day from CeCe in the HP executive office.  She apologized profusely and said that I was to deal with no one else going forward; she would be my sole point of contact until I had my computer back.  She had already been in touch with the repair center and said it was going through bench testing that day to make sure the problem was fixed.  She also said she would send a $200.00 gift card for HP products to atone for the problems I had gone through.  Having been in the customer service realm for nearly 20 years, I appreciated her professionalism and the fact that she took ownership of the situation.  Problems happen and mistakes are made – it’s how you fix those problems that counts and I was impressed.  I didn’t think there would be anything on the HP website that I would want to buy, but I appreciated the gesture (it turns out that they have a lot of items well under $200.00 that I am interested in).

That was Friday.  The following Monday, I got another call from HP, this time from a man who said that CeCe was off that day and that he was working her file.  He confirmed that my computer had been fixed (they replaced the screen altogether) and would be shipping it first thing in the morning.  He further stated that he felt uncomfortable with the way I had been sold the additional year of warranty.  He refunded the amount I had paid but let the warranty remain.

So the bottom line is, I got a $200.00 gift card and an extra year’s warranty for my troubles.  I would say that HP has gone above and beyond to remedy the matter.  I would have preferred not to have been put through all that, but I have to give credit to the HP executive office for doing a smashing job of restoring my faith in them.

Sailing lessons in St. Thomas...

Every time I start planning a trip I am racked with indecision… my list of “must see” places increases on an almost daily basis.  Do I go somewhere just for fun (Morocco, Chile or the Canadian maritime provinces)?  Go see friends and family (Key West, LA or Seattle)?  Or take a look at a potential retirement location (return to Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia or maybe Ecuador)?  Or do I take a week to go through the basic sailing courses that will allow me to charter a boat while traveling?  My problem is that I want to do it all.

If I go to Costa Rica or Panama I can get some dental work done at the same time and save money.  I could do a stay-cation by doing the sailing training in St. Petersburg or Sarasota.  And if I go to Key West I will just drink a lot of beer and maybe get in some diving.

So… sailing or retirement research?  After going out on a friends little daysailer two weeks ago, the decision became easy.  I’ve been putting off sailing lessons because I hadn’t done the research and so I just didn’t know where to put it in the list of priorities.  Well, I got so excited after a day on the water that I knuckled down and got the research done.

There are literally dozens of sailing schools in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota area.  Lessons range from single classes taught at the various schools and the several yacht clubs, to weeklong get-the-basics-done courses.  In the course of my research I decided I want to get the three basic American Sailing Association (ASA) classes done all in one shot, so I can take single more advanced courses as I have the time and money.

As I dug a bit more, I discovered that I could take the same course somewhere in the Caribbean for only a few hundred dollars more than staying at home and get a great vacation out of the deal.  Until all of the frequent flyer miles I picked up with new credit cards post to the various mileage accounts, I really have to use either Delta or American.  So after comparing the locations of schools that offered what I wanted, had a reasonable cost and matched where I could fly for free using miles, I pared my list down to eight American Sailing Association accredited schools.

At a minimum I wanted to take the Basic Keelboat Sailing (101), Basic Coastal Cruising (103) and Bareboat Chartering (104).  Since I am very interested in someday having a catamaran (I think they tend to have more living space) I also want to take the Cruising Catamaran (114) course.  Many schools offer the first three as a combo because they only have monohulls, but three schools (Barefoot Offshore Sailing School, Belize Sailing, Blue Water Sailing School) offered all four classes. All three looked good, but I really wanted to attend Barefoot because it is located in St. Vincent and you spend the week sailing the Grenadines, a place that would be new for me.  Going to Belize was my third choice, in part because I have been there a couple of times in the last two years and would like to go somewhere new.  I figure that once I reach my destination I would spend a few extra days playing tourist and relaxing and while I could hop over to San Pedro to see my buddy Michael, I reallllly want to go somewhere new.

As it turns out, both Belize Sailing and Barefoot Offshore Sailing School were booked up and Blue Water Sailing School (BWSS) had availability, but not for the 101 through 114 course.  I suspect that if I had acted a few weeks earlier I would have had my pick.  So I will spend November 3 through 9 with BWSS taking the 101 through 104 courses in the gorgeous blue Caribbean waters around St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.  I wish I had been able to pick up the Cruising Catamaran class, but that will have to be done later either locally or on another trip.

I am really excited about this trip and I haven’t been to the Virgin Islands since 1986 (?) so it will be almost like going for the first time.  I am actually departing on Friday, November 2 before the cock’s first crowing and will arrive at Cyril E. King airport in Charlotte Amalie around 1:30 pm.  BWSS is located on the St. Thomas East End in the Red Hook area.  The folks at BWSS made a few suggestions for lodging and I chose what appears to be a charming B&B within walking distance of the American Yacht Harbor on Benner Bay where the BWSS boats are berthed.

Two Sandals by the Sea Inn only has a handful of rooms and I was able to get a single night reservation for November 2.  We board and start our voyage and classes approximately 3:00 pm.  Between now and then I have several books to read and pre-exams to take; this is going to be pretty intense.  There will be a maximum of six students aboard so our instruction is fairly individual and I anticipate studying together in the evening.  Our rates include the boat, instructor, provisions, fuel, ice, customs and immigration fees, books, certification fees and sales tax.  I noticed some other schools charge extra for books, taxes and a whole variety of things including the certification!  Our trip covers all costs except alcohol.  I may need to try out the local rums (Cruzan makes a black strap rum that is supposed to be quite good).

After six days at sea, we return to Red Hook and the balance of my vacation.  More on those details in my next post.

Back to writing and exploring...

After a number of months of not doing a lot of writing (work has been killing me and my laptop had to be sent in twice for repairs), I am back in the game.

I'll tell you about my laptop saga later but on top of acquiring a lot of frequent flyer points recently, I have vacation time scheduled for November and February and I am itching to get out and explore.

I work from home and pretty much set my own work schedule... as long as I get the job done and play nice with the others on my team, I could theoretically work from just about anywhere.  Well, my company has a site in Costa Rica where, if an emergency arose, I could plug in and work.  I raised the issue of working remotely from Costa Rica with my boss and she isn't opposed to the idea.  We're not sure if we can get it past the higher-ups, but it is not out of the question.

So.... looks like Costa Rica is my next stop.  It would be amazing to be able to move there while still working because I would still be earning a US-based salary but probably have much lower living expenses.  Not only could make weekend trips all over Costa Rica, but to Panama, Nicaragua, and the rest of Central America.

A serious consideration for wherever I end up is quick and easy jetting back home to see family and friends. The San Jose airport has good connections to Florida, LA (where my brother-in-law and his wife live) and even Seattle, where my sisters live.  This is definitely worth exploring, so I am seeing if I can quickly put together a trip for November.  I have six weeks to figure it out and will post as I go.  If I cannot make it work for November, I will just go in February instead.

More ways to earn miles…

Another card I have had for many years is my American Express Rewards card.  I earn award points for every dollar spent and some retailers offer bonuses for using the card in order to earn your business.  For example, if I’m buying flowers for Mother’s Day anyway, why not use the florist that gives me 3 miles for every dollar spent?  Well, over the years I have built up 66,000 rewards points.  Through the Travel Hacker site I learned that I could get 1.5 miles for every reward point transferred to the British Air frequent flyer program.  You don’t have to be a math prodigy to figure out that by opening a BA Executive Club account I could start out with over 100,000 Avios (their term for the frequent flyer club points).  Done.

But it gets better.  BA had a credit card offer that gave you 25,000 miles just for getting the card and another 25,000 miles for spending $2,500 in the first 90 days you have the card.  Done.  I spend about $800 every month for things like my cell phone, ISP, alarm service, utilities, etc.  Throwing in grocery purchases and other necessity spending makes it easy to get to $2,500 in 90 days without spending money on non-necessities.  I haven’t received the card yet, but my application was accepted and once I receive the card, I will switch my automatic payments from my Citibank Amex card to the BA card.  So… within a very short time I will have a BA Avios balance of 150,000 miles.

I relayed this information to a friend who wanted to know what the heck I would do with 150,000 British Air miles.  Excellent question.  You can book flights on American and many other airlines using your BA miles and avoid paying fuel surcharges at the same time!  This is covered in one of the Travel Hacker tutorials.  I thought I knew a lot about how the airline points programs work, but Chris Guillebeau, the founder of Travel Hackers, and his crew have taught me much more about both earning and spending points.

An important thing to understand about the airlines is that all major airlines and many regional airlines belong to one of three consortiums that work cooperatively to serve each other’s customers.  You’ve probably booked a multi-segment trip before and got onto a plane operated by a different airline.  That’s because of the code-share partnerships between airlines.  This also works on a broader scale for the member airlines of the One World, Star Alliance and SkyTeam associations.

Before deciding on my Panama trip last year, I was toying with going back to Morocco for a ten-day trip.  As usual, I went to Hipmunk to do my initial search for flights and noticed that some of the best flight combinations used Delta and Air France; both airlines are SkyTeam members.  For a period of almost a week, I could have booked flights to either Marrakech or Rabat for only 90,000 Delta SkyMiles.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough miles and by the time I figured out that I could have moved miles to Delta from my AmEx Rewards account the offer was gone.  But this points out the importance of having miles in members of all three airline partnerships.  I now have points built up in American and British (One World), Delta (SkyTeam) and United and US Air (Star Alliance).

All of these tidbits and more are detailed in the tutorials offered by the Travel Hackers web site.  Could you do this on your own?  Maybe, but getting regular updates and reminders from Travel Hackers is helpful and keeps you from going to every site imaginable to stay on top of it.  I encourage you to click the link and check it out.  You won’t regret it and the worst that can happen is that you learn how to get more travel for less.

Some people have concerns about having multiple credit cards.  I understand that and you need to have a plan to keep yourself out of financial and credit trouble.  To make sure I stay within my budget each month, I have an automatic payment made to my current credit card of choice from my checking account.  That covers my regular spending (as outlined above) and then I add up my spending each week and make an additional payment as I spend the money.  That way I don’t rely on the credit card for living expenses and always ensure my card is paid off each month and avoid paying interest.

Free airline tickets...

Anybody who has looked at any of my blogs in the last couple of months has seen a link to the Travel Hacker Cartel web site.  Their claim of earning a plane ticket every three months sounds like a pretty strong come-on, but I tried it out and it works!

The concept is simple – take advantage of offers to earn airline miles from credit card companies and others that want your business.  To earn enough miles on a regular basis requires that you “churn” credit cards.  For example, I just applied for a US Airways credit card through Barclays and was approved instantly.  As a result, I earned 30,000 US Airways Dividend Miles and if I do a balance transfer, I can earn an additional mile for each dollar transferred, up to 10,000 miles.  Once I have used the card and met all the qualifications, I will close the card and open one somewhere else to earn a new bonus.  Simple.

Obviously this requires keeping track of the cards you have and knowing a little about how credit works.  I never carry a balance on my cards; always pay on time and have worked hard at keeping a high FICO score.  American Airlines is my airline of choice and I have had a Citibank AAdvantage card for nearly 20 years.  It occurred to me that I really should cancel it, wait six months and apply for another so I can earn the 30,000 to 60,000 bump that is regularly available.

Another super offer was through SunTrust Bank.  This one is great because you don’t have to have great credit to get it.  Open a checking account online and use your debit card within the first 30 days to get 15,000 Delta SkyMiles.  Set up a direct deposit and earn an additional 15,000 miles.  It doesn’t get any easier than this!  In fact, this is the second time I have done this deal through SunTrust.  I kept the last account for seven months and then closed it.  Eight months later I opened a new account when the offer came around again.

Depending on your financial situation, there are tons of offers out there you can leverage to build your frequent flyer program balances.  I went to the AAdvantage website and found out I could earn 25,000 miles for opening a Fidelity brokerage account.  If you have money that is not invested, you’re earning between 0.1% and .5% on your savings or CD.  Moving the money to use as a qualifying balance for a checking account or, in this case, a brokerage account gets you a free trip instead of $1.78 interest each month.  That’s a pretty easy decision to make as far as I’m concerned.

The Travel Hacker site is great because it not only lists offers as they become available, but there are tutorials on understanding the process and how to get the most out of the frequent flyer miles you earn. 

I have a lot of travel experience, but I have learned more from the Travel Hacker Cartel than I thought possible.  More to come on earning and spending frequent flyer points.  In the meantime, click on the link at the top right of this page and get started earning free airfare!!!

Panama Post Script

On the day of my departure, I found my way easily from the Amador Causeway to Tocumen International Airport, ditched the rental car, got checked in and grabbed a cup of coffee to wait for my flight. All in all, the morning was uneventful.

Miami airport on the other hand never fails to disappoint; I swear I have had to walk outside to get to Concourse D for the last five or six years after clearing immigration and customs. It’s not that it is a great distance, and the weather on that Sunday was very nice, it’s just that I can’t believe how long this construction is taking. As usual the TSA people in Miami were surly (hand-picked, no doubt, to make an extra good impression on tourists).

Since my trip I have had plenty of time to think about Panama as an eventual place to settle. I am definitely going back. There is much more to explore.  Plus I want to get in some diving and at least try surfing (should be good for a laugh).

In fact, I did a cruise with the relatives in February that did the usual 4-6 hours per port, but we spent most of one day in Panama. We started by doing a partial transit of the canal from the North side and many, myself included, did an excursion that eventually dropped us off in Colon, where the ship picked us up before heading on to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

What I came away with during that short visit was confirmation of my first impressions.  Almost all of the Panamanians I came in contact with are very proud of their country and enjoy sharing it with visitors. It is a place of great beauty and tremendous economic potential.

On my next trip I would like to go back to Bocas del Toro, check out the region east of Colon (Portobelo and the San Blas area), the stretch of beach towns from Gorgona to Faralon (southwest of Panama City), Chiriqui Province (David, Boquete and Puerto Armuelles) and return to Punta Chame.

Belize is off my retirement radar altogether. While there are areas that are interesting and I wouldn't mind going back to visit, I don't see Belize as a place to retire. The nation's infrastructure is awful. There is little competition in the telecommunications industry, which keeps prices high, choices few and quality low. The import tax on just about everything means that retail shopping options are terrible. I assume that wherever I end up I will rely mostly on local or regional products, but when a basic bottle of wine I can get in the States for $15.00 costs $50.00 in San Pedro, the savings in other areas start to disappear.

I'm not sure where my next trip will be. Columbia, Ecuador, the Tulum area of Mexico and Costa Rica are all options. I also want to check out Malta and Indonesia. Wherever I go, I know it will be an adventure.

Panama Day 10: Canal Transit

Saturday -- Day 10: November 12, 2011

Taken from my hotel balcony --  definitely a room with a view!   

This was my last full day in Panama and the day I chose to do a partial transit of the canal.  I booked the trip through American Airlines and it turned out to be an incredible excursion at a great price.  There were a couple of minor hitches in the plans, but nothing overwhelming or unusual for Panama -- after all, this is a Latin country where “mañana” is not just the word for tomorrow, but a way of life!

The port facilities outside of Panama City.

I called the day before to confirm my tour and this is where I ran into a problem.  The first number I called was a non-working number, which was not a good sign.  The second number I called was answered by someone who spoke only Spanish and finally, after speaking to someone in the background, connected me to another individual who spoke English and was able to confirm my reservation and said that I would be picked up at 7:30.  Having someone (anyone at this point) actually say that my reservation was down in black and white was reassuring and I didn’t give it another thought.

I planned on having the hotel’s free breakfast at 7:00 and have plenty of time to meet the 7:30 pick-up time.  The breakfast was again quite good considering it was free, and I had some fry jacks with mango jam and quiche with a couple cups of coffee.  I was in the lobby by 7:25 and ready to see one of the most amazing engineering accomplishments in the world.

Gantry cranes unloading a Maersk cargo ship.

7:30 came and went.  At 7:45 I tried to calm myself by assuming that they were on Panama time and would be there at any moment.  At 8:00 I had exhausted my patience waiting for a tour scheduled for impatient tourists like myself and had the front desk call the tour operator.  She quickly found out that the boat leaves from just a little further out on the Amador Causeway and that I was the last pick-up stop.  The bus arrived about 40 minutes later for the 10 minute drive to the marina.  The funny thing is, it was the same marina where I had dinner my first night in Panama City.  I remember thinking that many of the boats tied to the docks looked like they were outfitted for giving tours.

After we all got checked in and had our reservations confirmed, we walked a short distance to our boat.  There was a light drizzle that appeared to be lifting quickly, giving the first glimpse of what looked like a beautiful day ahead.  My judgment as a weatherman would be seriously tested later in the day. 

The boat was called the Islamorada.  Having lived in the Keys for six years I thought it was fitting that I would take a tour on a boat that harkened back to one of the best periods of my life.  The boat started out as the Santana 100 years ago and was built for the JP Morgan family.  It later was refitted to serve as a rum-running boat for Al Capone, shipping the illicit nectar of sugar cane from the Dominican Republic and Cuba to warehouses in Islamorada, hence the present day name.  Built of cherry and Panamanian mahogany, I’ll bet it was quite a nice boat in its day.  Before becoming a tour boat, the 94-ton Islamorada was used for fishing charters and was popular with many in the Hollywood crowd including John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Steve McQueen, who all tried their hand at catching black marlin.

The pilot boat approaching the Islamorada.

A light breakfast was being served below deck as we boarded but I was more interested in finding a perfect place to situate myself in order to get the most of the adventure.  On the bow there were chairs set out that no one was using, mainly because they had little puddles of water in them.  I chose instead a perch directly in front of the main salon that was slightly covered by an overhang from the pilot house, joining some folks from California that seemed quite nice. 

We began pulling into the main channel and were met by the harbor pilot.  There are three requirements for transiting the Panama Canal. First, payment must be made 48 hours in advance in cash or by wire transfer. There are stories of bygone days when suitcases of cash and even gold ingots were proffered as payment. Second, any vessel must be seaworthy and be able to do the transit under its own power. Even sailboats must have some means of propelling them through the water. Third, there must be a Canal Authority approved pilot aboard the vessel who has total control until the ship is through the canal.

Construction of the new canal.

The narrator of our trip was quite proud that, in his estimation, the canal is being run in a much more business-like way than when the Americans ran it.  An example he pointed to was how the fee structure changed once the Panamanians took control.  The Yanks managed the canal to cover their costs and provide a service to the world for maintaining world commerce.  Under the Americans, ships were charged for the tonnage in the hold.  It didn’t take long for shipping lines to develop the now ubiquitous Panamax ship with shipping containers stacked six high on the deck.  When the Panamanians took over, everything changed.  Now the ship must pay for what the ship was capable of carrying and not just simply tonnage.  The Americans covered their costs while the Panamanians make money.

Islamorada bow with the Bridge of the Americas in the background.

It turns out that the highest toll ever paid was just a few years ago when Carnival Cruise lines paid a whopping $441,000 to transit the canal. The least amount paid was by Richard Halliburton from Texas who paid just $ 0.36 to swim the canal. Of course he had to meet the requirements of all “vessels” transiting the canal; he had to pay in advance, prove he could make it through under his own power (requiring a doctor’s exam) and had to have a pilot. The pilot rode the distance in a row boat along with a Marine sharpshooter who was employed to keep away alligators and caimans that roam the lakes and rivers of Panama.

The tanker we followed on our journey through the locks.

As we made our way to the first set of locks, we went under the Bridge of the Americas that connects Panama City with western Panama and carries the continuation of the Pan American Highway.  We went past port facilities that were feverishly unloading ships so they could get underway to pick up their next cargo.  Our narrator filled in the gaps between places with stories of canal history and interesting tidbits like the fact that the ongoing dredging of the canal has pulled up four times the amount of earth as was originally excavated to build it.  Between the silt coming down the Chagres and other rivers and near constant mud slides, the canal needs continual work to keep it free and fulfill its intended purpose.  As he was relating this information we passed the huge dredging vessel, the D'Artagnan.  A few months later I saw a show on the D’Artagnan on the History Channel.

Tanker with a "mule" on each side.

One of many amazing stories is that the Chagres originally emptied into the Atlantic, but was re-routed to flow out of the Pacific instead.  The lakes are integral to the canal’s functioning and it took 11 years to fill Lake Gatun.  Now the water from the various lakes and rivers provide almost all of the power to make the canal work since there are no pumps anywhere in the system.  Gravity makes the system work as I soon found out when going through our first set of locks, the Miraflores Locks system.

It began to drizzle as we followed a tanker into the lock and watched the mules as they kept the ship in place and from bouncing off the sides as the lock filled.  The largest ships to go through the canal are Iowa class U.S. naval ships that have a whopping 20” to spare from end-to-end.  All pilots must be experienced seaman beforehand and start by taking sailboats and other small vessels through as they work their way up to being able to handle the giant Panamax container ships that are purpose built to fit just inside the canal locks.  There is even special training for piloting military submarines through the canal.  Every countries navy pays to use the canal with the exception of Costa Rica and Columbia – not a bad idea to be nice to your neighbors.

A better view of the mules.

For anyone interested in the history of the Panama Canal, The Path Between the Seas is must reading.  Columbus made three visits to Panama and the nearby waters were frequented by buccaneers like Henry Morgan and other famous navigators like Sir Francis Drake.

The Miraflores locks rise 33 feet in a mere 8 minutes.  One of the truly amazing things about all the locks is that the lock doors use only a 25 horsepower motor to open and close.  The key is that the doors don’t push any water and because they are hollow, they essentially float on the water.  A giant culvert delivers the water from underneath, giving the impression that you are in a giant caldron of boiling water.  From the locks we motored out onto Mira Flores Lake.  It was at this point that the breeze picked up and it started to rain in earnest.

The lock doors closing.

Determined not to miss out on the experience, I remained outside huddled under the overhang with the rain coming from the east.  It didn’t take long for my right side to become totally soaked from the waist down.  I should have grabbed one of the $4.00 ponchos they had for sale as soon as it started raining; instead I ended up wet through and through.  Even my shoes got so wet that I could see the water squeegeed out as I walked.  I quickly became concerned that the clothes I would have to travel in the following day would not be dry before I had to go.  I put those thoughts aside for the time being and concentrated on the present.

According to our narrator, the biggest income makers for Panama, in order of magnitude, are tourism, banking, the free trade zone in Colon and the canal.  The new canal being built to the west of the existing one, is being built totally without bond underwriting.  Amazingly, the current income stream generated by the old canal is sufficient to pay for construction of the new canal.  On the day the new canal opens, there will be no debt expense so only present operating costs and ongoing repairs will have to be covered.  I’m sure that the new income stream will be a huge boost to a Panamanian economy that is already thriving.  The new canal is scheduled to be completed in 2014 and the contracts with the various companies doing the work are heavily incentive laden.

There's nothing quite like a stylish plastic poncho!

The second canal will enable 24-hour a day transit in both directions instead of the 12-hour shifts currently in use (North to South from midnight to noon and South to North from noon to midnight).  It will no longer be necessary to port ships in Mira Flores or Gatun Lake.

I ran into a young guy from Alberta who, like me, had a background in the construction business and shared my fascination with the engineering that went into the building of the canal.  He was an interesting person who had spent two years living in China and Southeast Asia.  He highly recommended the experience and we talked a bit about the extent of censorship in China.  One of the first things he noticed in China was the inability to access news channels of any sort because the government blocked them to keep their people fed on the pabulum of communist propaganda.  There is nothing like going out and experiencing the real world to help shape and form your opinions of what life is actually like.

Terracing the hillside to make way for the second canal.

We continued on through the Culebra Cut, renamed the Gaillard Cut after Army Corps of Engineers Colonel David du Bose Gaillard, whose Eastern side was nearly vertical and is covered with heavy wire mesh to hold the hillside in place.  The cut was critical to both completion of the canal and the ultimate design.  When the French began building the canal it was with the intent of making a sea level canal by removing a section of the continental divide.  The Culebra summit stood at 210 feet when the effort began and by the time the French gave up in defeat, they had reduced the summit to 194 feet and a very narrow width.  When the Americans took over in 1904, they changed the design to a lock-dependent canal system and ultimately increased the width of the cut to nearly a third of a mile.  When the excavation was completed in 1913, the summit had been reduced to only 40 feet above sea level.  The Americans had literally moved a mountain.

The tour ended in Gamboa and we took very comfortable buses back to Panama City.  Somewhat embarrassed, I squished my way through the lobby and jumped into a hot shower to warm up from being soaked to the skin for the last several hours.  I wrung out my clothes in towels to remove as much moisture that I could before hanging them up to dry.  I still had to go out to fill the car with gas, so I put my tennis shoes on the bathroom counter and inserted the hair dryer in one of them and set it on low.  By the time I got back from Avenida Balboa, my left shoe was practically dry.  Since that worked so well, I did the same for my right shoe and it was dry by the time I went to dinner.  While at dinner, I left the hair dryer in my jeans and dried one leg by the time I returned.  I continued that process so that at least my jeans and shoes were dry.  The final few items could go home in a plastic bag.

Ship on Mira Flores Lake being handled by tugs.

I highly recommend a tour of the canal.  My particular tour had an excellent narrator who interspersed construction information and pertinent canal history with local jokes and generally entertained the crowd for the duration of the tour.  The lunch was good and it was fun to interact with the other passengers.  If you go to Panama, you have to see the canal and doing a partial transit allows you to see the locks up close and learn the history and significance of the canal at the same time.

Panama Day 9: Visiting an Embera Community

November 11, 2011

On this morning I met my guide, Christian, for a visit to one of the several Embera settlements on the Chagres River.

The heavily silted Chagres River following the storm

The Embera peoples originated and, for the most part, still live in the Darien province, which borders Columbia.  In the middle of the last century a number of them settled along the Chagres, living in communities of 50 to 100 individuals.  They established their settlements much like they had lived in the Darien; based on their traditional subsistence farming using a slash-and-burn model along with fishing and raising chickens. 

The jungle receives so much rain that the nutrients are literally washed out of the soil.  Slash and burn farming is an age old method of clearing a parcel of land by burning much of the trees and vegetation, which has the effect of adding nutrients to the soil, and then moving on to a new parcel of land in a year or two when the soil becomes depleted and will no longer support growing crops.  The land quickly returns to jungle and the cycle is repeated.  This is not that dissimilar to crop rotation farming employed by more modern farmers around the world and has been practiced by tropical tribes for eons. 

Our ride finally arrives

Unfortunately for the Embera, that all came to an end when the Panamanian government chose to create a large nature preserve where the native population had taken up residence and their slash and burn crop rotation scheme was banned.  The only alternative for these people was to become a tourist attraction while making a valiant attempt to retain their culture, traditions and dignity.  By charging tour groups to visit them, putting on a demonstration of how they live and selling native crafts, they now eke out a living.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I was picked up at 8:00 a.m. and it took about an hour for our drive to the Chagres National Park where we would be met by community members who would take us upstream by dug-out canoe for a tour of the settlement, a demonstration of their craftsmanship, dancing and a typical meal.  When I booked the tour, I was given the price for a 1:1 guided tour with the assurance that if others joined the tour, the price would drop commensurate with the numbers in the group.  As it turned out, I remained the only one booked for that day and that suited me fine; the chance to ask as many questions as I wanted and get that individual attention was good.

A heron at the river's edge

I’m a bit skeptical of so-called folkloric tours because too often I think they have turned into little more than a modern circus side-show.  I hoped this would not be the case and was assured on the site of Embera Village Tours that they were sensitive to my concerns and that the woman who ran the company is in fact married to an Embera tribesman.

My guide, Christian, is a trained naturalist and native Panamanian who had married a woman from California.  He has traveled widely throughout Central and South America and has a natural curiosity of places and cultures that matches mine.  We hit it off instantly and had a great day.  Christian shared that his family owns a farm in the southern Azuero Peninsula and he visits often.  The road to the park is pretty bad compared to the roads to which I had now become accustomed.  In fact, in parts it was quite bad.  We went through an area that contained a cement plant and I was struck by the irony of having the materials to make a good road right at hand, yet the area remained underserved with respect to the streets.  Christian told me that this area was filled with squatters and that since they don’t actually own the land or rent it, garbage and utility services in the area are either terrible or non-existent.

Passing another village

We arrived at the park and went to the water’s edge to find our transportation.  Various dug-outs arrived… but not ours.  While waiting for our transport to arrive, we talked about the history of the villages, other tours he conducts and a bit about Panama in general.  Nervous that something had gone awry, Christian made several calls to the office to find out what had happened to our guides.  After waiting for well over an hour, Christian found out from the members of other villages that it had rained very hard the night before and the river rose more than anticipated, causing all of the dugouts from our village to be washed downstream.  When they discovered this in the morning, they naturally had to go out to retrieve them, causing our pick-up to be delayed.  The other villagers were having quite a laugh over the event and our group eventually showed up from down river with three dugouts and towing two others.  During our wait I had my own laugh over the seemingly incongruent picture of men dressed in nothing but a loin cloth pulling a cell phone from their waist packs to check their text messages as soon as they hit the shore.  Stone age meets the modern age. 

Arriving at "our" village

Once under way, it took about 45 minutes to motor upstream, passing other villages on the way.  The trees along the banks of the Chagres held countless birds and the river itself revealed a few crocs and caimans, although for the most part the river was so heavily silted it was hard to see much.  We heard the occasional howler money making their presence known as we passed by.  There were lots of large trees, roots and all, floating down the river towards the canal and the river banks were collapsing in places, a result of the previous night’s deluge.

The assistant Chief gives his presentation

I generally avoid other Americans when I travel because it seems most of them are there to take a couple pictures and buy their cheap souvenirs while not showing a genuine interest in the country and culture they are visiting.  I find myself embarrassed by people like that, whose actions are insulting to the host country.  I prefer to seek out locals or travelers from other countries.  I know, that’s a gross generalization of Americans, but unfortunately my experience has taught me that is closer to the rule rather than the exception.  It is as if they are just collecting stamps in their passports and bragging rights at the next cocktail party instead of really experiencing the country they have travelled to see.

The communal kitchen fire

So with that wariness (not sure that is a real word) always in the back of my mind, I of course ran into a retired ophthalmologist from Houston who wanted to trade Panama City restaurant tips instead of learning about the village and its people.  Although Christian was not their guide, he and his trophy wife were on the same dugout with me.  After brushing him off three times when he tried to strike up a conversation, he finally got the idea that I wasn’t interested in chit chat.

We were greeted upon our arrival by a goodly number of the village -- men, women and children all came out to welcome us.  The village sits on a low bluff overlooking the river and is made up of individual homes on stilts (although basic, I hesitate to call them huts because they are not small and appear to be quite sturdy), a school, a public kitchen used for cooking meals for the tourists and two open air lodges at ground level that are used for cultural demonstrations and lectures for the tourists as well as a place to sell their wares.

Lunch is served

I wandered around the edge of one of the lodges, viewing the positively exquisite woven baskets, plates and masks from palm leaf fibers and other crafts carved from Cocobolo wood and Tagua seeds.  There were also drums made of turtle shells, the typical animal carvings and bowls made of wood.  I was drawn to several of the masks and as I considered which one to buy, was beaten out by the ophthalmologist’s wife who grabbed the nicest mask; an elongated monkey’s face with an exaggerated nose.  I ended up getting the next best one.  She then had the gall to bargain over the price.  I think I was more disappointed over who had beaten me on the purchase than the fact that I had not gotten the one I really wanted.  The more I thought about it, the more disturbed I was about her aggressive discussion over the price.  $5.00 clearly meant nothing to this woman but meant a tremendous amount to the young girl who sold the mask.  No doubt another story to be shared at the club.  For some people, winning is more important than living a principled life.

My new friend Christian

We were waiting for other tour groups to arrive before the assistant village chief (I'm not sure that is his real title, but it is at least descriptive of his role) would officially welcome us and describe their culture and manner of living.  Christian took me on a quick tour of the communal areas of the village.  One of the most interesting things was the public kitchen.  Here, women and older girls were working on preparing us lunch.  The “kitchen” was an open air affair on stilts with a roaring fire slightly off-set to one side.  The fire is on a raised area created by a square of logs containing a pounded sand hearth.  The sand creates enough insulation to keep the fire from burning through the wooden floor.  The smoke helps to preserve the thatched roof by creating a natural insect repellant against carpenter ants and termites.  Christian said that the individual family lodges also use a fire on a regular basis to control insects.

World Cup here we come!

Once all the tour groups had arrived, the assistant chief gave his presentation in Spanish and it was interpreted by the various excursion leaders.  He spoke about the materials used in their crafts, how the fibers were dyed using natural pigments and methods and a bit about community life.  This was followed by some dancing and time to walk about the village and even receive a tattoo (similar to a Henna tattoo, not permanent but they last a week to ten days).  I enjoyed watching a group of boys (half of them naked) who struck up an impromptu soccer game with a partially-inflated ball.  This was certainly more interesting than watching the other tourists scramble for souvenirs.

Girl with a face tattoo

We enjoyed the dug-out trip back to the park and Christian and I continued to chat about what we had seen.  As we drove back to Panama City, I confided in Christian my apprehension about the drive to the airport on Sunday morning and having to be there by 6:30 a.m.  When we got to the hotel, he did a u-turn back to Avenida  Balboa to show me the way I would take on the way to the airport.  This certainly was not something he needed to do and this took an extra 40 minutes out of his day.  In retrospect, I should not have been surprised since this was a rather typical show of the hospitality I had been afforded by the vast majority of Panamanians.

I spent part of the remaining day light watching the ships navigating out from the Canal and into the Pacific beyond.  The following day I would do a partial transit of the Canal and I was really looking forward to it.  That night I sought out a new restaurant further up the Amador Causeway on Isla Flamenco and had a great dinner of whole, grilled Corvina.

Panama Day 8: Arriving in Panama City

November 10, 2011

I slept like a log but still woke up around 6:00 a.m.  I took a long walk on the beach (about three minutes away) followed by a swim.  The sea was absolutely flat and the beach was incredibly wide because the tide was out.  There were some funky tubes sticking out of the sand that I assume were connected to a clam or other species of bivalve.  They left little excavation piles of sand as they dug through the beach.

After my jaunt to the shore I had a great Southwestern omelet at the restaurant.  My server reminded me of the Polish and Czech staff I had at my guest house because she asked me how to pronounce several English words on the menu – just like my housekeepers, she was dedicated to her guests and wanted to do even better.

Another hotel on Punta Chame beach

George and I talked some more about his marketing efforts and his overall approach to running the hotel.  He is a very savvy guy and his business acumen comes naturally.  He still has a commercial cleaning business back in the States but he is really concentrating on building up his occupancy at the Villas (already at 50% in just two years of operation) and completing the landscaping.  He is thinking of closing in the balconies on a couple of rooms to make them bigger and more easily able to accommodate larger families that need the extra room.  I suggested that he needs to build a presence on Facebook, make sure his website is fully bi-lingual and to consider having a Portuguese translation for the ever-increasing number of Brazilian tourists.  Not surprisingly, I received an invitation to visit his Facebook page a few weeks after returning home.

Boats left stranded by the ebb tide

As I was leaving Punta Chame Villas, George was receiving a fish delivery with tubs of langostino, snapper and the specially ordered grouper for his Canadian guest.  I drove down a few side streets to check out the area since it was raining lightly and almost dark when I drove in the night before.  There are other hotels and resorts and even a water sports park called Nitro.  The houses in the area are nicely kept up and there is a wide variety of architectural styles.  I came across a school and the medical center.  There are also several tropical plant nurseries that, no doubt, sell their stock to home centers and flower shops in the surrounding area and Panama City.

The traffic was light as I headed into PC.  If I haven’t already made it abundantly clear, road signs are all but non-existent in Panama.  And that is the excuse I am sticking with for taking the wrong turn on the Pan-American and ending up going over the Centennial Bridge instead of the Bridge of the Americas.  This cost me an extra hour to get to my hotel located at the beginning of the Amador Causeway (plus a few bucks in tolls).  With trusty map in hand, I pulled over after every other exit to take another look at the map and determine which road I should take in order to loop back around to the Corredor Norte  and eventually past Albrook Mall, past the YMCA and onto the Amador Causeway.  Even the locals told me that street navigation is primarily accomplished by knowing the major landmarks.  Thank God I had spent some time staring at the street maps of PC so some of these things stuck out in my mind as I was driving.

Driving across the Centennial Bridge

I checked into the Country Inn and Suites, which is very easy to find.  My room was quite nice; not luxurious but clean, comfortable and designed to US standards.  The real attraction, though, was the view.  I had a porch overlooking the southern opening of the canal and the Bridge of the Americas.  Wow.  I opened the drapes just in time to see a huge cruise ship exiting the canal right in front of me.  The hotel is undergoing a major renovation.  In addition to completely updating the rooms and laying new floors in the hallways, there is an addition being built for, I would guess, about 50 more rooms.  There are people from all over the world staying here and the tour buses were backed up the next morning taking people on excursions to the canal, jungles, the nearby aboriginal tribes and of the city itself.

Bridge of the Americas from my hotel room balcony

The hotel does not have much in the way of on-site amenities other than the TGI Friday’s restaurant and a nice pool.  There is also a free buffet style breakfast that has simple, but decently prepared fare and includes something for everyone.  After getting settled I went to the front desk to get directions to a store and maybe an ATM.  The lady at the desk was not particularly helpful as she kept directing me back to Albrook Mall.  For those that don’t know, Albrook Mall is the Panamanian equivalent of the Mall of the America in Minneapolis.  There are probably more tour buses in the parking lot than cars.  This is not where I wanted to go to pick up a few snacks and a six-pack.  As I left the hotel, instead of heading into the city I chose instead to drive the opposite direction if for no other reason than to prove the front desk person wrong – that there is more to Panama City than a shopping mall.

The Amador Causeway is just a road connecting several islands (Isla Naos, Isla Perico and Isla Flamenco) and the mainland.  There are a number of hotels, shops, marinas, boat repair shops and chandleries.  I found an HSBC ATM and a small shop to buy what I needed, plus I picked up some Panamanian coffee to bring back for the crew at the office.  I continued a bit further and noticed tourists, families and couples walking, biking and jogging along the broad sidewalks up and down the causeway.  It was an overcast but beautiful Thursday afternoon and everyone was out to enjoy it.  The boats were sliding through the blue Pacific waters and it was a glorious day.

The PC skyline from the Amador Causeway (note
the jumbotron in the center of the picture)

After a shower and some time on the balcony watching the ships, I drove back over the causeway to an area with several restaurants.  I chose a modest establishment with a good crowd, figuring that the food would be decent and reasonably priced.  I assume the menu was good but I’ll never know because I left the hotel without my glasses.  Idiot.  Even if the light had been better I wouldn’t have been able to read that menu.  I ended up communicating to the mechanic boyfriend of the waitress to just surprise me.  Although his English wasn’t good, it was a far sight better than my Spanish and he got quite a laugh out of the situation.  I really need to start the Rosetta Stone Spanish course I bought.  I ended up having a very nice plate of langostino in a buttery tomato sauce with rice and vegetables.  Dinner and a couple of beers came to about $11.00.

What the restaurant lacked in ambience inside was more than compensated for by the bobbing of the boats on the water and the starry skies.  From my table I was able to watch folks walking by on the boulevard enjoying the evening as much as I was.  I joined the strollers for a while before heading back to the hotel and watching the boats and ships still plying the waters in front of my balcony.

A retirement research sidebar -- International Living Retirement Index

The January 2012 edition of International Living is out and includes the annual Retirement Index.  Once again, Panama is towards the top of the list; in fact it is number two.  And, once again, let me say that while the index is interesting and contains useful comparisons between countries in a variety of categories, each of the category summaries need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Don’t get me wrong… the article is worth reading.  As always there are comparisons on real estate prices, cost of living, health care, climate and a total score.  My problem is this: how you come up with a single number that summarizes a whole country?  As an example, I keep reading about how wonderful the upland areas of Columbia are; year-round temperate weather, no need for heat or A/C and the coastal areas are outside the hurricane belt.  So why does Columbia get a score of 75 while France gets a 90?  The last I heard, there is plenty of snow and cold weather in France.

Read the main article; just use your best judgment when evaluating the data.  Separate links are available for each aspect of the index.  You need to be a subscriber to access the full article.  While I won’t reproduce copyrighted material, if you leave me a message I would be happy to provide a summary.  If you like what you see and you are interested in retiring overseas, I recommend getting your own subscription to International Living – it’s money well spent.