Weekly Newsletter
July 18, 2005

So you want to retire to Panama.
Newsletter #17 Volume #1

Chayote, Snakes, and Birthday Parties

Chayote

Chayote is a local vegetable that, like green bananas, can help stretch your food dollar. It can be prepared as part of a mixed vegetable dish, used in soup, boiled, or baked. Search Google for 'chayote' and you will find many recipes. You can find chayote at almost any vegetable market, including the supermarkets. It's a green, mango shaped member of the squash family and has one large seed. It is an excellent diet food, being very low in calories and fats. We bought chayote at the El Rey supermarket on Calle 50 this week for $.13 a pound, so it is also very economical.

My favorite chayote recipe is below.

*Cut chayote in half, lengthwise along the thinner side. You should have two halves that will lie flat. One chayote provides two servings.

*Boil or steam the halves until easily pierced with a fork. Do not pierce the skin, but test the flesh part with the fork.

*Remove the seed halves, and scrape the flesh out of the skin, being careful not to break the skin. I suggest leaving about 1/8 inch of the flesh in the skin.

*Mash the flesh with butter or margarine, adding salt, pepper and other spices to taste.

*Stuff the skins with the mashed mixture. Some people like to sprinkle grated cheese on top. Don't be afraid to experiment, this stuff is cheap. Bake at 350 degrees until the top is lightly browned.

Enjoy

Ignoring My Own Advice

I routinely advise people against eating shellfish or bottom feeders in Panama City, but Wednesday night I ignored my own advice and had a delicious assortment of seafood at Bucanero on Flamenco Island. The service was excellent, prices reasonable, and a nice atmosphere, but something in the seafood plate, which my friend and I both ate, kept us both busy in the bathroom for the next 24 hours. Our wives, who ate other dishes, were unaffected.

Snakes

Face it, if you live anywhere near any area with water, trees, and tall grass, you may have to deal with snakes. Over the years we have killed a number of snakes inside our fence and even in the house. Now please don't tell me about the benefits of having snakes to eat rodents, or worse yet, lecture me on animal rights. Just ask my wife, the only good snake is a dead snake. If you can convince her otherwise, then I will stop killing the non-venomous ones.

Panama has a lot of venomous snakes, though only two species, the Fer de Lance and the Bushmaster should be considered dangerous. Two of the three snakes I've killed within the last year were Fer de Lances, one only about 6 inches long, and that is the one that really worries me. It was crawling on the patio where we were relaxing. Being a very young snake, it couldn't have been far from its mother, so I know there are at least two fully grown Fer de Lances in the immediate vicinity. Two weeks ago, I killed one about 14 inches long in the kitchen. It had struck a gecko lizard, and when I moved and it saw me, it slithered under the cabinets. I waited patiently and after a few minutes if stuck its head out far enough to grab the lizard and began swallowing. I gave it a chance to get the lizard started down and then grabbed the lizard with a pair of pliers and gently pulled the snake out far enough to whack it on the head with a screwdriver.

The last one was last week and it was in the living room behind the entertainment center. It was a bit over two feet long and I dispatched it with ratshot. I'm pretty sure it was not venomous, but as I said, the only good snake is a dead snake.

Birthday Parties

When Henry III was approaching his first birthday, my wife said she wanted to have a party for him. No problem. I asked her how much money she needed. When she told me about $200.00 (this was in 1978), I almost choked. What on earth could be so costly for a first birthday party? Just how much cake and ice cream could a bunch of little kids eat, anyway? I asked her. She started counting off the things she planned to serve; cake, ice cream, soda, arroz con pollo, barbecued ribs, beer, rum.... Beer? Rum? What kind of kid's party has beer and rum?

I was about to learn a valuable cultural lesson. It's not just the kids who celebrate a birthday in Panama. It's also the parents, grandparents, friends, friends' friends, their maids, and probably 15 or 20 relatives and friends of invited guests. I also learned we needed to have enough food for everyone to take a plate or two home with them, and that some guests will stay as long as there is beer and rum left, so it is wise to not overdo that part of the menu, unless you like having strangers in your home until the following morning.

It's definitely different, and I've learned to cope. I even manage to enjoy the occasional birthday party now and then, but that first one was a shocker.

The Website

I've added two pages of pictures to the Panama Pictures section, on the Causeway and Chica/Cerro Campana. Go to the Panama Pictures section.

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