Newsletter #92

Finca la Maya

This week Nora and I visited Finca la Maya in San Carlos. Finca la Maya is a beautiful 40 acre finca with Teak and citrus trees in abundance. It's a high-end retreat offering courses and workshops in the Arts. Steve Holmes and Starr McCamant, with the invaluable assistance of local volunteers are also operating a free community learning center, where locals can learn English, and an art center for children. We saw first-hand some of the artwork of the children .in the spacious air-conditioned classroom. In the works is an on-site public library.

To raise money for the library, they are hosting a romantic evening of music by famed Panamanian Guitarist, Cutito Larrinaga and an excellent buffet prepared by Glenn Gamboa, the extraordinary chef from "Three Sisters" gourmet international cooking school in El Valle de Anton. Local artists, as well as works created by children in La Maya's art classes, will be exhibited for sale, and a raffle for prizes will also be held. Tickets for the event are $35.00 per person and are available at Exedra Books in Panama City, online at. http://www.exedrabooks.com. Tickets can also be purchased at Mailboxes Etc. in Coronado (tel. 6722-8166), and will also be available at Finca La Maya's gate on the day of the event.

To get there from Panama City, head west over the Puente de las Americas Bridge, continuing on the PanAmerican highway ("autopista") for one hour. At the REY sign on the left you have reached Coronado Resort. Continue for another 10 minutes, north to San Carlos. At .8 km past the San Carlos turnoff, turn RIGHT onto a small paved road that has a RIO MAR ad next to it. Look for signs for FLM (Finca La Maya). Pass through village of "El Nance" always bearing right. Look again for FLM signs and a baseball field with wire fencing on right, bear right then make immediate hard left onto a newly improved road. Continue for several minutes to a fork in the road marked by a white cross, bear left. At next fork (small house) bear right. Yellow walls & red gates welcome you to Finca La Maya. (OK, I admit I cribbed these two paragraphs from the website. Why reinvent the wheel?)

I won't attempt to do a better job of describing the amenities and goals of Finca la Maya than Starr has done on the website. Read about it here.

http://www.fincalamaya.com/

I give Finca la Maya three thumbs up.

Geezer's PRT

The last two years have been tough ones for me. I suffered a mild heart attack and double bypass surgery in March, 2006 and while my recovery was going great, I had a detached retinue. Because I trusted my eye surgeon and he turned out to be a loose cannon, I spent more than a year in pain, and eventually lost sight in that eye. Medication which I was taking to control that pain weakened me to the point that if I squatted down, I couldn't get back up without help. Finally, I'm off that medication and I've started an exercise program to regain my strength.

I've set a goal for myself of passing the US Navy Physical Readiness Test for my age group by the end of January. I'm confident I'll be successful and would like to invite other geezers who would like to be in better physical condition to join me. I've put up a page on the website listing the standards for age 60 and over, and some guidelines on how to prepare. Look under 'Panama Living' for 'Geezer's PRT'. The first thing you need to do is contact your doctor and make sure you're healthy enough to do these exercises. Anyone who comes out to take the test with me in late January and who passes the minimum standard will be awarded a suitable-for-framing certificate. Email me if you're interested.

Robert finds some money.

Robert is a neighborhood character. He makes a living of sorts doing odd jobs. He used to live in the US, but the story is that he killed a man there and fled home to Panama. Everyone in my neighborhood, regardless of economic circumstance, gets treated with respect, but Robert may command just a bit more than others. Whatever the truth about what happened up North, Robert is a good worker and keeps himself busy doing the hard, dirty jobs that others don't want to do.

Last week Robert came to my house and wanted to talk about something he had found. There had been a burst water pipe just up the street from our house, and when IDAAN finally (after 6 weeks) got around to fixing it, they dug a very large hole, leaving a big mound of dirt and clay in the street. Each rain since washed away a bit of that dirt, until a plastic bag with some coins and the remains of a chicken were exposed. Robert found the bag and removed the coins, but was afraid to spend them so he had come to me for advice.

It is quite common in Panama to make a sacrifice before moving into a new home or remodeling. The sacrifice usually consists of a chicken and a few coins, and is believed to appease the evil spirits who can cause any number of bad things to come into your life. Such a sacrifice is what Robert had found. I suspect that if one dug up every yard in my neighborhood, a large number of coins and chicken bones would be found. Robert lives a hand-to-mouth existence, and any found money is welcome, so I knew what he wanted to hear, but also knew what he needed to hear, so I advised him to return the money to where he found it. Of course Robert already knew the answer, because while I respect the belief, he believes it. He said "I knew you were going to say that". Then he went to get a second opinion, and was again told, this time by a Panamanian, the same thing I told him. So Robert very reluctantly compromised by giving the money (74 cents) to a friend who doesn't believe in evil spirits. 74 cents may not seem like a big deal to you or me, but in Robert's world it can mean a full meal today instead of not quite enough, or a couple of cold beers at the Chino's.

Not unexpectedly, Robert dropped by the following day to "borrow" a quarter so he could get a cup of coffee. I told him I was fresh out of quarters and he would have to settle for a dollar, and remarked that God had probably arranged it that way to reward him for doing the right thing with the found money.

Bring Back the Magic