THE ANTS COME MARCHING IN

First off, Ray and I haven't been home for three weekends (poor us).  This weekend, being Easter, and our daughter coming home for a later than usual Spring Break (she is student teaching and has to take spring break with the public school system and not the college this year), we are staying home and not spending it at the lake house.  What to do when at home?  And it is sixty degrees (finally!).  Spring cleaning.  Blech.  It didn't start out yesterday morning as being a cleaning day, but it had to be done at some point.  So Ray and I set out on some morning errands hitting Gary's Car Wash first.  His car was super messy with snow, salt and dirt.  Then to WalMart to look for bubblegum Peeps!  If anyone is to have that flavor, surely it would be WalMart.  Nope.  When leaving his car, he noticed many surface scratches at the front end of the drivers side.  What!  We knew it wasn't from the car wash, but now with the car being super clean, these scratches were noticed, and we decided they must have come from some irresponsible traveler hauling luggage at the airport last week.  We picked up some cheap surface scratch stuff, but alas no Peeps, and other essential cleaning aids.  Ray tried to get his hair cut, but the place was packed.  Once home, we realized the cheap surface scratch stuff didn't due the trick, but I had purchased Meguier's brand surface scratch compound two years ago (for my car, it was worth the purchase when I saw the tiniest first scratch on my door--horrors).  This product was found when the garage called out to be purged and cleaned.  Miracle lotion it is!  Scratches mostly gone!  Dirt in garage now gone.  We chatted with the neighbors who we rarely see, since we are at the lake house most weekends, paid off the girl that watches our house and collects our mail when we vacation with cash and Easter candy, bills paid, toilets cleaned, and then I decided to clean our floors.

Ants.  This is what happens when I clean.  I notice things I don't want to notice, but I am so glad I did.  The ants were marching all over my kitchen and sunroom floor.  Just a few, here and there, and no real ant trail, but enough to warrant a spray down.  (And thankfully, I just happened to pick up ant bait traps at WalMart when in the toilet cleaning aisle, because last fall when I saw them in the laundry room, it was eight pm at night, and, yes, I did run out to the store to get sprays and traps!)  This wasn't enough for Ray though (who was away both times the ants showed up in the laundry room).  Our sprayer was at the lake house, so off we went to Home Depot to get a sprayer and bug stuff such as Spectracide (which we didn't need because we had it in the newly cleaned garage but couldn't remember that from a few hours back).  Ray sprayed the perimeter of the house, and I decided to give my shrubs some plant food.  Then Ray put me to the task of cleaning up the leaves that continuously blow down the steps to the basement and settle in the corners.  My next door neighbor is building a shed.  He called over that we were making him look bad with all that we were doing.  The guy is building a shed from scratch, and he thinks we will make him look bad!

The reason I decided this most important post would be about ants (because I know that all of my posts are super important and hold valuable information!) is because on the Expat Exchange Forum many expats have posted within the past few months about bugs and ants coming into their houses and the best methods to get rid of the pests.  Oh, and I love the questions that ask "can you buy things in Panama to get rid of bugs"?  Yes, Panama has stores.  With doors and windows in them.  Many future expats were posting some questions but mostly concerns about bugs and ants raiding the houses.  Well, it doesn't just happen in Panama!  And just like in the States, there are traps, chemicals, even pest control agencies (I will be getting for those pesky termites more so than ants!), but bugs are everywhere.  My concern when in Panama will just be how I can possibly keep it together when I see these pests, be accepting of them being present, and keep telling myself I am the bigger person, literally.

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Ants

PICTURES OF OUR PANAMA TRIP!

Just a bunch of random pictures of our second trip to Panama!

Our balcony at Casa di Pietra

Steps looking down from third floor

Sitting area outside our room

Ray on queen size bed in our room

Our room with sitting area in background

On our balcony

Town of Sora

Inside of the roof of a bohio we looked at in Altos Del Maria

Bohio belonged to this house (unsure what is falling off)

One bedrm casita in ADM ($95K)

Another home we looked at with spectacular views

Some super steep driveways in ADM

2 year old home in ADM (never lived in, not finished, not pretty on inside--termites, foundation cracking)

The tropical orange house picture above

Highlands in ADM

This sign had Ray and I doing a double take.  It was in El Valle, but should have been in ADM (we felt as if the mountain was on top of us)

El Valle in dry season (not much green)

El Valle bakery

Cookies, cupcakes, breads in bakery

The discoteca we shouldn't have gone into

Living fences on the way to Pedasi

Random horse in truck

Park in Pedasi (Ray eating his ice cream)

Church in Pedasi

Pedasi beach (Costa Pedasi)

Playa Arenal, Pedasi

Smiley's in Pedasi

Bird of Smiley's

Carnival sculptures in someone's yard in Pedasi

Fried Chicken found here at bus station

So good!

Breakfast here at Casa di Pietra

Happy hour here at Casa di Pietra

Thermal mud in El Valle

Several fires seen on drive to and from Pedasi

Manglar Lodge, El Palmar

Grounds of the lodge

Restaurant and check in

Our room for two nights

Bathroom

El Palmar beach low tide

More of our room

More of beach

The guard cat at Manglar Lodge

Gorgona beach

CASCO VIEJO (end of our stay)

Our tour guide, Andre, makes a parking space here (couldn't get picture moved , so I left it alone!)

Friday meant the closing of our week in Panama.  It meant leaving the interior of Panama and driving to our hotel (Marriot Courtyard Metromall where we stayed last year, since it is twenty minutes from the airport) outside of Panama City.  We had a tour of the Old City at one pm that day given to us by Andre.  He was to pick us up at the hotel and drive us through the congested streets of Panama City giving us a tour of Casco Viejo.  After checking out of Manglar Lodge and having a great chat with the owner, Ivan, we decided to be brave and try a fonda for goodness sake!  We arrived to Fonda Don Saul and actually sat down at a table this time (I wasn't expecting tables).  The waitress spoke no English so we muddled our way through.  Ray ordered eggs with tortillas, and I ordered eggs with _____?  I couldn't understand what she said so I just winged it.  They didn't have pan, but they had either tortillas or ____?  The fried eggs were delicious.  Ray received two eggs, and I had one?  Guess I looked like I needed less, since I had those other things on my plate.  And what a great surprise they were.  We asked the waitress to say the name of the food SLOWLY, and we heard them to be called Hojaldras (simply fried dough).  Oh, if I could have had some confectioner's sugar dumped on them, but still, they were so good! Like a plain donut, but better!  Our meal was $3 for the food, $1 for bottled water and .65 for a Coke.  With our bellies full (now at the end of the week, we are looking fuller all the way around!), we hit the road to find the airport and backtrack to the hotel.  We didn't have a rental car on our last day in Panama in October, so Ray felt better seeing the airport and getting his bearings straight for the next day.  We arrived to the hotel in about ninety minutes (a bit of traffic on the main road due to a car being broken down in the lane), and we were able to check right in.

Andre arrived at one pm telling us that on a Friday the traffic would be that much more.  We would just expect traffic on the way back.  We are used to this living in the DC area.  It can take 45 minutes for Ray to get home or two plus hours.  The places we visited with Andre on Friday were Casco Viejo, or Old Town, which is the historic district of Panama.  Panama City was founded in 1519 and lasted about 150 years before good ole Captain Morgan burned it down.  When rebuilt, it was built on a peninsula isolated by the sea and surrounded by defending walls.  It is the only walled Spanish city on the Pacific side of the American continent.  The walls are 25 feet tall man made of stone.  Before touring the city, we walked up the steps of the old tower for outstanding panoramic views of the old and new, and fortunately we beat the tour buses!  Andre buys his stamps from a woman sitting on a bench since he doesn't have to stand in line like he would at the post office.  We then drove to Plaza Herrarra, parked our car in a place Andre made up for himself since there is so much construction going on and toured the area on foot.  This is pretty much what I remember seeing:  The Church of San Jose (Golden Altar), the Canal Museum, the Panama Cathedral, La Iglesia de La Merced, the Promenade along the water with many vendors and tourists, the French Embassy, the new and controversial bridge/road that Martinelli decided to construct out in the Pacific, and so much more!  Once we were through with the tour, we sat in Plaza Herrara (in air conditioned car) for thirty minutes trying to make our way out of the town.  This is when Andre told us it would take another hour to get back to the hotel.  Ninety minutes later, we arrived to the Marriott thankful that he did the driving and he knew the shortcuts!  We saw Brisas del Golf on the way back (a shortcut), and lots of cars and heavy rain!  The rain contributed to the traffic along with it being a Friday at five pm.  We left the plaza at 3:30 and arrived to our lobby at 5:45.  Urg.  Andre did not charge for the time in the car and was superb tour guide.  We were famished having eaten at the Fonda nine hours earlier and thirsty, but I did not want Bennigan's at the mall again.  We walked over to the Metromall where I had Wendy's for dinner!  Not the way I wanted to leave Panama, but it was fast and good!  I made sure I ate Queso Fundido (melted cheese on a grill with tortillas), and more helado.  An early start on Saturday to the airport at six am.  Bedtime was the usual nine pm.  

The airport was easy to drive to from this hotel, drop off of our rental was simple, but the lines!  We did self check out but still had to check bags--one line.  We were amazed at the many people that were trying to catch flights at the last minute and in a rush trying to cut in line at the security gate but not being allowed to (!)--line two but went quickly.  Then breakfast and waiting at a gate other than ours since the flight to Miami had not left yet and the gated area was roped off.  Once the flight to Miami took off, we were allowed to be seated in our gated area until they called us up to be re-scanned and our bags run through the detectors.  Chaos as usual, but much easier since they had electronic equipment this time.  Line three.  We knew that since we were sitting in the back of the plane, we would be seated first, so we stood in an unorganized line behind the first class, elderly and adults with children passengers--line four.  No PA system used to announce the rows being called, but we figured it out by watching the gate attendant's every move, and the walked onto the plane.  The rest of the trip and our weekend has been uneventful.  The usual bill paying, laundry and grocery shopping.  Work begins again tomorrow with my continuance of daydreaming about Panama.

Old Tower with some new behind

Pacific Ocean with mountains in background (low tide starting)

Old and new

La Iglesia de La Merced

It did rain later (new bridge)

Low tide starting

Biodiversity Museum on Amador Causeway

Where the vendors are and the tourists shop

Low tide (not pretty)

Steps used in the tower back in the day

Old Tower

Golden Altar

Canal museum on left

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus (being rebuilt after fire and earthquake)

Andre buys stamps