"Ice Cream Beans" -- Sweet treats from nature

Note: have found out that these are called "Ice Cream Beans."

The trees are very large, the pods are very large and although I have no idea yet what they are called, I do know that they are very popular among ticos. The pods are quite long as you can see in the photo. Once you slash the side with your machete you can break the pod open over your knee. Inside are dark brown seeds covered with a white "fuzzy skin." You put the whole seed in your mouth and eat the sweet outer fuzz (spit out the remaining seed. They really are quite tasty!!!

Saturday odds and ends...

We spent Saturday morning in Puerto Viejo starting with a visit to the local farmers' market. I was pleasently surprised to find homemade (and delicious) tofu, cheese and organic chocolate in addition to the normal fruits and vegetables. We then stopped at a new restaurant/juice bar at the beach specializing in fresh-fruit concoctions, herbal teas, coffees as well as more traditional selections. The food was delicious, the service impecable and the view excellent. We will stop back often! Also stopped at the ATM which is near the local emergency clinic. As you can see from the photo, this clinic handles all "normal" medical problems as well as some that are more unique to this area!

Across Panama by bus

We are back from our 3-day tourist visa renewal trip to Panama. We left by bus from Changuinola which is only a few kms across the border from where we live. For the most part the buses are 28-passenger vans – all very new and very comfortable. We traveled south along the coast sometimes parallel to the islands of Bocas del Toro. At Chiriqui Grande we headed up through the mountainous rainforest and the Comarca (autonomous territory) Ngobe Bugle. There were several “villages” along the sparsely populated trip. Almost all homes included a thatched building (see photo). We reached David (our final destination) in about 5 hours. The provincial capital (Chiriqui province) of David is a major shopping and transportation hub. Food and lodging were very inexpensive…basic hotel room with private bath but no A/C ran $16.50 per night, breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, coffee was less than $2.00 per person; another dinner which included one hamburger with fries, good-sized shrimp cocktail, garlic bread and 8 bottles of beer came to $13 plus change! Cold beer was available at the front desk of the hotel for 60 cents each which could be enjoyed on the balcony overlooking Parque Cervantes across the street (see photo). On one evening there was a free concert with regional musicians and dancers at the park. The trip was short but gave us an opportunity to see parts of Panama that we had never seen before.

What about mail?

As mentioned in the previous story, there is no delivery of utility bills. This is not that unusual when you consider there are no street addresses either. So what about other mail? Well, we have seen a “correo” delivery person go by on his motor cycle a couple of times since we moved here but so far we haven’t gotten any mail. To make it easier for the mailman, we decided to make a mailbox for our front gate (see photo). By the way this is the first mailbox we have seen anywhere around here. Next I decided to subscribe to the Tico Times, an English weekly newspaper out of San Jose. Surely this would ensure we received mail at least once a week. The gal at the newspaper’s circulation department was a little skeptical and promised 2 weeks free before she charges my credit card just to make sure the paper really makes it here. Week one has now come and gone and still no paper. Monday we are going to go to the post office in person and see if perhaps they have it there…I'll keep you posted!

Paying utility bills and other distractions…

Paying utility bills in Costa Rica is very different from the US. For starters, no one ever sends you the bill. That’s right, you never receive any type of notice that your bill is due or what the amount is…for those with accounts at the state banks in Costa Rica there is always an automatic payment option. And for the rest of us, well, you just need to check periodically with one of several designated locations to see if you owe anything and how much you owe. Where we live there are 2 such places, the first is at “Guido’s house.” If the gate in front of Guido’s is open you can stop in and tell him your account number and he’ll tell you how much you owe. So far Guido’s gate has always been closed when we went by so we have opted for place #2, a money exchange across from the beach in Puerto Viejo. We pay the electric, telephone and DirectTV bills here and are given a receipt…the best part of this arrangement is a stop at the beach. Photo is of Playa Negra at the beginning of town.

Monster bugs

This "little" creature was walking across a neighbor's driveway when I was visiting. I have never seen a bug this large and will probably be just as happy never seeing another one!!! Not sure if you can tell from the expression on my face but this little creature felt as strange as it looks!

Time to snorkel

May has started out dryer and warmer than April. Although we don't have a temperature gauge we have been checking the online temps in centigrade...this leads us to believe it is in the high 80s and has possibly reached 90 on occasion. What this means in our daily live is...calmer water - perfect for snorkeling, of course!!!