today it’s been two weeks since i returned from panama city, where did the time go? here it is thursday and two nights ago i just finally burned the cards to dvds and today i researched the los diablos rojos. now if your looking to put yourself to sleep on siesta i suggest you research the web for information. now the world wide web is an excellent source of information which can be overwhelming.
then as usual being alone in front of a computer screen with no other distractions, like walking a doggie, there comes pangs of hunger as the sun passes my window leaving me in a darkened room.oh i recognize that feeling gnawing at me…. hunger. so i make dinner and not do what i had on my days agenda for today. which is to write my blog.
look at that dusty book shelf it needs cleaning so on my way to make my salad i give it a wipe and notice another shelf, well they must all be dusty. yes you guessed it, i’ve got pretty clean shelves and nothing entered on the blog. now i’ve had dinner and the chocolate truffles in the fridge are talking to me, eat me.
but slowly, very slowly i am moving forward with errant fingers and keystrokes. i know what i need………. music so i look thought the cds and i don’t have any real spanish music but i do have some tapes. well anything to help me concentrate on the task at hand so i pick Los Flamers su historica muscal and some Tito Puente. i know not panamian at all but desperate times call for desperate measures.
now that the truffles are sort of drowned out for a time…. altho i can hear them during pauses in the music. i now have the proper setting to remember panama city although i am missing the smell of diesel fumes, i’d rather have chocolate myself but i won’t get up again and get distracted.
so i land at Tocumen International via Continental Airlines at 9:38pm and go to turista desk to ask about the cost of a taxi into the city $28.00 bucks. gone up since four years ago by $12.00 an dreading my lonely planet book. hotel marabella which nobody understands so i pull out the brochure i got the last time there, wisened traveler i am and off we go, but first a stop by the turista polica to see where i am from. Nueva York and off we go in my white turista taxi. regular taxis are yellow now , wonder where they got that idea from? but traveling through the night as lights pass by and dark shapes in the background wizz us towards Plaza Concordia and the marabella, which isn’t on the plaza but a seedy street behind. we found this hotel from a travel agent who recommended it us as an inexpensive alternate panama city hotel when we stayed in bocas de toro four years ago at the la veranda.
no this isn’t where i stayed but around the corner. on the right side of picture is where i ate a few meals. arriving that late at night i was hungry so i knew about the place and headed there to get something to tide me over until morning. mixed fruit salad, pineapple, banana, papaya….. how i’d forgotten what fresh fruit tasted like.$2.66
where the elite meet. but i really couldn’t wait being so excited until i when down to the plaza concordia to see los diablos rojos. after all that’s why i spent money i couldn’t really afford but then again i couldn’t pass up an invitation like this. how many times are we asked to dance before the offers stop?
there she is…….my grey whale…….. only different…… waiting for passengers . now i could go to bed a get some sleep so i could begin this great adventure. as i laid my head down on my pillow i already missed mary but it would only be a week away from her, but a week can be a long time, we had scheduled our vow ceremony nine days later from my return and so much more left to do. was this crazy….maybe but so life can be at times.
the next morning before picking up the hertz car, good idea to be here early sunday morning at Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Church of our Lady of Mount Caramel) as the people arrived for mass, i didn’t think it was right to go inside and take pictures then. i wandered around getting the lay of the land
This church is the only Gothic architectural style building in the country. This structure was built by the congregation of the Carmelites which have been in Panama since 1940.
but here is my quest, at least my first attempt to tell a story about these creatures and my associations with them.
but my distractions are many, did i mention chocolate truffles? oh and the mercury xr7 comes out of the body shop tomorrow so i can put it back together, i guess in my spare time.
our own diablos rojo. well i’ll say good night now, i’ve got a date with a truffle,






