Well, it seems the rainy season has turned! Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I got all of the sopping wet, moldy, smelly things off of Splendid and went to the French marina to do laundry. A great weight has been lifted now that I can dry out a bit :) It still rains but in a normal, once or twice a day “squallie” fashion, the gloom is gone.
I’m super psyched about my visa. I told a friend I was going to Costa Rica for a few days to deal with my visa. They told me a friend, of a friend, of a friend (coconut telegraph) said a new law was just passed and they got a 6 month”Mariner” extension in Colon. This would mean a mariner could stay in Panama a year without having to leave the country. I didn’t get too excited but went to Colon hoping for the best but prepared to do over 30 hours on buses and spend 72 hours in a dingy motel on a border town.
HA, BADDABING, The immigration lady gave me another 6 months! It was a pain as I had to go around town and get pictures taken and copies of all my documents but I now have a little mariner card ($40) and I’m good till mid May, wahoo, what a load off of my mind. I was stressing about the long trip and expense of the whole visa thing. She laughed when she looked up my name and saw that I was already registered in the system from 5 years ago, actually it saved me $5 because she didn’t have to register me :)
Well I got my parts for my Kubota and I may have over engineered them. The pulley system (steel) is really heavy and adds a good 7lbs to the side of the little motor, now I know why the previous system was made out of aluminum :( I’m ready to chuck the whole thing or just set it up as a 60 amp 12v charger, I’m pulling my hair out!
My friend Alexandra is showing up in a week (27th) and I need to do a bit of cleaning and stocking up. In the past few months I have transformed Splendid from a home to a workshop, and need to pull her back together. Sam did a good job of keeping everything in order while I managed to get grease on everything. It’s not uncommon to find a wrench or power tools sitting amongst the clean dishes on Splendid :( I also need to pick up some more t-shirts and towels as I have a bad habit of grabbing whatever is close and using it as a rag, its just uncivilized, I’ve turned into a barbarian! Splendid has been a bit of a bachelor pad the past 5 months!
With all my running around I didn’t get a chance to see a dentist and now my tooth is hurting pretty bad. I’m going to deal with that mid week in Colon, hummm, I guess I need to take Christmas into account? I’m so not into the whole Christmas thing this year. Maybe I’ll go in the morning and get it out of the way?
I hope to have another video up this coming week. I’m stressed with projects (pre guest) but I’ll make the time. I like charging up the PayPal account these days, It makes life a little easier and nicer for sure. I went to my favorite place to eat in Panama city and ordered a cheese plate for $14 (Cheese, baguette, fruit, olives) the other day, heaven :) I tell you out of everything from the “modern” world I miss, it’s good cheese! It is so hard to find good cheeses in Panama. The Rey supermarket in Colon has a bad Swiss and cheddar, but that’s it. I don’t buy cheese or dairy for the boat as it is a treat and don’t like to eat it every day. I like the whole “Luxury” concept to my life. I appreciate things more when I have them. I can guarantee you I enjoy a cold coke more that most people as I only have a few a month.
I’m off to scrub the waterline.
Happy Holidays everyone.
Peace, Love, and coconuts.
– Alex