Posted on 08/26/2019 12:43:21 PM PDT by plain talk
Mary Taft lives with her two daughters, seven cats and two dogs in a mansion in Panama — and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
But the former teacher and school administrator didn’t always know that a Panamanian retirement was in store for her. Indeed, as she consulted with her two adult daughters about where to move, dozens of spots were on the table. “We had this blue-sky conversation — where can we all go and live together?” the 63-year-old former Springfield, Mass., resident recalls. “Canada was out because it was too cold. We wanted the tropics because we were sick of winter. We ruled out Asia because it was too far and [because of] the language barrier. Australia was too expensive.”
The Spanish speaker had been to Latin America numerous times, and her older daughter, a musician, worked a lot in Brazil, so they began looking around there. They ruled out Belize because of a “lack of infrastructure,” and Costa Rica because of its cost and “poor track record with health care,” according to Taft. But Boquete, Panama — a lush, mild-weather town in the Panamanian highlands that’s popular with expats — checked nearly all their boxes.
“The U.S. has gotten so out of control — the social fabric is shattering,” she says. “It is an act of insanity to continue to stay in the U.S.,” she adds, noting that in Panama crime is low, you see guns less frequently, and life can be more affordable.
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Pacheco. I looked it up.
The name of the place on Contadora Island that my cousin managed was the Contadora Island Inn......I guess it is a bed and breakfast....
Contadora is interesting. It had mansions owned by the world’s “elite”. Christian Dior for one. As I recall there was only the Hotel East of the runway and everything else was on the other side of that. So if you were staying at the hotel you didn’t have real acces to the “private” side of the island. I had to take a cab to a place to get enough gas to make it home once but I don’t really remember anything at all about that ride. From the boat you could see the mansions along a bluff on the North side. There was a “nude” beach on the South side we discovered when we anchored just offshore in a sailboat for the night. My kids were pretty shocked the next day.
That would explain the photo he sent me of a huge mega-yacht that was anchored off shore......
Those mega yachts were always seen in the Balboa Yacht Club anchorage. Over the years I got to where I recognized a few of them from seeing them repeatedly. I remember one with a radar dome and stainless steel plating behind the anchor “hawse pipes” (that may not be the right word, I was Army) that ran right down to below the water line. Very distinctive.
Did you ever get out to Taboga Island? I went out there frequently for the beach and snorkeling. A couple of times I stayed the night at the small Army barracks that was at the end of the island. That was a cool set up, at night they would string up a bed sheet between two poles they had on the front lawn then set up a movie projector and watch movies......People would walk out from the village and we would all sit on the front grass and watch.
And Mariano Rivera, so they are batting .500.
I went to Taboga many times. As I recall there was a small adjacent second Island to the Southwest. There was a reef between the two and we used to anchor up and bottom fish for snapper there. Over closer to the small Island it was 20-30 feet deep and I used to spearfish there freediving. On one scuba trip on the far side of the big Island a buddy and I caught a bunch of lobsters. We used to pull in from squalls when fishing and anchor up off the beach and replenish our beer supply from the bar there. The last thing I had to do for my dive master certification was to throw all your gear overboard (from anchor) in thirty feet of water and then dive down there with just your suit on and gear up. Tip: the “trick” is grab the weight belt first. I did that just off the beach on Taboga. Dang, I loved Panama.
So after I arrived in Panama, the heat, the sun the beaches and ocean were like seventh heaven. Shortly after I arrived in Nov. of '69, I bought a motorcycle so that I would have transportation and not have to rely on the buses or cabs.
After I was transferred to Clayton, I was assigned to a communications center (I forget the name) that was located between Clayton and Balboa. We worked swing shifts, six days on and two off. Whenever I worked the midnight shift, I would often go back to the barracks for breakfast then change into my cutoffs, grab a blanket and head over to Howard AFB on my motorcycle then go out the back to the ocean and sleep a couple of hours in the sun then head back to the barracks and finish my sleep.
What's funny is that all those things I did, I did on my own because none of my buddies had any interest in beaches or the oceans and probably didn't even know how to swim...........LOL!
You mentioned lobsters, on one of my snorkeling jaunts to Taboga Island, I caught two spiny lobsters off the shore but having no way to cook them, I let them go.........
As an Officer, you certainly had a magnitude of opportunities available to you that I as an enlistee didn't. But it's apparent that we both took advantage of what was offered and I have no regrets and nothing but great memories of my time in Panama. For what it's worth, my time in the Army was nothing more than a good job where I was required to wear a uniform.
4/69 - 1/72
Used to be a cheap homemade dry dock near Golfito
You could Beach a ship up to 6-700 foot waterline in an estuary at tide and the locals would block off the hull and strip paint and barnacles and then paint red lead bottom and new zinc and good to go cheaper than say dry dock in Mobile or Curacao
Rio Haina Dominican Republic had a cheap one too
Looking at the dates you were one lucky dude. Vietnam Nam was raging. From what I heard a lot of the guys went to Panama for 6 weeks to acclimatize and train in the Jungle at Ft. Sherman before they were shipped to Nam. The still had the zoo at Fort Sherman when I was there. They had an anaconda that had escaped from a crashed plane that they had caught in their jungle. That thing had a head the size of a basket ball and was over twenty feet long. That is a lot of snake!
I believe that was for the special forces or Green Berets.
In May, 2016, I briefly played senior softball (I left for another team) with a black guy who claimed he was special forces in Vietnam and that he was training in Panama in November, 1969 when I arrived.
The guy was a bull shitter and the more he talked the more I began to see thru his lies. He was two years younger than me and at the time I arrived in Panama, I had just turned 19 in October so that meant that he would only have been 17 and impossible for him to be special forces. At best, he would only have completed basic training if he enlisted after grad. from HS in June of that year.
That July, we saw his picture on the local TV news. He had just been arrested for impersonating a federal officer. Turns out the guy had a criminal record and had done 3 years in prison and was released in Feb. of 2013 for the exact crime. The arrest in July 2016 netted him another 3 years in prison...................LOL!
There was a guy I knew in High School who was an incredible athlete. Gymnast, Fullback, you name it. He enlisted in the Army after High Scholl and came home for his first visit. He had previously stopped at Clothing Sales and bought a uniform he dressed up with everything he could buy. Sgt. Major stripes, Green Beret tab, master parachutist wings, you name it. Some Vets saw him wearing that around town and reported it. He spent 6 months in the stockade before his Dishonorable. Seriously changed his life. Knucklehead.
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