Routines develop no matter what we do. Even doing something different each time is a routine in its own way. Routines are often good but routines can often lead to boredom so ya just need to be aware of how you are occupying your time.
Our activities are somewhat limited some by circumstance and some by choice. We have begun waking up quite early, before sunrise. Something between 5:30 and 6:15 am. It is nice and cool at that time and the sunrise is gorgeous. We generally putzs around on the iPads for a few minutes and then depending on the state of the tide we try to go on a beach walk. We do two types of walks. Usually our morning walk consists of me trying to keep up with Denise down the beach and back for about 50 minutes. We have termed this our exercise walk. The other type of walk, again depending on the tide, is what we call our beach-combing walk. This is a nice calm leisurely beach walk where we look for shells, sea glass, walk in the water, contemplate the meaning of life, etc… Ok back to the routine.
After the exercise walk we come back to our condo and have breakfast and coffee. This is even somewhat of its own routine – oatmeal and/or hardboiled eggs and/or omelets with fruit and of course Panamanian coffee. Panamanian coffee is superb. We generally go up a floor to the roof top pool just after 9AM to ‘noodle’ in the water. A number of women do ad-hoc water aerobics from 9:30-10. Denise participates while I float in a corner of the pool with another of the husbands. Afterwards we generally stay in the pool, usually by ourselves or with another couple, until closer to noon while we just float around and soak up the sun.
Since it is now approaching noon we head back to the condo for lunch, more internet time, etc… Around 2PM we sometimes plan for our beach-combing walk, maybe back up to the pool for more ‘noodling’, maybe sit in the sun and read and listen to music and maybe all three.
Other activities that are sometimes thrown in are some grocery runs, trips to Pricesmart (Costco), and the occasional trip to the mall – you know the usual stuff normal people do.
Our evenings vary a little but also tend to be somewhat routine. Now that football is back on we can pick and watch any games we want to see via the internet. We usually watch the Gamecocks on Saturdays and of course the Seahawks on Sunday/Monday. There is a standing ‘happy hour’ on the roof top every night. It used to be around 5PM but lately time has drifted later to 6-6:30PM. This can be as few as 2-3 people or as many as 10+. I like 2-3-4. We have also begun to catch up on our shows – The Blacklist, The Big Bang Theory, Madam Secretary among others.
Sometimes we walk to a few local bar/restaurants. Gaviota’s is a Tiki type bar a short walk down the beach. They have a decent menu but I tend to get the $4.50 queso hamburguesa (cheese burger) with Papas Fritas (fries) or Pantanos (plantains) and the $1.50 beer. It has a great tiki bar kind of atmosphere. There is also a local bar a few blocks away called Picassos that has a community happy hour on Wednesdays, trivia on Thursdays, 2-1 pizzas on Fridays and usually live music on Saturdays. Many places are closed Sun-Tuesday. We have been hanging around at the condo more lately vs going out to these places. Having a cocktail on the roof, BYOB, is much more convenient.
We did have a great night out a couple days ago with one of our neighbors. They took us to a local Mexican Bar and Restaurant called Cholos. Believe it or not, there is hardly any Mexican style food here. This place is the only one we have found. The motif is more of a surfer bar and we hear it gets quite wild at night. It was fun and next time I go I will get the giant burrito. I would say the majority of restaurants are Italian and/or pizza oriented.
So all in all, most days are somewhat routine but each one a little different. The tide table often influences what we do as does transportation options/opportunities since we choose to not have a car. The beach, the pools, the friends are hard to beat so we are enjoying our routine. Hope you enjoy yours.
Below are a few pictures. If you didn’t know, you should be able to click or tap on them to enlarge the pic. As always any comments are welcome as well as questions or suggestions on a topic you may be curious about.
Btw – I have been using the Duolingo language app for some time and the other day it said I was now 26% fluent in Spanish. I think that is quite a stretch but I will take the pat on the back while I can get it.
Adios, hasta mañana.
RB
