Our First Full Day

Travel is Hard Work

Near our condo building, within a couple of blocks, is one of the major east-west thoroughfares. The Via Espana is a one way three lane street which separates the banking downtown from the hotel and resident part of the downtown area. This street is a major shopping venue, kind of the historical downtown retail before the malls were built. The first good news was finding the huge grocery store, the Rey. It has everything you would want from a U.S. supermarket, plus a lot of products a gringo might not recognize.

Next we check out a large cell phone and electronic store where we connected to the world. When we go on these foreign jaunts we take our cell phone, which is an unlocked variety, so we can buy a local sim card to access one of the local cell systems. We then buy a card with calling minutes on it, so we can now call out and can be called by the family and friends if they need to get in touch with us. This is just a bit of foreign insurance for the temporary expats!

As we are on an exploring mission, we cross the street and at this point there is a nice pedestrian overpass so we are not risking our lives as usual. Close to the crossing is a McDonald’s where internationally you can always find clean bathrooms. We find that this McD’s has a McCafe so we can relax with a Mocha Cappuccino and read the Panama edition of the Miami Herald. Then we walk on up the hill to the hotel district. We are really researching the finding of a city tour and looking for rental car agencies. We find all the rental car companies and do some price comparisons for when we work up the courage to drive in Panama City! In the Wyndham Veneto Hotel and Casino we find a tour desk and sign up for an afternoon city tour.

We have enough time to get some lunch and end up in the Crowne Plaza restaurant. It is obviously a meeting and convention hotel, as all the young professionals start streaming in for lunch. We discover that no one here really believes that they live in a hot humid climate as they all are wearing dark suits (both men and women) and seem to want to wear a lot more clothes than are really needed in Panama. The business community is much more formal than you would find in the U.S. workplace.

Our travel format is to try to always get a city tour early on any trip. This is to get some geographical perspective on where we are living and what we will want to do in the days to come. That will be next.

Exploring the Neighborhood

I can't wait to rent a car!

One of the first things we do after getting unpacked is to find out what is around us. We are living in the Congrejo district which is a very nice residential area on the edge of the downtown. Just half a block from the building is a bustling street of stores and restaurants. We were actually looking for a grocery store so we could stock up on the essentials. We found a small neighborhood food store to start our kitchen, knowing that the next day will reveal a Super Mercado somewhere near. It is discovered in our first Panama purchase that they also use U.S. change. The Panamanian balboa, their alternative national currency shows up only in the coins in the same sizes and denominations as U.S. coins and both are interchangeable. So easy! We also discovered a bakery around the corner, for fresh breakfast goodies. Doesn’t get any better than that!

After hauling all the stuff back to the condo, we head out for dinner. There were a lot of good selections and we end up at Mama Mendozas. It turned out to be Mexican, rather than Panamanian, so the first meal in Panama was some very good nachos and quesadillas. Don’t ever say we are not totally international.

By the finish of dinner we are seriously fading so head back to the condo. One thing you need to watch, especially at night, are the sidewalks, or what are represented as sidewalks. Not a lot of money has gone into some of the infrastructure (no street signs, no stop lights) which include a lot of defective or non existent sidewalks. You walk around a lot of cars, go into the street, back to the edge of the building and be sure to watch your feet. If you do not pay attention to the elevation changes, grates, gaping holes, etc., you can surely end up injured. Thus, walk slowly or stop when you want to check out the views. Back at the condo, it is time to try out the bed. Wow, slept like a log for eight hours without waking or moving. Maybe we should think about a new bed at home or not so many flight legs!

Panama City Indoctrination

The view of our condo from the ground - count down 6 floors from the top

As we plan to, on occasion, rent a car I was paying close attention to the roadways to the condo. This worked great on the toll way from the airport, then the south corridor highway along the Bay of Panama, and then…traffic got heavy so Enrique started using back streets to get to the condo. Uh oh, I could never repeat that part of the trip. I will have to concentrate on reading maps from now on, if we can ever actually find a city map. Well, that would really help if any of the streets actually had street names on them. I guess it will just have to be dead reckoning by north, south, east and west and have a lot of patience for when you become lost. If neither one of us knows where we are located, and where we are going, it will cut down on those navigation arguments. Now if I can just remember that Panama is laid out east-west rather north-south as you would expect we will be on the right track. It is a bit strange to get it straight that the canal actually crosses the country from north to south with the Caribbean on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the south. Panama City is located on the south end of the canal on the Pacific.

Enrique checked us out on the condo. It is so new, there seem to be very few people actually living in the building yet. There is a full time security guard, locked lobby doors, and the protective coverings have not even been removed from the elevator doors. The first five floors are parking garages and then residence floors going up to the 22nd floor with a swimming pool and meeting rooms on the roof. We are on the 16th floor with wonderful views in three directions. Our condo is located on the northeast corner so we are not getting the hot sun either in the morning or afternoon. There are four condos on each floor so everyone has a corner.

Unit 16A is about 1100 square feet with a combined dining room-living room, kitchen, a master bedroom with bath, a guest bedroom, and two additional bath rooms. There is a small emergency bathroom off the kitchen. I really don’t think Mary Ann the chef, needs this emergency location, but who knows? The condo is finished off with a small outside deck, just enough to check the weather (hot!) and maybe enough for one chair. You are probably wondering about the most important amenity. It is blissfully air conditioned! As all of our trip rentals must have, we are set up with high speed internet, both by cable and wi-fi but the wi-fi is a bit weak. There are two flat screen TV’s, so Mary Ann will not clobber me when I am flipping channels and watching sports. We have 120 channels which includes the NFL channel. How good can it get? We do not even have the NFL channel in Chelan.

We rented the condo through VRBO, an internet vacation rental website. You deal directly with the owner. It has an advantage as most properties post their rates and you can click on an availability calendar, so you do not waste time contacting people when it does not fit your schedule. You can view the listing for our unit and how the owner describes it at http://www.vrbo.com/204071.

Why Panama?

So what is the deal with selecting Panama for the winter adventure? This year (2009) we thought it would be best to go to a country that uses the U.S. dollar for its currency. We were going to beat the weak dollar against most of the other world currencies. How could we know that the whole world would go into the tank, and result in the dollar rising against the pound and the euro and most other currencies.

In any case, off to Panama we have gone. Following the usual format of searching for a condo on the internet, I used VRBO.com which has properties all over the world. We hooked up with an owner in Maryland who had just taken possession of a brand new condo in the heart of Panama City. We communicated with him for a couple of months and he was very helpful with information about the neighborhood, the city, and information about the condo. Our rental even included being met at Tocumen Airport in Panama City by his Panama City manager. This really takes the tough edges off an arrival in an airport and city that you have never been to. So reassuring to come out of customs and have a gentleman waiting with a sign with your name on it.

Always being the frugal traveler, I booked this trip with Alaska Airlines frequent flyer miles. It is always a bit problematical finding seats when you want them. This can make for some very unusual flights. Rather that a direct flight to Panama City (like from LA to Panama City) we were booked on American from Seattle to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, and then Miami to Panama City. Needless to say Mary Ann sometimes questions my travel planning when I end up with a routing like that. But as our friend Les says, these were very lucrative flights for us on a flight mile per frequent flyer mile invested! Good work Tom. We started on Horizon from Pangborn and were very lucky to be the first flight out of Wenatchee due to two days of fog! Dumb luck really helps.

It is quite a change to leave freezing weather on one afternoon and arrive the next afternoon in a place in the low 90’s. Finding Enrique waiting for us with an air conditioned car was a nice way to introduce ourselves to Panama City. Slow acclimatization would seem to be the way to go. Fortunately, we both felt no worse for the flights, as we both got some sleep on the overnight flights. Again great luck for me, as Mary Ann said little about the marathon flight plan!

The Recollections

Following our return from New Zealand I wrote two articles highlighting the Top 10 things we did in New Zealand. They have been published in various publications and are now here for your enjoyment.

A Lot of Time Off The Bench

By Judge Thomas C. Warren (Ret.)
Chelan, Washington (or somewhere in the world)

The New Zealand Top Ten – Part I

Our winter/spring retirement plan has been to go to a new country every year. This year was 6 weeks in New Zealand. (For an in depth look at our stay in the top ten and other locations go to my blog at www.tomoffthebench.blogspot.com where there are over 60 postings on our adventure.) I have found that visiting “places” is interesting, but talking with the natives is more fun. You really have to push yourself to meet others, as we all are a bit shy when it comes to starting a cold conversation with a stranger. My experience has been that visiting your service club and local churches in a foreign country is a great way to meet people who are ready to talk to strangers. So, what were our top ten experiences in New Zealand?

Visiting Parliament and the Capitol: Wellington is the nation’s capitol and it is very easy to get a tour of the capitol buildings and visit Parliament when it is in session. New Zealand has fewer people than the State of Washington, but they take their politics seriously with a year around parliamentary session. The government follows the British model but they start every daily session with Questions for the Government, so if you like Questions for the Prime Minister on C-Span, you can see a similar rough and tumble debate live in New Zealand. I think I now know more about how the New Zealand government operates than I know about our Congress!

The Beauty and Activity of Auckland & Wellington Harbors: When you talk to a Kiwi they are always very proud of their city and often can’t believe you would spend any time in their competitor. We enjoyed all of the cities we stayed in. Our apartments were in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch so we intimately learned about these cities. We then used the cities for excursions to other parts of the North and South Islands. Particularly dramatic are the harbors of Auckland and Wellington. They are positioned on beautiful natural harbors and they take advantage of this. Both cities have adapted their waterfronts for people activities, to include the water, restaurants, ferries, museums, and culture venues. In Wellington be sure to visit the Te Papa Museum and the Museum of City and Sea. When visiting Auckland you must experience the party that is going on at the America’s Cup Harbor.

The Conversations: Throughout New Zealand I visited five different service club meetings in Auckland, Wellington, and Queenstown. If was fun to talk with the local members, see what kind of charitable projects they were involved in, and how different they run their clubs as compared to the U.S. In Wellington and Christchurch Mary Ann and I also had interesting experiences attending local Methodist and Anglican churches. We were in New Zealand though-out lent, Palm Sunday and Easter. It was a great way to meet local residents and talk about what was going on with their lives and communities. Don’t miss the Christchurch Anglican Cathedral on the square. One of the fascinating subjects that came up nearly everywhere we went was being asked our opinion about the U.S. presidential nominating races. The Kiwi’s have a very keen interest in U.S politics and several people I talked to were following the primary races state by state, and could tell me how each had turned out.

The Ferries: When your country consists of two huge islands, surrounded by a whole lot of smaller ones, you get into the ferry business big time. The fun of ferry riding is that you get great views and inexpensive boat rides. We did three different ferry rides. Everyone should visit the Bay of Islands north of Auckland. They have a great little ferry that takes you to the quaint village of Russell where you can relax, have a leisurely lunch on the beach and watch the sail boats. Auckland has several easy ferries leaving from the downtown waterfront. We took one to the arts and craft community of Devonport, just across the bay. The ferry company, Fuller’s, runs most of the small ferry routes, and with very good new equipment. The big deal ferry is the Interislander, which is the main transportation link between the North and South Islands. It is about a three hour trip from Wellington to Picton and takes passengers and/or cars and freight. On the trip back we were sandwiched in between rail cars. If you have sun and good weather it is a great trip with stunning views and photo opportunities.

A Lot of Time Off The Bench

By Judge Thomas C. Warren (Ret.)
Chelan, Washington (or somewhere in the world)

The New Zealand Top Ten – Part II

When we last met I was reviewing the top ten experiences in New Zealand. In Part I we discussed four of the ten. Here goes the final six:

Magnificence of the Changing Countryside: Our travel plan called for driving over a large part of the country. We ended up putting 3500 miles on our modest Mazda compact. With that many miles you have seen a lot of the countryside. And is it ever glorious countryside. The interesting thing is that you see a huge variation of rural countryside. It is a beautiful farming country with immaculate ranches. You see thousands (millions?) of sheep, cattle and domestic deer kept either in confined fenced areas, or just wandering over the hills. Pristine fresh water lakes and towering mountain ranges are around every curve. When on the coasts you see rocky mountains right down to the water and beautiful coastline panoramas.

The TranzAlpine Train: New Zealand has several exceptional train routes giving you the option of taking the train all the way from Auckland to Christchurch. Our train experience was taking one of the world’s finest view trips from Christchurch through the Southern Alps to Greymouth on the Tasman Sea west coast. It is remote mountain scenery after passing through the Canterbury Plain around Christchurch. A very enjoyable one day excursion over and back.

The Golden Shears & Confronting the Sheep: Because of a great suggestion by a native, we attended the Golden Shears Sheep Shearing National Championships in Masterton, located a couple of hours north of Wellington. What a fascinating experience watching the competitive sheep shearing, wool pressing and wool handling. It is hard to believe a professional can shear a sheep in less than one minute and when working can shear over 400 sheep in a day. In addition, on two separate occasions we were stopped on highways by farmers moving hundreds of sheep on the public roads. You should see those sheep dogs move those critters!

Christchurch river walks and Botanical Garden: Christchurch has historically been very British. Canterbury University, the Avon River and many places and streets named after British locations. The Avon River winds its way through the downtown area including parks, river walks, and cultural sites all in a pedestrian friendly way. It is very picturesque and a very relaxing time. To top it off and make it tourist friendly they have a historic tram system circling the entire downtown core with part of its route on its own street between restored buildings. At the end of what they call the Cultural Precinct you find a huge park system crowned with the Botanical Gardens along the river.

Driving through the Coromandel Peninsula: A day trip southeast from Auckland brings you to the Coromandel Peninsula. Narrow roads along the shore, hundreds of varieties of huge trees, cute villages with arts and crafts shops and pleasant restaurants for lunch. The area, which is only about 60 miles from Auckland, is very rugged, mountainous, remote and without a lot of visitors. The area is the center of the Green political movement in New Zealand.

The Incomparable Queenstown and the Gateway to the Fjords: What can you say? Queenstown is a gem on a pristine lake, surrounded by majestic steep stone mountains. It is also the most touristy city we visited, due to all the backpackers looking for their adventure. I can’t tell you how many foreign languages I heard being spoken by all the young people. The town and location is however, just drop dead beautiful. It is also the starting point for visiting the Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Lake Te Anau and then on up the west coast routes to the glaciers.

Whether you drive, take the train, or just fly into the top spots of New Zealand it is a great place for a vacation. And besides, they speak English – sort of!

The End of the Trail

The Sun Setting on Our Adventure

The Tahiti Hibiscus

On our final day in Tahiti we needed to check out of the hotel at 11 a.m. But our flight did not leave until 10:00 p.m. So that we could enjoy another day on this beautiful island we stored all of our luggage at the hotel, kept our swimsuits on, and then spent the day just laying around the pool and enjoying the views of the lagoon. Our visit had lucky weather, as this is the rainy season in Tahiti, but we had no rain except for just a few drops on the final afternoon.

We were concerned about the number of teenagers who seemed to be spending all day practicing their boogie board skills on the beach. It was a relief to learn that the week was spring break in Tahiti and not just a very bad truancy problem. At 6:30 p.m. we collected our bags, retrieved our travel clothes and changed in the hotel restrooms. It worked out just fine. The airport processing went smoothly and we ended up with a plane only half full, so we each had two seats for the overnight flight to Los Angeles. Air Tahiti Nui provided a flawless flight and an early arrival.

In order to work out the jet lag, we stayed overnight in a L.A. airport area hotel, and then flew on to Seattle and Wenatchee the next day. You certainly would not want to return home after an eight week vacation felling tired!. In a couple of weeks I will publish an article on what we considered the best ten things about the trip to New Zealand. Check back in for that.

Around the Island

Papeete from the hill above our lagoon

The Waterfall - Just after the Elvis serenade

Fishing in the river

Every trip needs a really tacky moment!

To get a feel for the whole island, we arranged for a half day tour on the morning of our second full day. Our guide was William who picked us up along with a young French couple and then drove through town and picked up some Japanese newlyweds at the Intercontinental. It was a very hot day so the good news was that the van was air-conditioned. The tour was to go (and did) completely around the island. We did not however go on to Tahiti Iti (little Tahiti), but stuck to Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti). The whole island is somewhat shaped like a ping-pong paddle and Tahiti Iti (also called the peninsula) would be the handle of the paddle.

There are no paved roads across the island, only on the shoreline around it. The interior has high mountains and is very rugged with dense vegetation. On our drive counter-clockwise we first stopped at the proverbial guide type place called the Lagoonarium. For an extra fee (and I suspect a guide kickback) we had the pleasure of going into the jaws of the shark and proceeded underwater to look at the mid-size sharks and fish. I should have brought a book and opted out. Our next stop was at the Paul Gauguin Museum on the south end of the island. The museum traced the history of Gauguin and was interesting along with copies of many of his paintings and a few artifacts. Why was it located there you ask? Because the land was cheaper than in Papeete, plus the mosquitoes are thrown in for free. Gauguin died in the Marquesas in 1903 at age 53. A very troubled man it seemed.

Our last two stops around the island were at the very spectacular waterfall on the northeast side, followed by an ocean blow hole. During the longest stretch of the trip where there were no interesting stops, William serenaded us with Elvis songs. That was a first on any tour in our experience.

Quirky Living Note: Back at the Radisson for the afternoon, I had the most wonderful French experience. How about escargot? French wine? Non! It was finding topless ladies around the pool. Now I maybe will get to like just lying around and relaxing more.

Life on Tahiti

According to local gossip Bill's little boat

On the black beach

Papeete Market


Radisson pool

We awoke in a real paradise. The Radisson is a wonderful resort nestled into its own lagoon about 6 miles northeast of Papeete. All of the rooms above the first floor overlook the huge infinity pool, or the lagoon. This is a volcanic island, which causes most of the beaches to have black sand. There are a few white and pink beaches around the island, depending on whether there is a coral reef. We started our day with a leisurely walk on the beach followed by a casual breakfast in the open air restaurant overlooking the beach.

We must be in a bit of the off season as there are not a lot of guests around. While lounging and swimming at the pool there did not seem to more than five or six groups at the pool at any one time. On the beach there were always a lot of local kids practicing their surfing. Unlike the Mexican beaches there were no vendors bothering you to purchase jewelry, t-shirts, or blankets. If you like to just lie around the pool or beach, read a book, and gaze at beautiful scenery, this is the place for you.

By the afternoon we had enough sun and water, so arranged to take the hotel excursion into Papeete for three hours. They pay for a taxi to drive you in at 2 p.m. and then pick you up at 5 p.m. We did not find Papeete to be a very big town and we were able to walk the 7 or 8 blocks lengthwise and 5 blocks of depth where most of the commerce (meaning shops) was conducted in about 20 minutes. They have a fruit, vegetable, and fish market which we visited although I think most of the action must have been in the morning. For the tourist downtown offers a huge supply of Tahiti black pearls and gorgeous cotton cloth.

We had a late lunch/early dinner on the waterfront harbor street. There was a lot of shipping and a few private yachts in the harbor, including a magnificent large yacht (with a helicopter on the back deck) which we were advised belonged to Bill & Melinda Gates. I don't know, doesn't look big enough to me. I guess they haven’t given away all of their money.

Quirky Living Note: A van driver told me that they do not have a lot of crime on the island, only about two murders a year. However, the French government wants to increase the number of gendarmes. That will obviously increase crime, as there will be more of them looking for it! They do, however, have a serious graffiti problem which is seriously spoiling the built up areas of the island.

French Polynesia

French Polynesia Flag

The flight from Auckland is an easy one, lasting just five hours. Air Tahiti Nui seems to be a very efficiently run airline. They have a lot of nice local touches, such as giving small orchids to all of the passengers, just to get you in the mood of landing in Papeete, Tahiti. We arrived about 9:45 p.m. You can tell it is a rural island as it was pretty dark when landing at the airport. Kind of like landing in Belize, where after you land, you turn around on the runway, and then taxi back to the terminal. No jetways, just down the ramp and into the non air-conditioned open format terminal.

Arriving in a strange place, without any local money, and no one meeting you is always the most stressful part of any trip. Arriving in Papeete was no exception. As French Polynesia is part of France, anyone with a European Union passport went in to the fast lane. Everybody else was an “other” and so as usual we are the last through immigration. After we collected our bags the prudent thing to do was to get some local cash. The Pacific Islands Franc is 78 to the dollar, so you now have to start thinking in thousands. When I went to the ATM a reasonable choice was to get 20,000 francs, about $250. I thought for awhile that the ATM was rejecting our card, but it was just the guy operating it who is a bit green color blind and the button for accepting the options was green. There should be a law against it.

We then grabbed a cab to the Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti. The Radisson is a bit out of town and I was pretty surprised that the cab was 4500 francs. The cab driver may have been taking a bit of advantage of the rookie visitor. At the hotel we were put in a beautiful two level suite on the fourth and top floor, overlooking the pool and the beach. Arriving at 10 p.m. however can put a few jags in the arrival. The elevator to our floor was not working. Fortunately the bell guys were bringing up the heavy bags, and we thought they might have a coronary. A lot of groaning and wheezing. After checking out our very nice accommodation, I hear a scream. Mary Ann had found a very cute 4 inch lizard on the wall of our bedroom. The bellman took a look at it, said it won’t hurt anything and left. Mary Ann is yelling at me as I write this, that she did not think it was very cute.

To give you a bit of perspective about the French Overseas Territory, it consists of five groups of islands which are The Society Islands (including the Windward Islands and the Leeward islands), The Marquesas, the Austals, the Tuamatus, and the Gambiers. Tahiti is in the Society Islands and is the largest island of French Polynesia. Papeete is the capital city. By the way, I don’t think I have mentioned it before, but anytime I want some good in depth information about a country, I always start with the CIA World Fact Book website about the country, or in this case the French territory. The Fact Book is always organized consistently and provides a lot of good basic data. The site for French Polynesia is:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fp.html

Quirky Living Note: Once you get into this regular blog publishing routine it is a major crisis when you think your laptop has crashed. One evening we could not get the XZ!*#$ thing to turn on. It was completely blank. It was getting power, so what to do? Well, you hope that it will turn on and work the next day. And voila it did turn on in the morning. We had left it plugged in and Mary Ann, the computer guru, thought it was a battery problem which recharged. Actually it was just a loose electrical cable. But shouldn’t it always work when plugged in to real power? I still don’t understand how electricity works, let alone a computer and the internet.