Today is Saturday, and the living is easy.  I'll try to bring you all up to date on the latest adventure.  Wednesday I went into Panama City to see about starting the paperwork to get my box of household goods out of customs.  I was hoping to do it without paying for a customs broker, after all it was only one box.  An hour at the warehouse convinced me that a broker was the only way to go, so I arranged to meet with one the next day at 9:00.(Everything is better the next day.)  I hired a local to drive me and provide a truck for what I thought would be an easy day...but I had a lot to learn.  So Jose Luis picked me up at 6:00 sharp for the drive into the city, and we were at the appointed place twenty minutes early.   And we waited.  And waited. And called. and waited.  Finally my 9:00 appointment showed up at 10:45, without any explanation except something about "traffic".  He then took my passport and disappeared into the bowels of the customs office.  Meanwhile, Jose and I had to go deeper into the heart of Panama City to pay a $93 balance on the port hancling fees.  This should have taken ten minutes, but since my shipping company hadn't sent the proper bill of lading to me, they couldn't release the freight.   Rules are rules.  Eventually they called my company in the States and had the original copy sent by e-mail and we got it sorted out...after a delay of three hours. Luckily the office was air conditioned and the secretaries were cute, a fact that didn't escape the notice of my friend Jose.  So then it was back to the warehouse where we find that my broker hadn't yet escaped from the lower intestine of the Customs House.  So we waited.  And we waited....and when he did finally arrive we had a huge thunderstorm, a power outage, and the warehouse computers crashed!  You know what that means...Come back tomorrow.  So I gave Jose two hundred dollars for the truck and the driving and the translation services and we arranged to try it again on Friday.   Bright and early we left El Valle...but first we had to stop to get a tire fixed...another hour...and amazingly arrived at the warehouse to find my broker on the ball with wll the paperwork ready.  Twenty minutes in one office while everyone in the building got to read and stamp my papers, followed by ten minutes in another and we were ready to go!  In the warehouse I finally got to see my box!  In fact, I got to sit on it for almost two hours while I waited my turn for the inspector to visibly check out the contents.  When finally it was my turn, I took the top off and in two seconds he said "OK". and that was that.  I felt cheated!  I hardly got my money's worth...like spending hours preparing for a test and then they didn't ask any questions.  But, of course, it started raining again...and rained for the first hour and a half of the two and a half hour dtive home...but I got my stuff!  It was like Christmas at our house, seeing all the things we hadn't seen in two and half months. A note for you guitar people...My Stratocaster was still in tune!  Everything was just as I packed it, and now we have a big mess to clean up and put away...just like Christmas.  But all was not a loss.  I did make another friend here in Panama.  Jose Luis, my driver, and by necessity my translater, is a local musician as well as being a vegetable carrier and jack of all trades.  When he found out I had a Strat, he told me about his group that plays "musica tipica" and invited me to jam with them.  He also likes Mexican food and wants to take us to the best local spot for some enchiladas, followed by a stop at the local casino.  Yeah, I said Casino...we've got one just down the road in Playa Coronado.
So, all in all, it was as much as ordeal as it was an adventure, but you take the good with the bad here...and so far the good is winning hands down.  We're beginning the process af finding a permanent place to live and to get a truck as well.  And we haven't even started traveling yet!  You might say that we've gotten past the beginning, and now we're on the way to more of Mike and Sandy's Excellent Adventures in Panama.