Michael: Swelterland

The caterpillar
Iridescent gold and blue
Covered with black fur.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Yesterday we scouted out the Quetzal trail and it’s a little worse for wear, but still manageable. That means our trip to Boquete this weekend has still got the green light. Today a different type of trip and scouting expedition to David.

David may always be a wonder to me. In Los Angeles when it’s hot people flee to the coast to cool off. Here we descend down the mountain toward the coast and we can count on it being 90 degrees and humid.

But we’re not going there for a change of weather, we’re going to pick up our second set of packages sent from the good old U.S. of A. and to see if there’s a decent sewing machine, sheets and a weighty enough kettle bell at the Do It Center.

In the packages should be an Osprey Talon 6 lumbar pack, a pair of shorts, underwear and an exercise band. The pack will be used to carry a change of clothes on a few adventures we have upcoming and to play with as part of a two part pack system on fast pack hiking trips. I’ll talk about that later.

The shorts have a 14” inseam. I like my legs covered when I run or hike here, but pants get awkward and heavy. With long shorts and calf sleeves I should be good to go.

The exercise band Kimme ordered to try and help with our posture. More after I figure out how to do the exercises.

The Do It Center is a kind of Jack of all trades home shopping store that Kimme believes is just like a chain in the Midwest. The sewing machine would is so she can start designing again and create some samples until she can retrieve her good machines from the states. And the kettle bell is for me so I can join her in the workouts she’s been doing off of her computer.

We won’t linger in David. Unlike the states, we’ll be glad to put the coast at our backs and climb into the more comforting surroundings of the mountains.

Michael: Cache

The bleat of the goat
Off in some distant pasture
Is today’s constant.


Sunday, June 7, 2015

We’ve hiked the Western Trail to the top of 11,000 ft. Volcan Baru before and gone down the jeep trail on the other side into Boquete. That trip took us 7 hours and 15 minutes. I’m planning on doing it twice without stopping in 12 hours.

Here’s the plan:

Start in Boquete. This allows me to do the jeep trail, the easier trail to the peak, both early when I’m fresh, and at the end. I’m planning on running in the morning all the way up, and hope I’ll still have enough energy at the end of the day to cautiously jog down. If not, at least I’ll be able to walk without worrying about getting lost in the dark. If I started on the far more treacherous Western Trail, there’s a good chance I’d end up in the dark under the canopy and that would mean very slow going when I’m at my most fatigued.  On the jeep trail, at least if I miss calculate and end up walking in the dark, with a headlamp I should be fine.

Monday - Email B & B in Boquete inquiring about a reliable taxi driver that can drive us to the Ranger Station at the start of the jeep trail at 5a.m.

Wednesday - Hike to the 5K marker at about 9,000 ft and hide two half liter bottles of water and 2 large Snickers bars with almonds.

Sunday - Jog the Quetzal trail into Boquete with a change of clothes. Keep fingers crossed that it’s not raining and we get lucky and a bus is right there waiting for us as soon as we step off the trail and onto the road. 

Eat lunch in Boquete before taking taxi to where ever our B&B is. Enjoy a restful night’s sleep.

Monday - Up at 4 to 4:30 to eat and prep. Make sure taxi’s on the way. Will start with liter and a half of water and two flask of gu.

Start up the jeep trail at 5:30 walking for 15 minutes before beginning to jog. It’s not light here until a little after 6 so may need headlamp for a while.
Calculating it will take about 3 hours to run the 13k to the peak.

Snap picture by the cross at the top then head down Western Trail toward Volcan jogging as much as possible but that won’t be very often.

Reach cache, eat candy bar and load water and away we go.

Figure it should take about 3 hours to reach trailhead sign. That means I should start back up toward the peak on the Western Trail before noon giving me close to 7 hours of light to work with.

Reach cache again, eat candy bar and load water and away we go again.

Reach peak in 4 hours. That should put me there before 4p.m. If I’m really lucky it won’t be raining but no doubt I’ll have already donned my raincoat. I’m really just hoping that there won’t be a lightening storm and I have to abort the trip and scramble back down toward Volcan.

I should be able to jog down the jeep trail in two hours completing my hike before 6p.m. and still in the light.

I’ll call Kimme to let her know I’m done and to send the taxi.

Piece of cake. Make that cheesecake with a swirl of chocolate and an expresso after a delicious and well deserved pizza and salad.

Michael: Bouncing Back

The leaves and branches
Form a heart shaped silhouette
Against the white skies.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

To take advantage of the down time I’ve had the past couple of weeks fighting this sinus infection, we’ve planned for our first over night stay outside of Volcan this year. We’re going to stay in Boquete, actually Lower Boquete, because it’s a little less expensive than Boquete proper. It’ll give us a chance to try out a new B & B and hit the Tuesday ex-pat market. That’s on the calendar for next Sunday and Monday.

Boquete is where we stayed last year while we checked out this area of Panama. It’s twice the size of Volcan at 20,000 population and growing and has a completely different feel than Volcan does. It’s really the tourist mecca of the Chiriqui Highlands.

We prefer Volcan, but the opportunities for Kimme to sell her designs would be better in Boquete so it doesn’t hurt to check it out now and then. There is also a small town near Boquete, Portrerillos, that I think we should look at before we decide to invest in property here. Though we’re beginning to become pretty attached to Volcan so it’s going to have to be a pretty special place to pull us away from here.

Our main objective for our visit though is to attempt to go to the top of  Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama at 11,000 ft., via the jeep trail leading from Boquete, then down the Western Trail into Volcan, then turn around and come back. It’s only 40k in distance, but has a total elevation gain/loss of 24,000 ft. This will be the first time I’m going to cache some supplies for a hike. That’s scheduled for next Monday.

As a small prelude to the volcano hike, we’ll start by traveling into Boquete on foot via the Quetzal trail. We’ve been doing that trail just about every Sunday, but this will be the first time in quite a while for Kimme to do all of the trail. We’ve been doing it as an out and back and she turns around early so we can finish together.

We haven’t done the Quetzal in a couple of weeks though so we’re not sure what condition the trail is in at the moment. In the Santa Monica’s that wouldn’t be a concern. But here a trail can become overgrown and unmanageable pretty quickly. We’re going to scout it out this Sunday and if all looks doable, then the trip’s a go.

Of course the weather can come into play and pull a plug on the whole plan, but it’s too far away to let that creep into any decision making right now. One step at a time. The first step being to scout out the Quetzal.

Michael: A Long Taper

The drums have faded
Into the orchestra of
Water and metal.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Part of the appeal of moving to Volcan was discovering what the effects of living at altitude would have on my athletic performance. Having lived at sea level my entire life, I’ve only been able to read or listen to accounts of the oxygen enhancing benefits. 

But after 4 months of living at about 5,000 ft. I should’ve maximized all of the benefits of living at altitude, and am ready to drop down to my old sea level dwelling, Los Angeles, and see if there’s been a marked increase in my performance.

To  put this to an objective test, I plan on running a race I’ve run a few times before and see if I improve or at least hold steady, given that, due to age, I should be in a state of incremental decline, possibly offsetting any gains living at altitude has given me. This is another interesting kink in the experiment; can living at altitude diminish the loss of performance due to aging? I haven’t read any of the literature on that yet. But hell, I figure I’m trying to live my entire life as experiment of what I can squeeze out of this body before I wear it out. 

Complicating the issue is this unexpected bout of bacterial infection. It’s caused me to lose a week and a half of endurance training. But I’m going to try and twist that into at least a partial positive by looking at it as a prolonged taper and have scheduled a few grueling challenges for the next couple of weeks to see if that works.

If it does, I should be right back on track to try and run the 25k Bull Dog race in under 2 hours. That hasn’t been done by someone my age and would be about a 5 minute improvement over my previous best on that course, but I’m optimistic that living at altitude will have given me the performance boost that will make that possible.

Michael: Teetotaler to Addict

The metallic taps
From the sporadic rainfall
Are sharp and vibrant.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

I’ve been fighting a sinus infection here for over a week using my usual approach of reducing my workouts and resting more. It hasn’t been working. Then after receiving a note from Felipe, the ex-pat that runs the hiking club, that it’s taken him up to three weeks to recover from the flu here, I decided to reconsider the idea of seeing a doctor. I can’t afford three weeks of malaise.

So after a light run on Tuesday, I decided that if I was still sick that night I’d go see Dr. Marion Morales, a local physician who was recommended by the ex-pat volunteer we met during the hospital tour last month.

My logic for not seeing doctors previously goes like this: Doctors prescribe drugs. I don’t take drugs; therefore there’s no point going to the doctor’s.

Turns out my little logical syllogism was correct. Dr. Morales, a very young and energetic woman, prescribed 5 different types of medicine; three of them are antibiotics and the others are to treat the symptoms of congestion and mucus.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever taken any anti-bacterial drugs since childhood. I’ve taken a few pain killers, a few aspirin, and maybe a few anti-inflammatories, and that’s about it. 

But on the advise of Dr. Morales, I have now begun my regimen of taking; Primerus 750 once a day after a meal for the next 7 days, Noxadine twice a day. Dolo Apramax three times a day after meals, Mucosolvan three times a day after meals, and Monetzona twice a day. I’ll withhold judgment on the effectiveness of this treatment until after I see more definitive results, but I am cautiously optimistic.

All the drugs she is prescribing have side effects, as do all drugs, but none of them were worth taking note of. The information is with the medicine, but if any unusual symptoms were to occur, I am to email or call her.

Before I saw the doctor, in the patient’s waiting room, overseen by a young male assistant, were three rows of  folding chairs facing a T.V. screen. The assistant made my day by switching the channel to a station that aired  American television programs with Spanish subtitles and I got to watch one of old favorites - Seinfeld, for the first time in over a year. The episode was the one where Kramer is mistaken for a mentally challenged adult and ends up sitting at the guest of honor table and being serenaded by Mel Torme.

The only reason I waited any length of time to see the doctor was because, though the clinic is open from 9 - 6, she usually doesn’t get there until 12, as she over sees a medical program in nearby Cerro Punta. There were no patients waiting before me, nor was there any question as to whether I had made an appointment. There was also no nurse. What goes on at the clinic before noon I can’t say but will look into.

When she arrived she set up quickly and called me - “Mr. Michael” - just like my landlord does, into her office where she went through the usual background questions, took my blood pressure - 100/60 - sounds good, checked my ears, listened to my breathing, then outlined her prescribed course of action.

A large and well stocked pharmacy was adjacent to the clinic. I handed them my numerous subscriptions and after filling them, they very politely wrote out the directions in English on the boxes of the various capsules, syrups, and inhalers I was suppose to use over the next week. Everything seems pretty self explanatory as far as what’s to be taken and how and which orifice should be used. I’ll be awfully embarrassed if any complications occur because I snorted something I should’ve been swallowing.

Our first impressions of  Dr. Morales were very positive. We know we’re confident in our dentist, Dr. Sinclair. We’re now reasonably certain we’ve found a doctor we can turn to for help. That means a lot to us.

I’m not sure where we’d be in that regard as far as personal service goes in the states. I rarely had use for the services of my health insurance in the states outside of a hernia surgery over twenty years ago,a few broken hand bones and a case of Achilles tendonitis. That all went well and I was very pleased with the treatments I received.

This drug thing though is part of the health world I haven’t been a part of before. If it works I’m sure I’ll be less hesitant to visit the doctor and take any medications they prescribe. I see this as a fluke that makes drug use understandable, and not as a change in philosophy that living a long and healthy life means avoiding becoming chronically reliant on drugs.  

MIchael: Chemical Assault

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The ochre bellied
Fly catcher’s name is larger
Than the bird itself.


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

We went from  Florence Nightingale rescuers one night to chemical weapons wielding butchers the next.

For the most part, despite the large number and variety of insects here, very few of them cross our threshold and enter our cottage. The occasional fly, a cricket here and there, a few ants… pesky but manageable.

But just the night after we rescued a bird that flew into a window, which I thought would create good karma, we were being assaulted on several fronts by a few different kinds of small ants in significant numbers. This called for a quick and unequivocal response. Out came the aerosol weaponry and quickly hundreds of small black corpses lie smoldering in the dust.

Makes me wish I would’ve hung on to some of my circa Vietnam war era army men to post around the house to stand guard and serve as a warning to any other foreign invaders. Respect our borders, damn it, or suffer the consequences.

Michael: The Taxi Driver

I look at my toes
Peanut like appendages
And know I’m a clown.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Because Volcan is a small town if you stay here any length of time and use taxis as transportation, your bound to begin to recognize some of the drivers and vice versa. We only know one of the drivers’ by name at the moment, but we hope that will change.

Most of these guys go quietly about their business, though we have met a few that are very cordial and talkative, particularly if they speak some English.

But over the weekend we struck yellow taxi gold. We engaged a driver we have used on several recent outings with a peculiarity who wasn’t afraid to show it. A man after my own heart. And what’s even better, is that we were exacerbating his annoyance with us without knowing it. A perfect confluence of quirkiness and miscommunication.

On two previous trips home after we got out of his cab, he would indicate for us to shut the door. No other driver has said anything like that to us. We just figured everyone was expected to shut the door, but that he must have had a bad experience with a tourist that didn’t close the door properly. So after we were admonished the first time, the next time we closed the door with a little more authority.

This weekend on the way home as soon as we entered his cab he talked about the door. Kimme wanted me to ask him how he developed this concern. I was reluctant, but gave it a go. Turns out he wants people to close the door gently. It’s his car and he doesn’t want to hear the door slam all day long. When we exited I closed the door and looked to him to see if I had done so in a way that he appreciated. I was given the thumbs up sign, which I hope means the same here as it does in the states.