Panama had only won two bronze medals in its entire Olympic history, and the last one was 60 years ago. Well this week long-jumper Irving Saladino made history by winning Panama’s first gold medal with a jump of 8.34 meters, well short of his 8.73 personal best, but still a full 10cm longer than second place.

I’m sure there are a lot of proud Panamanians celebrating right now, and it might inspire lots of athletes to aim for the top.

Here are some pictures.

I bought this map last year for my Garmin Nuvi GPS and at first I had some reservations because the map was pricey, had very limited points of interests, and contained several errors.

However, the team at Panama-Zone are constantly updating their map and have fixed most problems and added thousands of points of interests. It is now a mature and highly useful map, at least for Panama City. It has proved to be a tremendous help for me as I tried to make sense of the streets and neighbourhoods of Panama City, and it has greatly accelerated my learning and my confidence.

I can now Highly Recommend this map to anyone who needs to drive around the maze that is Panama City. It will save you tons of time, reduce your frustration and stress, and increase your safety.

Here’s some of the free stuff they have:

* Spanish Pronunciation
* Spanish Grammar
* Spanish Vocabulary
* Spanish Verbs
* Spanish Travel Helper
* Directory of Spanish Schools

They also have a CD course you can purchase. I’ve ordered it and will let you know if it is good or not!

My wife and I flew with them a couple of times and were quite happy. New planes, decent service, decent prices. COPA is partly owned by Continental and they have code-share flights with them as well as KLM/Air France.

COPA has quickly become a dominant airline in Latin America and their location in Panama has helped make the city a great hub for any destinations within the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Here’s is a picture of the pool, you can see the wall winding it’s way between the bohio and the kitchen. It then widens again on the other side to become a spa-tub.

Potential Health Insurance Sign-Up to be held at Dee and Bob Braden?s in Altos del Maria Saturday, August 9^th (time to be determined).

Deb Turl, who continues to work with Manuel Granados Licdo, the Director de Services Medicos Hospitalities, Hospital Chiriqui, S.A. has asked me to advise those persons who are interested in signing up and receiving your free physical for health insurance though Paitilla Hospital in Panama City and/or Chiriqui Hospital in David to come to the Braden?s  on Saturday, August 9^th. Physicals will be performed by a certified physician.  Many folks have enrolled previously and are pleased with this very affordable plan.

If you are interested, please email Deb at panamamarv@hotmail.com or me at nickandsueruggiero@yahoo.com no later than Tuesday @6:00pm. to confirm.  If you have any questions concerning the program, please contact Deb at her email address or cell phone at 6436-8665.  If enough people confirm, the above will take place, as scheduled and additional directions and information will be supplied.  If not, the cancellation will be announced via the Altos web site by Thursday.  Should you be interested, a small passport type picture would be required.  There is a sign shop in Bejucco, which could provide you with the picture.  Directions will be provided later.

Hope to hear from you,

Sue Ruggiero

Should be a real fun evening.

The first is a blog called Birdwatching In Panama. It provides bird photos and bird watching and hiking tips.

The second one is called PTY4U.com (PTY is the ICAO abbreviation for the Panama City Tocumen International Airport). This site provides dozens of nice pictures of Panama, which will give you a good idea of the beauty the country has to offer.

Here’s an excerpt:

In his recent book Bad Money, political commentator Kevin Phillips warns that an unprecedented number of citizens, fed up with failed politics and a souring economy, have already departed for other countries, with even larger numbers planning to do so soon. But that may be putting too negative a reading on this little-noticed trend. In fact, most of today’s expats are not part of a new Lost Generation, moving to Paris or other European haunts to nurse their disillusionment and write their novels. Some may be artists and bohemians, but many more are entrepreneurs, teachers, or skilled knowledge workers in the globalized high-tech economy. Others are members of a retirement bulge that is stretching pensions and IRAs by living abroad. And while a high percentage of expats are unhappy with the rightward tilt of George Bush’s America, most don’t see their decision to move overseas as a political statement.

Read the full article…

I would say, based on my personal experience talking to Americans who have moved to Panama, that at least two-thirds of them have made the move at least in part because of political reasons. The two main reasons for them to make the move, based on my informal poll, are finances and climate, but being fed-up with American politics ranks right up there too.

(ScienceDaily) July 29, 2008

Contrary to previous evidence, a new University of Florida study shows the Isthmus of Panama was most likely formed by a Central American Peninsula colliding slowly with the South American continent through tectonic plate movement over millions of years.

Read the full article…

They have been busy working on the bedroom module, the driveway, the bohio structure and the electricals for the pool. Here’s a few more pictures:

This picture shows part of the inside of the hexagonal master bedroom.

This is a good view of the guest house from the west side. You can see the patio door off the bedroom right next to the stairs leading to the pool deck.The part on the right is the kitchen/livingroom.

This is taken from the guest house pool deck. It shows the now nearly completed driveway, the infinity pool wall on the left (not full height yet), and the form-work for the second floor of the bohio, which will be our pool-level outdoor kitchen.

This is a good view taken from the master bedroom that begins to give a feel for the overall design of the house. You can see the living-room/kitchen module on the left, the guest house pool-deck on the right, the pool taking shape in the middle, and the bohio towards the back of the picture. There will eventually be a small bridge over the pool, linking the kitchen to the bohio.

Bad days for newsrooms, and democracy too.

Here’s an excerpt if you don’t have the time to read the whole thing:

A democracy survives when its citizens have access to trustworthy and impartial sources of information, when it can discern lies from truth. Take this away and a democracy dies. The fusion of news and entertainment, the rise of a class of celebrity journalists on television who define reporting by their access to the famous and the powerful, the retreat by many readers into the ideological ghettos of the Internet and the ruthless drive by corporations to destroy the traditional news business are leaving us deaf, dumb and blind.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.