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Got motorhome? No problem.

Hotel Coffee Mountain Inn, Santa Fe, Veraguas, Panama, ROOFOver the past couple weeks, we (er…my husband) finished putting on the roof and are working on repellando or stuccoing the walls on the hotel in Santa Fe.  I think it looks great so far!  Red it was.

In the foreground you can see evidence of what I term as my husband’s new hobby – renting heavy equipment. Now, if you know Cele, you know that he’s very neat.  We’ll go out for a day on a muddy backroad, and I’ll think – cool- we had a great time the mud on the car- wow, it’s over the rear view mirror -it’s a badge of honor.  He’ll think, great, we had a great time, now it’s time to clean the car…and worse, somehow he manages to talk you into helping out.  Sigh.

He discovered that you can rent time from owners of the road construction equipment.  In front of the hotel, there used to be a green area, but it had little indentations and hills, the free spirit in me thinking- how nice a little character.  But man, those hills didn’t stand a chance once Cele learned about the cuchillo that was in the area.  The upside, we have a nice area for parking…. got motorhome? No problem.

His friend Eliecer is an outreach technician for the coffee cooperatives in the area and helped us (er Cele again) plant 50 different coffee bushes around the inn of different classes, they’re planted around the perimeter, currently about 10 inches high.   Eliecer says that one of the kinds only takes 1-3 years to start producing coffee – how great would that be!

 

 

 

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Morally cost effective

May 11 2012 Construction Coffee Mountain InnCheck out the columns in front!

Cele’s been getting up the roof trusses.  His godfather welds, and has been up in Santa Fe for the past week.  Now the roof is taking shape – think it’s looking great.  They’ll finish the trusses over the next week, weather permitting.  After, it will be time to put the roof itself on!

We had been debating the use of “telagala”, a type of fibercement roof that looks like traditional clay roof shingles – or the use of colored “zinc” roof that also looks good, but doesn’t have that traditional feel.  The issue was that the telegala shingles  use asbestos – which, as you know, is fine as long as the asbestos particles do not become airborne.  I was having a moral dilemma about putting in asbestos for the construction workers – seems to me that there could be so many conditions for asbestos exposure. Tiles break, fall, and chip.    We ended up costing them both out,  and turns out the the metal roofs  were cheaper!  This made the decision much easier.

We’re going with red.  Update: Or perhaps blue

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Ummm, but you have an iphone hon…

So, you know what’s amazing about iphones and the 3G/4G network in Panama- well, you can, as in many places around the world, get internet access on your phone, even in Santa Fe.  As long as your cell phone is compatible, you can go to any store, big or small, and probably even to the guy who sells snocones in the street (I kid you not) and buy a cell phone card.  Activate it on your phone, and you can choose, if you have Mas Movil, for 99 cents a day to use part of that phone card for all you can use internet for 24 hours by pushing four little digits on your phone.  That’s all it takes.

So, the columns in the front of the hotel were going up last week.  I really want to see, I really want to see them. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.  My husband wants to surprise me, so he says that he’s too busy to send pictures.

Let’s analyze this.

This means, he’d have to get his phone out of his pocket (he’s there every day), aim the camera towards the building, push a button, and then hit send.    The excuse isn’t flying over that well.  With that, I give you  a picture from last week, looking towards the balconies (maybe this will prompt him to send a pic-love you hon).

Update: he dropped his phone…oops.   I guess I will be surprised.

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Son, don’t be a doctor, work in construction

In Panama, about half the population is employed at minimum wage, but unlike in other countries, minimum wage is set both by your profession and by where you work. This wage has increased dramatically in recent years, with a 15-18% increase in minimum wage from last year alone.

What is odd, as we learned by employing people to help build our inn, the wage for those working in construction, even unskilled workers with no experience or schooling  is higher than: Veterinarians, Pharmacists, Accountants and Lawyers. Those in the latter careers need a college degree.

If you’re a young person in Panama, construction seems the way to go.