A Once A Year Garden Sale

Today and tomorrow in Volcan is the once-a-year garden sale at Heliconia Garden. It is located right next to Barriles. As a matter of fact, you can even park there and walk over. The link above has a ton of information including prices and plants offered. There are also other independent vendors on site.

Open to the public this year on July 1 and 2 only. Their website says you can contact them if you would like to go on another day as well.

Walking down the trail to get to the gardens.

So many great vendors. Tons of plants and other offerings!

This view is amazing!
I am glad that we spent the morning there walking around with friends.

Gardens, ponds and trails! So beautiful! Reaping the reward of much hard work years ago!
At the sale, you are welcome to walk around the property and check out their many paths. I was told that this started out as farm land and they planted everything you can see and put in all of the ponds and paths!

Water wall!

These lily pads were so cool and HUGE!

We even got to see the backside of one that died.

A Friday Vegetable Market

After you've visited the Friday Volcan Market, another market to visit in Volcan on Fridays is the vegetable market that is held at the Catholic church. I was told it was organic, or supposed to be. It is located at the building behind the Catholic church in Volcan. To get there, turn past Romero like you are going toward Cerro Punta and then look to the left until you see the church.

Turn into the parking lot behind this building and park behind it. Make your way over toward the office. If you get there before it opens, you will see people lined up outside the door. It opens at 11:30 and arriving early is a must. When the door opens, people rush in and all the "good stuff" will go quickly!

Fresh from the farm! The produced just arrived. Here's where you enter.

Setting up the produce. There are usually a pretty good variety of vegetables. Carrots, cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, zucchini, broccoli and more!

 The thing we love about the market is the prices. They are better than the grocery stores and even the little vegetable shops. The selection and quality at this market is different each week and depending on how quick you are to get in the door.

 After you pick your produce, you go to the scales and weigh it and write down the weight on your order form. Then you take it up to the ladies at the table and they price it out. Bring cash to this market and small bills are appreciated! The ladies told me they have been doing this market in the same location for 5-6 years but have been having the market for 11 years! It's a little hidden treasure you can participate in every Friday!

One last thing...bring your own bags!

A Friday "Gringo" Market in Volcan

The Tuesday Market in Boquete is a great place to go buy some local items, get some fresh fruits and veggies and meet up with other expats in the area. The Volcan Friday Market is quite similar, although a smaller size. Many expats in the area sell items like homemade sausage, fruits, veggies, trees, plants, bread, goat milk, yogurt and more! It is also a great place to meet up with other expats living in Volcan. They also have a meeting for expats in the restaurant where the market is held at the same time.

To get to the market, which is open on Fridays from 9-11, find the Mana Restaurant on your favorite map app. It is on the edge of town, on a little side road if you are headed toward Bugaba on the Volcan Road. Here is what the restaurant/hostel looks like and what it looks like on a Friday with cars lining the road.

Walk through the gate on the right hand side of the restaurant and that will take you down the driveway straight to the market.  

Turn left into the market. As you can see, there are about 8-10 tables set up with a lot to offer, plenty of people to meet, and tasty treats to enjoy! Be sure to bring cash and enjoy!

A Driver's License

Here's my experience with getting a drivers license in Panama!

After getting my permanent residency card, I knew it was time to get my drivers license. Driving in Panama is another post for another day.

We picked up our residency cards in Panama City, like everyone does. We followed the advice on this blog post to see what we needed to do. We tried to make a reservation with the US Embassy to get our drivers licenses validated, but all of their slots were taken for the month. We only would be in Panama City for a few days, so I found an e-mail on the Embassy's site and e-mailed them to explain our situation. We were told that we could come the next afternoon for an appointment. When we arrived, everyone acted like this was unheard of. No one gets after hours appointments to validate their drivers license. We were glad we did!

We then had to go to another location in Panama City to get the papers certified. At this location, we were told we had to pay $2 each at 2 different locations in the same building. So crazy but there must be a method to the madness. Two stamps and $4 later, we turned in the paper and were told to pick them up the next day at noon. This was all we did in Panama City although we could have done the next step there as well.

Next we went to a lab in Boquete and had our blood type taken. After a lady stuck a very long needle halfway into my finger to get a single drop of blood, we received our results. We now had all the necessary paperwork to go to David and turn it in to get our license.

We went to the transportation department in the Chiriquí Mall and showed the receptionist our papers. Thankfully she let us make copies there of what she needed a copy of and then we were told to wait until they called our names. I think we spent about an hour here waiting. Then we were called up to verify our information, have our picture made and take an auditory and seeing test. The auditory test gave little beeps in each side of headphones and had you identify which side it came from. The seeing test made sure you could see the letters and asked what a specific sign was (no left turn - I hear that is the one everyone gets). After these are passed, you go to the cashier and pay the fee in cash, turn in your receipt and receive your new drivers license!

It was a lot of work, but well worth it to be a legal driver.

A Post on How to Get Good Deals on Spirit Airlines

Both times we have flown to Panama City, we have used Spirit Airlines. I have used a coupon code both times. We flew round trip from DFW to PTY for around $200 a person. When we flew in April 2017 to move, we already had our temporary resident cards and were coming to pick up our permanent ones, so we were able to buy one way tickets. Each ticket cost $103 with the coupon code.
The way I find the coupon codes is subscribing to their email list. I get quite a few emails this way and some of them do not apply, but when they do, you can get amazing deals! For example, they just put out a code for 25% off that was valid for a few days and could be used on a flight for a time period of about 5 months.
I enter the basic information and date range I'd like to travel along with the coupon code and have Spirit.com search. I go forward and backward on dates looking for the lowest listed price (usually in blue) and see if it works with my travel plans. If you're flexible on your dates, this is a great way to do it.
I just looked at dates around Christmas and they were around $500 per flight. If I waited to return until January 10, they dropped to $171. That's quite a difference. Summer seems to be about double as well. So flexibility is key and buying when you see the best deal. These can change quickly!

A Surprisingly Easy Flight

Like I said in my previous post, we were flying with 5 small children and set to arrive in PTY at 1 in the morning. The flight went well! When we had to change planes in Florida and had a layover, we were hanging around another family who I thought was also going to PTY. We then realized that they were doing a FINAL boarding for our plane and we had almost missed it! Yikes!

Having 2 double strollers was great! The kids were able to ride around in them through customs, immigration and getting the car rental. We also carried on one car seat for the 2 year old and checked one so we could have it in Panama. This was very helpful so we didn't have to rent car seats while there. We plan to use Spirit Airlines again since it is the cheapest way for us to fly.

The flights went pretty well. I thought all of the people were friendly who we encountered and they always worked to help us...even when we missed our Florida to home connection. The flight there wasn't bad since we arrived around 1 and the airport was pretty empty so we quickly collected our luggage, had it scanned and headed out. I had forgotten that if anyone touches your bags, they expect a tip. Next time we will have a better cash source right off the plane!

The kids all did great for the most part. There were some tears about being woken up or not wanting to go to sleep after having a short nap. They told us they weren't tired at time or two, but quickly fell asleep when we needed them to. They were entertained by a zippered bag each of them received from their Nana full of paper, stickers, pens, etc.

When we arrived, we decided to drive the 8 hours to Boquete in the middle of the night. This was both brilliant and the dumbest thing we could have done. It was brilliant because we hit no traffic and arrived there at 10. The kids slept most of the way and we didn't have to make a lot of bathroom breaks. It was the dumbest thing because my husband was so tired after not sleeping on the plane. He did a great job for most of the drive but then he started getting drowsy. We pulled over a few times so he could nap for 20 minutes on the side of the road, but I was kind of paranoid so these were quick stops. We have decided in the future to just get a hotel in Panama City and spend at least one night there. We drove because flying from PTY to David was $50 a person each way and that adds up quickly with a large family. Plus we needed a van for the week.

A Planned Visit

We have planned a trip where we will be gone about 10 days.  We have 5 small children and I was most worried about getting them on and off of the airplane at random hours of the night.  You see, we are flying on Spirit Airlines which arrives in PTY at 1am and departs at 2am when we are set to fly home.  After getting all the way through booking, I found out that they will let us take a stroller and car seat for each of the younger children who aren't lap babies!  That means 2 strollers and 2 car seats in our situation!  This is an answer to prayer as we plan to take 2 double strollers and wear the baby. 

We were able to use a discount code and get the flights from our local airport to PTY for $1452 for all seven of us.  We decided to go ahead and book it because we didn't want gas prices to go up and lose out on such a good deal - even though it was only 2 weeks until we flew out!  Hopefully we can get everything done we need to between now and then! 

I plan to post a review of the flight, trip and experience after we return home.