ruthkennedysretirementblog

Booking with Expedia.ca

Update: All money has now been reimbursed.

Last fall when we were planning our retirement winter get away, we decided to do things a little differently. Normally we would go away for three months, come home for a bit and then go for another three months. This worked well for a couple of reasons: our travel insurance gets very expensive if you are out of the country for more than three month. Coming home gave us a ‘reset’. Also, booking two round trip flights from Calgary to where ever is easy and less expensive than booking one way tickets.

This year, due to Covid restrictions, coming back to Canada was going to be a nuisance. We had to get a PCR test to get back into Canada, then an antigen test to leave. Plus, our travel insurance provider had notified us no covid related expenses would be covered, which meant, we had to buy extra insurance. (Luckily that changed, now we only had to buy insurance for the last two months of our trip).

We made a plan to go to Panama and then directly to Roatan.

Way back in November, we booked a multi-city trip with United Airlines….Calgary to Panama City, then 3 months later Roatan to Calgary. We then used Expedia.ca to book a one-way flight for February 26 from Panama City to Roatan, with a short lay over in San Pedro Sula. All sounded and looked great. We paid with a VISA card, and when we got our statement, charges were from Hahn Airlines. Which was really weird as the flight from Panama City to San Pedro Sula was with Copa Airlines, and San Pedro Sula to Roatan was with CM Airlines…..and we booked with Expedia.ca.

Things started going sideways when we received an email from Copa Airlines on December 24 saying our flight from Panama City to San Pedro Sula was changed from February 26th to the 27th. Not a big deal right…. just contact Expedia.ca and ask them to change San Pedro Sula to Roatan to the 27th. We checked online and sure enough there were flights available.

Yeah that didn’t happen. According to Expedia the problem was with Hahn… not them, or Copa, or CM. After many, many online chats (there is no one to talk with ever) the only solution Expedia could come up with was for us to cancel the entire trip and then Expedia would apply for a refund for us. No guarantees we would get our money back and we would have to wait 12 weeks to find out.

Well that didn’t make sense as we had a perfectly good flight from Panama City to San Pedro Sula and we specifically asked Expedia not to cancel. We decided to bite the cost and purchase new tickets from San Pedro Sula to Roatan. In the hopes that there would be no more problems with Expedia, we waited until one week before departure to actually purchase the tickets. We were all set to fly on February 27th.

Three days before arrival into Honduras we had to do a pre-arrival checklist. One of the first questions asked is flight number. Can you imagine our surprise when we looked on the Copa app and found out there were no upcoming trips. So back to the Expedia app, only to find out the flight had been totally cancelled.

Now it is back to more online chit chat with Expedia who confirmed yes the flight had been cancelled by Hahn Airlines. Sadly we were never notified. Imagine if we had shown up at the airport after a five hour drive and an overnight stay at a hotel!! Expedia was really quite useless with problem solving. Apparently they have sent an email to Hahn Airlines requesting a refund. In 12 weeks we should know the outcome of that request.

Luckily we were able to book flights for March 1st. Kudos to CM Airlines who changed our flight three times to accommodate our Copa booking.

So bottom line!! No further bookings with Expedia.ca. This was our first and last experience with them. In future we will do our own booking and not look for the ‘convenience’ of Expedia.ca. Due to the fact that our flight was totally cancelled, with no alternative given, if Expedia.ca doesn’t come through, then hopefully VISA will.

It would have been a lot less frustrating if we had just come home for a few days after Panama. Unfortunately on February 26 we would have still had to do the PCR test. I wonder if we will ever have hassle free travel again.

Happy travels! We are in Roatan and it is beautiful.

Ruth

Tree trimming in Pedasi!

This house had two gigantic trees; a bunch of bamboo in the backyard yard and an olive tree on the side of the house.

Early on in our stay, we had ‘a guy’ remove the noisy branch from behind the bohio. Back then, early in December, everything was green and the bamboo tree full and lush. Now, after three months of no rain, we are into the brown season with the bamboo having much fewer leaves.

A little while ago we were notified that someone would be coming to trim the trees. It was a most entertaining day. Two guys, a gal and a kid showed up bright and early in the morning with a machete and a chain saw.

It took about four hours for the large clump of bamboo to be gone. While one worker was cutting, the other two were dragging the poles to the back of the yard. I am really good at guessing (haha), so I am going to say they were about 40 feet tall. The poles were cut into manageable lengths and left. I imagine Mother Nature will take care of them over time.

After lunch it was time to tackle the tree at the side of the house. This tree was even bigger and taller than the bamboo. We watched a young man remove his runners, take a machete and shimmy up the tree in his bare feet. He would cut a few limbs off, climb up a bit more and cut more limbs.

It is amazing how that machete can cut through some pretty good size branches.

Eventually it was time to cut off a big branch that was hanging over the house. A rope was thrown to the guy up in the tree. Initially I thought it was a safety harness. But no, it looked like a kind of pulley was rigged.

Then it was time to bring out the chain saw. It was a little freaky to say the least…. bare feet, standing on a cut limb, and a chain saw.

Everybody survived what in my mind was very dangerous work. Then it was clean up time, drag everything to the back, cut it up and call it a day. Wow! You must have nerves of steel to do this kind of work.

The tree might be just a little lop sided, but it is still massive.

Cheers,

Ruth

Let’s take a road trip to Torio

One Sunday we went out for lunch, and eight hours later we arrived back home. Normally, I am the world’s worst passenger when driving, but not this time. The scenery was spectacular. Our destination was the little town of Torio. Driving over a mountain range everything was brown, the scenery very similar to driving in the Okanaghan during the dog days of summer.

According to Waze, Torio is only 210 km from Pedasi, but would take 3.5 hours to get there! We knew the road to Santiago is in good shape, mostly a twinned highway with double lanes. The only way to find out what the remaining would be like was to just go. Everything was fine except for the last 20 km, which is in the process of being resurfaced….but not yet!

We did not see any deer or bears on the road, just this iguana climbing up a tree. It stopped, posed for a picture, then carried on.

After much twisting and turning, up and downing, we went around a corner to see the most spectacular view. There was no space to pull over for a good shot, but oh so pretty. In all fairness, there seems to be hundreds of those spectacular views any time you drive along the coast. Pictures taken through a dusty windshield sure don’t do justice! Places to pull over aren’t always where you want them to be either.

After a police check stop to make sure we had our passports and license, and to make sure we hadn’t overstayed our three month allotted time to be able to rent a car, we carried on. Daryl found the road to the beach (not marked and my sense of direction hasn’t improved). Time to get out and stretch our legs.

Another beautiful beach. There were not many, but a few people around. And this town had some houses close to the beach, which Pedasi doesn’t have. By now it was way past my lunch time. The restaurant was cool and the food was good. The chef did have a tough time understanding why Daryl would order a hamburger without the bun! No problem understanding the words, it was the why!

Interesting fence! Slices of trees and flat rocks between wire in a metal frame.

Another successful day trip! While Torio was pretty to visit, for me it is too isolated and too small. We arrived back in Pedasi tired and happy.

Cheers

Ruth

PEDASI, PANAMA

Pedasi is a small town in Los Santos province, Panama. When you look online you can find numbers that say the population of Pedasi ranges anywhere from 2500 – 4000. Whatever its actual size it has a lot to offer when you want to get away from a cold Canadian winter. In distance, it is not that far to the international airport in Panama City, about 325 km, and mostly the roads are in very good condition. However, traffic dictates the driving time. Every time for us, it has been at least five hours. The bonus for me is that once we get here, sure feels like arriving in paradise.

We are living just off the Main Street, the highway that runs through town, and it feels like we are in the country. I think there are four houses past us on a dead end street. Go the other way and we are a 3-4 minute walk to shops and restaurants.

Vibrant would describe so much of this town. We haven’t tried the colourful, local bus.

There has definitely been fewer markets this year than in the past, but whether you are browsing or looking for a new hat, it is still fun.

We are way too old for the bouncy castle, still cute watching the kids having fun.

If my Spanish is good enough to be believed, both the hat and purse are locally made, with coconut shells being used on the purse.

We mostly shop at two grocery stores, that are located at either end of town. The Mini Super Major Ana is only a couple of minutes walk for us. Love being able to say, “oh, I need…” and then walk to the store to get it. Just to the right of the grocery store and the hardware store (Melo Y Cia) there is a shop that is very much like a dollar store that we visited frequently when we first arrived. You know, all those little things that you want and aren’t in a rental, well there’s the place to go!. And just to the right of the ‘dollar store’ there is a restaurant with very good rotisserie chicken….and ribs….and more.

**Super Pedasi has a good selection of imported goods**

The price of gas has gone up considerably in the last two months. Same gas station, pictures were taken on December 17, 2021 and February 3, 2022.

Overall, I would say, if you eat local the cost of groceries are considerably less expensive than home. Can you buy a small coke for $0.25 or black paper for $0.30? Or a kg of extra lean ground beef for less than $5.00?

When we first arrived, this bamboo tree was leaning against the roof of the bohio and making an awful racket whenever the wind was blowing. For $5.00 we had it removed! In the right hands, a machete does a fine job.

There are plenty of restaurants, with a full price range. Casa de Campo (on the left) is a little upscale and very reasonably priced. Our food was great. The sushi place (above) is new. We sat at the only table, it was outside, and again enjoyed a great meal. Good food, good company, good times.

Yes, Pedasi has a lot to offer. Personally, I am thankful we have a car to get to the beach and for doing day trips, and just generally ease of getting around. Walking is possible, but not for me in the heat of the day. A big bonus is the ability to walk to restaurants and shops.

Cheers

Ruth

Loving Everything Beach

**A grand shelter on a hot day**…**that’s every day**

It’s hard to believe we have been in Pedasi for two months already!! When we left home we knew it would be a quiet winter with less “out and about”, and it has been. I am thankful that we are able to be away from the cold, snow and ice. From the beginning our main activity has been beach walks and that hasn’t changed. We have several beaches to choose from and we make the rounds. Our walks are about 4 km, sometimes you come to a pile of rocks and have to turn around. Other beaches you could keep on going….but hey, there is a limit before it gets dark. It is amazing how different the same beach can be from day to day. With low tide you have a ton of hard stand to walk on. At high tide there is barely any beach and you can be slogging through soft sand at a 45 degree angle. On a day when the wind is blowing and there is a lot of beach, the sand is blowing like hard pellets hitting your legs. Just maybe it is a bit of a workout!

The beaches are alive. One day there is a gigantic log rolling back and forth with each wave, the next time you go it is gone. Some days there is a ton of ‘junk’ on the beach (bottles, shoes) and small pieces of plastic. The next trip, the beach is perfectly clean…. no driftwood or garbage.

The number of small creatures that you see also differs on different days. Some days there are hundreds of hermit crabs racing around. As you get close they freeze inside their little shells. There are lots of other shell covered creatures, that I don’t know their names, who keep me thoroughly entertained.

The driftwood is incredibly beautiful. Looking back through my pictures makes me realize just how many I have taken.

We have not seen very many jellyfish, and when we do they are dead!

Yes, beaches are amazing places, and I am so thankful we get to experience them every day. Sometimes we even wear flip flops, but mostly not. Love to keep my feet in the water.

Chau

Ruth

Our Mostly Outside Neighbours

I am not a fan of creepy, crawly, slithering or multi-legged creatures. Some of our outside ‘friends’ are absolutely beautiful, some weird and others downright scary. And of course, some are really good dive bombers. We have them all, I guess learning how to co-exist is the trick. I am also trying to learn how not to freak out when something big and ugly lands on my bare skin.

Egrets comes in the absolutely beautiful category.

This Egret is a frequent visitor in our backyard. It will not let me get close. We play a game of hide and seek, with me behind a bush. When I take a step towards him, he will fly or walk short distances away, never letting me get one step closer.

Then Daryl takes the picture!

Apparently this is a boa constrictor, just a baby. We first noticed it above the BBQ as we were making dinner. Daryl was taking its picture….and what did it do but poop. Thankfully not on his head! It has been around a couple of times since but seems to not like the smoky bbq.

We have had a scorpion in the house three times….who’s counting?. One evening we came in from outside and this little bugger was in the kitchen. He posed quite nicely for Daryl to take his picture (for some strange reason the camera get shaky when I try to get close). And then he bit the dust!! A few mornings later when I came out of the bedroom, there was another scorpion in the exact same spot. I hit it soo hard with the fly swatter!!

Any more and we will be due a fumigation.

Not all of our multi legged friend are scary. This industrious little ant can carry a big load. We have several of their “houses” in the yard to prove it.

Our bedroom is at the back of the house. At night it is pitch black outside except for nights we have a moon and stars. One night, just before bedtime, I opened the door and switched on the light. On the wall above our bed there was a gigantic cockroach…una cucaracha….at least 2 inches long….or maybe 6 inches… I quietly backed out, closed the door and said “Daryl, we have a cockroach”. The implicit understanding is I am not going to bed until that thing is gone. That is the only cockroach we have seen in the house. Needless to say, Daryl took care of “that thing”. The golden coloured ‘bug’ below is another cockroach that we see outside fairly often. Unless it is on me, I am kind of okay with it.

Most days we got for a long beach walk, always bare foot as water lapping on your toes feels so good. I didn’t even see this snake until Daryl pointed it out. We think it was dead as we gently moved it with a long stick and it didn’t move. We have used the Lens app a lot…. apparently this is a venomous yellow bellied sea snake. Needless to say I am looking where I am stepping a lot more closely now.

This cute little alien seems to belong to the praying mantis family.

This young man, riding bareback in the waves, was giving the horse quite a workout. Definitely not in the bug category, but sure made for an interesting walk.

We see literally dozens of different bugs, birds, spiders and more every day. I swear, gecko’s make a game of sneaking into the house every chance they get. Mostly they are quite amicable to being shoo’d out the door with a broom. It’s keeping life interesting.

Chau

Ruth

Learning new baking skills

I had never made a pizza crust using plantains. One day Daryl was reading a blog by an expat and came across a recipe. Just maybe it is possible to have a gluten free pizza crust in our little town of Pedasi. During last trip here a chef made a hamburger bun out of plantain which was very good… and filling. Definitely something to be tried!

We bought two of the ripest plantains we could find, and then waited for them to turn black. Apparently they are too starchy if used before becoming black. It actually took quite a few days.

We have quite a lovely stove and oven. But as you can see, there are no temperature indicators for any of the dials. The stove top is fine as you can see what is happening. The oven is a different matter altogether.

If you look closely at the oven dial, there is one tiny black dot. That is my guide and I am saying it is somewhere around 350 degrees F. Mind you, it is totally a guess!

The ingredient list was quite short. So far, in this little town, we have been able to buy pretty well anything we have needed. Even Kirkland almond flour. As I have noted previously, anything imported is fairly pricy….but you can get it.

Peeling an over ripe plantain is so much easier than a green or yellow one. Once the black skin was peeled away, the plantain was still kind of firm, but easy to mash.

Not a Vitamix, but hey, it works.

Into the blender everything went, it ended up looking like pancake batter.

I think it is time to put the Christmas decoration away…haha

We made two sizes of ‘pizza’ shells.

Baking was a little iffy without knowing the oven temperature. I tried to do it so the shells were soft, but not too soft, baked but not over baked. And when you have no idea what that is supposed to look or feel like it’s tough! At least it didn’t burn.

A cheese grater would have made it look prettier.

The shells held up quite well. You could pick it up and eat it ‘just like a pizza’ and not need a fork and knife. I made a sandwich out of mine.

I am not sure that I will do it again as a pizza shell. It would work quite well as a dessert. For me, the very ripe plantain was too sweet, even with oregano in the batter.

Then we went for our daily walk along the beach, although we never thought to track the distance until part of the way back. We walked at least two kilometres each direction and passed one other couple. I’d say that is good social distancing with plenty of fresh air and exercise. The big bonus for me was the one meter elevation….and that was walking back ‘up’ to the car.

Cheers!

Ruth

Octopus Anyone? Pedasi Dec 2021

The last time the ‘shrimp guy’ came by, he was also selling octopus, or as he called it ‘pulpo’. Although we have eaten octopus, and have seen lots of pictures of giant octopus from Daryl scuba diving trips, we have never had a raw one before. So do we buy it or not? Of course we do! At $3.50 a pound, not much to lose if all goes awry.

First we had to do a search of how to clean and cook those creatures. There is a ton of information on the internet with lots of differing suggestions. Luckily for us the head, ‘beak’ (whatever that is) and guts….oops I meant entrails, had been removed. Thankfully Daryl did the dirty work. Although if I am being truthful, Daryl did all the work and I took pictures.

We now had two beautifully cleaned octopus….except for the skin. We tried removing that but it did not come off very easily.

Pretty well everything we read said to dunk the cleaned octopus in a large pot of boiling water. I think the purpose of this is to curl up the tiny little ends. We did it, although it wasn’t clear if just the tips should be dunked or the entire thing…..so in it went.

After dunking the skins came off much easier and the tips were nicely curled. Then back into the pot of water the octopus went to simmer for another hour and a bit. The information said to simmer until a fork inserted into the thicker part went in easily. I had no difficulty sticking a fork into the flesh at any time so we weren’t sure just how long it would take. We also could not get the gas low enough to keep the water from furiously boiling, so it was a constant “turn it on, turn it off”.

They were now ready to eat or to use in a recipe. We cut the octopus into tentacles because it seemed to be the most common thing to do. Although it didn’t look as pretty as when whole.

Several website suggested to put the octopus on the BBQ to char. We tried that, but no charring happened, only drying out. This BBQ was blazing hot and Daryl used his bare hands and not the tongs, so the smaller pieces would not go through the grill!!

We obviously missed something in the preparation. Maybe the black skin should have stayed on so there would be something to char.

A quick saute in butter seemed to be just what was needed.

And Done! I am not altogether sure how to describe the taste. Maybe a cross between shrimp and squid. It was firm, but soft, and a little chewy but not at all rubbery, with a very mild flavour.

Another culinary adventure in the books!. If Daryl is up for future cleaning then we will certainly do it again.

Cheers, Saludos

Ruth

Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder, Playa Los Destiladeros

As Covid rages through North America and Europe, we are living a very quiet life here in this little town in Panama. Our major source of entertainment, and exercise, its beach walking. The beach looks different in sunshine or cloud, low or high tide and calm or stormy seas. It’s all beautiful.

Yesterday we went to Playa Los Destiladeros. Again, another deserted beach. We saw one small group having a picnic under a tree, and another couple “way” up the beach.

This is the beach we visited a couple of years ago when Alicia was here. A rogue wave quickly came up the beach and washed away some of our stuff. The most important being Daryl’s prescription sunglasses! And my hat! Everything remaining was wet. Daryl was in the water and went for a good spin. Scared the heck out of me so we were extra cautious….well at least I was:)

As it gets too hot for me, we have been going a bit later in the day. We parked the car, took off our sandals when we reached the wet sand (otherwise ouchy on the feet) and started walking. When you get to ‘the point’ another entire vista opens up. And then another.

There are lots of trees along the banks that have fallen over, or look about to fall over, or have exposed roots. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I spend as much time looking along the banks and at washed up tree stumps as looking at the beach and ocean.

When we turned around to come home the sun was shining on the water. nowhere near sundown although it looks like it.

Another hat for me! I seem to go through them rather quickly. This one was made locally, and bonus….it fits!

Cheers, Salud, Merry Christmas

Stay well and healthy.

Ruth

Beach Walking At Dusk

Yesterday I went to yoga at 0715 hr., it was a little cloudy with a temperature of 27C, and I thought it felt a little cool. After arriving home a couple of hours later, I was listening to Calgary news, the announcer said it was -27C with the windchill. That is a 54C degree difference!! Even with all the uncertainty in the world today, this reinforced our decision to be snowbirds. (By the way, the yoga class had two participants, we were wearing masks and well spaced.)

As I lay in the hammock thinking about reading a book, I actually looked at the sky day dreaming. It was mostly bright blue with a few puffy clouds. Big birds were flying overhead. It was very hot with a gentle breeze flowing through the bohio. Felt wonderful. As a matter of act, it was so hot we waited until closer to sundown to go for a beach walk.

You get a totally different perspective of the beach later in the day. This is Playa El Arenal. At the end of the day the fishing boats have come in and are all lined up. It is colourful and beautiful.

However, the darker the sky, the less clear the pictures.

The other big difference was the number of people, usually it is just us. There were so many local people fishing (at least 20 on this very long beach), most were standing on the shore casting with a rod and reel. Others were just using the reel and seemed to be throwing it like a cowboy with a lasso.

Some people were carrying 20 litre pails, which made for a handy seat and a good way to carry their catch. Other people were wearing those straw baskets like backpacks, I don’t know if this would be any good as a seat but seemed to be a handy way to carry their fish.

At the end of the day those boats have to get on shore, it’s full steam ahead!

This is a great place to be, in this, another winter of Covid fear and anxiety. We spend most of our time outside in the fresh air and we are not being constantly exposed to Covid information. Let’s hope it stays that way and this 5th wave is short lived. Look after yourself and stay well.

Salud, Cheers

Ruth