Now Available For Purchase – One Of Boquete’s Finest Homes (advertisement)

Sunday September 05, 2010
ABSENTEE OWNER MARKS DOWN BOQUETE LUXURY HOME

NEW PRICE $499,000

Owners are serious about selling this gorgeous estate and have reduced the asking price to $499,000 from $659,000.

THAT’S HUGE!! And you may never, ever see another opportunity like this come your way.

If you have been sitting on the fence waiting for the right home at the right price, this spectacular home has your name on it!

WHEN SANTA FE MEETS BOQUETE

Designed for a gracious and leisurely lifestyle, this new, quality crafted home will wrap you up in its warm and airy ambiance.

The gourmet chef in you will revel in your eat-in kitchen decked out with top of the line stainless steel Viking appliances. Top off your gourmet meal with a trip to your private, subterranean, temperature controlled wine cellar at the lower level.

FEATURES

• UNRIVALED VIEWS
• Bedrooms: 3
• Baths: 3.5
• Eat-In Gourmet Kitchen
• Viking stainless steel side-by-side refrigerator
• Viking 6 burner stainless steel gas stove
• Viking stainless steel built-in microwave
• Viking stainless steel whisper quiet dishwasher
• Viking whisper quiet heavy duty garbage disposal
• Formal Dining Room
• Family Room
• Office
• HUGE His & Hers walk-in closets
• 1,500 square feet (approx) of covered terraza with killer views – perfect for socializing, HAPPY HOUR and barbecues!!
• Square feet livable: 3,000 approximately
• 3 Wood burning Fireplaces (1- master bedroom, 1-family room, 1-outside covered terrace}
• Temperature Controlled Wine Cellar and Tasting Room
• Plenty of land for horses & dogs
• 2 Car Garage
• Porte-cochere
• NO HOA FEES
• High Speed Internet
• Triple Filtration Water system with Reserve Tank – Great Water pressure – Annual water bill: $60 – this is not a typo, it really is $60!
• Acres: 1.3 approximately (can be split)
• Fully Titled
• Recent Survey
• and so much more…

$499,000

$659,000 Asking Price

NOTE:
This home is unfurnished and no longer available for lease.

For more information, contact us via email or phone us: +1 (507) 6674.6460
www.BoqueteLegacyRealEstate.com

Licensed & Bonded

Multimedia presentation produced by Juan Antonio Villegas

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Email us here.

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Flight Deck – September 7, 2010

Garfield 07.09.10

When the Earth was Young

When the Earth was Young
© 2010 Trey Ratcliff
Stuck In Customs

Flight Deck – September 6, 2010

Garfield 06.09.10

Panama Authenticity Report: Part 1

August 25, 2010
Written by Matt Landau
The Panama Report

Most of my time here has been spent subconsciously analyzing whether Panama is real or not and then trying to write about it. It wasn’t something I ever specifically asked myself out loud or anyone else for that matter. I never held round-table discussions on the touristic merits of Kuna Yala or solicited views on the financial impact of expanding the Canal. I just never got that technical or formal. I guess you could say I’m just lazy, or indifferent, or both.

When I say real, of course, I’m not doubting the fact that Panama is an actual place with a physical population and a proper (and proportionally remarkable) GDP. Rather, I wonder whether it’s a genuine place. It’s an authenticity argument Casey got me hooked on a long time ago.

Does Panama offer unique experiences or opportunities that are better than other places? Does it have irrevocably redeeming qualities? Is culture preserved? Is there a sense of purpose or drive or self-betterment? What is the ultimate identity Panama wants to project and does that identity match the aspirations of foreigners who travel or invest there?

These are the questions that fuel my ongoing (yet entirely unsystematic) search for individualism in Panama, and for the time being, the following conclusions seem to represent my best stab at making sense of it all.

1. Nothing, not even the most impressive country in the world, is 100% authentic
2. When Panama leans towards the inauthentic, it is almost always more popular (both to foreigners and to Panamanians) in the present tense. When Panama leans towards the authentic, it has more potential to be popular over the long haul, but it also has a greater likelihood of failing completely.
3. The most success comes when Panama is sort of authentic in its intent, yet mostly fake in its delivery. This would be Gamboa Rainforest Resort. The worst comes from the opposite situation, like John Wayne Island off the coast of Punta Chame. If the intent is fake and the delivery is fake (Decameron and Playa Blanca), things seem to work out OK. And if both the intent and the delivery are unswervingly authentic, failure is imminent (like a ton of places you’ve never heard of, but probably should have).
4. In the present moment, most people in Panama don’t see this as a problem. Bloggers and critics write about it, but most people don’t know or simply don’t care.
5. The most defining act for Panama will be attempting to be inauthentic on purpose, and most specifically if that attempt fails.

Like a lot of normal people interested in Panama, the first four don’t captivate me anymore: unless you have a lot of money or power or an extraordinary amount of spare time to dedicate, changing perspectives in Panama is unspeakably hard. But the fifth, I think, in a very fatal sort of way, is the most intriguing topic in Panama right now. It hinges on the core confusion: just who exactly does Panama think it is?

It would be cruel for anyone but the Panamanian people to decide the future of their country. It would be equally cruel to their country for the Panamanian people to blow this decision. Choosing to be inauthentic on purpose – this would include but not be limited to evolving a gimmicky tourism industry or building highways around historic districts – has absolutely no historic merit.

When Panama successfully defines itself, the result will be definitive and eternal. It’s like the way Costa Rica morphed into Costa Rica and, in the process, became bigger than all of Central America put together. Or the way a country in Africa arrives on the Failed State Index. This is not to say Costa Rica is good or Africa is bad or vice versa. But if a transformation fails – no matter the reason – the original product erodes into something else. It disappears into itself and everyone gets depressed and sad and no one wants it anymore.

Veering off Casey’s path, I don’t think pure authenticity is (and never really will be) the catalyst here because, culturally, it just isn’t understood. Panama is a vanity project. Something its people are doing – and rightly so – for themselves. But with vanity, just as with things done exclusively for other people, some sense of taste is required or everything just falls apart. Searching for this taste exposes the confusing truths that have always been here in Panama, lurking quietly.

iPhone 4 gets stuffed inside Canon SLR body

While it’s far from the most practical of ideas, people just can’t seem to stop trying to make their iPhones more SLR-like. Joining that illustrious group is one Aniebres who, typos aside, has built one of the most impressive contraptions to date. We’re still waiting to see what the end results look like, but the hardware side of things looks to be surprisingly solid, with the iPhone 4 slotting in with a satisfying click, while the entire lens mechanism has been shifted over to line up with the iPhone’s camera (and make room for an Apple sticker). Head on past the break for a quick video of the rig.

Thanks, John

Continue reading iPhone 4 gets stuffed inside Canon SLR body

iPhone 4 gets stuffed inside Canon SLR body originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:32:00 EDT.

Klipsch Image S5i Rugged in-ear headphones earn our respect

“Rugged” is one of those terms thrown around pretty loosely by the consumer electronics industry. So when Klipsch, a name that’s not exactly synonymous with husky men in the saddle, rolled out a rugged version of its S4i in-ear speakers under the Image S5i Rugged moniker, well, we just had to put them to the test. But first we had to give these $129.99 ‘buds a listen… from the very noisy floor of the Messe Berlin convention center. Fortunately, the oval ear tips did an excellent of job of isolating most external sounds, thus allowing us to hear a rich reproduction of lows and mids with a noticeable emphasis on bass. Not a surprise since the Image S5i headphones feature the same acoustic characteristics as the Image S4i and Image S4 headphones that came before them.

But what we really wanted to know was how that “moisture-resistant” (not waterproof) Apple-compatible three-button remote / mic would hold-up to a torture test. Fortunately, the Image S5i Rugged managed to keep the music playing and under control even after a generous bath of bottled water. Rugged and classy? Looks like iPod, iPhone, and iPad owners just made a new friend.

Continue reading Klipsch Image S5i Rugged in-ear headphones earn our respect (video)

Klipsch Image S5i Rugged in-ear headphones earn our respect (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:23:00 EDT.

Google agrees to pay $8.5 million to make Buzz privacy lawsuits go away

Remember back when Google’s Buzz social networking app shared user’s private information without their consent? Heck, do you remember Buzz at all? Suffice it to say that some unhappy folks sued, and it looks like they’re about to accept a hefty settlement in place of their day in court. Though no money’s exchanged hands quite yet and a judge has yet to approve, Google’s agreed to drop $8.5 million and “disseminate wider public education about the privacy aspects of Google Buzz” as part of a class-action settlement, according to court documents. While there’s certainly a chunk of dough potentially being doled out here, we have to imagine individual Gmail users won’t be seeing much — most will go to “organizations focused on Internet privacy policy or privacy education” — which makes us wonder if $8.5 million isn’t a small price to pay to get Buzz back into the national news feeds.

In related (or possibly completely coincidental) news, Google took the opportunity today to revamp its master Privacy Policy. Read all about it at our more coverage link, if you’re into that kind of stuff.

Google agrees to pay $8.5 million to make Buzz privacy lawsuits go away originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:44:00 EDT.