The sexiest RAV4 ever produced.
PRICE REDUCED
Only 68,000 easy miles.
Original Owner
Non-smoker’s car.
5 speed.
Custom wheels and rims.
New battery.
Power windows and door locks.
Tinted windows.
Frosty A/C
No rust.
Never wrecked.
Extremely rare.
$12,950 $11,950 obo and it’s yours!
In Panama: (507) 6674.6460
Rent It For: $900 USD per month
Are you searching for that “One-Of-A-Kind”, “Totally Unique” home in Boquete?
Are you a writer, painter, a photographer?
Or maybe you’re none of the above – maybe you’re just looking for dreamy, zen-like solitude.
If you are – then Casa Kokopelli is just the ticket.
Casa Kokopelli is so named after the magnificent, hand carved figurine who resides center stage in the water feature on our expansive view terrace.
Commissioned by us, this stunning monument was masterfully drilled through the center thus enabling this Hopi deity to stream a gracious stream of water from his flute. See photo.
Custom designed and constructed, the space planning of the interior was lovingly graced with an open and airy ambiance.
Take the bedrooms for instance; the master is 15 feet by 20 feet with a walkout to the expansive view terrace.
The second bedroom is a man-sized 11 feet by 18 feet with floor to ceiling closet and a gorgeous garden vista. Large enough for a queen sized bed and an executive desk (installed) with a return for your computer peripherals and printer.
LOW, LOW UTILITY COSTS (electric and propane) – under $100 per month.
Located on a spacious parcel of land – 1572 square meters (17,000 square feet/.39 acre) – it’s easy to surround yourself with peace and relaxation or a few horses. It’ your choice!
Our home abounds with shades of the Southwest Territorial USA (Arizona/New Mexico). If you adore Santa Fe stylings, you’re gonna love our place.
Breathe in distant ocean views, then sprinkle in the sounds of the mighty Cochea river as it rushes toward the Pacific Ocean while you relax on our ample entertainment terrace – over 600 square feet of view deck (21 feet x 31 feet).
This enchanting home is available April 1st.
It is furnished to the nine’s and includes everything from bed linens to the gas fired gourmet bar-b-que, the gourmet coffee grinder and the Krups coffee maker.
Conveniently located in Alto Boquete.
If you know your way around Boquete, we are located across the street from Boquete’s best bar and restaurant – Las Ruinas. You can literally crawl home!
Available April 1st
Minimum 12 months.
507 6674.1484
Boquete Foto Tour and Workshop
April 9th, 2012
1:00 – 5:00PM
Boquete, Panama
Only $59
Would you spend $59 dollars to learn how to compose and capture thought-provoking, jaw-dropping fotos?
Sure you would!
Are you frustrated and angry with the mediocre shots coming out of your BIG BUCK$ camera gear?
Maybe you’re happy with what you shoot, but you want to achieve a higher level of photo skills?
Or maybe you just want to see and photograph rustic Boquete with some really cool, like-minded individuals from all over the world.
If this sounds like you, my Foto Tour and Workshop has your name on it!
Visit our website to see actual examples and full details of our unique Foto Tour and Workshop.
DON’T DELAY – Tour and Workshop limited to 6 attendees!
Sign Up For Our April 9th Downtown Tour & Workshop!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE
Legendary motorcycle adventurer, videographer, editor and YouTuber, Ryan Grassley, will be video documenting our April 9th Tour and Workshop, as well as pitching in as a gaffer (lighting assistant).
If you haven’t seen his work, get on over to his YouTube channel “HalfThrottle Motorcycle Adventures“.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My Tour and Workshop is uniquely crafted for the photographer who wants to make better portraits with natural light, natural light with strobes, and other light modifiers.
I will focus on the “street” style of portrait photography and you will learn how to shoot with natural light, flashguns (camera strobes) and various light modifiers; umbrellas, softboxes and reflectors.
After a brief meet and greet at the historic Bistro Boquete Restaurant, we’ll settle into a crash course on alternative shooting. When that’s over, we hit the streets.
We will be shooting in the colorful, rustic downtown area of Boquete, Panama where we can always expect a guest appearance from any one of our stunning male and female models.
This is a fast-paced, hands-on, boots-on-the-ground workshop where you will construct and shoot your lighting set-ups. So don’t expect a classroom environment burdened with mathematical formulas and scientific data.
This is a fun-filled, fast-paced, hands-on event that you won’t soon forget.
So bring your good cheer, your photo gear, your favorite guy or gal and get ready for the time of your life!
Looking forward to seeing you here, mate!
~ Juan Antonio Villegas
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Gear Required To Participate:
Optional Gear:
Pro photographer, Villegas, captures Panama native Xtreme athlete Cesar Melendez walking the highline in front of San Ramon waterfall in Boquete Panama.
So what the hell is “highlining” anyway?
Wikipedia describes it this way;
Highlining is slacklining at elevation above the ground or water. Many slackliners consider highlining to be the pinnacle of the sport. Highlines are commonly set up in locations that have been used or are still used for Tyrolean traverse. When rigging highlines, experienced slackers take measures to ensure that solid, redundant and equalized anchors are used to secure the line into position. Modern highline rigging typically entails a mainline of webbing, backup webbing, and either climbing rope or amsteel rope for redundancy. It is also common to pad all areas of the rigging which might come in contact with abrasive surfaces. To ensure safety, most highliners wear a climbing harness or swami belt with a leash attached to the slackline itself; however, unleashed walks of highlines are not unheard of.
The Entertainment Scene
with Lourdes Quijada
And there’s nothing like a blues tune to chase away the blues. Ask my husband who during his recent stay in hospital managed to gripe away with the T-Bone Walker blues classic Call it Stormy Monday (which is the day he ended up in ICU). The lyrics continue, “ Tuesday’s just as bad, Wednesday’s worse…” if you get my meaning. When he felt better he even brought up onto his laptop a late 50’s recording of Guy Mitchell singing “I’ve never felt more like singin’ the blues.” Now I know he’s getting better.
Bulgarian jazz diva Saska Laroo
Everybody knows the Danilo Perez’ annual Jazz Festival in Panama City which next year will move it’s final concert from Casco Viejo to the City of Knowledge, but tiny Boquete has had an annual Jazz Festival for the last five years and plans next month to steal a march on it’s famed cousin.
As Jazz lovers will know Jazz, is the baby that grew out of blues, and Boquete is bringing daddy and baby together in March.
There’s an annual Blues Festival in Costa Rica. There have been large Blues concerts in Colombia and Ecuador. There’s a huge Blues scene in Brazil with festivals that attract tens of thousands of people, there are annual Blues Festivals on various Caribbean islands… and now Panama.
Blues is almost unknown here. There may be some people who know some of the big names in the Blues like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal…but beyond that there’s very little knowledge of this unique, and genuinely American music…
The Blues has been around long before Jazz evolved out of it. The Blues has spread from the cotton fields of Mississippi to Chicago, all over the USA, and from there all over the world. You can hear the Blues, and attend Blues Festivals almost everywhere, from North America to South America, Europe, the Near East, Australia, and Asia. Blues Festivals in Japan always attract huge crowds of Blues-crazy fans.
In Panama you can hear and enjoy everything from salsa, and merengue, to heavy metal … but no Blues!. On March 1-4, all of that will change when The Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival Foundation will present the country‘ first open-air Jazz & Blues Festival in Panama with world-class Blues artists from the US and Europe in addition to top-notch Jazz musicians from Panama, the US and Europe.
World-class Jazz and Blues on the slopes of Volcan Baru in the valley of rainbows and eternal spring.
Here’s the line up
Blues:Mitch Woods (US), Johnny Sansone (US), Andy Egert (CH) with Bob Stroger (US), Sharrie Williams&The Wiseguys (US), Ron Hacker (US).
Jazz: Carlos Ubarte quartet with Idania Dowman (PA), Saskia Laroo (NL) with Salsa Bop, The Smoking Time Jazz Club (US), Betty Bryant (US), Rigoberto Coba Big Band (PA)
A special concert with Jazz lady Betty Bryant and friends will take place at the BCP theatre in Boquete on Thursday evening, March 1
There will be a FREE opening show for the general public in Boquete central park on Friday, March 2 followed by parties at local restaurants and hotels in Boquete and then a two dayopen-air festival in the Valle Escondido amphitheatre on March 3 & 4.
Festival tickets can be booked online and tickets are sold locally at Mailboxes ETC. in Boquete.. Tickets for the open air March 3 and 4, are:…day ticket; $20 adult, $ 5 students and minors. 2 day festival pass: $30 adults, $7.50 students and minors
Ticket price for the Betty Bryant concert on, March 1. : $ 13.
www.boquetejazzandbluesfestival.com
www.es.boquetejazzandbluesfestival.com
The Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival Foundation is a non-commercial, all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization. Which does its work for the love of music, and to enhance cultural life in the community and to realize a vision of putting Boquete firmly on the Jazz and Blues map.
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As she stands among villagers in the highlands of western Panama, their chosen leader, Silvia Carrera, is an image of bucolic harmony. Then Carrera, elected chief or general cacique of the Ngäbe-Buglé community, gestures to a woman who hands her a bag of spent US riot-control equipment – rubber bullet casings, shotgun shells, sting-ball grenades, teargas canisters.
Panama national police, she explains, used these against her people only days earlier to break up a protest against government plans for a vast copper mine and hydroelectric schemes on their territory. Three young Ngäbe-Buglé men were killed, dozens were wounded and more than 100 detained.
Proud Ngäbe-Buglé Protest Against Mining On Their Comarca - Photo © 2012 Villegas
What began with villagers at Ojo de Agua in Chiriquí province using trees and rocks to block the Pan-American highway earlier this month – trapping hundreds of lorries and busloads of tourists coming over the border from Costa Rica for six days – has now placed Panama at the forefront of the enduring and often violent clash between indigenous peoples and global demand for land, minerals and energy. Carrera is emerging as a pivotal figure in the conflict.
“Look how they treat us. What do we have to defend ourselves? We don’t have anything; we have only words,” Carrera protests. “We are defenceless. We don’t have weapons. We were attacked and it wasn’t just by land but by air too. Everything they do to us, to our land, to our companions who will not come back to life, hurts us.”
At the height of the protests, thousands of Ngäbe-Buglé came down from the hills to block the highway; in El Volcán and San Félix they briefly routed police and set fire to a police station. In Panama City, students and unions joined with indigenous protesters marching almost daily on the residence of President Ricardo Martinelli. Some daubed walls near the presidential palace with the words “Martinelli assassin”.
Carrera pulls from her satchel a hastily drawn-up agreement brokered by the Catholic church that obliges the Panamanian national assembly to discuss the issue. It did not guarantee that the projects would be halted. Neither she nor the Ngäbe-Buglé people expressed optimism that the government would keep its word on the mining issue.
“The village doesn’t believe it,” she says, “and it wouldn’t be the first time that the government threw around lies. They do not listen to the village. There was a similar massacre in 2010 and 2011, when there were deaths and injuries. Some were blinded, some of our companions lost limbs.” A cry goes up: “No to the miners! No to the hydroelectric!”
The Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, or territory, sits atop the huge Cerro Colorado copper deposit, the richest mineral deposit in Panama, possibly in all of central America. Pro-business Martinelli, a self-made supermarket tycoon, signed a deal with Canada’s Inmet Mining with a 20% Korean investment to extract as much as 270,000 tons of copper a year, along with gold and silver, over the 30-year lifespan of the proposed mine. Panama’s tribes form 10% of the population but, through a system of autonomous comarcas, they control 30% of the land, giving them greater leverage.
Martinelli could hardly have found a prouder adversary than Carrera who, at 42 and elected only in September, is the first woman to lead Panama’s largest indigenous tribe. “The land is our mother. It is because of her that we live,” she says simply. “The people will defend our mother.” Carrera holds Martinelli in scant regard. She accuses him of “mocking” indigenous people and considers his administration a government of businessmen who “use us to entertain themselves, saying one thing today and another tomorrow”.
Two days before the police cleared the roadblocks, the president invited her to the Palacio de las Garzas in Panamá City for a “good meal and a drink”. The Ngäbe-Buglé chief, who received education to secondary level, was unimpressed. The offer, she said, revealed “a lack of respect”.
In past mining disputes, the government blamed “foreign actors” and journalists for stirring up trouble. Last week it accused the Ngäbe-Buglé of “kidnapping” and “hostage-taking” when referring to the travellers delayed on the highway. By the time the smoke cleared, Panama’s foreign minister, Roberto Henríquez, conceded that his government was “only producing deeper wounds”.
Carrera gestures to women in the group she says have been injured. Over the previous 24 hours she had travelled between towns to ensure that all the protesters had been released, but some reports suggest that dozens are still missing. One woman holds up a bandaged hand, a wound that she says came from an army bullet.
With the dead – including Jerónimo Rodríguez Tugri, who had his jaw blown off, and Mauricio Méndez, a learning-disabled 16-year-old – still lying in the mortuary, Carrera’s anger is plain. “This is the struggle of the indigenous people. We are trying to make contact, asking our international brothers to join us in solidarity. We call for justice from the UN. The government doesn’t want other countries to know about this. That’s why they cut off our cellphone service. We couldn’t find each other. Nobody knew anything. They were trying to convince us to give up.”
Fearful of the environmental and political fallout, governments throughout central America are tightening mining controls. But Martinelli, who came to power with the campaign slogan “walking in the shoes of the people”, seems determined to find a way around legislation that protects indigenous mineral, water and environmental resources from exploitation.
The Martinelli government faces accusations of systematic cronyism in the allocation of more than $12bn in new construction projects, funded in part by increased revenue anticipated from a $5.25bn Panama canal expansion programme. Among the disputed projects is a $775m highway that will encircle Panama City’s old quarter of Casco Viejo, cutting it off from the sea and isolating a new Frank Gehry-designed museum celebrating Panama’s influence as a three-million-year-old land bridge between the Americas. Critics say the road is pointless and Unesco is threatening to withdraw its world heritage site designation if it proceeds.
Despite the region’s history of conflict and shady banking practices, Panama is aggressively positioning itself both as an economic haven (GDP growth is running at close to 7.5%) and a tourist and eco-tourist destination. New skyscrapers thrust up into the humidity like a mini-Dubai; chic restaurants and hotels are opening up .
Officials express concern that the Ngäbe-Buglé and other indigenous disputes may undo Panama’s carefully orchestrated PR push, spotlighting the disparity of wealth in a country where 40% of the population live in poverty. “The government says Good, Panama is growing its economy. Yet the economy is for a few bellaco [macho men],” Carrera says. “But progress should be for the majority and for this we will go into the street, and from frontier to frontier, to protest.”
The tourism Panama seeks is threatening their way of life, she says. Along the coast, private developments are beginning to restrict access to the sea. “We work and we own property, but the tourists take the land and the best property. Then we can’t go there.”
At the bottom of the hill the general cacique waits for a bus to take her and several dozen women to Panama City, 200km to the west, for another anti-government rally, where they will be joined by the Kuna and representatives of the Emberá and Wounaan peoples, who are opposing encroachment of farmers on their land in the eastern provinces. Carrera vows that the Ngäbe-Buglé campaign will continue. “We are not violent. We just want to reclaim our rights and justice. Above all, we want to live in peace and tranquility.”
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Photograph Credit: Ed Helmore for the Observer
Friday, 17 February 2012 17:07
Written by Matt Landau
The Panama Report
David Henesy is the smartest restaurateur I know in Panama, and I have no idea who would rank second. The dumbest consigliere in David’s management circle is still smarter (by himself) than all the employees at Crepes & Waffles, Niko’s and Café Pomodoro’s restaurant syndicates combined. Expert foreigners in Panama make everything a little unfair.
“The servers at Elephant Grill are almost robotically well-trained.”
Panama was predisposed to love David’s newest restaurant, Elephant Grill, before it even opened and I totally understand why. First, it’s a new territory in his evolving restaurant empire alongside the likes of La Posta, Market, and La Chesa, which is to say, it would be more surprising if Elephant Grill was bad than if it was good. Second, Panama City has a severe shortage of Asian food, which is to say, any kind of Pan-Asian cuisine is usually better than nothing. Lastly, Elephant Grill is located on a prime corner on Calle Uruguay (which Panamanians like) and offers valet parking (which Panamanians love).
We arrived 30 minutes before our scheduled reservation and were seated without hesitation. The décor inside Elephant Grill is dim and Indian. There are some kind of Asian characters on the wall, the furniture has a decidedly organic feel, and an idle dimsum pushcart gets me kind of excited to try somewhere other than the Golden Unicorn.
The menu items at Elephant Grill are conveniently categorized by the vehicular modes on which they will enter your mouth: finger foods, chopstick foods…etc. The prices range from $4 appetizers to $30 entrees and the waiter-recommended cocktail, a leechee martini, was $7. It was pink. It was girly. And it was embarassingly delicious.
David and his wife are sitting next to me drinking wine, entertaining different appetizers and picking at entrees as each arrives with their fingers. Every now and then, David makes explosive, demonstrative hand gestures as if he’s conducting a band of soldiers. Without looking up from the table, one arm in the air means, someone come here I need something pronto. Both hands swirling in the air means we’re done, please remove all our plates now. But when I try these signals a few minutes later myself and they don’t work, my girlfriend tells me to stop being an idiot.
We started with corvina and spinach dumplings, which come four to a serving ($10). They were seared on one side (light and fluffy on the other) and served with a light dipping sauce. They were delicious (but should have been $6). We also snacked on great edamame (soy bean pods) doused in a spicy pork sauce ($5). Wooden chopsticks aplenty grace the tabletop and a small side stool is useful for bags and bottles of wine.
Simply by existing on the night of my dinner, Elephant Grill represents at least four signature hallmarks of David Henesy’s savant-like success in Panama City:
The servers at Elephant Grill are almost robotically well-trained.
On the rare occasion that a fine-dining establishment in Panama serves me something spectacular, I often realize that (a) the chef did something irregular but somehow it worked out miraculously and that (b) I’ve actually invested more intellectual energy into the quality standards of the restaurant than the goddamn proprietor. When I eat the Korean bulgogi ($21) at Elephant Grill, I can factually state that neither of these are even remotely true. If the Pan-Asian theme of Elephant Grill is intending for Asian flavors to unite and solidify and create a continental hegemony to defeat the Western ideologies, the bulgogi shall be its leader.
I observe people in Panama’s nice restaurants. A lot. There is only a premier echelon of places that the guests can range from formal to totally casual and still be treated with the same service that the staff gives its owner. Elephant Grill falls into this category.
Completely irrespective to his profession, David Henesy wears Croakies 24/7.
I am including the following anecdote for two reasons, neither of which is, “because it will affect your dining experience.” I was seated under some sort of air conditioning unit that haphazardly released droplets onto my head throughout the course of dinner. In retrospect, this was probably the only unamazing thing I could possibly say about the restaurant. It was the only flaw that exhibited the restaurants mortality. But I kind of liked it because it reminded me of an authentic meal on the streets of Thailand.
photo credit: Steve-h
photo credit: h.koppdelaney
January 27, 2012
Caroline Patek, Contributor
Forbes
Poised at the junction of North and South America, Panama possesses a laundry list of new attractions, hotspots and luxury hotels that are making it an up and coming travel destination—with the catalyst undoubtedly being the $5.25 billion Panama Canal expansion that’s underway and scheduled for completion in 2014. The aim is to allow a greater volume and size of ships to pass through the historic, 50-mile long waterway. The result? Panama City is transforming into an energetic, modern metropolis, with investors preparing for moneyed visitors by upping its luxury quotient.
Donald Trump got in early on Panama’s growing popularity, opening Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower in summer 2011, making it the first international venture for Trump Hotel Collection (and the tallest building in Latin America). The hotel is uniquely shaped like a tall ship’s sail, and rooms have floor-to-ceiling views of Panama City and the Pacific Ocean. Panamanian touches such as wood-carved headboards grace the 369 guest rooms, and luxe services abound, including wardrobe storage assistance (so frequent visitors don’t have to lug baggage back and forth) and a complimentary catamaran to Trump’s private Beach Club (an island with white sand beaches, a pool, cabanas, watersports and beach chair service). But it’s the 1,830-square-foot pool deck that really caught our attention—it has a gorgeous infinity-edge pool, alfresco seating at the poolside bar and restaurant and expansive ocean views.Photo courtesy Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower Panama.
Waldorf Astoria’s The Panamera, the brand’s first in Latin America, is scheduled to open in June in Panama City’s fashionable Calle Uruguay neighborhood. Located less than 15 minutes from Marcos A. Gelabert International Airport and within walking distance of the massive Cinta Costera (the city’s version of Central Park), the luxury hotel will have a 2,500-square-foot spa, 130 guest rooms and an outdoor swimming pool. There will be a variety of restaurants, from the handcrafted sushi at Ginger Sushi Bar and Lounge to contemporary French-American at Brasserie Brillo. The Bungalo Terrace and Pool Bar will be the spot for poolside libations, and The Cristal Bar will serve as an elegant space for cocktails and mingling in the lobby.
There’s much more to do than lounge poolside in Panama. The once dilapidated but charmingly historic neighborhood of Casco Viejo has undergone a sophisticated makeover in recent years. While you can still spot the colonial-era architecture prevalent throughout its streets, the area now houses some of the city’s best restaurants, bars, galleries and hotels. DiVino Enoteca is a swanky wine bar, with hundreds of varietals to choose from (watch for the classic, black-and-white movies playing silently in the background). At tapas restaurant Manolo Caracol, there is no menu—once seated, you’ll be given a variety of small plates with Spanish influences, such as Andalusian gazpacho with cucumber sorbet and spicy tuna sashimi.
The Panamera. Courtesy Hilton Worldwide.
The Frank Gehry-designed BioMuseo is set to open in early 2013, and will focus on the country’s fascinating biodiversity and the importance of the isthmus—the narrow strip of land that makes Panama and its revenue-generating canal. And though the museum isn’t officially open yet, you can join the list of VIPs (Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jane Goodall) and stop by the site for a sneak peek.
Photo courtesy BioMuseo.
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