Laying Low in Boquete

I slipped out the door by myself this morning to see what I could see around the neighborhood. The road outside the door goes uphill past the bridge at the Rio Palo Alto away from the town below. There are some really fancy gringo houses in this area with total third world shacks interspersed among the trees. Chef tried to come along for the hike but I had to shoo him back onto the property.

About a half mile up the road next to the Palo Alto Inn, some smaller roads lead off to the right. A red husky appeared out of nowhere and insisted on accompanying me for the steep climb. The paved street gave way to a rough dirt road as Red and I walked past stands of coffee and a variety of tropical fruit trees. I could get an occasional window of a view to the city below but the forest was thick.

I slowly descended taking a different side road that leads up to the hanging bridges. I went a mile or so up then headed back home. Luckily my canine escort tired of tailing me after an hour and disappeared. Almost exactly two hours after I started, the driveway came into view and it was time for breakfast and to get ready for the local AA meeting.

After the meeting we set off for David for my follow up with the orthopedist. The afternoon rain arrived like clockwork and fell hard upon the windshield as we dropped in altitude until arriving at Hospital Chiriqui. We waited about ten minutes for the doctor to call us in while the receptionist found the CD of my MRI and put it in a cardboard case so I have it for when I return to the states. Dr. Tortosa brought us to his office and we went over the official report from the doctor who specializes in reading the scans. It pretty much matched up with his prognosis from last time. He promised to translate the Spanish report so it will easier to use in the U.S.

Next, we moved over to the exam room where he prepared and delivered a cortisone shot. He administered injections to both the front and back. The lidocaine in the mix numbed the shoulder pain indicating that we were finding the right area of inflammation. We thanked him, paid our $85 for the doctor visit and shot then ran a few more errands. A quick visit to the alarm specialist on the way home got our car alarm to stop being so sensitive so we can use it without driving the neighborhood crazy. PJ’s been getting skeeved by using pillows in the Airbnb’s so we made another stop at a department store before making the rainy drive back up to Boquete.