Panama is a prime example of how what one person does will inadvertently affect everyone else that lives with him in a society. Since the place is so small, the ripples someone’s action makes can be felt in practically every level of life here, and I’ll give you an example of this right now: I [...]
I was driving down towards my home one fateful Saturday night when I unexpectedly got into a car crash. Luckily no one got hurt and all damages were cosmetic, but the crash triggered a series of events that ultimately left me without a car for a number of weeks, having to rely on the Panamanian public transport system to take me places. Considering I left cabs and buses when I started driving about half a decade ago, this new status quo had some degree of culture shock packed within it. What follows is a reprise of the trials and tribulations of getting around in Panama City when you’re on nothing more than your own two feet with chump change to get you in the occasional bus or a cab, and the pros/cons of the current system. The funky colors and highly inaccurate likenesses painted on their emergency doors are about all that’s attractive about them, and cabs can come in all shapes, sizes, creeds and levels of danger. To say I will enjoy the catharsis this piece will bring is a gross understatement.
I’ve touched on this topic before here and here, but I want to address this particular stain in Panama’s white dress; the public transportation system that we’ve had in place for the past 50 years is among the most terrible, disorganized cesspools of radioactive filth that the civilized world has ever known. We’re not as [...]
If you’re not in Panama at the moment then you might not know what happened yesterday so I’m going to do a quick recap; I apologize beforehand for not mentioning this sooner but I’m going through the motions and was not going to post today anyway but I found an angle that pushed me into [...]
I find it amazing how shitty we can treat each other as fellow Panamanians but when a tourist comes around some natives might as well kiss their feet as they stroll down the street dressed up as if they were going on an Amazonian expedition. This makes them easier to spot, and many a time [...]
We Panamanians (and I include myself in this one because I’m just as guilty as the next guy regarding the subject) have a rather askew sense of time when it comes to anything from appointments, opening time, closing hours, overtime, what’s a half hour, what’s 5 minutes, yadda yadda yadda and a bottle of rum. [...]