Sunday, April 01, 2007
Panama City/Costa Rica
Panama:
Last night we toured Panama City. From a distance, it looked unexpectedly like Hong Kong. We went through a terribly shabby barrio which started to merge into San Felipe (Old Panama City). I loved what the government(?) was doing with the San Felipe barrio (neighborhood). The buildings were being gutted, while the old Spanish exteriors were left as intact as possible. There was a hip restaurant situated in an ancient prison, though we couldn’t get in because it was hosting a wedding dinner. I asked the guide about the native people being priced out of these neighborhoods, and he said that there was good AND bad with progress. However, It’s still a very seedy, knife-you-in-the-night type of neighborhood. Someday it will be tres chic (though crocodiles are in the nearby Panama Canal….aaaccckkk.
Ray didn’t like Panama once he saw the barrio. I, on the other hand, liked the heat and the trees and the growth of the downtown skyscrapers. One can assume that a large portion of this wealth is coming from a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, even though it is denied; and it IS true that the country’s economy is boosted by the canal income. I don’t think Ray would be interested in coming here for the winter, though I think there is a lot more to see. Most American expats live out of town on the Pacific Coast and any American can have dual citizenship. Maybe I should play Van Halen’s “Panama” song until he relents.
Costa Rica:
We had a short tour that stayed close to port. We saw a small-town procession to a church, where kids carried palms for Palm Sunday. The Costa Ricans seemed very kind and don’t have the underlying animosity towards Gringos that Panamanians do. (Though I liked Panama quite a lot.)
Costa Rica only has two seasons: summer, with no rain, and winter, with rain; and this is the last week of their summer, so soon more flowers will bloom and the hills will turn green. The highlight of the tour was buying a wooden chicken. The lowlight was having a woman from the bus hurling all over Ray and two other tourists…though some of you may think THAT was the highlight…haha. Maybe we took the wrong tour.
Last night we toured Panama City. From a distance, it looked unexpectedly like Hong Kong. We went through a terribly shabby barrio which started to merge into San Felipe (Old Panama City). I loved what the government(?) was doing with the San Felipe barrio (neighborhood). The buildings were being gutted, while the old Spanish exteriors were left as intact as possible. There was a hip restaurant situated in an ancient prison, though we couldn’t get in because it was hosting a wedding dinner. I asked the guide about the native people being priced out of these neighborhoods, and he said that there was good AND bad with progress. However, It’s still a very seedy, knife-you-in-the-night type of neighborhood. Someday it will be tres chic (though crocodiles are in the nearby Panama Canal….aaaccckkk.
Ray didn’t like Panama once he saw the barrio. I, on the other hand, liked the heat and the trees and the growth of the downtown skyscrapers. One can assume that a large portion of this wealth is coming from a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, even though it is denied; and it IS true that the country’s economy is boosted by the canal income. I don’t think Ray would be interested in coming here for the winter, though I think there is a lot more to see. Most American expats live out of town on the Pacific Coast and any American can have dual citizenship. Maybe I should play Van Halen’s “Panama” song until he relents.
Costa Rica:
We had a short tour that stayed close to port. We saw a small-town procession to a church, where kids carried palms for Palm Sunday. The Costa Ricans seemed very kind and don’t have the underlying animosity towards Gringos that Panamanians do. (Though I liked Panama quite a lot.)
Costa Rica only has two seasons: summer, with no rain, and winter, with rain; and this is the last week of their summer, so soon more flowers will bloom and the hills will turn green. The highlight of the tour was buying a wooden chicken. The lowlight was having a woman from the bus hurling all over Ray and two other tourists…though some of you may think THAT was the highlight…haha. Maybe we took the wrong tour.
# posted by Ray and Tina Gregoire @ 8:53 PM 
