Larry's Central American Travels

The Latest From Panama

 Got 'Punked' - Big Time!

I may have mentioned before that baseball is big in Panama, real big - even bigger than soccer.  Different cities don't have teams, but each province does and the competition is intense.  It is not unusual when our Chirique team wins an important game, a spontaneous city-wide celebration breaks out complete with a parade through downtown. This fervor probably accounts for the large number of Panamanians who have played, and are playing, U.S. major league baseball. Given that background -

I knew that one of Jorge's friends, Nicol, who comes in the Orly occasionally was associated with the Chirique baseball team in some capacity.  One Saturday night about a month ago, when I came into the Orly, karaoke was in full swing and the karaoke lyrics were being shown on the big screen, and the baseball game (with sound muted) was on the regular size TV.  Jorge was on the phone, but he handed me the phone as I walked by.  It was Nicol on the phone, and I quickly learned that he was at his regular job - the play-by-play TV announcer for the Chirique team. Oh. He was just killing time between innings while commercials aired.

Well, about an hour later, Jorge came running out from behind the bar with his phone glued to his ear, and proceeded to turn karaoke off and put the baseball game on the big screen.  When the inning was over,  instead of a commercial break there was Nicol and his broadcaster partner talking about (I figured out), the young player from Chirique, Enrique Hernandez, who earlier in the week had signed with one of the New York major league teams (New York Mets, I think).  I wasn't paying too much attention since I wasn't able to catch all of what was being said.  But suddenly, I was paying attention when he said something about a 'shout-out' to the folks at the Orly in David. Then he 'announced' that Gringo Larry down at the Orly wanted to send Enrique off in style. And there, coming out of the TV, was my karaoke warbling, secretly recorded a few minutes earlier, "..And if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.  It's up to you New York, New York." 

As it turns out there were more people than just Jorge and Nicol involved in this conspiracy. And, I am sure the people of Panama were just thrilled to death.  So now, in addition to the ragging I take about the song New York, New York, I have to put up with these clowns bugging me for my autógrafo.  Real funny.  I do have a long memory guys.

Always Ask The Right Questions

Recently one of the guys from the Orly said, "We are going to get some bait and go down to the river and see what we can catch. Want to come with us?"  Well, I found out the hard way that when someone down here says something like that you may want to ask some questions.  You probably need additional information.  It turns out it was not the annual Sunfish Fishing Tournament.

 

The Internacional Ferie de David

The big annual fair here in David wrapped up its 10 day run earlier this week.  Early estimates put the total attendance at over 140,000.

I did note one rather odd thing - well, at least different than similar events in the U.S.  As you know, U.S. cities compete aggressively to draw big attractions to there city.  The boost to local business and the area's economy in general make recruiting expenditures and incentives a good investment.  Hotels, restaurants and gift shops do a booming business.

Well, here in David it is a different story.  Yes, the hotels are full, but all the other businesses die, especially those downtown (the huge fairground is out on the northern edge of town). Daily the fair runs from 9AM till after midnight so people spend all day and the evening at the fair.  Plus, many people attend several days since you cannot begin to see the whole thing in one day. (Think of the biggest state fair you ever saw times 10) 

The result is that, not only do visitors to the city not get downtown, all the locals are at the fair as well. The town park was a ghost town for days. Some of the downtown businesses just close down for the duration.  Jorge ended up closing the Orly Bar at 9PM on both Friday and Saturday nights - no customers.

Things To Ponder

I recently spent most of an evening having a really pleasant conversation with a retired couple visiting here from Oklahoma.  We discussed a wide range of topics primarily revolving around the turns that one's life can take. The heartaches along the way with raising kids got some discussion.  And we laughed about how  five years ago none of us could ever have predicted we would be here in Panama.

They, the Andersons, sold the family business in Tulsa about four years ago after it became obvious that none of their three kids wanted to be in the jewelry business.  They decided that the legacy for their kids would be a small real estate empire  instead.  So they took most of the proceeds from the sale of the business, and bought both rental properties and fixer-uppers to 'flip'.  And then, yes, the crash got them - got them good. With trepidation, they called the kids together to break the bad news.  All three kids said the same thing, "Get outa here.  Take what you have left and go buy that little place in Panama you have been drooling about for several years.  Put your feet up, open a beer and have a ball!" So they are doing just that.

The Andersons have gone back to Oklahoma for a few weeks, but she sent me this by email yesterday.

Success
You can use most any measure
when you're speaking of success.
You can measure it in fancy home,
Expensive car or dress.

But the measure of your real success
Is the one you cannot spend.
It's the way your kids describe you
When they are talking to a friend.

            - Martin Buxbaum

Till Next Time.  Pura Vida.

 

Still Kicking in David, Panama

So Much For Me As The Travel Expert!

About a year ago one of my blog posts extolled the many virtues of Panama as I saw it.  Included in the 'pluses' I itemized were the pleasure of the year-round temperate weather (true), the fact that we are out of the normal path of hurricanes (true), do not experience competing weather fronts capable of spawning tornadoes (true), and we were not in an area conducive to earth quakes (Oops - false!)

Last week, we had earthquake activity four consecutive days starting on Tuesday, when we had three 'shakes' during the day.  Though they were all relatively minor, I can assure you that the 'minor' categorization means absolutely nothing to you when they are occurring. For one thing you have no way of knowing if it is in the process of building up to something bigger.  And, even when it is over you can't help but wonder if that tremor was just a preview, a 'warm-up' pitch - for things to come. The latter possibility was definitely on every ones mind on Tuesday, when the third of the day arrived about 4PM after two increasingly strong tremors, separated by about 15 minutes, occurred around noon. The cafeteria (on the ground floor of a four-story building) cleared out in a heartbeat.

As luck would have it, that weekend a couple from Chile were guests in the hotel, and on the balcony overlooking the park, over a few beers, we ended up having several nice conversations (they both spoke excellent English). Manuel was, of all things, a scientist who works for Chile's volcano/earthquake agency, a country where volcanoes are a big problem.  According to Manuel, Panama has very little earthquake activity particularly as compared to most of the other Latin American countries. Not only do we not have volcanic activity, there are no major fault lines near Panama.  However, this part of Panama (the north/west portion) gets some activity due to our proximity to Costa Rica which has a high earthquake incidence.  In fact the tremors we had here last week were a result of major earthquake activity in southern Costa Rica.

Panamanian Politics - Again.

Last Tuesday night was the campaigns first nationally televised presidential debate between the two major candidates, the ruling party´s Senora Balbina Hererra and Roberto Martinelli from the opposition party.  Let me tell you, the debate they had looked more like a 'let's take it to the parking lot' discussion at closing time on a Saturday night at the VFW.  Our presidential debates, by comparison look like May-Pole dances.

You did not have to speak Spanish to figure out these two folks do not seem to like one another. Body language, facial expressions, tone-of-voice, and gestures was all you had to see - if you spoke Spanish you could have left the sound on your TV off and got the message.  Ironically, or maybe predictably, those mannerisms and attitudes only applied when they were addressing, or looking at, one another.  When they addressed the studio and/or the TV audience, it was all smooth and suave.  Ha!

Martinelli, a big hulk of a man, spent much of the debate trying to be intimidating - glowering, raising his voice, and generally puffing-up. (His nickname is El loco well earned?).  By contrast, it was like Hererra was playing a Hollywood movie role where the entire script is designed to make you hate the deranged family matriarch or vicious ex-wife, or whomever. Smirks, condescending responses and loud finger-pointing outbursts were the thing, to include interrupting him during 'his' response times. The wicked step-mother on crack?  I think the only reason the debate did not become a full-contact sport was that the two moderators sat between them.

Both parties announced the next day that they would not participate in a second debate.  He insists that the format is wrong.  Two minutes is not adequate time to answer questions meaningfully.  She also insists that the format is wrong because he was not required to address the question that was asked.  My informal poll indicates the electorate doesn't care.  They seem to feel that what politicians say doesn't mean anything, so why listen to them promise things that they are not going to do.  I must admit, I am beginning to share their view when it comes to U.S. politics.

Sometimes I Want To Go Hide

There are times when I wish that U.S. Immigration was a lot tougher in monitoring our borders.  Specifically, more selective about which Americans they let leave the U.S. to travel abroad.  Most recent examples:

- While I was talking to the Chilean couple on the balcony, and shortly after a couple from Costa Rica joined us, down the hall comes a California Surfer boy with his newly found Costa Rican honey - both obviously impaired (at least temporarily).  More precisely the guy was more like a parody of a long-time surfer pothead on Saturday Night Live or Comedy Central.  Naturally, he immediately burst into the conversation (un-invited) to educate us all that what we had experienced in the past week were not earthquakes, rather they were tremors.  He knew - he was from Southern California. (Uh, thanks, dude.)  Then, in short order, he shared with us that he was touring South and Central America because his daddy thought he ought to see some of the world before he settled into the daily grind of a job in daddy's company. He had, after all, just stressed to complete his undergraduate degree, with a frantic push to condense it into only eight years (multiple changes of major). Blah, blah. 

Thank God he finally ran out of steam, or realized his bong might go out (or whatever bongs do), and left dragging "sweet thing" with him (who did nothing the entire time except stare glassy-eyed and giggle).  Everybody acted like the whole conversation didn't even happen, and I refused to even try to apologize for that one.  Not my job. He stuck me as the type that even when (if) he ever sobers up, he'll still go through life thinking Moby Dick is a venereal disease.

-  The very next day I had one of  'those encounters' in the park. Here comes an American who is at least my age, and I suspect even older with his 20-something new girl friend on his arm.  And, true to form for these guys (and there are seemingly a lot of them down here), they see an American face that appears to be a contemporary, and they have to corner you and talk. All these old coots' real motive for wanting to talk is they have to tell someone (brag) about their 'great find'.  How smart she is, funny, how sensitive, how they hit it off intellectually, what good care she took of him, blah, blah - gag.  Since this young girl spoke about three words of English and he spoke NO Spanish, I guess he determined this through sign language, mental telepathy and/or Rorschach tests? All the time he is talking I  am wondered if Panama has an 'Amber Alert' line.  God.

Since the guy was also overbearingly obnoxious, I couldn't resist.  So, I asked her in Spanish: Where are you from. (Limon, Costa Rica)  Where did they meet? (Mandie's Bar).  Did she work there? (Yes)  What did you do? (She was a hostess). [Suspecting that a hostess was not the person who greeted people at the door and seated them] How many hostesses worked there?  (About 40). Did you like it? (Yes, I go back soon). OK!

I manged to extricate myself from the conversation becuase of something that I just I had to go do. But, I offered to take a picture of the two of them so the gent could send them to his kids and grand kids so they could share his find.  He declined the offer. 

God, please, just shoot me!

Till Next Time.  Pura Vida

This is Santa Marta, Columbia the third stop on my upcomimg cruise back to the U.S.  No, I have never heard of it either.

A friend of mine took this great shot.

Is this classic or what.  Bet he doesn´t give a damn about the derivatives market.

The Beat Goes On In Panama

Panama Notes of Interest

After two years here, I am still surprised how hot the sun is here - reportedly some 4 times the UV index of Arizona and Florida.  Stepping out of the shade into the sun is like stepping outside from an air conditioned building.  A number of clever businessmen have identical shops across the street from one another, and flip-flop their operating hours based on the sun, because the sidewalks are deserted on the sunny side of the street.  In David many more women carry umbrellas during the dry season (sun!) than during the rainy season.

Rough Spots in Panama.  The communtiy of Santiago, in Panama's southern province of Veraguas, went 10 days without garbage pickup, making life miserable for many in the city.  Residents report that the smell is unbearable, and for the last two days, the city has been swarmed by flies. The waste management contractor responsible for garbage pick-up, Santiago Waste Management, says it continues to experience serious financial problems because residents are, as the company has reported for months, still not paying their bills. Waste Management officials rejected the idea of 'selective pick-up' - waste removal for only those residents who were paying customers.  The company said it does not keep lists of which customers are/are not currently paid up. (??)

Bright Spots in Panama.  I found out recently that the biggest bank in Panama,  Banco National of Panama, is just that, e.g., a national bank - owned and administered by the federal government.  What banking crises?  Since the bank's charter is very specific, Banco National did not get involved in the stock brokerage business, exotic derivatives (whatever that is), or insurance.  And 'sub-prime anything' is unheard of in Panama.  The Banco National is a bank - period!  As a result, reflective of the country's continuing economic growth (even with its 'warts'), Banco National just reported its fourth consecuitive record quarterly earnings.

Wake Me When It´s Over

One of the problems that an American citizen confronts from being outside the country for extended periods of time, is that one's view of occurrences in the U.S. are filtered, almost prism-like.  It is hard to explain this phenomena to someone who has not experienced it personally.  Probably the best explanation I can provide is to explain when I first experienced it.

In my first six years in the Air Force I had to return to Kansas City on four different occasions for funerals of loved ones, each occasion made more traumatic because the deaths where sudden and unexpected.  However, the point being that, even though the logical part of your brain accepts the facts upon the original death notification, there is something buried someplace in your head that doesn't 'turn lose' until you finish the return travel (in one case, over three days) and walk in the funeral home.  You have not been exposed to the reality, immersed in the environment, until 'boom' you are at a 'viewing.'   Then, and only then, does reality fully settle in.

So the prism sort of isolates me from the realities of the real world outside of David.  All winter I  sat here in cut-offs/flip-flops watching almost daily TV coverage of a bitter winter storm in some area of the U.S.  All the while I was surrounded by people who have never seen snow, most of whom also think that 'cold' is when they have to put on a sweatshirt (usually triggered by temperature dipping into the low 70s). And even though I have experienced winter weather (I grew up in K.C.), after a while you get disconnected and it seems surreal.

All this leads me to the economic mess in the U.S., more precisely my observing it from here.  Between the endless coverage on CNN, Fox News, etc., I am getting all the pertinent information, to the point of info overload.  And I, am just shaking my head, like I am sure most of you are.  But, I know from past experience, that I am not really experiencing the real crises - not there in the middle of things.  I don't have friends who has lost there job, don't have neighbors who have gone into foreclosure, and haven't seen a shuttered-up Toys-R-Us or Circuit City.  I never bought a tank of $4 gas or lived in our economy (any time in my lifetime) when Joe Six-Pack couldn't just walk in off the street, prove he was employed,  fill out the paperwork and drive off his brand-new pickup. Banks don't loan what?  Wait a minute, Bank of America is bigger than God. No? Surreal!!

On the one hand there is a tendency to say, "Doesn't effect me!"  I am on a fixed retirement income, and  Panama is seemingly at least semi-isolated from all this economic nonsense. Whew!  But, hey Matthews, isn't your fixed income from  government retirement programs - a government that appears to be teetering on financial ruin?  And isn't Panama's economy built on tourism dollars and world trade volume transiting the canal? Oh!  And what about your kids employment future, and grandchildren welfare, and friends situations, and.., and...? 

This prism thing ain't working!

Tough Economic Times?

The magazine hombre expands his product line to include oranges, bananas and some kind of snake oil.  But, he quit carrying my Suduko books.  Times are tough! 

And, the 'Wheel of Fortune' and the 'Designer Sunglasses' are booths are empty.

Are You Kidding Me?

The Saudi government recently released a list of the kingdom's 85 most-wanted terrorists (83 Saudis and two Yemenis) that included photos, personal profiles and identifying details to aid in arrests.  All those listed are wanted in connection with specific terrorist acts in the past and for plotting additional future terrorists activities.  All those listed also have verified links to Al Qaeda.  At the request of the Saudi government, Interpol broadcast an international security alert to Interpol's 187 member countries, the largest single release in the agency's history. 

Conspicuous on the list were 13 people who had been previously released by the U.S. from retention in Guantanamo.  The release agreement negotiated between the U.S. and Saudi governments was that these people would be held in Saudi prisons until they had completed a government program designed to rehab them to insure that they were no longer be 'terrorist-inclined'.

Additionally, the self-professed mastermind of the 9-11 attacks and four of his fellow Guantanamo henchmen have filed with the military judge a document stating, in addition to other things, that the results of the 9-11 attacks are "a badge of honor, which we carry with pride", and that the charges against them are "laughable" and mock U.S. authorities for being unable to stop them.

Somebody pass me the bleeding heart cup for the Guantanamo detainees.  I need something to puke in! Maybe when Obama shuts-down Guantanamo he'll send them all to Chicago to get involved in politics?

Till Next Time!  Pura Vida!

Handicraft of the Emberra Indian Tribe.

 

And, these jewelry pieces are hand carved from nut shells.

Panamanian Politics And Bed Fellows

Presidential Campaigns Panamanian Style

Children ...CHILDREN!  The campaign staff of candidate Ricardo Martinelli is taking legal action against the PRC candidate, Balbina Herrera.  They are charging that recent statements by her are "acts of desperation and immoral" intended to take the spotlight off of the fact that "she comes out of several years in the legislature as a millionaire"  Ouch! 

I guess they are upset by Senora Herrera's assertion the previous day when she accused  Martinelli of "being a murderer when he was director of the Social Security Fund" under a previous administration. Jesus, Balbina just tell us what you really think.

YGBSM (You Gotta Be S.. Me!

A big U.S. corporation recently terminated a large group of employees.  A month later, the company contacted several hundred of them wanting back some of their severance dollars.  The company blamed a computer error in the severance package computations. What?  In this era of hi-tech IT systems we are going to blame the computer?  The company should be charged with negligence just for having such outdated systems.  Oh, the company?  Microsoft!  YGBSM!  Is nothing sacred?

My Latest Video

Think you will enjoy this.  And, by the way, if this singer, Nino Bravo, is not an Englebert Humperdink clone I don't know what is.  What say you

Let's Not Talk U.S. Politics, Or Questions That I Can't Answer

Questions from inquiring Panamanian minds. 

1.  Larry, why is that Illinois Governor Blago-Whore being treated like some kind of rock-star celebrity?

2.  Your congress couldn't have passed a spending bill that monumental without anyone reading it, could they? [FYI.  Ernesto, the lawyer member of our little group snorted something under his breath.  Jorge said it didn't translate directly.  The closest expression in meaning in English = "Shades of Noriega."  Think about that one!]

3.  Eddie Caina, who, when he isn't managing Jorge's disco, is running for vice-mayor of David, asked a tough question. [Note that the free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama has been held up for months by certain holier-than-thou congressmen on issues that have nothing to do with trade.] In short Eddie questioned why the U.S. government is afforded the luxury of conducting 'management reviews', undertakes to "reduce waste", and identify "cost over-runs".  However, when the Panamanian governments undertakes similar measures the verbiage out of the U.S. congress demands identifying "graft, corruption, vice and more transparency."

Answers anyone?

Till Next Time.  Pura Vida!

 
 
They broke the mold with this little girl I think.

 

 

And, Happy Birthday Princess