Christmas Season Has Come To David
The first of December marks the start of the Christmas season in Panama, and no where is that more evident than in the town center, Parque Cervantes. A Christmas tree appeared as if by magic before dawn on Thursday. Then all day long, and well into the evening hours there were booths, tents, display and mobile cantinas being erected all around the park. And that is just the ‘early-birds’. There will be many more vendors and exhibitors join then over the week. Based on my observations over the last few holiday seasons, some day soon the streets will be blocked off to vehicles and the streets will be filled up with more of the same and bigger. As you can see from the picture it got busy fast off my balcony, and that is just the start.
And today (Friday, 2 Dec) the festivities started bright and early at 8:15. That is when the band parked in front of the park (and my hotel room) to entertain the early arrival spectators. It turns out that was just the band leading a long parade of bands. As I write this entry, it is 3pm in the afternoon and we have not yet gotten to the end of the band parade. There has actually been a band right outside my room for every minute of that entire time.
To really appreciate my day, you have to understand that the Panamanians appear to love noise – seem to thrive on it. It makes no difference whether you are talking about PA systems, music in a nightclub, sound on the TV, car mufflers, oh … and ‘boom boxes’ in cars – there never seems to be enough volume, and no such concept as too much volume. Add to that the concept that to have a band, you start with a drum corps, and the bigger the better! And if you can add some musical instruments that’s all the better. But if you can’t find a piccolo player or two, you just call yourself a marching band, or drum corps, and get in the parade! (Note that in this band over ½ of the members are drummers.)
The noise has been deafening every minute for hours, sometimes to the point that you cover your ears. Just turn off the stereo and/or the TV, it is impossible to think, much less hear. My maid came in my room earlier, and even standing right next to me, we were reduced to talking in some kind of sign language.
Merry Christmas. Ho..Ho..Ho! Bah..Humbug!
Earthquakes Make For Rude Awakenings
The night of December 1st (actually 2am on the morning of the 2nd), I had what I thought was a seizure of some sort. Then when I got awake, I realized it was an earthquake. It was a fairly long duration 35-40 sec (which seems like a week), and I guessed about a 4.0 on the Richter scale.
The next morning I read where experts say it was actually 5.0 and centered 25 miles from here in the Panama/Costa Rica border area. Ironically that is almost exactly equidistant from David and Golfito,Costa Rica, my former home before I moved to David.
It really feels kind of weird when you can pretty accurately guess the strength of quakes. But knew it wasn't as strong as the one about two years ago which was a 6.4, a real attention getter! And we just had a quake a few days ago that was 3.0, so I guess it is not all that surprising could guess pretty close.
But you must admit that is not really a talent one aspires to perfect.
Former Dictator Noriega Returning To Panama
France has officially notified Panama that all legal requisites have been met for Manuel Antonio Noriega to be extradited from France to Panama. As you are probably aware, Noriega was the dictator leader of Panama from 1983 until December 1989, when he was overthrown thanks to Operation Just Cause, the US invasion of Panama. Noriega spent the next twenty years in a US prison in Miami, serving sentences for drug trafficking, then he was extradited to Paris, France where he was sentenced to another seven years in prison for having laundered money from the Medellin drug cartel through French banks.
However you probably are not aware that there has been a controversy brewing in Panama about what is going to happen to Noriega when he gets back here. In Panama Noriega was tried and found ‘guilty in abstencia’ of several murders from his reign. But Panama criminal laws of Panama allow for any person older than 70 years of age (which Noriega is) to be released from prison to serve the remainder of their sentence under house arrest. This provision is not automatic. Lawyers for the inmate have to submit a formal request before a judge, and the judge has to grant the provision for house arrest. You can imagine that housing Noriega in one of the prisons here would create some real headaches for prison officials.
But a large portion of the population does not like the idea of Noriega ‘living out the rest of his life in “the luxury of house arrest”, as his distracters often state it. And this is particularly true with the family and friends of some of the prominent folks who were murdered.
It turns out, in an effort to prepare for this possibility, the Minister of Government who is responsible for the penitentiary system, has built a special facility to hold Noriega located in El Renacer prison in Gamboa. It includes a small bedroom, private bathroom, a small kitchen, and a sitting or living room area measuring about 40 square meters (400 square feet) in size, total. They have also taken the additional step of improving the onsite medical facilities. Considering this, obviously the government of Panama can argue before the courts they have taken into account the medical and special needs of Noriega as a prisoner, and there is no reasonable justification for him to be released to house arrest.
The morning of 2 December, via Twitter, president Ricardo Martinelli said "Noriega viene a Panamá entre el 6 y 13 de diciembre. Directo a la carcel. Finalmente cerraremos ese amargo capitulo y pagará su pena aquÍ." (Noriega is coming to Panama between the 6th and 13th of December. Straight to prison. Finally we will close this bitter chapter and he will pay his sentence here.)
Sounds pretty much to me like, “Case Closed.’
One Million Tourists = $1 Billion Dollars - Jan to July 2011
Tourists and passengers in transit in the country spent $1.087 billion dollars in Panama during the months of January to July 2011, reflecting an increase of 12.4% more than last year, according to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The report also indicates tourists kept hotel occupancy rates at 67.5% in the period, up 1.1% from 2010, the highest rate in the last four years.
That bump in tourism affected parts of the country other that just Panama City as domestic flight passenger traffic increased 6%, with increases for all the important domestic tourist areas - Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, the Kuna Yala and Contadora.
The country had 1,113,162 visitors, 12.3% more than in 2010. And domestic cargo traffic also increased by 10%.
Just When You Think You Have Seen Everything:
During my Air Force years it was pretty standard, at least at all the bases that I was stationed, for the Officer’s Wives Club to hold an art auction for charity every year. My ex-wife and I were regular attendees at these events to the point that we developed ‘favorites’ of the various art houses that provided the art and conducted the auctions. I certainly don’t consider myself an art expert, but I thought I had probably ‘seen it all’ – or at least had heard of it.
Well this week Don Ray Williams posted an article on his blog, Chiriqui Chatter, announcing an art show upcoming at the Hotel Gran National here in David. Oh well,… ok, I thought, but then I read what it said. These framed art pieces were not done on canvas. They are painted on - ready for this? - Feathers. Yes, feathers. Take a close look at these samples. Amazing!
You can see more at the artist's web site - www.fineartonfeathers.com
Talk About Traffic Problems
Monday, Nov 28th was Panamanian Independence Day, and just like in the U.S. that makes for a long holiday weekend. But in Panama City that also means 'get out of town'. It seems the entire population of the city (approx. a million people) head off to 'the interior' (as the rest of the country is referred to) to attend all the celebrations and visit families.
As you might expect that means all those folks are returning to the city towards the end of the weekend. And unlike most major cities in the U.S., there is one (ONE) highway, the Inter-American Highway that transits the country and leads you back to the city. Think that sounds like traffic? Well add this to the equation. You have to cross the canal to get back into the capitol city. And there are but two bridges that crossover the canal. Yes that means slow moving traffic and traffic jams backed way back up the Inter-American highway.
Death By Man-Hole Cover?
A missing manhole cover nearly caused the death of a woman this week when she fell deep into a sewer. The woman was walking along the sidewalk in Panama City about 1AM in an area with poor lighting and fell into an uncovered manhole into a hole 15’ deep. It took Firefighters 20 minutes to get her out of the hole using a tripod retrieval system. She landed in a sitting position which seriously damaged her hip and had to be taken to the hospital for medical attention.
Don Winter (Panama Guide) explains: The crack-heads in Panama steal anything made out of metal to sell to the companies that recycle metal for money. These companies are not supposed to accept things like manhole covers, but they do anyway. The Panamanian authorities were supposed to be going to new plastic composite material manhole covers to remove the incentive to steal them, but obviously this hasn’t been done yet.
My Book – ‘Angels in Panama’
My book is still available at a reasonable price paperback from the publisher.
The book is also now (finally!) available in e-book form as well from both Amazon (for the Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (the Nook).
The links below are for the various formats of my book. I have also included a link to my website where you can read excerpts of ‘Angels in Panama’ if you want.
Paperback from Publisher $9.95
Kindle Version - Amazon $15.95
Till Next Time. Pura Vida
Click on the thumbnails to view photos full-size
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