Alert for Rick – no pictures, just words!

As we wait at the airport here are some random thoughts about Panama.

Smoking – as we came through the airport on arrival I noticed a sign that said Panama is smoke free and smoking is not allowed in any public areas. The only time I saw anyone smoking was on the boat yesterday and then in an open area designated for smoking. It looked like only a few tourists were smoking. Never saw anyone smoking on the streets, restaurants or even while outside waiting for the boat. Wonderful!

The army was disbanded years ago. There are border police along the border with Columbia. We did see a number of police but not heavily armed. There is a coast guard and a small air police force. We saw no evidence of military as we have seen in many other countries. Even with all the cargo ship milling around the entrances to the canal there was no obvious evidence of military or security.

There are obviously some seriously wealthy people here as evidenced by the yachts and some of the buildings. We heard about, but did not see, some enclaves where there are large, modern homes. Most people here think if you are rich you are either a foreigner or somehow involved in the drug trade. Our drivers talked about people who live in the shacks having big TVs, fancy furnishings etc. They say that comes from drug dealing. They worry about their kids getting involved and talked about the danger to anyone and their families who are involved.

We did not see beggars on the street nor were we approached by people asking for money, except for 2 little kids who looked well fed and had a 2 litre bottle of Coke in hand. We also did not see any evidence of drunks, or tramps. In the poor area of Colon we did see a lot of people hanging Bout the street (not smoking) but no obvious thugs or gangs, although of driver was nervous in that area and I did see what looked like a police raid going on.

The population of Panama is a little over 4 million with about half in Panama City. Despite the USA being here until 1999 most of the population speaks only Spanish. Even in the hotel some of the restaurant staff could not speak English. The front desk staff were quite fluent. We went to a local restaurant last night and our Spanish obviously was not very good. We ordered calamari, which turned out to be shrimp and I ordered a fish dish that I thought came with a green salad, but came with a green sauce. Anyway it was all good.

English has recently been introduced into the school system along with computers. Up until 3 years ago if you wanted your kids introduced to computers or English you had to send them to a private school. The public health system sounds like it is very basic, again if you want quick and/or more than basic care you had to use the private system.

Generally people appear happy and reasonably healthy.

Now we are off to Costa Rica.