#7 - A day in the city

09/02/2011

First full day in Panama. Slept til 730, watched TV for a bit then got a couple more hours sleep - surprised I don't feel more jetlagged.
Spent the whole day with Albin - we started by going for some breakfast at the local supermarket. Thought I may as well go straight into trying the local delicacies so I had Boyo (corn midway through growth cooked in some way, nice and buttery), Rosca (bread made with eggs, quite sweet), an omelette with ham and a DELICIOUS fruit salad - literally the best I've ever had including mango, pineapple many levels above what we have in the UK, succulent watermelon and more. All of this was alongside a proper strong black coffee with beans grown in Panama itself. Watermelon is 'sandia' in Spanish.

We then went to visit the Panama Canal, rocking out to some Hillsong in his car along the way. There was an exhibition where I learnt about the history of its construction - basically the French tried for 20 years, wimped out due to the tropical insects so went back home and the Americans took over and finished it in about 11 years. They then claimed ownership until 1999, when a treaty was signed and since then it's been fully owned by Panama.
So we spent some time there and watched a ship pass through, it's a very clever system but I won't go into it.

The weather here is very hot and humid, but it doesn't really have time to take massive effect because every building is heavily air conditioned - for example, I went out to a balcony to take some photos of the canal then shot back inside the moment I felt a bead of sweat and all was well. The car air-con is also epic, I swear it turned the car from an oven to a comfortable fridge in 15 seconds flat.

I saw a fair bit of Panama City from the car - it's a very busy and congested bustling city, goodness knows how much time we spent in traffic queues. In the middle of the road are loads of people selling things such as bottled drinks (an essential here due to the heat, haven't been dehydrated yet touch wood) and air fresheners, or thrusting adverts through open windows.

A few observations about the native people - firstly, the driving style is both exciting and terrifying. It's essentially an all-against-all jostling for position, use of indicators to change lane is very rare and as a result, many cars have multiple small scratches and dents. An example of this was when an ambulance came racing down the road - both lanes of cars pulled over to the side to let it through, and several taxis then followed it only a metre or so behind to take advantage of the free road!
There is also an unnerving lack of facial expression in every till assistant or vendor, and even when I smiled at them to say 'gracias' I got nothing back. Won't bother in future.

The weather is erratic - the morning and early afternoon was absolutely boiling hot and humid and yet when we went to a shopping mall for lunch, there was a terrential downpour for about an hour. There was also apparently an earthquake right where we are staying last night, but I felt nothing.

We went to an island right by the city called Isla Naos for dinner, and again I leapt straight into the local stuff (seafood, which I'm not usually too partial to). It was Kalamaris (little octopuses) for starters, they looked like the monsters from the film Cloverfield that run around and bite people with a poison that makes their stomachs explode. They tasted kind of weird, but it was more the look of them.
We then had a fish casserole including Octopus (brilliant photo of me eating the curly end of a tentacle), Clams, Prawns and some other fish in a garlic sauce. On the side we had some mashed plantanes and Yuca, a thing grown in the wild - both were fried and absolutely delicious.

After the meal, we went for a walk to the harbour and randomly saw a raccoon strolling about looking for food. Got some brilliant close-up photos.

The other 7 members of my team are coming tomorrow, which I'm very much looking forward to.
We're also moving to a more upmarket hotel which has a swimming pool - looking forward to that as well.

Until then, it's chao from me (yes I did spell that right, it's ciao in Italian).

Night night.

JG