My 1st Day in the City (june 9)

Well I was supposed to go to the airport with Diane, a secretary in the Political Section, to pick up my roommate but Yolanda’s flight was delayed until this evening so instead I went into the city! Diane picked me up with Michael, another Post employee in the Political Section around 2:30 p.m. and we went driving around the city for my first tour. Prior to leaving, my next door neighbor Carol, the Ambassador’s Secretary, came over to show me some quirks of the house. So like I said the property is gated all the way around and so when we have guests they ring the doorbell which has an intercom linked to various phones throughout the house so we can hear who is at the door and then buzz them inside the gate. How cool :-) Yeah and apparently because of the vast humidity down here you have to run a humidifier along with your a/c constantly to avoid mold growth which is important to me because I’m allergic to mold. Great, huh?! Back to the tour… so it was dark when I arrived to Panama last night so I couldn’t quite get my bearings and when Junior said we were right near the Canal I was like okay, a little drive to get there. However in the day I realized that we truly were right near the Canal. The road outside my house runs parallel to the Canal and it would take less than 5 minutes to get to the edge of the Canal. We drove through the military bases (vacated when the US troops turned over the land & canal in 1999) that are now used to house Embassy employees and other base personnel. We saw where the new Embassy being built will be located which is actually walking distance from my house but it won’t be ready until August which is when I am leaving so I have to take a taxi to my worksite. However taxis are very cheap here and you can get around the city for less than $5. So everyday I will be making a commute to work that’s about $5 each way. We drove through the edge of downtown Panama on our way towards the Causeway. The Causeway is a strip of land built as a result of the Canal’s construction. When they were digging the land to build the Canal they needed a place to deposit the dirt. This depository ended up connecting the mainland to a nearby island through a narrow strip called, The Causeway. It is one lane each way, very narrow and I’m sure very scary at night. Towards the end of the road, there are restaurants on either side along with some stores for shopping and dancing spots and there’s even a Dollar Store! (You’d love it Mo!) We stopped to eat at this neat hut called Mi Ranchito. I had clams in garlic sauce as an appetizer, shrimp in garlic sauce with yucca as my entrée and then a cappuccino to top off the meal. It was great! And to top it off, Michael treated us to lunch so I didn’t even have to pay – Praise God! We left there, drove around the pier some more to see some of the sailboats and other boats and then headed back to the city. We stopped at Diane’s apartment – which by the way had a beautiful view of the Bay of Panama – then continued onto the supermarket to buy some more goods. I am so glad she was there with me because yall know I am not domesticated and she was able to give me some good pointers on Panamanian mores when shopping. For example, you know how we have pre-packaged items like peppers or other fruits. Well, in Panama it is common practice and legal to open the package and pick out the one or two peppers you want from the package, leave the rest, and take the ones you want to be weighed and continue on your merry way. When she told me that I was like, are you serious?! but hey if it’s legal then why not. I didn’t try though. Unfortunately I spent like $100 shopping but as yall know I don’t eat much/often (Lia don’t say anything) so this will last me for awhile. They even had Boca products so of course I was in heaven with that. Prices were a little higher than in the states but Diane said this was a more expensive store than had we gone to the other markets so I kind of expected it. But I still got some great deals on fruit and other items. Maybe I’ll add a post or picture with my receipt so you can see what I’m talking about. Oh yeah, and when you get to the register at this store, they unload your cart, ring up the items for you and then bag and reload the cart. Then they even take the items to your car and load your car for you. Now, of course you tip them between $0.25 and a $1 depending on your load, but that’s not bad! I told you it’s very inexpensive down here to do things. Like, Diane’s maid gets paid $15/day and that’s considered good wages for a day’s work. Hmmm, could you live off that?! lol… After shopping, they dropped me off at my house because they had to go drop off Michael and then pick up Yolanda from the airport because by that time it was around 7:30 and her flight arrived at 9p.m. All in all, this was a very fun day and we had good conversation that flowed rather easily. Diane is a very adventurous person so she told me whenever I wanted to go out or explore the city/country to let her know and we’d plan a trip somewhere for after work or on the weekend. She’s done many of the things I want to do while here: zip lining through the rainforest/jungle, scuba diving, snorkeling, helicopter rides to other parts of country, boat trip through the Canal, ferry ride to plush island resort, etc. I foresee and fun-filled, action packed summer. Oh and cooking is her hobby so I’m sure Yolanda and I will be over her house often…or at least I will cuz yall know I don’t cook lol. Michael just started his 2-year tour here at the Panama Embassy 2 weeks ago so I’m sure he’ll want to get out and explore some as well so it seems to be perfect timing for all of us because we can learn/see the sights together.