Hola chicos, the last post was intense so allow me to discuss a much lighter topic this time from Panama. The weather in Panama City is tropical - it is very close to the Equator and it is at sea level, hence the weather there is identical to that of Singapore. It usually gets above 30 degrees everyday and at night, it rarely falls below 26 degrees; it is hot and humid like that all year round. There is a dry and wet season but because of the proximity to the Equator, it never ever gets cold. It's not like in London where we have four seasons, it is always hot in Panama, so imagine how surprised I was when I saw the locals wearing winter clothing in Panama when it was 32 degrees. Seriously, I was sweating profusely in the tropical heat when I noticed the locals dressed as if it was more like 12 degrees - like what the hell is going on? Oh and there was this woman who wore a proper winter coat in Casco Viejo when it was 32 degrees, she was dressed as if it was -10 degrees. Don't these people feel huge discomfort and sweat a lot dressed like that in the tropical heat? A disclaimer: I need to make it very clear, I'm NOT talking about people working in indoor places where there is really strong air-conditioning in Panama and thus they have to wear a jacket to keep warm because of the air-conditioning - I'm talking about people wearing thick winter clothing outside when the temperature is above 30 degrees. I had assumed that people would only wear winter clothing to stay warm when the weather is really cold, but I have analyzed the situation and have come up with five very plausible reasons why one would wear winter clothing in a place like Panama.
Reason 1: Protection from the sun
It is important to protect our skin from the sun and the sun in the tropics can be very strong. Too much direct exposure to the sun can lead to skin damage and even skin cancer, that's a very good reason to cover up in the tropics. People also wear hats to help shield their heads and faces from the sun as well, then there is the famous Panama hat designed to help locals cope with the sun. Furthermore, people in Panama also want to avoid getting a tan as it is considered far more desirable to be fair skinned and so they would go to great lengths to avoid becoming darker through sun exposure. However, even if you wish to shield your skin from the sun, this can be achieved using thin and light fabrics which can achieve that without making you overheat in the tropical weather. But whether you're doing it to protect your skin or to stay fair, many people do go to great lengths to cover up everything in the tropics. In fact many workers have to work outdoors in the tropics do routinely cover everything up despite sweating constantly all day because it is important to protect their skin against sun damage. Ironically, whilst these people were protecting themselves from the harmful rays of the sun, they were paying a high price for it by experiencing far more discomfort. There are few alternatives to this: you could simply stay out of the sun or at least only venture out at sunrise and sunset (whilst avoiding the harshest midday sun) or you could cover your skin with plenty of sunblock to minimize any kind of skin damage caused by exposure to the sun, Hence the poor people in Panama would find it much cheaper just to cover up than to spend a fortune on sunblock.
Oh there were so many evil, vicious insects in Panama! Getting such insect bites can not only cause pain and discomfort, but that's how many infectious diseases from Zika virus to malaria to dengue fever are spread - furthermore, if you look at my arms and legs now, I'm still scarred from where I got bitten and that would take a while to heal. Oh we're not just talking about mosquitoes here - you have everything from sand flies to wasps to fire ants to all kinds of fleas to ticks to mites all trying to bite your exposed skin but none more so than mosquitoes. I was in Panama during the rainy season and there was a lot of stagnant water around, thus it was breeding season for the mosquitoes as mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. I have even been in situations where the most determined insects still bite me through the fabric of the clothing I am wearing. Many people would suggest using insect repellent, however, you need to understand how insect repellent works before imagining that it is some kind of magic formula that is 100% effective. Insects identify us through the carbon dioxide that we exhale but also through our pores and sweat - insects have evolved to track and sense this carbon dioxide in order detect their prey. The chemicals in the insect repellent merely disguise the scent of the carbon dioxide so as to confuse the insects seeking their prey, so they won't bite you. There's nothing in the spray to harm the insects. This doesn't always work: your sweat can wash the chemicals off your body and even as you're walking around, your movement can easily cause the chemicals to be rubbed off onto the various surfaces you come into contact with, leaving parts of your skin exposed and vulnerable, thus you need to constantly reapply the insect repellent.
In fact, there's a long list of reasons here why people still get bitten a lot after applying insect repellent - mostly because they have been using it incorrectly. In any case, these insect repellents are not cheap at all and Panama is a relatively poor country. The poorer working class folks there cannot afford to spend a few dollars a day on insect repellent! This is not a cheap way to prevent mosquito bites, thus for many poorer people in Panama, the only sensible alternative is to put on a jacket and wear trousers to cover up, to make sure that they have covered up as much exposed skin as possible. Sure they end up feeling very uncomfortable in the hot, humid tropical weather but the alternative is worse: having your body covered with nasty insect bites and possibly getting some nasty disease as a result of the bites is a far worse fate than simply sweating a lot in the heat. I suffered my worst insect bites in Panama Viejo - this is one of the key tourist attractions in Panama City. These are impressive ruins left behind when Welsh pirates (yes, they were Welsh) attacked the original settlement established by the Spanish and burnt it to the ground. Instead of rebuilding the town, the Spanish established a new colony up the coast leaving the old one lost to the jungle. The area with the ruins has since been turned into an impressive tourist attraction complete with a museum, a gift shop and cafe but good grief, because of the proximity to the jungle, I was covered with insect bites all over including on my bald head within minutes of entering the area. Given how much discomfort I suffered as a result of that, I can see why covering up in this hot weather may be the lesser of two evils when facing these nasty insects of the tropics - this is a really nasty situation with no simple solutions.
Reason 3: Protection from the rain
There were two things I observed when I was in Panama - firstly, it is very wet during the rainy season (sorry for stating the obvious) but also that there are many delivery couriers. Now these aren't different from what you would observe in other places - a lot of them were simply delivering food but they don't stop working even when it is raining heavily. Such is the harsh reality of poverty in Panama, these people earn very little and they don't have the luxury of saying, "it's going to rain all day today, I'm going to take today off then." So what these couriers do is they were a waterproof raincoat to allow them to keep on cycling or riding their motorcycles even during very heavy rain. I noticed that they are often two piece suits (jacket + trousers) so as to allow maximum mobility for the couriers to keep cycling whilst keeping them as dry as possible. Even when it does rain in Panama, the temperature doesn't drop significantly or at all - say if it is 31 degrees before it starts raining, at the very most, it may fall to 30 or 29 degrees when it does rain so as you can imagine, these raincoats are in fact sauna suits for the couriers. So just imagine all that heat and the humidity during a thunderstorm in Panama, you are forced to put on waterproof raincoat suit to stay dry whilst you cycle a few miles across town delivering a heavy package, oh the amount of sweat generated under those circumstances would be rather considerable and they end up soaking wet anyway, not with rain but with their own sweat. I suppose this is probably a health & safety measure.
Reason 4: They think it is cool and fashionable
This was hilarious - I watched an outdoor breakdancing competition in Casco Viejo and the dancers were dressed in jeans, hoodies and beanie hats. Now that's what I would wear if it was about 12 degrees but it was 32 degrees and these guys were dancing outdoors in the bright sunshine, no fans, no shade and it was so hot. Even just standing there watching them, I was already sweating profusely. I didn't capture this on video but one of the dancers attempted a handstand but because his hands were so wet and slippery with sweat, he slipped and he fell on his face. Their choice of dance attire was totally impractical but the tropical conditions yet they dressed like that because they were breakdancing: the whole breakdancing culture is very American and that was evident from the kind of music they were dancing to: none of it was local Panamanian music, but it was all American music with the lyrics in English and not Spanish. So they are effectively adopting all aspects from another culture, except of course, New York has four seasons and with the exception of summer, you would have to wear some form of winter clothing to keep yourself warm if you wanted to dance outdoors. These dancers were very adamant to copy something they have seen on the internet regardless of how hot they may have felt or how much they were sweating. Heck, I actually sweat a lot when I am skiing even if the temperature can be -20 degrees because of the physical exertion during skiing. So if I can still sweat when it is well below freezing because of the physical exertion, imagine how those guys must have felt dancing in the tropical heat in Panama dressed like that.
This wasn't the only time I saw locals were winter clothing when the temperature exceeded 30 degrees in Panama - the most popular park in Panama City is Cinta Costera, For my Singaporean readers, I would compare it to East Coast Park, it is a long stretch of parkland along the seafront, facing the Pacific Ocean. It is beautifully landscaped and very popular with the locals. Allow me to state the obvious: it is all outdoors, there is no air-conditioning. I saw a young man on a date with his girlfriend and he was wearing a winter coat which would be suitable for freezing conditions. This guy probably thought he looked really cool in it and whilst I don't dispute the fact that the coat was indeed rather nice, the fact that he was wearing a coat like that when it was 32 degrees outdoors did make him look rather odd to say the least. Maybe he was trying to show off to his date, "hey I go to cold places like New York all the time, I'm rich enough to travel internationally thus I have all this winter clothing that I am wearing." A lot of people in Panama consume media from America where the movie and TV shows are shot in much colder climates, thus the characters they are watching on screen are not wearing all this winter clothing just to look cool or fashionable but it to stay warm when it is very cold. But it seems that many of these young people in Panama were very determined to emulate the fashion styles of their favourite American actors and singers and thus that means wearing certain items of winter clothing even when it is a hot and sticking 32 degrees outside. Hey I'm all for young people to express themselves in any way they like, but seriously?
Reason 5: It's a medical condition
Unfortunately, when we get old, our bodies become less able to perform some of the most basic tasks. We are quite used to seeing old people with poor hearing or eyesight, but did you know that for some old people, their circulation becomes a lot less efficient? This is because our entire circulatory system depends on our heart pumping all that blood around our body every single moment, even when we are asleep. However, old people have hearts that no longer work effectively and some of them even suffer from all kinds of heart diseases. As a result, some old people constantly feel cold, especially around their extremities like their hands and feet because their heart is really struggling to pump all that blood all the way to their fingertips. Furthermore, as we get older, our metabolic rate decreases with age, making it harder and harder for us to generate enough heat to keep warm. Thus this is why old people can be shivering in a room which you consider perfectly warm, even hot, this has nothing to do with the actual temperature of the room but more a reflection of the fact that their older bodies are unable to perform basic functions like stay warm. Therefore, it is entirely possible that a weaker, elderly person in poor health could feel very cold even when it is as hot as 35 or even 40 degrees outside. Likewise, I'm sure you would remember how you felt cold when you last had a fever - thus the people whom I saw wearing winter clothing in Panama could have either been one of these elderly folks whose always struggle to keep warm or simply someone who is sick with Covid and experiencing a fever. So in this case they have a medical condition.
Okay so that's it from me on this topic, what do you think? Could there be any other reasons why someone might want to wear really thick winter clothing when it is above 30 degrees in Panama? Do you sweat easily? Would you break out into a sweat even when you're just sitting around doing nothing or are you the kind who wouldn't sweat much even after going jogging? Is it possible that these people who are wearing winter clothing in Panama simply don't sweat much? Or is it possible to train our bodies to get used to the heat so as to avoid sweating in the tropics? Do you hate sweating as much as I do? Do you ever ever get cold in the tropics? Please do leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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