Hola amigos, que tal? In this last installment of my Panama Diary series, I am just sharing some random memories on subjects that I found interesting but haven't covered in the first four entries. So they don't have any kind of central theme running through here, but I would love to share some of these ten mini-stories with you about aspects of life in Panama.
1. La paqueterÃa
Oh la paqueteria- I have also encountered this in various parts of Latin America before. I suppose the equivalent in English would be 'coat check' or 'locker room' and in the UK, you would find such facilities at museums, theaters and night clubs. So if you're going to be walking around a museum for one or two hours, that facility is a courtesy to ensure that you have a more pleasant experience without having to carry your bags or coats with you. But in Panama, before you even set foot in a shop or a supermarket, you have to surrender all your bags at the paqueteria. I would have a backpack with me when I was in Panama and each time I tried to enter a shop, the security guards would ask me to deposit my bag at the paqueteria before I was allowed to enter the shop. So you give you bag over to the person working at the paqueteria, they will give you a plastic fob with a number - then you go shopping in there without your bag. Once you're done, you can return to the paqueteria with your plastic fob to retrieve your bag. This is not something done in many other places in the world but it seems to be the norm in Latin America for two reasons: I suppose it is a theft prevention measure - not so much that people are actually taking goods off the shelf and putting it in their bags without paying, but rather it is a deterrent to inform them that they are being watched. Secondly, labour there is so darn cheap in this part of the world, there is an endless supply of unskilled labour to staff facilities like the paqueteria and hence if the other shops are doing it, then you have to join in as well. I don't think the staff there will steal things from your bag when you leave your bag there, or at least I've never had any issues with them. The service at the paqueteria is free of course.
2. Plastic, plastic, plastic and more plastic.
In the West today, we're pretty good about avoiding disposable, single-use plastic in order to save the environment. But in Panama, there were two items I had not seen in a while: plastic straws and single use plastic bags. Yup, they have no qualms about using those items whereas if a big fast food chain like Burger King dared to give a customer a plastic straw in London today, there would be a massive outcry. This leads me neatly to my next point, about the associated problem:
I'm not even comparing it to Singapore which yes, I know, has a reputation to be so clean. I know I am in central America but because of all of this single use plastic and a lack of a decent system managing the massive amount of garbage produced in Panama City, there are literally piles of rubbish by the side of the road everywhere and it stinks. A lot of the cleaning are in the hands of the private landowners, so for example, a nice hotel will make sure the pavement in front of the entrance is kept clean, even if that little bit of land technically speaking is public space (and thus should be cleaned by the government rather than the hotel), it would leave the guests with a bad impression if the first thing they see when they arrive there is a big pile of stinking, rotten rubbish on the road outside and so they just clean that part of the road and pavement directly in front of their hotel. However, not everyone does that and I observed how there was a massive pile of rubbish in front of a primary school - the staff at the school would be like, don't expect me to clean that crap up, I'm not touching that, I'm not paid enough to deal with that, it is on the street outside in front of the school but not actually on the school premises. When it rains heavily, the rubbish gets washed into the drains which get choked up and that's when you get flash floods. The situation is disgusting to say the least and much of that rubbish of course, is made up of single-use disposable plastic. Oh and public toilets cost US$0.25 per visit, so a lot of people just do their business in the bushes or on the roadside and you can smell that from quite a distance. Whilst the public toilets are spotless, the streets are not!
4. Coke natural? I kid you not.
This is when I literally laughed out aloud in the restaurant. When I was asked what I wanted to drink, I asked for diet Coke and just to make myself very clear, I asked for Coke sin azucar (without sugar) and the waiter said, "No lo tengo, ¿quieres la Coca-Cola natural?"(I don't have that, would you like Coke natural?) I did then double check if there was some kind of local Panama version of Green Coke or Coke Life which was branded as a healthier version of the popular drink, but no - his version of "Coke natural" was just Coke with all the sugar. I rolled my eyes - I wouldn't exactly use the word 'natural' to describe a can of Coke. I'm not saying it is impossible to find diet Coke in Panama, but it is not easy. A popular local fast food chain in Panama is Pio Pio and they do fried chicken - think of them as a local rival to KFC. However, what you will not get there is any sugar-free diet version of a soft drink with your meal. The irony is that despite the fact that majority of people in Panama are quite poor, they still have an obesity problem because of all these bad choices they make when it comes to their diet. The fact that someone can use the word 'natural' to describe a drink with that much sugar is indicative of how they view there's absolutely nothing wrong with consuming that much sugar. If you're that poor, then refined sugar is one of the affordable luxuries in life you can always still indulge in even if you're very poor.
5. Why is the coffee so awful in Panama?
I was in one of the main coffee producing areas of the world - whilst Panama may be a small country, it has excellent growing conditions perfectly suited for coffee production. Just across the border is Colombia, another coffee producing nation and I would have thought that since so much money is generated from coffee in that region, the coffee in Panama would be good but no, it was terrible. You would either get instant coffee or a weak, filter coffee - I have my own coffee machine at home and I make espresso based coffee drinks; an espresso is a very strong, concentrated form of coffee which would then be diluted with milk or hot water to create the coffee drinks one would normally get at any respectable cafe offering you a decent cappuccino. This kind of coffee culture simply hasn't caught on in Panama - allow me to contrast the last two hotel stays I had. When I was in Valencia in Spain, there was a coffee machine at the breakfast buffet which dispensed an espresso based coffee drink which was strong and robust. In Panama, there were waiters walking around the breakfast hall with big pots of filter coffee and that was all they offered; I suppose it is just a function of supply and demand: a certain style of coffee would be popular only if there were loads of customers lining up to buy it.
Gosh, yet another country with boring food. I thought that being in the tropics, the food in Panama might be a bit more exciting with a vast array of tropical ingredients but that was not the case. Their national dish is Sancocho which is a chicken stew, that came across as bland and uninspired. It didn't contain any strong spices or flavours. There are a couple of other meat and vegetable based stews as well similar to Sancocho but they all have the same problem: they just taste so bland. So sue me, I'm Asian and I'm used to curries from places like India, Thailand and Malaysia where the gravy carries such rich and strong spicy flavours. In Panama, it seems that the whole purpose of the stew was simply to make what little meat and vegetables they had go further by diluting it with water. So typically, a starchy vegetable like potato or tapioca would be mashed up in the stew to bulk it up and fill you up but otherwise, there was still the complete absence of spice. There are other Latin American cuisines which are more liberal with their spices like Mexican and Peruvian cuisine but otherwise, those much stronger flavours were missing from the food in Panama. I did come across something familiar: raspado which is a shaved ice desert - it reminded me of ice kachang in Singapore but without any of the toppings like jellies, slices of fruit, ice cream and red beans. No, all you got with your raspado was a bit of syrup and condensed milk, it was like a poor man's version of ice kachang - I suppose that's a reflection of the poverty in Panama.
6b. The food is actually not that cheap (despite being terrible).
Some things in Panama are cheap, such as public transport but other things are not. Public transport is so cheap as it is subsidized by the government but food certainly isn't. We are now facing a cost of living crisis as the war in Ukraine has disrupted supply chains and I've seen a 30% increase in the cost of my cooking oil in London. It is a basic staple that I can't do without, so I just grumble and pay more for my cooking oil. I went to a very ordinary supermarket in Panama called Super 99 and this was not some kind of fancy upmarket deli where the rich got their food (now that would be Rey, where you feel like you're in an American supermarket). I was shocked to realize that cooking oil was a lot more expensive in Panama City than in London - the cheapest cooking oil you can get in London is £1.30 per liter but in Panama City at Super 99, the cheapest cooking oil I could find came in at £2.20 per liter. I must explained that we're not talking about some fancy imported olive oil here, but it was the biggest bottle of vegetable cooking oil. I am the king of junk food, yes I confess to eating a lot of potato crisps but I was shocked that something as basic as that was even more expensive in Panama than London. That actually shouldn't come as a surprise as crisps are deep fried in oil and if cooking oil is that much more expensive then that would increase production costs. A McFlurry in the UK costs £1.69 (US$2.07) but in Panama City, the same ice cream would cost you US$2.99 - hence this means that life is especially hard for the very poor in Panama as these ordinary food items like cooking oil, crisps, fruit and ice cream are expensive.
One of the highlights of my trip there was definitely visiting the Panama Canal. It is a massive feat of engineering and you need to see it in person to appreciate how incredible it is. Most visitors will go to the visitors center at Miraflores (about 12 km from downtown Panama City) where they pay US$10 for a visit to the museum and viewing gallery. There is no limit to the time you can spend there and if you can stay there all day watching these really massive ships pass through the narrow locks at Miraflores. It is fairly easy to get there as well - there is a major bus station at Albrook and you simply have to get a bus from Albrook station there which costs US$0.25 for a single trip and the buses run every 20 minutes. No trip to Panama is complete without a visit to the Panama canal because it is so central to Panama's identity; without the canal, Panama would be so much poorer and far more like other impoverished central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. There is also a Panama Canal museum in town (located at the heart of the Casco Viejo) district but they charge US$15 per entry - I thought that was ridiculous as the actual canal itself only costs US$10 in contrast to the museum and there is already an exhibition included as well as part of your US$10 ticket. So definitely go visit the Panama canal, I think the more expensive Panama canal museum in the old town can be optional.
8. Air-con boh gao lahk (Hokkien: "is not strong enough")
Ah yes, that's something I've encountered in Singapore and Malaysia as well - here's my take of having air-conditioning in the tropics. I know it is an expense and a luxury, it doesn't come cheap. That's why some shops and restaurants don't have air-con but I'm talking about an air-con boh gao lahk ("not strong enough") situation where there's some kind of air-conditioning but it is barely noticeable. Thus if the temperature outside is 32 degrees, you need to consider how cool your interior has to be and it depends on what you're trying to achieve. Some people would set it at 26 degrees which is cooler than outside, but at 26 degrees, sweating is still possible if you're doing some kind of physical activity or even eating - that's right, we often sweat when we are eating, especially if you're heating hot food like a soup or a stew served boiling hot. Not only are you putting hot food into your body, instantly raising your body temperature, but your physical proximity to a heat source in the form of a big steaming hot bowl of soup can also make you sweat. Likewise, if you have just stepped into the room from outside, then a room at 26 degrees isn't going to stop you sweating quickly, unlike a room at 21 degrees where you will feel a far stronger cooling effect and almost instantly stop sweating. Of course, it costs a lot more to chill a room down to 21 degrees instead of 26, creating this air-con boh gao lakh situation which unfortunately was way too common for me in Panama. I think it is utterly pointless to spend all that money on air-conditioning but not achieved the desired effect. At the very least, I shouldn't be still sweating in an air-con environment, it should feel cooler.
9. The Chinatown in Panama was hugely disappointing.
Over the years on my travels, I've encountered some very interesting Chinatowns in cities like San Francisco, Vancouver, Sydney, New York, Melbourne, Paris, Manchester, London, Santiago and even Santo Domingo. I visited the Chinatown in Panama City but found surprisingly little there, perhaps it was because I went there on a Sunday, so the shops were mostly shut and the streets were deserted. In contrast, London Chinatown is most busy during the weekends! I saw a few shops with names like "Casa Juan Siu" with bilingual signs in Spanish and Chinese but apart from a few sleepy looking Chinese restaurants, it certainly wasn't that interesting. I did manage to get some Chinese food in Panama and there was a good restaurant in particular, the staff there were from Guangzhou and had been in Panama for about 25 years, thus they spoke Cantonese, Spanish and Mandarin. There are about 200,000 ethnic Chinese people in Panama today but that didn't result in a huge Chinatown, instead they have spread out over Panama. So the nice Chinese restaurant that I talked about over was near my hotel rather than in Chinatown. On my way to the Panama canal, I had great Chinese food at Albrook Mall and there was a nice Chinese restaurant very close to the canal visitor center in Miraflores. You will see Chinese people in Panama City and feel their presence there, but I wouldn't bother visiting the old Chinatown in Panama. There is a 'new Chinatown' in Panama City in the neighbourhood of El Dorado, but when I realized just how far out of town it was I didn't bother to go there when there were more interesting things to see in town.
10. Panama is still dealing with Covid
The culture shock began at Amsterdam Schipol airport when I boarded my plane for Panama, I was told as they checked my ticket to put on my mask and keep it on until I left the airport in Panama. Woah, I had just flown from London to Amsterdam without even wearing my mask the entire way: not in the airport, not in the plane and even the crew on the flight from London to Amsterdam didn't wear a mask. I was told that this was to do with Panamanian laws on Covid and thus an incoming flight simply had to comply with local laws there. Conversely, the moment the plane took off from Panama Tocumen airport for the flight back to Amsterdam, the crew took off their masks the moment we were airborne. People in Panama were usually very compliant when it came to wearing masks: the law states that you had to wear a mask indoors and you're encouraged to wear a mask in crowded outdoor areas (such as a bus stop or a market) but what I saw plenty of locals wearing masks outdoors even in the tropical heat. I also saw testing centers and vaccination centers with long queues, this is quite unlike the UK where we' are well and truly in a post-Covid phase with no masks, no testing, no rules, nothing. You know what the biggest irony of this situation is? I tested positive for Covid after I returned from Panama. I landed on a Tuesday evening and by Thursday, I already started feeling ill. It's my second bout of Covid and I'm fully vaccinated so I got over it quite quickly. Given that symptoms take between 5 to 6 days to show after infection, that means I most probably got infected in Panama where I had been obediently following all their rules. I tested because my friend Lauren tested positive and I spent time with her last week - so actually, I probably infected her.
Anyway, so that's it from me. I hope this final piece has given you a taste of what Panama was like. Getting Covid again just reminded me of what we all went through in the last two years and being prevented from doing all the things we loved, so that's why it was nice to talk about traveling as I no longer take that privilege for granted. And just in case you're wondering, my second bout of Covid was very mild: I had some headaches, a bit of a cough and runny nose but that's it. I didn't experience high fevers or had my sense of taste altered like the last time and I'm already completely recovered, I was really only unwell for about six days so it was comparable to getting the flu. I hope I have given you food for thought and inspired you to travel - maybe not to Panama but to somewhere, anywhere, wherever your heart desires and where your next adventure awaits you. Might you be traveling soon? Please leave a comment below, many thanks for reading.
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