Panama – The End is here….

We’re on the plane coming home from our week in Panama. And, we really enjoyed ourselves.

Panama is not like Costa Rica at all! It is very unique and has it’s own charm. What struck me about Panama is that there are two classes – very poor or very rich. I thought that was interesting because we kept going through these desolated neighborhoods with burned out buildings, laundry hanging from the balcony which was also dilapidated and people wandering the streets with what looked like no place to go.

Then we would go through very wealthy areas filled with nice restaurants and shops. There really was a wide disparity. The rich drove BMW’s while the poor stood on lines around the corner for the bus. Sometimes, some would get lucky and catch a ride on a back of a pickup truck.

One little boy, with big brown eyes, approached me when we pulled over to an actually beautiful section of Panama, called Casco Viejo. “Usted dinero?” he asked. He kept repeating the word; “dinero” and then I realized that he was looking for money. He was such a handsome little boy, but I shook my head and walked away. (I still feel a little guilty about not giving him money. But I kept seeing so many hard working people on the hot streets either fixing roads, fixing buildings or patrolling the sidewalks, that I thought that there could be opportunities for him. Why wasn’t he in Escuela like the rest of the children?

The other thing that struck me about Panama is that it is a country of rainforest and nature and yet, there were so many billboards in the natural habitat that I felt like there was something wrong with that picture.

The last place that we stayed before heading to the Sheraton was the Intercontinental Playa Bonita on the beach in the Pacific Ocean. While sunbathing, I started to talk with a few of the women sitting next to me. (It was rare to hear English spoken anywhere!)

“Don’t go into the ocean,” a woman from the state of Washington told me. “We were reading that the ocean is polluted because of the Panama Canal. It’s very dangerous.”

Isn’t there something wrong with this picture? Isn’t this an oxymoron? Billboards in the rainforest, a beautiful ocean and heat like you never felt in your life and you can’t go in?

And then there was the politics. I thought the U.S. had a lot of politics. Wow! There’s a big presidential election coming up in 2009. So there were billboards all over the place for Juan Carlos Navarro. There were some signs for a woman called Balbina and still very few signs for another Juan Hernandez

We saw the house that the president lives. I can only understand why someone might want to run!

The art was pretty cool too! I’m a big art person. I don’t really know what I’m looking at, but when I see something I love, I buy it.

While we were walking through the area of Casco Viejo, with a very friendly police officer, we saw vendors selling bracelets, necklaces, whistles, and quilts. Some even sold their artwork. So I decided to buy three for $20!

(BTW, The police officer acted as our tour guide showing us all around the area. It was the oddest thing ever. He was very nice. As a matter of fact, the people in general were very nice and very accommodating, even if many didn’t know English.)

When we got to the Sheraton, I noticed an art gallery in the lobby. I was sipping a cup of afternoon java when I saw a woman looking at a photo of the rainforest. It was really nothing much — just a bunch of trees and a blue sky with clouds. That was it. Okay, so why are they standing there staring at this thing? I really couldn’t understand it.

“Look over there,” I said to Derek, my son. “That woman is debating on whether or not to buy that painting.” She was standing there for almost a half hour with two women holding the painting. The women looked tired and bored and the woman kept looking and commenting.

“Maybe she’s debating on whether or not to buy it,” he said.

Monkey Island

When he left with Brian to go to the pool, I strolled into the gallery to see what they had. I wasn’t looking to buy anything. I just wanted to look. Famous last words!

I ended up buying a painting of a woman who had birds and trees coming out of her hair. It just appealed to me.

“She looks just like you,” Merry Palma, the owner of the gallery said to me.

“I don’t think so, but I really like this one.” I said.

She called over a few people and in Spanish asked if they thought the girl in the painting looked like me. They felt uncomfortable because she looks nothing like me, and they didn’t say anything.

I promised her that once I took the painting back to my office and if anyone asked if that was me, I would write to her and let her know.

Oh Panama…. Just another page in the book….Cemetary in Panama