Panama City

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Panama City:
The first day in Panama City was Seth’s roommate’s birthday, and I guess this is an appropriate time for me to point out that Seth and I are not in fact roommates. Anyway, it’s Joe’s 23rd birthday. The way the port works in Panama City is that you anchor off the coast and have to take life boats in whenever you want to get off the ship. When we were trying to get off, the waves were huge and it was incredibly difficult to get to shore, so we had to wait 5 or 6 hours, which sucked. Once on shore, we decide that we don’t want to deal with “tendering,” as it is referred to, and that we should get a hotel. We’re starving and want some Panamanian food, but are unable to find any, and eventually get some amazing burgers. While we’re waiting for our food this kid that was tagging along with us (he’s one of the most ridiculous characters I’ve ever met and I might get into some of his exploits, but I want to make it clear that he’s not what I would call a friend), anyway his name is Heroin Rob because the first day he said “I miss heroin,” completely out of the blue. That’s a hell of an introduction, Heroin Rob. Anyway, Heroin Rob goes to get money out of the ATM and comes back about 30 minutes later with a huge grin on his face and declares that he has taken 20 bucks out of the ATM and turned it into 225 on the roulette table and that he is going to buy us lunch. Fair enough. After lunch we go check into this fancy hotel called the Plaza Paitilla for 75 a night, in which we put 4 people one night and 8 the second. Not a bad deal considering all the amenities. While we’re going up to the room, Heroin Rob is drinking at the bar downstairs and disappears for three days (he was mugged, pretended to be an American investor in natural gases, got bought a bunch of drinks by the owner of a random hotel, and then bought cocaine from a Panamanian taxi driver. This kid is an idiot and crazy as hell.) We go to the casino, where Seth and I lose 40 bucks pretty quickly on black jack. I learned my lesson; it took Seth another 40 to quit. Joe comes out ahead, as does a friend of ours who made 400 bucks. Hang out there for a while and then go meet up with a bunch of friends, go to a local bar called Sahara, listen to an awesome 90’s hits mix, and a live band. This random local girl kept trying to talk to us and hit on us, but her nipple was hanging out and we were worried she was trying to scam us. I’m trying to make sure that Seth is paying attention to his surroundings and he doesn’t get mugged, so I grab his wallet, just see if he reacts appropriately. He overreacts and breaks my pinky. Oh well…
The next day we got a taxi driver named Maximo to take us to the Panama Canal, and we watch it open and lower a boat down from the lake in the middle of the canal. It was impressive, but so slow and not that exciting. We got some good sound recording for making computer music with, however. On the way back, Maximo gives us a complete tour of the city for free, showing us all of the govt buildings, Casco Viejo, old ruins, and the ghetto of Panama, which includes some gorgeous old monasteries and other buildings. Casco Viejo has a beautiful stone pier which goes in a semicircle around this park out into the water. There are a bunch of Kuna Indian artisans selling crafts, which I bought a bunch of, which means you all have presents already. I felt really good giving them money because it seems like they need it, plus the jewelry is gorgeous. That night we went to tried to go to a salsa club, but the cover charge was too much for my blood and it was packed anyway, so we went to this place called Unplugged and saw an amazing local band play a bunch of grunge/punk/hardrock and I made friends with the vocalist/guitarist, even though he didn’t speak much English. He sang English perfectly, which surprised me but I was able to request Keep on Rockin in the Free World, and he pointed to me in the crowd when the played it. I was the happiest little boy in the world that night, hanging out with my good friend Tucker (6’6” ginger dutch) and my friend Jill (5’0” pureblood Jew). I think we probably stuck out in the crowd a little bit…
Yesterday we committed to a search for Panamanian food, which failed miserably leading me to conclude that Panama has become America Jr in many regards, beginning I guess in 1913 with the construction of the canal. All we could find anywhere were foodcourts, burgers, and diners. Sancocho was the closest we could find and it is a soup with a half chicken and a bunch of broth. Not bad. We were exhausted all day and finally came back to the ship in order to take a nap, and then went out again for some dinner, which failed once more, though we did get the best chicken quesadillas with roasted red pepper at this hookah bar. We called it an early night and slept on the deck last night. Today we woke up to find that Seth, Tucker, and some friends of ours had forgotten to wake us up/come get us (we were actually awake at the time, but not aware that we needed to be dressed)…anyway they left to go on this lake tour through the jungle and I’m super bummed I missed it, especially because they won’t shut up about how awesome it was. We tried to go to this island, but were told the wrong times for the ferry, so we just said “donde esta playa bonita?” to our taxi driver. We figured we’d find a beautiful beach, but instead he took us 30 minutes outside the city to this hideous beach by the hotel “Playa Bonita.” We got pollo frita y papas fritas (I think that’s how its spelled anyway) Anyway, it was the best damn fried chicken I’ve ever had, but the beach was disgusting, filthy, and we found clothes, trash, and syringes in the sand. We came back and went shopping before getting back on the ship and resting today. We have a ton of work due in the next two days before we get to Ecuador and the Galapagos, and are quite sleep deprived anyway.
I was upset about missing out on a lot of the Panama trips, but traveling completely independently can be very difficult to plan. We had arranged what would’ve been an awesome trip, but the agent doubled the price at the last minute through some miss calculation. I won’t make the same mistakes again, and have planned everything out in advance so this doesn’t happen. I still had a great time in Panama, and I think that at least some of the frustration stems from my prior belief and expectation to find completely different, traditional cultures in Mexico and Panama, but while they used to have very different cultures from modern the U.S., a lot of the current culture has been (dare I say) contaminated by U.S. influence and money. It’s hard to separate the two cultures at this point, so far that the money used here is actually U.S. mint and dollars are universally accepted in Mexico too. One can still notice and experience elements of past cultures that have existed in this geographical region, in people like the Kuna and in the older parts of town, but most of the city is extremely reminiscent of any American city, though there are less restrictions on trash, cars, etc and everything is a little wilder. I enjoyed Panama immensely, but I’m definitely looking forward to Galapagos way more and wish that I had done Panama better. I did get some amazing recordings for computer music and saw some stuff that ties in really well for my Climate Change class.
Please comment or send me messages; I miss hearing from you all. Even if I don’t respond, I still love hearing from you because it makes me feel like you’re reading this and I miss everyone so much. It feels like I’ve been gone a lot longer than 2 weeks (on the ship) and 3 weeks from home.
Love,
Stewart Ryan

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