Panama City Tour

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Trip Start Sep 01, 2004 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 25, 2005

  Panama City, Panama
Friday, February 23, 2007

Buenas,

We have slid right into travel mode. Yep, you know....slowing way down....light on our feet, flexible eating, and toilet paper on hand at all times. We came back to the city after our decompression time on Isla Contadora. We really enjoyed it there, but was ready for more.

The first day here in Panama City, Don had arranged for a city tour with a Realtor/Tour operator. She zoomed us around to all of the neighborhoods and showed us what a huge boom they are having in their economy since the US turned the canal over to the Panamanians in '99. It lookssimilar to Bejing, with all of the cranes everwhere throwing up highrise condos right and left. We saw where Trump is putting up his new Tower, and visted their huge mall, which is a big a mall as I have ever been to in the US. The middle class here is thriving. It is great to see.

I wouldn't want to sell real estate here, as they do not
have a contract with the Seller, and have no guarantee that they are
going to get paid at the close, except that the Seller is trust worthy.
Their commission is negotiable to the end. It is so crazy. Any realtor
can sell a particular house, all of them can advertise that house at
any price. They pay the Seller what they want, then mark it up from
there, so the same house can be on the internet for $40k, $50k, $60k,
what ever the realtor thinks that they can get for it. The other crazy
thing is that the realtor only brings together the Buyer and the
Seller, negotiates the deal, then turns it over to an attorney to do
the paperwork. At that point the attorney can squeeze out the realtor
too. It doesnt sound like a very good way to earn a living.

Much of the real estate available here in Panama City are old US housing from the Panama Canal occupation, so most people buy them and remodel the "military look" into something attractive. They are mostly duplexes. The other option is a condo in a highrise. The houses go for $130k-$250k, the highrises $400k and up. It was all quite educational.

The food here is great and we already have our favorites. All of the fish and prawns are really fresh. I love this spice that they use called,
Achiote. They use it in rice and marinate chicken with it. It turns
everything a bright yellow. I bought several varieties at the grocery
store to bring home and try out. It is like a seed pod that they dry
and grind into a paste. The food is not particularly spicy, but they
have a variety of sauces to supplement your dish. The staple here is
rice, which they do grow here. It is really nothing like Mexican food,
Central or South American food that we have had. There are so many
nationalities here, and a great deal of West Indies influences in the
food. They serve very little beans here.

The Panamanians seem to be a very friendly and hospitable people. We did find out that they hate the Columbians, who come to take their jobs and bring the drug trade and the crime that comes with it. They are apparently hard workers though, so can get visas to work here.

Like all large sea ports that we have been to, it is a huge melting
pot. Every color of skin, hair, and eyes are combined to create some
fantastically beautiful people. The building of the Panama canal
brought in a huge number of people from all over the globe, including
Chinese and Japanese. It seems so funny to hear a Chinese person
speaking Spanish. Unlike other countries where the nationalities are
segregated into neighborhoods, here they seem to have integrated.

We spent to day visiting Casco Viejo. It is originally where the French set up their residential neighborhood at the start of their Panama Canal fiasco. It looks just like New Orleans, with the balconies and verandas surrounded by ornate wrought iron railings. The neighborhood had become very run down and had become a slum, but now the buildings are being purchased and refurbished.

We are renting a car and our next stop is El Valle.

Heard you guys are finally getting winter there! Take care.


Love,
Don and Jo

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