Some Thoughts about Panama:

Since I have now left Panama, I thought I jot down some things that are weird, different or special about Panama:

- It’s OK to walk along the street with an uncovered machete in your hand. (Try that in Germany and you’ll end up in prison right away.)
- You always have some extra inhabitants in your house, may it be cockroaches or lizards. I myself shared a room with my colleague, a lizard (I have never seen it myself, but heard how it was making it’s specific sound and I saw how the cat tried to catch it.), some really big spiders and a lot of other big ugly bugs. In Bocas del Toro my sister and I also had a lizard as a roommate and once he walked over my bed sheets while I was sleeping under them. Although I’m not scared of lizards, it wasn’t exactly a nice experience!
- The closer you get to Costa Rica, the worse are the streets. (The presence of the Americans in Panama until not too long ago helped the infrastructure quite a bit. However, the Americans have never occupied Costa Rica.)
- Daily electricity blackouts were normal; mostly just for a few minutes though. If there hadn’t been one in two or three days, you would start to wonder what was wrong.
- And I think due to those many blackouts, the electric devices started to go crazy. Because in quite a few roundhouses of the hotel and also in the main house, the TV’s would suddenly turn on although there hadn’t been a blackout right before. Sometimes that scared me quite a bit!