Panama Shitty

James and I managed to escape the city and made it to Bocas Del Toro for a week and what now to me seems like months ago. We have been back in Panama ¨shitty¨as the locals affectionately call this black hole and we are really enjoying it. That was sarcasm. Jamey had some unfinished business here in the city and so we came back to walk around and pollute our lungs. Now that I have had a taste of the Caribbean I want to go back! I´m no city gal, that's for sure, but I´m definitely not a Panama City gal. I am yearning to visit a place where there is a waste management system, i.e, it doesn't constantly smell like you are walking around in a toilet. Granted, there are parts of New York that smell like a toilet but you can manage to get away from it. Not so much here. So I guess you could say I´m a bit burned out from this place. Several events have contributed to these feelings.

The week before we left for Bocas we had a brush with the immigration police and one foot in the back of a patrol car, we evaded riots by a bunch of really angry construction workers throwing cinder blocks and we were in a car accident. It was really fun. Then we had to come back and so far we have been yelled at (for basically being from the States), segregated by race on a bus and witnessed a vehicular homicide. I´m ready to go. We are dreaming of the Panama that we fell in love with last year which for the most part was in the Chiriqui mountains or on the Caribbean. In a last ditch effort we are attempting to escape to the Caribbean tomorrow, the day before we leave so our lasts precious moments here are not wasted in this smelly gutter.

I´m not sure when the next time will be that we travel and it may be while Jamey is working again for a book, which is great, but I really hope he gets the country-side and not the city. The city research was crazy and I think that I might kiss the ground when I get to DFW and be thankful for all that I had growing up in Virginia. The woods, the playgrounds without hypodermic needles and an education.

I´ve been trying to think of what to write for a blog to let people know what its like here. I have been at a total loss because I´m not sure you want to know. The poverty is intense, the pollution is deadly and there is widespread apathy for throwing garbage in the actual trash can. Hey, where can I toss this large dirty diaper? oh, there's the river where we get our drinking water, i´ll just toss it in there. MMM, serve me up a cup of water from the tap senor and please dont fish out the unidentifiable floaties.

If anything, this trip has taught me the value of education, if I didn't know before. You want a solution to poverty and environmental issues? go to school. Education. The average level of education for the working class here is probably 8th grade. I am making a sweeping generalization. I have also been told that the average education that a policia or military guard on the street has is the second grade. Now, I don't know if I believe it but I don't necessarily discount it. Imagine that, handing a second grader a gun and a moped and telling them to fill the quota of sending gringos to Immigration. Awesome. It is amazing the ego and power issues that go along with being an under educated, armed and uniformed military man. wow. Let me give you a dialogue of our brush with the military-

note: all from the policia was said in Spanish. Everything kate and jamey said was in broken, bad spanish.

Policia-

Hey, (big bright light on big stupid truck) wait there. Dont go any further. (truck pulls over)

Kate- are they talking to us?

Jamey- Si?

Policia- We need to see your identification or passport.

Jamey- Identification? We dont have it, it in apartment up the street.

Kate- No have it here. We can walk and get it.

Policia- You need to have identification to walk around here. You cant just do anything you want.

Jamey- we have a credit card.

Policia- no, no good, (addressing other policia) well what are we going to do?

Kate- (to Jamey) oh, they want money.

Jamey- I dont have any money.

Kate- (to the policia) I have a dollar. Thats it.

Jamey-(fake looking for I.D. in back pack) Do you want to make a run for it?

Kate- Are you crazy? They'll shoot us with their machine guns.

Kate (to police)- Well, what do you want us to do?

Policia- You need identification, it is illegal not to have Identification.

Kate- (to Jamey) Thats *expletive*. Its not illegal. They can go *expletive* themselves. I'm not *expletive* giving them anything. They can follow us up the street or they can *expletive* off.

Jamey- We dont have money.

Policia- You need to come with us (pushing jamey in police truck)

Kate- No *expletive* way. We are not getting in that truck. (to police) you can follow us up the street. No, we no want to go in truck. No. Where you take us?

Policia- Immigration, Jail.

Jamey- what? Immigration?!

Kate- No *expletive* way, do not get in that car Jamey. (to Police) We did not know that it illegal no have identification. Now we know.

Jamey- Senor, I writer for guide book. I write only good for Panama.

Policia- (after a quiet discussion among themselves) okay. have a good nite.

Kate and Jamey- What? okay??? See ya lata suckas.

Lesson learned. It is in fact illegal not to have I.D. on you as a foreigner. Especially at night. So I dont know Panamanian law all that well but the practical experience sure does help. Let this be a lesson to all who want to avoid a Panamanian jail. In fact if you can, avoid Panama City altogether.

Overall it has been an eye opening trip. The latent hostility towards gringos is grinding away at my nerves and making me very uncompassionate. I have to go somewhere to re-group and center myself. I think being a bitter, angry person only exacerbates the problem. Thanks for reading our posts. And check out the 2008 edition of Central America on a Budget from Rough Guides. You will see Jamey's name in print! yay! And a whole bunch of hard earned information on Panama Shitty.

A lunar celebration

A lunar celebration

On Wednesday, February 20th, the stars and the planets and the moons all aligned for a cosmic celebration. A lunar eclipse hung in the night sky, and fortunately for us, the Americas had the best view. As the night progressed, so did the clouds and by the time the moon had partially moved into the Earths umbra it was all nearly obscured by the dark clouds that had moved in from the southeast. We sat and watched on a dock, overlooking the Caribbean Sea, in hopes that it would only be a passing swath of nebulous but alas, it was not to be so.

Jamey was a bit gloomy but he was certain that the eclipse couldn’t have been on any other evening than this because this was the day and year of the thirtieth celebration of his birth and he knew his destiny was written in the stars. So instead of moping about we gathered with a a crew of mates from the hostel where we lay our heads and decided to make sure Jamey drank enough Abuelo rum in celebration of his birthday. After sharing drinks with two Brits, a Spaniard, a Chilean Swede, a Quebecois or French Canadian, and a Columbiana, we were ready to go and bailar, bailar, bailar. So off we went into the dark ink of the Caribbean Sea, heading North West to a place where the drinks were cheap and the music was loud and the sea would lap at our feet. We arrived and the party was in full swing and Jamey was grinning and telling everyone of his grand entrance into a new decade.

After many more toasts and saludos, I peered into the night sky, and much to my surprise the clouds opened a small hole giving us sight to the cosmic event we had so wished to witness. The lunar eclipse! There in the middle of a rowdy crowd of drunken sailors I stared bedazzled by the moon, halfway through the phase of the eclipse. In an infinitesimal moment in time the moon peeked out from behind the thick blanket of clouds to give us permission to view this millennial event. How lucky we are, to be here in this peaceful haven on earth as we pass between the sun and the moon casting our shadow on all the dents and divots of that glorious lunar orb.

I believe there were only but a few party-goers who were as distracted by the moon as I. Jamey included. We thanked the moon and the sun and the sea and were grateful for the company we were keeping here on this tiny archipelago. After that brief moment of clarity, the clouds passed over once again and the moon was gone into obscurity. And there we were, with nothing left to do but thank the celestial gods that gave us a brief view of this cosmic event and bailar, tomar and celebrar many more birthdays and eclipses to come.

Please check out the nights events captured by only a select bunch of pictures that make jamey look really sober.

Jamey jumping into the sea for his baptismal entrance into the 30 somethings. BOCAS!

30 years old, and still kickin'

I'm 30, people, so bring on the cards, presents, and general enthusiasm.

And for God´s sake, somebody throw me some kind of big, expensive party - I´m talking about MTV´s Super Sweet 16, except with receding hairlines and people who can complete a sentence without saying, ¨like¨.

Lots of love, and I hope to see you all in the very near future so that you can lavish compliments on me about my youthful appearance and buy me things.

Love,

Jamey

B22, Considerable Comfort

Chances are if you are reading this right now you are reading it in an e-mail. You should also know that this is simultaneously being published on our blog page. So, for those of you who are confused, I linked all of my friends and families e-mails (that I had) to a google group (KateandJamey Blog) account with the sole purpose of updating you all when we posted a new blog. So, apparently, unknown to me, it publishes what we write in our blog also in an e-mail to all of the addresses I typed in. I thought it would just send a quick “hey Kate and Jamey have a new blog, check it out” type message but it publishes the whole dang thing. If you prefer not to get the e-mail update you can unsubscribe at any time. But we will be sad. I was trying to make things easier but I think I made a few people confused. Sorry!

Jamey and I are still here in Panama City. We have been here two weeks and we are about ready to leave. We are very ready to leave. If I have to listen to another car alarm I am going to start throwing bricks through windows. I know that sounds violent but I’m at that point. I wonder if there are this many alarms in all cities or if Panama is exceptionally security obsessed. Which, judging by the armed guards on every block, they like security. Anyway, we are ready for our next destination on the Caribbean at Bocas Del Toro. We were there last year and we liked it but we definitely didn’t love it. We loved Boquete. Bocas was different. The Caribbean is beautiful and very poor and sometimes it’s hard to watch unabashed exploitation of a beautiful archipelago. It seems a lot of environmental groups have been winning the war against developers in the region. That’s the word on the street anyway, so I’m eager to see what has changed from last year.

Speaking of change, I’ve never been in a place where the economy is growing so quickly and there are multimillion, 50 floor towers popping up on every street corner. From our balcony we can see 4 new buildings in mid-construction. I have been in total awe of the amount of construction and all of the mid 60 retired baby boomers that are consuming condos in mass amounts. They locals call them “the baby boomers”, even if their not, and they are very aware that the Americanos are changing the whole economy, again. It seems that most of the boomers have jumped ship on the U.S. real estate market and are goin’ where the gettins’ good. Now is the time if you have the capital. I think there’s a mixed review on the streets of this economic boom. The tourist industry is seeing a lot of a new market of older, moneyed people willing to pay for higher flight prices, expensive restaurants and fancy hotels. Gone are the days of catering to the grungy, dread headed backpacker. The Panamanians are smart too. They know how to make a buck from the Gringos. A lot of Gringos are moving to the City but are moving to neighborhoods outside of the Canal Zone, which maybe a few years ago would have been uncommon. We are staying in a part of the City call El Congrejo (the crab) and it is a nice area of town with all of the best restaurants and tree lined streets. The foreign investors see all of that and are buying up all the space they can get their hands on. I think the entire skyline of the City will be drastically changed in only a matter of years.

We’ve spent the last two weeks eating at every cheap restaurant and visiting all of the cheap accommodations. The first few days we spent visiting the tourist spots like Panama Viejo and the ruins and Casco Viejo, which is my absolute favorite part of town. It’s still a part of town that is a little dodgy at night but they are making historical renovations through a group called “Revive El Casco” which is slowly but surely fixing up the beautiful colonial buildings and houses. If I bought anything I would buy it there. It’s amazing. You can check out my photos on your right!

Casco Viejo is also the location of the new Bond movie, B22, Quantum of Solace. I’m serious, that’s what it’s called. They are shooting night scenes at the bombed out shell of a building where Noriega used to hang with his cronies. They have transformed it into a set for a ballroom scene. I am curious what the magic of the movies is going to do with the side of the building that is riddled with bullet holes and a crumbling façade. We’ll see! On Monday we got to see them shoot a scene with Daniel Craig as he enters a hotel. The “hotel” is actually a school but they have taken it over and made it an “Andean Hotel”. Apparently this is supposed to be Bolivia. They couldn’t shoot there because of political unrest or something so they are using Panama for all of the Bolivia scenes. We sat on the set on Monday and watched Bond get in the car, get out of the car, get in the car, get out of the car. Next we watched him go up the stairs, give the bellman his bags. That happened about 20 times too. Wow. Boring. Daniel Craig is short too. Shorter than I imagined James Bond would be. I was really hesitant about trying to meet him because I didn’t want his shortness to ruin my idea of Bond. So I didn’t seek him out to meet him. I think its better this way.

And on a final note, there is no usage of the letter K in the Spanish vocabulary. I defy you to find a word with a K in it. I could never figure out why it was so freakin’ hard for them to say my name. So now, to help out the Spanish speaking population, my name is now spelled- Quet (QUE=KA) (T=TE).

I hope I haven’t bored you too much. Jamey will write next. He’s a professional.


Love to all

Kate and Jamey

photos? what photos lady?

Its been brought to our attention that the photos link that I posted (to your right, under the heading Panama 2008) doesnt work and you need to have a password and such for a yahoo account. I am currently perplexed and unsure about how to proceed. Any suggestions about how I can link my flickr account to this blog so peeps can view my pictures are more than welcome. We are also going to be posting a new blog about our adventures recently but we are preoccupied trying to figure out how to talk to a Korean person in Korea at a Spanish speaking phone center. Its complicated, to say the least.

Much love and solutions invited!

besos!

finally got a piece of the pie

Hi everyone-

Jamey and I are movin' on up, definitely. We found a little apartment in a part of town that isnt right next door to the emergency room at the hospital in a sketchy neighborhood. Yay! Although, the hospital is convenient if we broke a bone but not convenient when the sirens blare all night during the Carnaval madness. Jamey did his research and found a place that a gringo, Eric, has bought and revamped to sell to some Panamanians. While he sets up his new place we are renting a room and paying him for the week about the same we would have to pay at the hotel/hospital emergency room that we were staying at upon arrival on Wednesday. And to top it off, it has a brand new desk for Jamey "The Writer" and a balcony that looks over the quiet street where pedestrians make their way to the Carnaval festivities.

Today we ventured up the street to find out where everyone was going and we landed in line to enter the parade for Carnaval. After the armed soldiers split us up by gender and searched us, we moseyed along the street admiring the beautiful floats and the native costumes. Each float blasted either salsa or meringue while mini-bands made up of tubas, snare drums, trombones and trumpets blared their music into the crowds. It was great! Today is the last day of Carnaval so the parades and the partying is peaking. We are trying to remain inconspicuous gringos so we dont get harrassed too badly but it seems impossible to dodge the handfuls of confetti to the face and the water guns being sprayed up your nose. Its all in good fun. Panamania.

I have attached some photos for your viewing pleasure. There are a lot of them, just to warn you, but I am trying to take a lot so I have a sample to pick from to submit to Rough Guides.

Any input would be great!

The one thing I think that I have learned about travel writing or guide book writing is that you have to be the ultimate tourist. You have no choice, you have to do everything and do it thoroughly to make sure you're getting the best and most comprehensive information. For example, last year when we were here we did some of the basic city stuff, we saw the ruins of Panama Viejo and ate at some pretty good restaurants and then we decided we had enough of the city so we left. Not so much this year. We are doing everything there is to do here and we are sometimes doing it twice becuase we forgot to write something down. Its tedious, hard work and I'm not joking. It may sound luxurious, and yes, it is a nice gig, but I haven't been to so many museums in my life and I grew up next to the Smithsonian. We do enjoy chatting with all the locals. We are using our spanish more and I can comfortably say that I understand about 80% of what they say to us. Which is good because I think Jamey catches about 20-30% so I tend to clarify the parts he missed.

We're like Starsky and Hutch or Captain and Tenille, you know, any power duo.

I will write more later this week when I can wrestle the computer from Jamey. I hope you all are staying warm this February! Happy Fat Tuesday!

Oh yeah! Check out the dude I met on our hike to the top of a forested hill in the Canal Zone. All last year I wished to see a Sloth but never found one and TA-DAAAA, a Three Toed Sloth, or I think it should be called a Three -Giant -Clawed- Eyeball- Puncturing Sloth. YAY!

Root Canal

Hi friends,

I hope this message reaches everyone well. James and I are beginning a new adventure, although shorter in time than last years adventure, but equally as exciting. For those of you who haven't heard through Susan's high pitched exclamations, Jamey has been hired as an contributor to "Rough Guides Central America on a Budget." He has been assigned to Northern Panama, a section of the country that we discovered and loved last year when we randomly decided to cross the frontera of Costa Rica. We were delighted with the people, the beautiful scenery and the remnants of the US Military. Just kidding, we dont like the US Military stuff but our history with the Noriega government is pretty interesting. Anyway, Congratulations to Jamey for getting paid to travel and write! I, on the other hand, will be accompanying him for moral support and to lap up the summer sun of the Panamanian beaches. I will also attempt to take interesting photographs and beg his editor to buy them so I can be famous too.

Our itinerary is yet to be developed (big surprise there!) but Jamey has been assigned to research the Panama City and Bocas Del Toro regions. We toured both of these places last year so we are already a bit familiar with them and know all the good stuff! Yay! We are going to be able to explore even more and to do a lot of things we didnt have time for last year. Its very exciting! We will also be blogging our adventure and attaching pictures as we go along so check in often to get the latest update.

Our date of departure will be Wednesday January 30th. We should be gone for approximately 4 weeks but it could be longer depending on how much trouble we get in or how much fun we have or how much money we don't have.

Much love to you all,

Kate and J-Dogg