Panama: Super Saturday

April 3, 2011

Panama Update: Super Saturday started early with a morning visit to the city’s fish market. It gave us a good idea of what’s available and what the fish (served in town) look like…

Below is one of the more common fish, the Corvina; it’s a nice white fish and can be found all over, its pretty tasty no matter how its prepared…

The name Panama actually mean’s “abundance of fish” in one of the indigenous languages. So it appears were in the right place to start a new fishing lodge.

…Spiny Lobster which we’re hoping will be available fresh from the waters around the Pacific Provider.

…Dorado are a plentiful sport fish and delicious, you can expect these to appear on our menu. Then it was off to the open air vegetable market which was the size of a small town and had everything…

from Pineapples

…avocados

…16 wheelers full of Banana’s coming in from the interior

…beans and grains of all types

…and Tobey and Michael speak with a supplier referred to us by one of our new friends in the grocery business. From there we headed into the old town “Casco Viejo” to get an idea for the local flare and flavor of the people that live here…

Tobey and Michael walk into the quilt of people that make up this multi-cultural community. We felt extremely safe and rarely on guard, there is a warmth and authenticity to the people going about their daily affairs. They don’t seem to mind or notice us as tourists…or are we, maybe we’re just part of the quilt of people travelling through the mosaic of Panama. I can say with all certainty that I get solicited for “spare change” more in Vancouver than I do here. The blend of old and new in the picture above is typical; the young stylish city “Panamanians” walking alongside the “Kuna Yala”, the indigenous people in their red headwear and wrapped arms and legs. It was beautiful. Next we tasted some of the local street food…

Delicious tamales

…and my recent favorite…Michael and I enjoy some Coconut water brought in from the countryside. Coconut water has the same electrolyte balance as blood and in WW2 (in the pacific) field surgeons used to infuse Coconut water directly into the veins of the wounded (in the absence of blood). It’s a great rehydrate and it helps the brain ward off dementia…so I’m drinking a LOT.

The locals move around town in these busses…

The buses are called “Diablo Rojos” and the government was going to modernize the transit system but the people loved the buses, fought back and won. So you can see the buses everywhere, each one unique.

At the end of old town you hit the convent of Santo Domingo…

…and then the water where you can see the ships lining up to head towards the Panama Canal…

The ships have to be measured and weighed in an elaborate process before entering the canal. It’s a minimum 24 hours process before they get into line after which the canal crossing is 8-9 hours of transit using specially trained canal captains.

After a long day we walked a good part of the way back into the downtown core but took a few minutes to watch some locals play a little cage soccer…

What a fabulous country!

Ken Beatty

WCFC Panama

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JOHN BAKER
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