Panama Update #50
September 19, 2008
The weather here is very consistent. There is no need for a weather report on the news. In fact, they do not have weather reports on the news here. Only news and sports. I guess they figure it is fairly straightforward. You can expect to sweat every time you walk outside and it will rain at some point everyday. It is amazing how relentless the heat and humidity is. If you live, eat, and work in air conditioning, it is really not a problem. But I have noticed that there are a lot of people here who don't have air conditioning because of the cost. I guess they just get used to it. For the people with enough money, it reminds me of the winter in Minnesota in that people go from the heated home to the heated garage to the heated office and may not go outside much. People here move from their air conditioned home to their air conditioned car to their air conditioned office. But I have seen a few others here who run and bicycle. The only places I have seen people do this are on the Ancon Hill where we live or on the Causeway by the Pacific Ocean. Otherwise the town is not bicycle or walker friendly. There is no such thing as a bike path and the drivers are very aggressive and do not respect pedestrians or each other. They do not stop at signs or care if someone is crossing the street. They go very fast on neighborhood type roads even if people are around. I am surprised they do not have more accidents here, but I guess that the people have also adjusted to that, like they have adjusted to the heat and rain.
Nikki is supposed to return from the research vessel on Sunday AM. Tomorrow I am scheduled to lead a Yoga/Meditation class on the other side of town at a place I have never been to. Someone is picking me up and taking me there. I was referred to this place by someone and so will see what it is like. This session is for English speakers and normally they don't do classes at this place in English. It will be another new Panama experience. Every new experience seems to lead to something else, so we will see what happens. The website for this place is http://www.lwcenter.com/.
