Early Impressions

Downtown Panama City as seen from Casco Viejo (old town)

The last few days have basically just been spent running errands, adjusting to the move, and learning about the work we can expect to be doing in the STRI labs. There is some paperwork that has to go through multiple levels (supposedly a common theme in Panama) before we can get our work badges and permits for fossil extraction in the canal zone. So thus far things have been pretty slow and relaxing and will probably continue this way until early next week.

Yesterday involved a lot of running around and interacting with people who knew hardly a word of English, which made it painfully obvious just how rusty my Spanish is. Simple things like checking out at the grocery store proved near impossible when I was left alone and faced with the soft-spoken, s-less Panamanian accent. Adding to the difficulty were the all too common plexiglass windows between customer and cashier that, to me, seemed to block all noise. I do think (or maybe just hope) that at least some of the difficulty is a result of both my own timidity with the language and how new this experience is for me, so we'll see if there's any improvement in the coming weeks.

Our apartment building

Being out and about also drove home just how hot it is here. The dry season just started, which is supposed to be much nicer than the wet season, but it still only takes a few minutes out in the sun before I'm seriously craving a glass of water. We have a couple of ceiling fans in the apartment, along with some stand-ups, and the building is designed with tons of windows and open panels between rooms, so air circulates pretty well. Even so, it's not until about 11:00 pm that things are really cool enough for me to be comfortable. Aaron and Pedro say they actually get cold in bed at night, but I feel like I'm just barely below being to warm. It helps to take a cool shower before going to bed to drop down my temperature a bit, so it's probably for the best that we don't have any hot water in the unit to tempt me.

An extremely rough map is starting to form in my head of the area between and around the lab and our apartments, but it's been much harder for me than it usually is since, as far as I've seen, there isn't a straight road in the entire city. Most of the streets aren't labeled (and no one knows the names of those that are, anyway) and just keep winding from one neighborhood to the next. Intersections are crazy when these roads meet and signals/stop signs are usually absent or ignored. There's also a bunch of rerouting do to reconstruction on almost every major road. I heard from Pedro that Panama City is one of the fastest growing areas in Central America and urban planning and infrastructure are struggling to keep up. Huge highways, a subway system, and more renovations than you can imagine are all underway but still incomplete. As a pedestrian I have to be wary, whether or not I'm in a crosswalk, and play a lot of frogger to get from one side of the road to the other.

Much to my excitement, there have been a couple wildlife sightings! Granted, they were city animals that locals wouldn't give a second look, but to me they were new and exotic. Pretty much everywhere you look, especially in the evenings, you can see agoutis, these medium-sized tailless rodents. They're seriously as ubiquitous as squirrels in the U.S. And there are all kinds of birds, though I don't stand a chance of identifying any but the most obvious. So far I've heard a couple parrots but haven't seen any. Toucans, monkeys, and sloths are rumored to lurk in the trees behind STRI so I'll be keeping my eyes out. Last, but not least, there are several mango trees and one papaya tree surrounding our apartments! If that's not exciting wildlife, I don't know what is! The papaya doesn't look so hot, but the mangoes are supposed to be at peak ripeness right around the beginning of May, so I can't wait for that. So many of them fall down into our yard that strangers from who knows where will take taxis up to our place in the middle of the day to fill bag after bag with fruit.

Pictures to come, but I'm still figuring out this whole blog thing (plus anew camera) so it may take some time :) [UPDATE: PICTURES ADDED!]