4/29/08 - I've been here a week!

I'm starting to feel like a real Panamanian after only one week. I'm getting more aggressive in my driving habits, I can rattle off my Passport Number in Spanish (as important as a Social Security number is in the USA), and I use my cell phone several times a day. Not to mention that I successfully chased out two geckos from my condo (a broom works very nicely to chase them out windows or doors). At breakfast (picture a huge fruit plate with mangoes, papayas, watermelon and pineapple... for $2.50), I saw dolphins jumping out of the ocean. At lunch, I ate salad from my lanai as I watched an iguana eat his from the planted greenery in front of my lanai. Last night I got talking to Eliecer (a very funny Panamanian who works at Las Olas) all about sharks and dolphins in the Pacific. The reason sharks don't bother swimmers here at Playa La Barqueta is because the tide is too variable for them. If you swim way-way out, I imagine you might encounter them. The biggest danger here is the rip current (which occurs mostly at high tide). I'll only go into the ocean if I have my body-board (secured to my wrist) and fins (& it's low tide). Just last week, some egotistical California male surfer type nearly drowned when he failed to heed Eliecer's advice. He had to be rescued by locals who know how to swim in this ocean.