Expat Life In Panama City, Panama

Nov. 15, 2011

As I mentioned, while Lief is in Belize City this week hosting our Live & Invest in Belize Conference, I'm in Panama City minding the shop. Unfortunately, my driver's license expired a few months ago. I'll renew it when we're in the States for Thanksgiving next week. Meantime, with Lief away, Alberto and I are doing a version of Driving Miss Daisy.

Alberto arrived to pick me up this morning at 7:45 a.m. "Good morning, Miss Kathleen," he greeted me. "We've got to get going. A lot of work to do today."

In addition to driving me to and fro, Alberto also runs errands for us and for the business. Today, his errand list is long. He has to deliver checks for payments to the electric company and to Jack's school. He has to make a deposit at the bank. He has to take the papers to the motor vehicle agency for the renewal of the car's registration. Plus, Lief wants him to have a mechanic look at the vehicle's transmission...

"I don't understand it, Miss Kathleen," Alberto, a retired Panama City taxi driver, continued, "but traffic is so light this morning. Where is everybody?"

"I don't know, Alberto," I replied. "Maybe they all stayed on at the beach following last week's holidays."

"Could be...could be...

"Ah! Do you see that, Miss Kathleen? Do you see?" Alberto asked excitedly as a taxi came directly toward us, traveling the wrong way in our lane. If Alberto hadn't swerved out of the way, the guy would have hit us head on.

"The way these Panamanians drive! No courtesy. They show no courtesy. That's the problem," Alberto concluded in exasperation. "And they have no sense. If they don't want to live anymore, why don't they go over to the bridge and jump off? Why involve me in their problems. Leave me and everybody else on the road out of it. But they don't think.

"At least now they have to have insurance. It's required. Didn't used to be. Then it was a free-for-all. They'd bump you and bang into you, and nobody cared. Good luck to you trying to get the guy who hit you to pay for the repairs. He had no insurance. And he had no money. He'd tell you about his six children at home. How he couldn't afford to pay anything toward fixing your car, the car he just ran into, because he has those six children to take care of.

"Well, why didn't you think about your six children at home before you ran into me? That's what I'd want to ask."

And, then, after we'd traveled a little farther along Calle Cincuenta ...

"You see there, Miss Kathleen? They're building another hotel," Alberto explained, pointing to our right. "The people who built the RIU. They're Spanish. They're building another new hotel, right next to the RIU. The RIU must be doing ok, I guess, if they're building another one right next-door to it, same people.

"I heard that the people behind the RIU and Donald Trump's people have a plan. Once the clean-up of the bay is finished, they're going to invest even more. Once the bay is clean and fresh, they're going to build a new Miami here in Panama City. Really, they've already started. All these big new hotels...

"You know, I think it could work," Alberto concluded. "Panama is a special place. We have people from all over the world here. We always have, even since before the Canal. People from all over the world have always traveled here, sometimes on their way someplace else. But many of them end up staying. And so we have such a mix. Like nowhere else in Latin America, I'd say.

"And we all get along. We all do just fine.

"Except when we get behind the wheel of a car! Then it's every man for himself."

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