Obama, Castro, Ortega, Kirchner, Morales, Moros, and two-and-a-half dozen other jefes from across the Americas are all in Panama City starting today for the seventh Summit of the Americas. In the center of town, roads are closed, traffic is diverted, checkpoints are set up, and hundreds of police officers are patrolling, three and four on each corner. I’m wondering where all these police came from; they must have imported some for the show.
If you’re arriving in Panama today, tomorrow, or this weekend for our Live and Invest in Panama Conference starting Monday, take note of the following closures:
From Thursday noon until Sunday at 6 p.m.: Partial closing of Corredor Sur, Cinta Costera, Avenida Balboa, and Via Interamericana from Panama Pacifico to Panama City
From Thursday midnight until Sunday at 9 p.m.: Streets with access to Via Israel will be closed, from Calle 68 Este to Via Cincuentenario
From Friday at 4 p.m. until Saturday midnight: Via Cincuentenario will be completely closed from the entrance at Chanis to Atlapa Convention Center
All public offices will be closed all day Friday and Saturday.
It’ll all be over by the time we convene our meetings on Monday morning. However, traveling into the city from the airport this weekend might be more complicated than usual. Good luck…and see you soon!
“Kathleen, first, I want to thank you for putting together the 52 Days program. While my timetable is a bit more extended, this has helped me narrow the field some and get a better grasp of the scope of this kind of life-changing move.
“You and I actually have a bit of a ‘6 degrees of separation’ connection. I grew up in D.C. and half my family lived in Baltimore. I spent a lot of time there growing up. Maybe we had crabs together at O’Breckie’s!
“Now I’m in Nashville, which is where I was fortunate to spend some time at the Expo you held here.
“Here’s my question: You know how us Americans love our cars! So I am struggling with the concept of being without one. How would a new expat go through the process of settling in, making trips to stores to outfit an apartment, and get all that stuff home? Obviously in the course of making this move, travel and exploring are high on the list. How do we do this without wheels? Throughout all the emails I get, walking, cabs, and buses are always mentioned as primary transportation. But, for example, say I’m on a boots-on-the-ground trip in Panama. How does one go from Las Tablas to David without a car?”
–Alan S., United States
Owning a car in your new life overseas is a personal choice. We have two here in Panama. When we return to Paris this summer, we’ll swap the two vehicles for a pair of monthly Metro passes.
Owning a car is an expense and a hassle. However, in some places, it’s also a necessity. Panama is one of those places in my opinion.
In Panama and most of the places we write about, buying a car, new or used, is no problem. Belize is an exception. In Belize cars are a prized commodity, expensive and hard to come by.
If you don’t want or need to own a car of your own in your new home, you could rent one when you wanted to tour around or carry cargo.
