I’ve arrived in Panama

Sun, Jan 30, 2005

Panama

Panama_map_1It’s Tuesday evening, and I’ve been in Panama City for 24 hours.  Raswan and I arrived at the airport at 9:30pm and took a taxi into the city.  After traveling for over 20 hours, we were SO tired.  Even more than being tired, we were hungry.  We walked down the street at 11pm and looked for a place to eat, passing a McDonald’s along the way. I was HUNGRY, but I knew that my first meal in Panama wasn’t going to be a Big Mac.  We found Cafe Monolo, and I had chicken croquettes, which tasted like a fish fillet, but with ground up chicken.

Dsc09956 Today, we set the alarm for 10am, but were still so tired from the day before, we didn’t leave the hotel until 2pm.  Today was just a day of resting and doing errands.  Tomorrow we’re going to find a different place to stay and go so the Panama Canal.  I’ve posted some pictures in the photo album, so check them out.

General Information about Panama

Country (long form) Republic of Panama
Capital Panama
Total Area 30,193.19 sq mi
78,200.00 sq km
(slightly smaller than South Carolina)
Population 2,845,647 (July 2001 est.)
Estimated Population in 2050 3,849,328
Languages Spanish (official), English 14%
note: many Panamanians bilingual
Literacy 90.8% total, 91.4% male, 90.2% female (1995 est.)
Religions Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15%
Life Expectancy 72.94 male, 78.53 female (2001 est.)
Government Type constitutional democracy
Currency 1 balboa (B) = 100 centesimos
GDP (per capita) $6,000 (2000 est.)
Industry construction, petroleum refining, brewing, cement and other construction materials, sugar milling
Agriculture bananas, rice, corn, coffee, sugarcane, vegetables; livestock; shrimp
Arable Land 7%
Natural Resources copper, mahogany forests, shrimp, hydropower
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2 Comments For This Post

  1. irene Says:
    February 2nd, 2005 at February 2, 2005 - 11:48 pm

    man, your blog rocks. i’m also going to Panama in a few months time so i’m sure to keep coming back for more.

  2. Bob Says:
    February 25th, 2005 at February 25, 2005 - 2:47 pm

    Hi, I’ve scanned a few of your posts about Panama. Love the place. We spent 3 years there in the early 70’s. Don’t remember there being a Carnaval while there tho. Boquette was beautiful and the drive down from Costa Rico was great too. We drove a RV down from the states. Good to see pictures of the country again. Enjoy.

    Retired USN