One last Panamanian meal

Posted at 8:08 pm by Patrick under Panama Spring Break:2006

We’re at Tinajas, a Panamanian restaurant that also has native dance performances a few times a week.

We’re starting with a seco con leche (think dry white Russian) and a Tinajarita, a tasty frozen concoction made with rum, honey and lime.

For our appetizers: I am having garlic and olive oil mariated cheeses, while Andrea is having the sancocho, a chicken-based soup laced with cilantro and yuca. Her soup is really tasty!

For our mains, we are having two staple dishes: Ropa Viejo and Puleta de Yuca. Mine is a shredded beef dish cooked in a tomato-based sauce with carrots and onions. Andrea’s Puleta is a chicken pot pie with yuca crust and a tomato/corn/raisin mixture inside.

The meal was great (if quite filling). Now we’re ready for the show!

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What was she thinking?

Posted at 5:50 pm by Patrick under Panama Spring Break:2006

Andrea wanted a Coca-Cola Light, went across the street to the gas station for some local covenidad.

She came back with some “surprises” — including this bag of gems called El Golpe. This trio of fried fun is made up of potato chips, plantain chips and facon (that’s fake bacon). Taken by itself, the facon tastes pretty — fake. Strangely though, if you take all three in a single bite, it tastes like either Bugles (to me) or a ham/potato/bacon bite (according to Andrea).

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Pretend you just pulled this from your mailbox

Posted at 4:29 pm by Patrick under Panama Spring Break:2006

Greetings from Panama!

We’re having a great time in Panama City, but couldn’t find the one post office in town from which to send a real postcard.

Hopefully you won’t hold this against us!

Lovies,

A + P

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Fresh fruit plate

Posted at 2:09 pm by Patrick under Panama Spring Break:2006

Andrea wanted to make sure we had fresh fruit at least once during our trip. While I was babysitting the lavamatico, she went to the corner market to check things out.

While most of the fruit there was no different than we get in the supermarket, Andrea did bring back two things: sliced pineapple, and 100 napkins. The pineapple is muy delicioso indeed — an .85 bargain.

The real steal are the napkins, though. In our society where unlimited supplies of napkins flow forth from dispensers, they are rationed here. If you buy a meal, you get one napkin. Two meals, two napkins. And with their extreme thinness, they are almost useless anyway.

So by having our own 100 pack, we are flaunting our wealth in a way I never thought possible.

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Typical intersection traffic

Posted at 1:27 pm by Patrick under Panama Spring Break:2006

Part of the fun of our trip so far has been navigating the maze of one-way streets and learning the rules of the road here.

Rule 1: Don’t sit there…pull into the intersection! As you can see here, you have to be an aggressive driver if you ever hope to get anywhere. Sitting timidly will earn you a chorus of tooting and honking from the cabbies behind you.

Rule 2: Don’t expect to *ever* make a left turn. Just don’t.

Rule 3: Stop lights are optional, both in their placement, and effect on traffic. They are sparsely placed, and even when you find one, you have to proceed with caution. I’ve counted at least 4 times where a car blew through a light that was red for at least 5 seconds (!!!). This behavior is apparently so widespread that cars will sit for a few seconds after it has turned green.

After being here for a few days, I can say I’m getting more bold in my driving. While I haven’t used the horn, I have put our little Toyota Yaris to the test!

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