That's a Fact, Jack

Laid low yesterday, doing a bunch of couchsurfing for the rest of my trip - inquiries in Bocas del Toro, Panama City, Colon, and San Blas.  So today I'll do a bit of walking, shooting photos, and fact finding about the town.

The infrastructure of Panama is very solid.  The highways connect west to east between Panama City and Costa Rica, some in better condition than those of the US.  The highway continues east of Panama into the large, untamed area known as the Darien Gap, but there it ends on the way to Colombia.  There is talk of continuing it on into Colombia, but for now, there remain only rutted, rocky, smuggling roads to get from one country to the other.  The northern coast along the Caribbean is also rather remote, with limited access to the coast except near Bocas del Toro by the Costa Rican border, and down by the canal, in the central portion of the country.

The internet grid offers great coverage through the developed communities, and cell phone service is widespread.  Although electricity is prevalent throughout Panama, even the more up-to-date communities like Boquete have some archaic wiring systems, and solar is not very widespread.  The panels that are here have to be angled almost horizontally and covered with mosquito netting to keep the bugs from nesting.  The government is busy putting an extensive hydroelectric system in, much to the chagrin of the local greenies.

Tap water is drinkable and pretty darn tasty everywhere I've been, but I hear that I shouldn't drink the water in Bocas del Toro.  Can recycling seems to be starting up, and of course, most Panamanians do a better job of recycling their food waste, giving it to the chickens and pigs, as well as putting it back into the ground for soil enrichment.  They also do a better job of reusing materials such as metal and wood.  However, there doesn't seem to be bottle or paper recycling that I have seen.  Here in Boquete, and occasionally elsewhere, there are elevated household garbage cages that look like rectangular metal grid barbecues with doors that the garbage collectors can open, but the animals can't.

The northern (Caribbean) and eastern regions are the malarial centers, but Panama only had 1/4 the number of cases reported that Mexico had in 2011, and no reported malarial deaths.  The incidence of yellow fever is also going down.

Once you get out of the Panama City/Colon/Canal Zone, the crime rate goes down substantially, and there's a palpable ease.  The Panamanians seem friendlier once you get out into the country a bit, although I have begun to notice more hard looks and posturing by the Panamanians around Boquete, probably due to such an influx of illegal aliens from the US.  Panamanian law was changed in the last year, making residential visas more easily obtainable, but the process is arduous, costing a couple of thousand dollars usually, because you have to use a lawyer to submit all paperwork, and it takes 5-6 months to complete.

Well, the sun is shining, and I'm running out of facts, so it must be time to go walking.