November 18, 2010

Some more on the Day of the Dead. Apparently in Panama you are not allowed to purchase liquor, drink liquor, play loud music or dance on that day. So parties may start before 12:01 am but you have to keep the music down or be fined if caught. But what I thought was really interesting is that I was told lines start forming at 11:30 pm outside any establishment that sells alcohol so immediately at 12:01 they can purchase what they need. The culture here is apparently not to “plan ahead”. You know the stores will be closed one day a year so buy what you need before that day?
We had plans to head to the beach this weekend. To get to a good “tourist” beach is about a 90 minutes drive. Got to admit that is a lot better than a day and a half drive to Myrtle Beach or the Panhandle in Florida. It was a great time to go because the skies were overcast all day on Saturday. Granted, not what you might want on the beach but we could be out right by the ocean the entire day and not worry about getting burnt. We didn’t mind at all. We met a couple that were there from Canada and they were talking about the snow being on the ground when they flew out a couple days earlier. That made the weather seem all that much better. Sunday morning it rained (thankfully AFTER our long walk on the beach). We could have waited to be shuttled around by the hotel shuttle (like everyone else) or just head out and walk through the downpours and deep puddles. We opted for the later and had such fun. Like being a kid again. Not bad when you already have your bathing suit on and it is still 80 degrees. Ace found a schnauzer friend that he got to spend the weekend with. Granted it couldn’t have been as much fun as spending time with Dr. Nancy’s 4 little white doggies but more fun than a kennel.
We booked our reservations as a “Panamanian” and in order to get registered we were in a large convention room. A man came in at “checkin time” and talked for 5-10 minutes all in Spanish (wonder what he said??). Then we had to listen for our number to get registered. Needless to say we practiced and practiced saying our number (26) to each other so we would hear when they called our number (obviously in Spanish). We listened so careful yet some guy next to us had to poke me when they called for 26. Thankfully he saw our number and figured we were clueless (we were). Somehow we did get registered and did get to our room. We were the ONLY gringos in that large room filled with people.