We met two bubbly American girls last night outside the famous Panama City restaurant Tinajas and listening to their stories, told with smiles and laughter and a sunny self-asssurance, reminded me of myself at their age. Once, long long ago, I was a college junior on a semester abroad (in London, not Panama City) and I knew, just knew, that this was not only one of my happiest chapters to date but would be one of my happiest chapters in my life to come.
The girls were both juniors studying to be port inspectors at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy – and had a one-month internship to work at the Panama Canal. They got to climb aboard huge freighters from Turkey and Russia and presumably see them through the canal – how cool is that? They were two of only four girls in a group of 12 doing this internship and apparently ports are still primarily staffed by men but they seemed completely unfazed by this and confident that they could do whatever they wanted. Good for them!
This morning, my stomach finally succumbed to whatever the Panamanian version of Montezuma’s revenge is. Maybe not that bad. I just had the runs and beyond that was dragging around with little energy in the intense heavy heat. Bit of a bummer since this was the morning for a guided tour of Panama City – but I made it and as expected really liked the faded glory of the Casa Viejo, the former colonial zone, which is undergoing a slow painstaking revamping. For every four or five crumbling building with peeling paint and sagging balconies, thereis an impeccably renovated colonial beauty – reminded me of how much fun New York City’s Soho neighborhood was in the 1970s when my mom took me there to meet artists she was scouting out to show in my parent’s gallery in suburban Detroit. There was a surprise on every other block – a great restored loft or cool boutique or gallery surrounded by rundown buildings. Now that element of surprise is way past in Soho and I hope that doesn’t become the case in Casa Viejo.
To my amazement, the sun has just come out in full force and everything is green and lush again, minutes after an intense rain storm that made the islands outside our hotel and the freighters lined up to enter the canal disappear into a grey and cloudy haze. I sat on the balcony and watched the storm roll in, listening to the sound of the wind blowing it past and couldn’t have been happier.
TakeBetsywithyou 