On the subject of being ripped off....

I have noticed something about tourists/travellers in Panama.

The other day I was on the bus sitting next to a French couple. The conductor came down the bus collecting fares. The French man had his $3 ready to pay (they use American dollars here). The conductor asked for an additional 50c, the man got all het up and tried to explain that the driver had said $1.50 each. His face was a picture of annoyance and the certainty that he was being ripped off, but he wasn't..the price was $1.75 each. That's what everyone pays.

There seems to be no such thing as tourist price here. If you take a tourist excursion or eat at a westernised restaurant, of course it is going to cost you more, but if you take the same bus/boat/taxi as anyone else and eat at the locally priced cantinas ($2-$4 dollars per full meal) you will pay the same price.

I am not naive enough to think that the whole of Panama is full of shiny, happy people...certainly there will be dishonest people and those who will try to steal from others. There is also sure to be more than one dodgy builder or a taxi driver who will take you round the block three times for extra dinero but on the most part, people are honest here. And they are helpful. 

If you are a woman alone (personal experience, obvs), they will ask if they can help, direct you to where you need to go or make sure you are in the right place at the right time. One I was waiting for a bus and a coach load of blokes stopped to yelp, 'Mami, que bueno' (not offensive but best ignored) and this little family clustered around me so that I wouldn't suffer the same fate twice. They also got me on and off the bus and pointed me in the right direction at the end.

Yes, I am lucky. I meet lovely people and my family are wonderful - I have heard 'horror' stories of other people's families. One British girl, Catherine is moving to mine when I leave on Saturday because she lives with a disabled woman and her mother-in-law in a house where the son/husband is deceased and the two women hate each other. Hmmmm. In another house American Maureen has been told she can only have half a cup of coffee in the morning because she isn't eating enough food!

So, in conclusion - and before I get off my soapbox - if you are one of those people who like to drive a hard bargain or who is suspicious of other people you could revise your opinion before you get here. A Panamanian woman told me 'this is a humanitarian country', the opinion of one person, yes, but it seems so.

That is not to say, however, that you should be silly if you come here. Take care of your possessions, and yourself, don't go down dark streets alone, the usual stuff. Oh and apparently, don't camp on uninhabited Carribean islands overnight...you might meet a drug smuggler and that's NO fun at all. So I'm told.