vylet do panamy, druhe dojmy / trip to panama, second thoughts

Pocasi: tak mi to s tim pranim nevyslo, skoro cely tyden mi proprsel, jesteze jsem se nemusel nikam moc dopravovat pesky, ale vzdycky me nekdo svezl.. Ale za tyden obdobi destu konci 🙂

Lide a zeme: privetivi, bez nejakych konfliktu, na cizince jsou asi zvykli. Hlavni pesi zona je znama kapsarstvim, ale to je asi vsude na svete. Tuto nedeli Panamu ceka velke referendum, zda maji investovat asi 30% sveho HDP (kolem 5 miliard dolaru) do obrovske prestavby kanalu, ktera by umoznila projizdeni i vetsich lodi nez v soucasnosti. Zatim jsou pry preference asi 65-35 pro “ano”. Vzhledem k tomu, ze Panama na kanalu pomerne slusne vydelava, da se to chapat, i kdyz na vselijakych budovach najdete nasprejovane napisy “No” a spoustu billboardu proti, zejmena na univerzitach. Potkal jsem se taky s demostraci, ale ta se tykala socialniho (penzijniho) systemu a stavkovali duchodci 🙂 Normalne zablokovali jednu z ulic pred parlamentem a smula.. Vekovy prumer stavkujicich tak kolem 65 🙂

Lode: jsou vazne obrovske a vejde se na ne neuveritelne mnozstvi kontejneru s roztodivnymi nazvy a napisy na bocich, nejcasteji Maersk a cinske klikyhaky. Perlickou je, ze asi 70% vsech lodi ma panamskou vlajku (taky maji druhou nejvetsi flotilu, po Egyptu, hadejte proc 🙂 Trochu zavidim Ondrovi a Jardovi v Rotterdamu, nejak si ten pristav nedokazu predstavit, ale musi to byt supr..

Konference: samotna konference byla trochu zvlastni, takova nejaka jina. Delegatu bylo asi 25 a na to skutecne nejsem z CZ zvykly. Ale nakonec to bylo fajn, zejmena proto, ze v arealu se nachazel bazen, takze kazdy vecer se vsichni presunuli tam a jali se konzumovat napoje. Libilo se mi 🙂

Cesta: to jedine me nebavilo, Panama City je odsud vzdalena 800 kilometru, ale jedna cesta trva okolo 17 hodin, autobusem.. Plus pasova kontrola a prohlidka batohu na hranicich.. I kdyz – tohle byla jedina vtipna cast cesty, jako nejnebezpecnejsi zbrane byly vyhodnoceny nase jmenovky se zaviracimi spendliky, jinak by se asi panamsky celnik kazdeho neptal, co a k cemu to je. Na kostaricke strane pri kontrole jenom mavli rukou nad mym pasem a nevyslovitelnym jmenem a bylo. Akorat sem si na to musel 45 minut pockat..

Fotky samozrejme najdete nahore, cekam taky vase podnety k prvni a posledni fotce v komentarich 🙂

A kdo by nahodou litoval, ze jeste nevidel video pisne “Vamos a la playa”, tak tady je odkaz: http://youtube.com/watch?v=V6XeSRwREf8

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Weather: well, I wasn’t lucky enough, it was raining almost the whole week, only good fact was that I didn’t have to move anywhere by walking, but there was always someone giving me a ride.. But I was told that the rainy season ends within a week 🙂

People and country: kind, not looking for conflicts, probably used to foreigners. The main pedestrian zone is known for a lot of pickpockets, but this is probably the same as anywhere else. This Sunday the citizens of Panama will decide (in a referendum) if they want to invest about 30% of their gross domestic product (GDP) – around 5000 millions USD – into a giant canal reconstruction, which would allow even the biggest ships flow through. So far the predictions say 65 vs 35 for a reconstruction. Panama is earning a lot by having the canal, so this decision is quite expected, even though you can see a lot of graffitti saying just “No.” and a lot of billboards against the investment, mostly at the universities. I also met a demonstration, but this one was not connected with the referendum, but the social security and pension system and the demonstrants were the retired people 🙂 They just blocked one of the streets in front of the parliament and that’s it.. Average age around 65 🙂

Ships: they are really huge and are able to transport incredible amount of cargo containers with various names and writing ont he sides, most often Maersk and chinese signs. The interesting fact is that about 70% of all ships have panamanian flag (they have the second largest flotile of the world, the first one is Egypt, guess why 🙂 I’m little envying Jarda and Ondro being in Rotterdam, I just can’t imagine the port, but it must be fabulous..

Conference: the conference itself was a little bit different, somehow. I’m really not used to having 25 delegates, being from CZ. But in the end it was very nice, especially because of the bathing pool – which meant everyone moving for the night and having drinks there. I liked it 🙂

Travel: the only part I didn’t like that much, Panama City is 800 kilometers from here, but the journey takes 17 hours, by bus. Plus the passport and baggage control on the border.. Although this was the only funny part of the ride, as the most violent weapons were considered our name badges with pins, because otherwise the panamanian customs officer wouldn’t ask everyone what it is and why we carry it. On the costarican side they just waved above my passport and unpronounceable (what a word!) name and that was it. I only had to wait 45 minutes for that..

You can obviously see the photos under the link above, I’m awaiting your comments on the first and last photos 🙂

And if you somehow haven’t seen the “Vamos a la playa” song video, here is the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=V6XeSRwREf8