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Our neighborhood consists of a couple of tall apartment buildings like ours, and two square blocks of single family homes, all surrounded by the city. We like it here. We have begun to notice stuff.
As is true for most places here, there are guards and other people with no apparent purpose at the entrance to a building, so it is for our neighbor, the Escula de Japonesea de la Panama. These guards wear long sleeve shirts and dark uniforms, some are armed, most have a wand (to check for weapons I guess).
Below is the balcony at the side of the school and where most of the non classroom activity that I have seen takes place. One day in particular there were about 20 students dressed in traditional robes swinging bamboo poles in a most vicious pattern and shouting harsh sounding words and going through some serious routine. We are talking do not get in their way.
Now the playing field which we walk past every day is nearly always empty. and no wonder it is some kinda hot here. and when it is not hot it is raining so this playing field which I have seen used exactly one time is pretty useless.
Now across the street from the school is the embassy of the nation of _____ can you identify the flag. Andrew can I bet in about 2 seconds. Sometimes there is an armed member of the national police force standing at the corner here. (how about the timing of this photograph? got a good wind out of the south took about 10 photos and ta da)
Just up the street is a very typical site. A small tienda or store in a residential neighborhood. It is called a Chino. So identified because it is owned and operated by a person from China. So the little stores are called "Chinos" and everyone knows what you mean. the machine out front is for ice- a most useful commodity. The inside is not much larger than a new house walk in closet.
Our neighborhood is surrounded by tall buildings. and a feature I did not get a photograph of is dog walkers. with all the tall buildings, most of which are apartments like ours there are lots of dog owners so there are lots of dog walkers. some are maids, some are girl friends, and some are just the owners. You can tell the difference. If I had a long lens, more patience than I do and could find the right sight lines, there is a story to be told in photographing dog walkers in Panama.
some of the houses are a bit ostentatious. see below One of the vacant houses just a block away from this one is for sale for $1.7 million if you are interested -- It has 7,000 square feet but needs a lot of work from looking at the outside. I am thinking potential.
and I am not sure if Pablo Escubar lives here or not, but whoever does is safe — there are electric wires above the rather modest security fence for the garage. There were four or five strands, so it was not a modest effort in my opinion. There was no beware of dog sign, though there was a dog inside.
Now his across the street neighbor had less concern for security and even had yard art.
This guy had security, but not as "in your face" as Pablo's house. Iron grates about everywhere but tasteful.
and just around the corner, you would have thought someone missed the Tuesday pickup of garbage, last Thursday and the Thursday before that too. This pile we get to walk past every day. Lucky us.
and just to let yo know that it is not all luxury, we also have vacant buildings for "vende"
but across the street from our apartment is a small little park for little children where maids and young moms bring pre-schoolers.
and at our apartment door is one of several staff persons to greet us. This is our favorite, Victor, who by the way has family in California, has been to California, but prefers Panama City. Though here Victor is dressed in his normal "uniform" for our building tonight when we got here he was wearing a jacket. Yes a jacket.
It had been raining off and on most of the day, and it was perhaps 89 degrees, with a bit of a south breeze, quite pleasant if you were to ask us. Victor was not the only citizen of the city we saw with jacket on this evening. (we took a taxi to our evening out in order not to work up a sweat walking even though the distance was short) ( I offer that last comment for a frame of reference as to the relative comfort of the weather and the necessity for a jacket.).
