When you go to Panama, you need to know the do’s and don’ts of surviving. First of all, you need to know about the inhabitants. The Panamanians are a peaceful people. They can be very strong-willed, but also very laid-back and relaxed.
The second thing that is very important in this region is food. The most popular fruits here are oranges and bananas. We have bothkinds of fruit in our backyard, and the other day we made banana bread from a bunch of bananas that fell from a tree out back.
What upsets me is the fact that when we arrived in Panama, all the once- delicious, ripe oranges that were once on the trees had just passed the point of harvest. They were on the ground molding from the inside out and making the place stink. So we had to get rid of them.
The third and worst thing to worry about is bugs. From the tiniest ant to the thumb-sized rhinoceros beetle, bugs are the worst. The ants bite harder here than in the U.S. The other problem about ants is they don’t go anywhere alone; they move in groups of at least fifty or so. If you mess with one, be prepared to mess with the whole army! I once stepped on an anthill while I was playing “capture the flag,” and the army of that ant hill just bit me up like a piece of rawhide. It hurt! The worst part was I was tagged in the game so I wasn’t supposed to move.
The cockroaches aren’t any better, though they don’t bite. I’ve killed probably 30 Cockroaches in our small house. The first couple of nights we stayed there, we had to check our clothes for cockroaches. Thankfully, I haven’t had any scary encounters with the VERY LARGE Rhinoceros beetle. If I did, that story would have a blog of its own!
