Panama!
 

[/Van Halen]
It looks like I'm getting the opportunity to do about 2 weeks of service work (daycare, light-medium construction, volunteer work) in Panama early this coming May. Anyone ever been there before.. or Central America for that matter? I've got a friend who lives in Costa Rica who I'll be hitting up for some travel and living tips for down there.. anything anyone would like to contribute would be sweet...
I'm pretty dang excited, I've only ever been to Rosarita Beach in Mexico, maybe like an hour from San Diego so this will be the farthest I've traveled into Central America by far.

yeah I'm pumped

Reach down between my legs and... ease the seat back...

SWEET!

i hear they have a canal there..... *drift*

Fucker. That's e x a c t l y what I was gonna post here. :::moves along:::

Last time I was there was in '70 on the way back from a tour with USCG Squadron 3 off the Coast of Vietnam. I expect it has changed a lot since then. In those days it was one of those places combining all the best and the worst of Latin American tourist traps. There were a lot of excellent buys on all manner of imported goods from all over the world and some very interesting historical sites. (Old Panama City was raided by the privateer Henry Morgan in 1670. Unfortunately England was no longer at war with Spain, so he was recalled to England to be tried as a pirate. Fortunately the king was in a good mood, so he knighted Morgan instead of hanging him.)

I don't know if it is still that way today, but back in the day, Panama was one of the premier areas in the world for "sex tourism". The outskirts of Panama city held some of the raunchiest clubs and show bars to be found anywhere.

Coincidentally, Panama was in the news yesterday - moves afoot to increase channels for cruise ships, tankers and the like - think I heard it was a 15 year programme (or maybe I didn't). Tried an Internet search for more info but no joy.

Heard that on the radio but can't remember the details.

Go for a shoe-polish . They polish your shoes pretty damn fine in Panama . Hard to do anything else , and there are less American shoes to shine these days .

Do not forget that Panama was built by the French . Many of the workers came from the French Caribbean , and their families settled down in Panama . You may remember the tragic aircrash last year in Venezuela . Most of the victims were people from Martinique on their way to visit relatives in Panama .

I dream of sailing through that canal . Caribbean to Pacific . Shades of Balboa .

Yeah um there won't be any dress shoes involved. I'm talking this trip is going to be deep in the rural parts of Panama fixing up churches, schools, and houses, running around with impoverished local kids playing soccer, running day care, and setting up health/hygiene sessions and checkups for kids.
Shoe shines are going to be the last thing on my mind. Though we are going to be spending one day at the canal (no I don't know which part).
Afterwards I just made plans to visit my buddy I met this summer in Colorado in Costa Rica for a couple days.

Generous Old Uncle Sam to send out a nice boy like you .

Mormon ? Seventh Day Adventist ?

Actually I am doing this through my private college.. ol Uncle Sam hasn't got a hand in it at all. Our group is raising all the $ to go by ourselves, we are earning this opportunity to go help those less fortunate.
normal non-fundie Christian, Malone College