Things You Don't Want to Hear

When the car you are riding in is being driven in heavy, fast-moving traffic by someone having trouble driving stick-shift:

"I'm going to try and pull out in front of that bus..."

Especially when "the bus" in question is called a "diablo rojo" (Red Devil) by the locals because it's been involved in so many fatalities.

This is Where I Am

In case you're wondering why blogging is light. This is near Colon, Panama. We spent the day on the east coast of Panama. Some things I've noticed:

Prime, oceanfront realestate that would be snatched up by developers and the wealthy is inhabited by the poor and in many places was pasture.

There are exceptions, and where there are developments they are so close to the water in a way I can't imagine would be legal in the U.S.

If you wonder how infrastructure is related to the economy, try driving here. Traffic and road conditions are so bad that a cross-town or cross-country trip is difficult and dangerous. And of the four Latin American countries we've traveled in, this one seems to be the wealthiest.

But you still have the incongruity of soem of the world's preetiest scenery combined with terrible litter. The United States is always cast as the world's worst polluter, but we've done much to clean up our act compared to what I've seen here (and elsewhere in the third world).

In fact, driving back from the beach yesterday, we were behind a car of nuns, one of whom was throwing the litter from her snack out the car window.

We dubbed her "Sister Mary Basura."