Where to find the hottest girls and Johnny Blackmon

This one’s for the fellas - I've already found out where to meet the hottest girls! Check out the picture. She's actually part of one of the many indigenous tribes here, the Kuna Yala, who live either integrated into Panamanian modern society or in semiautonomous reservations called Comarcas, living much like they have for over 500 years. Most get by on less than a buck a day and survive under subsistence living through farming, fishing and hunting. My dad could have probably fit in well with these guys. He almost missed Karl’s birth because he was out hunting. Karl was almost named Hunter.



The Kuna have embraced tourism to boost their economic condition for decades. They sell a lot of handicrafts and welcome tourists to their famous San Blas islands, and if all goes as planned, they’ll be welcoming me too (ain’t that right Melinda)! I bought a cool little handmade musical instrument from the lady in the picture, but still haven’t figured out how to play anything on it.

Panama is quite a melting pot with its mix of ethnicities. There are plenty of Chinese descendents, who came to build the Panama Railroad in the 19th century. They all seem to own corner stores and laundry mats and work 7 days a week. Seriously, I get my shirts ironed (possibly the worst chore ever) for 40 cents a pop right below my apartment. The store is owned by a Chinese family. The cute clerk works every single day.

What astounds me with the diverse ethnic mix is Panama’s complete and utter lack of political correctedness. Best of all, nobody cares. Case in point: there’s a TV show on every Saturday night that’s kind of a variety show/SNL. Every week, one of the comedians dresses up like just about every ethnicity in the country and pokes fun at the cultural differences. Everybody laughs and nobody is offended, even when Cecilio Brown and Johnny Blackmon don afros and make jokes about Panama through the eyes of a...you guessed it, black mon.

It’s great that many Latinos use ethnic terms and physical descriptions for nicknames and terms of endearmen...but I still can’t help but get all fired up when someone calls me a gringo..ha!