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- Los Cuatro Tulipanes is Matt's apartment rentals in the historic district of Casco Viejo

- Las Clementinas is Matt's recommended 6-room boutique hotel in Panama City, Panama

- The Canal House is Matt's favorite restored guesthouse in the historic district of Panama City, Panama

- Panama Vacation Rentals is Matt's go-to place to find rentals in Panama

The Singing Stylist

Written by Matt

Thursday, 29 April 2010 00:14

If the first step in going to San Blas is to make up your mind, the second is to be sure you can get there and back. I was walking into my hair salon when I got a call yesterday that several friends of mine were stuck in a dense rainforest because the river was too high from rain and their car couldn’t make it through.

...she told me I was sweet, and that she wanted to take me home and eat me.

They were low on food but had the comfort in knowing their Kuna guides could hunt and kill almost anything. I told this to a Panamanian friend and she said, “oh that happens all the time.” Is it just me, or do other foreigners find the challenges to life in Panama to be delightfully exotic.

The guy who normally cuts my hair at this place called Peluqueria-something was on vacation, which means I had to agree to a guy I call the whistler because he whistles non-stop while he cuts your hair. His real name is Chapu and it is not uncommon for him to get overjoyed when he sees me because one time I told him, “you sing like a parrot.” Tu cantas como un loro.

This particular time, I began with a strategy to nip his whistling in the bud.

“Chapu, what news do have you that is new?” I asked.

“Aaaah,” he sighed. “Nothing more than to try to conquer the world.”

I chuckled and he asked if I knew what show he had just quoted. When I said no, he told me it was “Pinkycerebro” which is the Spanish translation of Pinky and the Brain. I then asked him to explain to me an entire story plot line, “so I could have a true idea about the show.” This took no less than fifteen minutes at which point he had finished my buzz and I was able to leave. No whistling.

I stopped, on my way back, at the fish market for a quick ceviche and the fat woman behind the counter greeted me with “Hola Papi,” as she normally does. This time, she complimented it by telling me I was sweet, and that she wanted to take me home and eat me. If this is what my gringo friends mean, when they say that they get preferential treatment from women in Panama, I'll have nothing to do with it.