If you're looking for confirmation that we live in a country run by idiots, I offer this.
Whats going on with all these people ready to give up their rights?
- Thread starter wildchild
- Start date
The illusion of safety is quite alluring, especially if you're afraid. Instill enough fear in people and they will not only bend to oppression, they will demand it.
I like the logic of corona getting into the prison and spreading so the best defense is to release those people out into the public...
Its embarrassing. Love my country but reading about a hair dresser being imprisoned for trying to feed her kids isn't exactly inducement to be there.
I knew Panama would lock down and I knew that their law enforcement is a serious bunch.
But I still figured that it would be done more sensibly than in CONUS and it has been. Its a unique combination of strictness and a little flexibility that has made it tolerable. I've never been stopped or asked to show my passport. I probably look like I'm obviously just shopping or on my way to or from shopping.
The marina owner sends out an email about once a week keeping us up to date so we don't fuck up. The guy is a prince and has loaned me his car for errands a couple of times. I'm looking to purchase a slip here or nearby. The only problem with slip ownership is the special assessments when they need to add jetty stones or do work on the docks. You can get a $30k bill out of the blue though you pretty much know its coming. But if you are leasing you are still paying for those assessments per diem anyway.
Its locked down but without all the griping and chaos and bullshit. I've developed a spot in my heart for Panamanians. It started with the fishermen visiting to trade out in the river.
Sadly Panama has become quite disordily and people were just not following the rules initially laid out. people were supposed to go out in small groups or not congregate and well...I assume you know Panama now as well as I do, that wasn't happening. To be fair, a large portion of the population in Panama is now Venezuelan and Colombian. Many middle class escaping violence or rough economic situations in their home countries that when I go out down there, most of the people in the malls and restaurants are non-Panamanians. Most locals will tell you the behaviors that lead to the government being more strict was not from the locals but the transplants.
If you are at the docks at Amador at the end of the Causeway they are always adding and building up. I saw this past winter the signs for the new cruise ship terminal they wish to build so that will mean longer jettys. You might get hit up for fees for the next year :-o!
where do you go for shopping? Albrook Mall?
Some provinces have a 24/7 curfew now and there are roadblocks at province "borders". But not here. I'm on foot mostly so I shop at the closest market to the marina. I sure see a lot of women in town on "men's day" though.
There is nothing preventing me from sailing out but people are being prevented from coming back in... I saw it. They are stopped and sent out to a quarantine anchorage where they wait up to 6 days for clearance to reenter. And its kind of random. Some people come back in no problem.
I could sail somewhere but the Pacific is shutdown and they are literally going to have to rescue people who can't get fuel, water etc out in the islands. I don't use much fuel and I make water but the stories I'm hearing are concerning so I'm staying put. Plus I've got a bunch of new gear and it all needs a couple of shakedown runs before I can trust it. You just can't tell about gear until it has had the hell pounded out of it.
My projects are done. I've fixed every vessel electrical problem in the marina and a few mechanicals. I've binge watched Hunters. I've learned how to weld stainless. I've cooked a few pleasant meals. Can this be over now please? Thank you, the Management.
Well maybe you are not in the city so it might be different. the city has not only a curfew but men and women are allowed out on different days haha....Senior citizens are given an extra hour during middle of the day. Supposedly the police are out to keep the rules in effect and the city is being cleaned regularly (has not been cleaned in my 24 years of being there)....I was going to be there in July but still on hold until this shit settles down...