2 Months in Latin America

Well, I've been traveling for two months in Latin America. Which kinda makes the little message under the title of the blog seem a little silly. But I'm glad I've kept up with this thing...it's hard to remember two months worth of adventures.

I had lunch on Friday with Alejandrino Jimenez at Manolo's Cafeteria a few blocks away from my apartment. (Whoever this Manolo guy is, he has to be doing ok for himself. There are like 7 Monolo's in Panama City). Alejandrino is amazing. He is a professor at the University of Panama and serves on the legislative advisory board for Canal Affairs to the Panamanian Congress. We sat down at lunch and he pulls out this folder of page after page of official documents about the referendum. Like, transcripts of the President's speech in support of the expansion in front of Congress and the official regulations on how the media must give "equal" time to the Yes and No sides. Stuff I could have NEVER tracked down without him.

Probably the coolest two things he gave me---
A sample ballot handed out in the weeks leading up to the vote. Oh, but it's already marked with a vote for the Yes side. Not too subtle.
And a directions page for how the check-in process works for voting. Only the guy has a cartoon thought bubble over his head that says "I should vote for the Yes side." haha... Panama cracks me up.

He's also setting me up with another professor next week and probably one of the 3 chairs of the Electoral Tribunal for the whole country. Why do these people want to talk to me??

Today I wandered over to Avenida Central, a huge pedestrian shopping street. Very alive on a Saturday afternoon. There were tons of people hawking stuff, not unlike the rest of LA. But the craziest thing is all the traditional Indians who come from their "comarcas"-- more or less completely sovereign territories within Panama. In the middle of a huge city, you'd see ladies like these strolling by:
http://coppermine-gallery.net/demo/cpg14x/albums/userpics/14018/gtb_0091.jpg
Crazy.