Libby_or_Bust

Both Panama and Costa Rica have had quite a bit of American influence, but it`s interesting to see how each has absorbed American culture in thier own unique way. Panama has giant stores, like Walmart except without groceries, whole city block stores filled with the cheapest clothes and shoes and towels and backpacks and brightly colored things made out of plastic and all manufactured in China. It`s amazing. Bras? $1.50. Jeans? As long as they look as though they´ve been attacked by the Bedazzler, $6.00. Dress shirts? $3.00. Twenty-five cent stores abound like our dollar stores, selling exactly the same things. Well, maybe not *exactly*: I came across some naughty playing cards at one store in David. Talk about a steal! But I digress.
But what´s funny (by which I mean not funny at all and actually really upsetting) is that while Panama has these huge Walmart-like stores, Costa Rica really has Walmart. Not in the obvious sense, because you can`t go into a Walmart store persay, but all of the major chain grocery stores in Costa Rica are owned by Walmart, all “part of the family.´´ Palí, Perimercados, Mega Super, Màs X Menos, etcetera, etcetera. Some even have Walmart plastic bags with which to individually wrap each item you purchase.
Even though the US has been more physically present in Panama over the last hundred years, you can feel North America much more acutely in Costa Rica. It´s hard to explain, but it feels like the US is slowly (actually not so slowly in the last 5 years) buying Costa Rica. Its businesses, hotels, restaurants, farms being bought up or built by North Americans. English billboards advertising space in gated communites loom over eateries with English menus. But then again, they use US currency in Panama, though they call it the Balboa, as if they´re really fooling anyone. Even the coins are US minted, though they also produce their own coins of the same size and shape as ours, just with different people and in Spanish.
Other differences: Panamanians are in general darker skinned and eyed and shorter in stature. The Spanish they speak is faster and they slur their words together. The men are more vocal toward foreign women with hissing and cat-calling. Costa Rica is more expensive, especially to do your laundry.
Similarities: Proud of their country, of their national parks in particular. A dish of rice and beans, salad, and meat is typical, though in CR they call it a ´´casado´´ and in Panama ´´comida corriente.´´ They drive like maniacs. Both countries have really good infrastructure and are relatively safe.
And I love them both.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.