Where I live: My Panama / Bernt Aasen

by Bernt Aasen

To most people, Panama is associated with the Canal. For those interested in sport, maybe also the boxer Roberto ``Mano de Piedra`` Duran comes to mind. Music-lovers may think of salsa singer-songwriter Ruben Blades, while old people following politics - and young people interested in history - may think of Manuel Noriega. 

Panama is Mountains, Rainforest and Beaches. Multiples ethnic groups and nationalities living peacefully together. Of course, today and for centuries, here as everywhere else in the Americas, indigenous peoples are victims of discrimination and exclusion. For UNICEF, it`s about LACRO, the Regional Office. 

By the Fishmarket. 5 min walk away from home.

I discovered Panama in 1979 when I spent a year travelling around in Latin America as a backpacker. After busing and hitch-hiking through Mexico and Central America, I ended up in Panama City, in Casco Viejo, in a run-down hotel, just a few blocks from my current home. I paid 5 dollars per night. Today, it`s a renovated, luxury hotel you are lucky if get a room for 200 dollars per night. I got stuck in Panama because, to my big surprise, there were no roads from the Darien province to Colombia. Eventually, I found a cheap flight to Bogota and continued my adventure. Another story.

Hotel Central, where I stayed on my first visit to Panama 40 years ago.

In 1992, just two years after the US invasion, Noriega`s fall and Washington decided Endara would be the country`s President, I was back in Panama as a Resident Project Officer. In 2009, I came back again, this time, as a UNICEF Regional Director, and with a clear idea of making Panama my permanent home. Why? First of all, the welcoming, warm people, so fun-loving, laidback and relaxed. A place where the only thing they take seriously is carnival, no wonder a man with Calvinistic baggage got curious.  Second, the tropical climate. Growing up in Norway, I have promised myself never to be cold again. Third, and most importantly, Mitchelle, my Panamanian wife who has tropicalized me and facilitated my integration in a society so different than Norway.  Panama with its 5 million inhabitants, is a small country but with all the diversity and contradictions so common in the region. It`s truly, a ``mini`` Latin America. 

Our neighborhood

Contradictions: The beauty of the country and it`s peoples and the ugly social-economic disparities and lack of opportunities for young people from poor families. For decades, as in most countries in LAC, governments have been governing with the sole aim to win the next elections. Highly visible projects like urban infrastructure are prioritized over investments in rural areas and social programs.  UNICEF has continuously been trying to change this, but, unfortunately, with limited success. 

My neigborhood. Plaza Herrera.

Our street.

Our neighborhood, Casco Viejo or Casco Antiguo, was founded in 1673 after the pirate Captain Morgan had destroyed the earlier urban settlement and is an UNESCO World Heritage site. The renovation of the peninsula started in the 90`s and is still ongoing, but some 70 % of all buildings are now brought back to its colonial glamour. The whole area is only about some 30 blocks and one can walk most streets in less than one hour. 

Our neighborhood.

In our small neighborhood we have the National Theater and other cultural centers, art and handicraft markets, museums, churches, schools, banks, mailbox service as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Palace. In addition to grocery stores and pharmacies where one can find most things needed for daily life, we also have some 20 restaurants, pubs and bars within walking distance.

Two blocks away from home

The Panama Hat

Bookseller, 3 blocks from home

Two blocks away from my apartment

Fish Market

We usually go out for brunch, dinner or drinks a couple of times a week.  During the day, we get busloads of tourists from cruise ships waiting to pass through the canal, visiting and for what I’m told, there is also a vibrant nightlife around here, but this is playing out after my bedtime.

I was just passing by - but I am considering it

Improvised vegetable market

Our balcony.

Our living room.

My home office.

Mother and daugther. Caramelo and Shanti.

Morning walk with the dogs.

Bananas and plaintains brought back  home from the "finca".

When we have had enough of our chic, sometimes, noisy neighborhood, we escape up-country to our ``finca`` in the rainforest. A one-room, mud house with outdoor kitchen and ``living room``. We have no electricity or solar energy and its beyond mobile phone coverage. 

The sanctuary in the rainforest

My wife and our 16 year old painting the hippie house

A rest at the "rancho" with the locals up in the hills

It`s a true sanctuary, back to basic and back to nature. Here, the sound of the river running by, birds, frogs and the wind in the trees, is our music. Up in the hills, a sweaty 45 minutes’ walk from the house, we grow coffee, cacao, bananas, plantains, oranges, lemons, - you name it. The car is always full of fruit and vegetables when we drive back to the city.

The garden

The showerhouse

Evening at the finca

Evenings with torches and candles

Outdoor kitchen

Outdoor kitchen

The Garden