Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Some Notes about Panama
Panama is not the swampy, mosquito-ey hellhole that it's stereo typed as, any more than South Florida is. Panama City is a thoroughly modern city. A large mountain range runs through the country. Temperatures were tropical in the lowlands, but very temperate in the highlands. It was safe to drink water from the tap in all the places we went.
The national currency is the U.S. dollar. You don't have to exchange money when you go to Panama from the U.S. In some places, they call dollars"balboas," in other places, they call them "dollares." "10 balboas" is $10U.S.
Roads are good. The Pan American Highway through Panama is four lanes in some places, two lanes in others, but well maintained. If you'veever been to Costa Rica, it's nothing like that. Prices in Panama City are rather expensive for Central America -most things cost around 60-70 percent of what they would cost in the U.S.Prices outside the capital are cheaper. For example, a fine lunch in PanamaCity cost around $8; in David, a very good lunch was around $5. There's more to Panama than the canal!
Panama is not the swampy, mosquito-ey hellhole that it's stereo typed as, any more than South Florida is. Panama City is a thoroughly modern city. A large mountain range runs through the country. Temperatures were tropical in the lowlands, but very temperate in the highlands. It was safe to drink water from the tap in all the places we went.
The national currency is the U.S. dollar. You don't have to exchange money when you go to Panama from the U.S. In some places, they call dollars"balboas," in other places, they call them "dollares." "10 balboas" is $10U.S.
Roads are good. The Pan American Highway through Panama is four lanes in some places, two lanes in others, but well maintained. If you'veever been to Costa Rica, it's nothing like that. Prices in Panama City are rather expensive for Central America -most things cost around 60-70 percent of what they would cost in the U.S.Prices outside the capital are cheaper. For example, a fine lunch in PanamaCity cost around $8; in David, a very good lunch was around $5. There's more to Panama than the canal!
I found out you can bring your Pets to Mexico!
I met a lady today who is married to a vet. I will try to contact her husband at his office to get another opinion.
http://www.pettravel.com/Sunsentinel_article.cfm
bring your dogs food, water would be good too.
Contact the Mexican Consulate in San Diego at 619-231-8414 for details.
They will know last minute changes
Globetrotting pet book http://www.pettravel.com/Globetrotting.cfm
Passports for pets http://www.passportforpets.co.uk/
U.S. CUSTOMS REGULATIONS ON BRINGING PETS TO THE U.S. This publication is the one to follow
http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/publications/travel/pets.ctt/pets.pdf
I met a lady today who is married to a vet. I will try to contact her husband at his office to get another opinion.
http://www.pettravel.com/Sunsentinel_article.cfm
bring your dogs food, water would be good too.
Contact the Mexican Consulate in San Diego at 619-231-8414 for details.
They will know last minute changes
Globetrotting pet book http://www.pettravel.com/Globetrotting.cfm
Passports for pets http://www.passportforpets.co.uk/
U.S. CUSTOMS REGULATIONS ON BRINGING PETS TO THE U.S. This publication is the one to follow
http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/publications/travel/pets.ctt/pets.pdf
