July 23, 2007: Ladron

So here I am in Panama City, figured I'd take a few days to chill and check out the second biggest city in Central American before flying home. Came in from Colon with the passenger transfer on Saturday and booked in to a little youth hostel downtown for three nights. Didn't do much the first day (doesn't seem to be much to do here, anyway, besides see the canal, which I've already been to last week thanks to our bowsprit breaking, the cruise being cancelled and being stuck alonside the dock for six days in Colon, but that's another story...), but yesterday I set out to explore Casco Antiguo, one of the old parts of the city.

I figured I'd walk down Avenida Balboa; it's one of the principal streets in town and runs along the waterfront (Panama City is on the Pacific Ocean while Colon is on the Caribbean Sea). It was a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon, and I'd just passed the statue of Balboa, with a few families and couples sitting around eating snowcones from a snowcone vendor on the street. I kept walking and as I passed a local guy walking in the opposite direction, he muttered something to me. Because it was half under his breath and in quick Spanish, I didn't catch what he said, but I did notice another youngish guy sitting up ahead on the sea wall. As soon as I passed him, he hopped off the wall and started walking in my direction. As I kept going and passed a couple up ahead of me, I noticed that he was still about 10m behind me. It was starting to creep me out so I sat down on a park bench for a minute until he passed me. Then I crossed the road with another family who were coming from the opposite direction. As I got to the other side, a security guard motioned me over and started speaking to me (my Spanish isn't bad but when the natives start talking fast, I get lost pretty quickly). Next thing I know he's got a gun pulled on the guy who was following me (who was at this point aiming towards a side street), orders him to stop or lie down or something, and when the guy doesn't do exactly what he's said, he started shooting, first up in the air then at his feet. He handcuffed the guy, accusing him of following me (with apparent intent to do something illegal), and before I knew it there was a handful of other cops on the street corner and the would-be thief was being taken away in a paddywagon.

All of which left me a bit bewildered. I mean, I'm thankful that the security guard was alert and attentive enough to notice that I was being followed (hell, I'm thankful that I was alert and attentive enough to notice I was being followed), but since when is intent to commit a crime grounds for arrest? I'm not sure what's worse, that a tourist can't walk down a seaside promenade and main avenue without risking a mugging, or that a country's residents can be taken in simply for walking in the same direction as a tourist. Then again, apparently the cops will take you in here for being in the streets without shoes or a shirt.

Anyway, I tried to start walking home, but after about a block I just didn't have the nerve and hopped in a cab (I figured the $1 was a fair price for my life, or, at least, my phone and the $10 in my wallet). I haven't wandered more than a few blocks from the hostel since, and didn't feel like taking my life into my hands to go check out Panama Viejo (the even older old city) today. I will say this for Panama though: the cinema is cheap.

And, since I didn't get paid when I signed off the ship on Saturday (the company didn't send any money down last week so the captain didn't have anything to even cover operating expenses with, much less pay off crew), I'm hoping hanging around the city a few days will pay off tomorrow when I pass through Miami and get someone from head office to come to the airport and bring me my pay. Fingers crossed...