Xmas in Panamá

A shorter version than the Dutch entry, but that is because Xmas has already passed... sorry for the delay! We put a new one up too!


During Christmas some Panamanian customs are even more clearly displayed than normally. One custom is to organize a parade at the smallest provocation. And a parade in Panama is not a parade unless at least five drum bands, each with its group of cheer leaders, are involved. Drumming seems to be a national passion and the louder the better. They do try to keep the beat, but volume appears to be their first priority.

The parade is always graced with the presence of at least one saint. In fact, Panamanians appear to walk their saints in much the same way other people walk their dogs. The Christmas parade was, of course, graced with the presence of numerous tableau vivants with people dressed up as Josef, Maria and even a few unsuspecting babies dressed up as Jezus. Furthermore, there were quite a few Fathers Christmas (and a few mothers Christmas as well) as well as reindeer and snowmen. Oddest participants of the parade were probably a Nemo, a Peter Pan, a Cinderella and Bear Pooh. Whether they were thoroughly lost or just happened to pass by and decided to join the party was not altogether clear to us, but they definitely were a pleasant change after fifteen Jezusses.

Supermarkets provide a wide choice of statues of Jezus, Maria, Joseph, the three wise men, angels, Santa Claus, stars, snowmen, candles etc. You can buy them in sizes ranging from 4 inches to over 6 feet. The bigger ones come with lights inside that you can switch on at night so that everybody can admire your Christmas show 24 hours a day. Most houses are also decorated with long strings of lights flashing in all colours of the rainbow or just modest white.


And... yes we have photo´s for the new blog on:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/loesroos/album?.dir=/e818re2&.src=ph&.tok=phrfxAGBsKRC8D2O

We wish everybody a happy holiday season.

Avoid Panasonic Products at all costs

Thanks to the lousy products and services of Panasonic and Digitec Panama, I have not been able to publish any photos on this blog. Our brand new Lumix DMC-TZ1 camera broke within six weeks and reparation is going to tale more than two months. Panasonic has outsourced its services to Digitec and that company is so inept that they take three weeks to tell you haow much the repair is going to cost. Granted, they did tell me immediately that the repair was not covered by any warranty.

After those three weeks, they still have to order the spare parts. And ther spare parts have to conme from Japan, ... by ship. That ship will dock on 15 December, so I don´t think we will get our camera back until the new year. I only found out about this shipment story after I got so upset with being told that the spare part was going to arrive ´tomorrow´that I contacted Panasonic. They contacted Digitec and found out about the december arrival. So these Digitec people have been lying to me through the teeth!

A bit of searching on the internet revealed that at least five more people have had the same problem with the same model. And that is only the ones that write about it on the internet.

So I strongly suggest that you avoid buying any Panasonic products. You really do not want to give your loved ones a Christmas present that breaks down just after New Year do you?