Another Olympic Sport For Panamá?

From The New York Times

 

Just as Africans have dominated long-distance running for so many years, since their major form of transportation is their legs, so do Panamanians, especially here in Chiriquí, use small bicycles to get around, and on this hilly-to-mountainous terrain.  I’ve been indulging myself in looking through the different galleries of pictures from Beijing, and the ones that struck me were the BMX racing.  You see boys and adults (rarely girls) here on these small bikes all the time.

Any kind of cycling, as a matter of fact.  Cycling is taken quite seriously here with at least a half dozen competitions a year just here in Chiriquí.  It’s flat out common to see young men (and a few young women) in training, pedaling up and racing down the foothills near Dolega and even towards Potrerillos at least once a month if not more often.  The competitions are a really big deal.  Parts of David get blocked off and Tránsito motorcycle cops clear the way for the competitors up and down the carretera between David and at least Dolega (and maybe towards Boquete), with the support cars trailing behind

No need for truly expensive training tracks–Olympic-sized or otherwise.  They’re free around here.

A Wonderful Sight

 

From Wikipedia

Not fifteen minutes ago, we were just delighted with the sight of a huge flock–20-30 at least–of crested oropendolas, working their way from the jungle in back of the house through the grove of trees on either side of the gates.

These are large (about 13″), dark-bodied birds, but with brilliant yellow tails and yellow bills.  They’re quite common here–we hear them all the time in the jungle out back.  But we’ve never before seen more than 2-3 at a time.

The flash of yelow from their tails as they flew  from tree to tree, the bright yellow spots of color in the trees as they landed–the trees looked as if they had suddenly come into bloom with brilliant yellow flowers.

And then came the aguacero.  They simply vanished.

New Immigration Rules

Since I think half the world’s population reads Don Ray’s Chiriquí Chatter, this is probably completely unnecessary, but I do want to emphasize that there are new immigration rules, and that Don Ray has a link to them in his post of yesterday.  I’d read them in Spanish (those sections that applied) but had no time to do more than that.  it’s been entirely too busy around here lately.

No mention if the proposed changes to the citizenship laws have gone through.  Have to contact our lawyer.