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Pocasi: tak mi to s tim pranim nevyslo, skoro cely tyden mi proprsel, jesteze jsem se nemusel nikam moc dopravovat pesky, ale vzdycky me nekdo svezl.. Ale za tyden obdobi destu konci 🙂

Lide a zeme: privetivi, bez nejakych konfliktu, na cizince jsou asi zvykli. Hlavni pesi zona je znama kapsarstvim, ale to je asi vsude na svete. Tuto nedeli Panamu ceka velke referendum, zda maji investovat asi 30% sveho HDP (kolem 5 miliard dolaru) do obrovske prestavby kanalu, ktera by umoznila projizdeni i vetsich lodi nez v soucasnosti. Zatim jsou pry preference asi 65-35 pro “ano”. Vzhledem k tomu, ze Panama na kanalu pomerne slusne vydelava, da se to chapat, i kdyz na vselijakych budovach najdete nasprejovane napisy “No” a spoustu billboardu proti, zejmena na univerzitach. Potkal jsem se taky s demostraci, ale ta se tykala socialniho (penzijniho) systemu a stavkovali duchodci 🙂 Normalne zablokovali jednu z ulic pred parlamentem a smula.. Vekovy prumer stavkujicich tak kolem 65 🙂

Lode: jsou vazne obrovske a vejde se na ne neuveritelne mnozstvi kontejneru s roztodivnymi nazvy a napisy na bocich, nejcasteji Maersk a cinske klikyhaky. Perlickou je, ze asi 70% vsech lodi ma panamskou vlajku (taky maji druhou nejvetsi flotilu, po Egyptu, hadejte proc 🙂 Trochu zavidim Ondrovi a Jardovi v Rotterdamu, nejak si ten pristav nedokazu predstavit, ale musi to byt supr..

Konference: samotna konference byla trochu zvlastni, takova nejaka jina. Delegatu bylo asi 25 a na to skutecne nejsem z CZ zvykly. Ale nakonec to bylo fajn, zejmena proto, ze v arealu se nachazel bazen, takze kazdy vecer se vsichni presunuli tam a jali se konzumovat napoje. Libilo se mi 🙂

Cesta: to jedine me nebavilo, Panama City je odsud vzdalena 800 kilometru, ale jedna cesta trva okolo 17 hodin, autobusem.. Plus pasova kontrola a prohlidka batohu na hranicich.. I kdyz – tohle byla jedina vtipna cast cesty, jako nejnebezpecnejsi zbrane byly vyhodnoceny nase jmenovky se zaviracimi spendliky, jinak by se asi panamsky celnik kazdeho neptal, co a k cemu to je. Na kostaricke strane pri kontrole jenom mavli rukou nad mym pasem a nevyslovitelnym jmenem a bylo. Akorat sem si na to musel 45 minut pockat..

Fotky samozrejme najdete nahore, cekam taky vase podnety k prvni a posledni fotce v komentarich 🙂

A kdo by nahodou litoval, ze jeste nevidel video pisne “Vamos a la playa”, tak tady je odkaz: http://youtube.com/watch?v=V6XeSRwREf8

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Weather: well, I wasn’t lucky enough, it was raining almost the whole week, only good fact was that I didn’t have to move anywhere by walking, but there was always someone giving me a ride.. But I was told that the rainy season ends within a week 🙂

People and country: kind, not looking for conflicts, probably used to foreigners. The main pedestrian zone is known for a lot of pickpockets, but this is probably the same as anywhere else. This Sunday the citizens of Panama will decide (in a referendum) if they want to invest about 30% of their gross domestic product (GDP) – around 5000 millions USD – into a giant canal reconstruction, which would allow even the biggest ships flow through. So far the predictions say 65 vs 35 for a reconstruction. Panama is earning a lot by having the canal, so this decision is quite expected, even though you can see a lot of graffitti saying just “No.” and a lot of billboards against the investment, mostly at the universities. I also met a demonstration, but this one was not connected with the referendum, but the social security and pension system and the demonstrants were the retired people 🙂 They just blocked one of the streets in front of the parliament and that’s it.. Average age around 65 🙂

Ships: they are really huge and are able to transport incredible amount of cargo containers with various names and writing ont he sides, most often Maersk and chinese signs. The interesting fact is that about 70% of all ships have panamanian flag (they have the second largest flotile of the world, the first one is Egypt, guess why 🙂 I’m little envying Jarda and Ondro being in Rotterdam, I just can’t imagine the port, but it must be fabulous..

Conference: the conference itself was a little bit different, somehow. I’m really not used to having 25 delegates, being from CZ. But in the end it was very nice, especially because of the bathing pool – which meant everyone moving for the night and having drinks there. I liked it 🙂

Travel: the only part I didn’t like that much, Panama City is 800 kilometers from here, but the journey takes 17 hours, by bus. Plus the passport and baggage control on the border.. Although this was the only funny part of the ride, as the most violent weapons were considered our name badges with pins, because otherwise the panamanian customs officer wouldn’t ask everyone what it is and why we carry it. On the costarican side they just waved above my passport and unpronounceable (what a word!) name and that was it. I only had to wait 45 minutes for that..

You can obviously see the photos under the link above, I’m awaiting your comments on the first and last photos 🙂

And if you somehow haven’t seen the “Vamos a la playa” song video, here is the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=V6XeSRwREf8

Tak me Duro predbehl s oznamenim meho vyletu, ale co se da delat.. Ano, tento tyden se nachazim v Paname a zucastnim se tady regionalni konference AIESEC jako organizator, coz ma svou vyhodu v tom, ze muzu stravit v Paname vic dni, trochu se podivat po okoli (snad 🙂 a snazit se zazit atmosferu dalsi zeme.

Prvni dojmy: i kdyz to jsou sousedni zeme, historie a mentalita je uplne jina nez v Kostarice. Po ziskani nezavislosti od Spanelska totiz Panama nepatrila ke zbytku stredni Ameriky, ale stala se soucasti Kolumbie, od ktere se odtrhli o dalsich asi 50 let pozdeji. Takze tady v listopadu slavi dva dny nezavislosti 🙂 i kdyz realne to netrvalo dlouho a prisli Americani, aby postavili pruplav. Do toho si jeste primyslete fakt, ze Panama je treti zeme na svete podle pomeru cinskych pristehovalcu na osobu (pry nejakych 90-95% takovych tech malych obchudku se smisenym zbozim typu “vecerka” je vlastnenych cinany), a vyleze vam z toho sileny mix vsemoznych kultur..

Prostredi: po cely rok vicemene stejna teplota (kolem 28C) s vykyvy plus minus 5 stupnu. Obdobi destu je skutecne obdobi destu, takze tu nekdy prsi s drobnymi prestavkami nekolik dni v kuse (doufam, ze tohle nepocitim 🙂 Doprava – maji tady cesty v nadprumernem stavu, dalnice na sever je skutecne kvalitou srovnatelna s D1, existuji ukazatele smeru do mestskych casti a auta na cervenou skutecne zastavi 🙂 Trochu zvlastni je troubeni pri jakekoli prilezitosti (kdyz mate i treba jen malinkou predtuchu, ze tamto stojici auto davajici prednost hodla vyrazit a narazit do vas..) a nejsilenejsi ridici jsou v takovych tech silene pomalovanych a okolo 50 let starych autobusech, kterym je uplne jedno, jak rychle a z jake strany vas predjedou. Neni divu, ze se jim tu rika “diablos rojos” (=cerveni dabli).

Ale jinak se mi Panama City vazne libi, zase si na chvili pripadam nostalgicky a vzpominam na OV a to druhe velke mesto v CZ, kde studuju 🙂 I kdyz pravda, tolik mrakodrapu v Cesku nemame, takze jsou mozna i o krok dal..

Musim koncit, za chvili odjizdim pripravovat misto urceni.. Zpatky v Panama City bych mel byt v pondeli vecer a v kanclu ve stredu dopoledne (oboje mistniho casu)..

Well, Duro was quicker with announcing my arrival, but what one can do.. Yes, this week my location is Panama and I will take part in a regional AIESEC conference as a member of organizing team. Its advantage is that I’m supposed to spend more time in Panama City (and hopefully also its surroundings) and feel the atmosphere of another country.

First feelings: even though they are neighbouring countries, the history, mentality and life is completely different than in Costa Rica. After gaining independence from Spain they didn’t become a part of central America but a part of Colombia, from which they separated som 50 years later. That results in celebrating two “independence days” in November 🙂 although in reality it didn’t take long time until the Americans came and started building the canal. To this you can add also the fact, that Panama is country with 3rd highest ratio of Chinese per capita (it’s said that some 90-95% of those tiny little shops with various articles is owned by Chinese) a nd you have a completely crazy mixture of cultures..

The place and environment: more or less the same temperature through the whole year (around 28C) +- 5C. The rainy season is really rainy which means sometimes several days with rain (I just hope I will not be there during this period 🙂 Traffic – they have roads in above-average condition, the highway in direction north is comparable with Czech D1, there are direction signs and cars really stop on red lights 🙂 A little bit weird is using honks anytime (if you think that a car over there standing and letting you go wants to hit you) and the most crazy drivers are in those colorful and about 50 years old buses that don’t really care how fast and which way they overtake you. No wonder they are called “diablos rojos” (= red devils).

But to be honest, I like Panama City, I feel nostalgy a little reminding of Ostrava and the other big city I’m studying in 🙂 I also have to admit we don’t have such skyscrapers (not even the ocean) so they may be one step ahead..

I have to finish now, I’m leaving in a while to start preparation of the place.. I should be back in Panama City by Monday evening and back in my school by Wednesday morning (both local time)..

… je zkratka pro Outgoing Preparation Seminar, neboli vikend pro zajemce o zahranicni praxi. Ja jsem se na nem podilel jako ziva ukazka toho, jak nekdo takovy vypada – a taky jsem chtel videt, jakym zpusobem podobne vikendove akce funguji tady v Kostarice.

Misto bylo vybrano nadherne, uprostred kopcu a presto jenom pulhodinku od hlavniho mesta, v “parku” zvanem Fossilland. Cestou jsme museli prekonat pomerne strme stoupani a nakonec slapat jeste asi 20 minut do jeste strmejsiho kopce k chate, ale vyhled stal za to (na fotky je odkaz nahore). Protejsi kopce, neprilis vzdalene mesto, samoty uprostred luk, proste parada 🙂

Samotny prubeh me trochu zklamal, snad jediny z tech, co meli na starosti program a byli pripraveni, byl Martin a jeho casti agendy o ruznych kulturach a rozdilech mezi nimi.. Uz jsem dokonce zacal premyslet, ze bych se na nejakou mistni konferenci vydal jako jeden z tvurcu programu, akorat ze v nejblizsi prijatelne dobe (tak nekdy od prosince) jich tady moc nebude.. Ale jinak bylo fajn, obzvlaste tu cast, kdy se me mistni studenti vyptavali na rozdily mezi stredni Amerikou a Evropou (a jejich nevericne pohledy, kdyz sem jim rikal o jizdnich radech a moznosti stezovat si, kdyz neco neprijede vcas) jsem si uzival.. Bohuzel to byla jedna z mala casti, kdy jsem se mohl zapojit nejak vice aktivne, protoze proste melou strasne rychle a nestihal sem jejich spanelstinu.. :-/ Mam jeste minimalne 3 mesice, snad se to jeste zlepsi..

Jsem zvedavy, jak se jim bude darit – vetsina rikala neco o Evrope, tak se treba se nekdo z nich ozve..

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… is an abbreviation for Outgoing Preparation Seminar, which is a weekend for people interested in an internship abroad. I was a part of the weekend as to show them how a trainee looks like “live”. And I also wanted to see how these things work here in Costa Rica.

The place was fabulous, in the middle of hills and still only half-an-hour ride from the capital, in a “park” called Fossilland. We had to drive through quite a steep hill and walk about 20 minutes more to reach the house but the view was worth it (the link to photos is above). The opposite hills, not very far city, lonely houses in the middle of meadows, simply great 🙂

The flow itself was a little disappointment for me, maybe the only ones responsible for the agenda and being prepared were Martin and Luis Diego and their respective parts about various cultures and differences inbetween. I even started to think to be interested more in the conferences here as facilitator, the problem is that in the near future I should be working more for the school here than for AIESEC – and there are not many conferences around, especially from January onwards.. But in the end it was ok, I enjoyed especially the part when I was telling the local students about differences between Europe and central America (and their heads shaking while telling them about timetables and a possibility to complain when your bus does not arrive on time).. Unfortunately it was one of not-so-many parts where I could take more active part because of the language barrier, they still speak too quickly for me.. :-/ I’ve got three more months, I hope it gets better..

Now I’m curious how they are going to succeed in looking for an internship – most of them told me something about going to Europe so I hope they will tell me..

Dlouho jsem zvazoval o cem bude muj dalsi prispevek, protoze se toho tady v poslednich dnech az tak moc nedeje, a rozhodl se popsat jednu z mala velkych odlisnosti, ktere tady na me cihaji.

Uvozovky v nadpisu jsou zcela zamerne. Pokud jste nekdy slyseli o Italii a pravu rychlejsiho pri projizdeni krizovatek, pak tady je tento system doveden do jeste vetsi dokonalosti. Vzhledem k tomu, ze temer vsechna mesta maji pravouhly system ulic (aby mohli urcovat adresy podle svetovych stran), drtiva vetsina krizovatek je tvorena 4 ulicemi – jeden smer je urcen jako hlavni a ze zbylych stran jsou stopky. V pripade, ze krizovatka je na dulezitem miste (nebo mnozstvi projizdejicich aut prevysuje bezny provoz), pridaji se do toho vseho semafory. Nyni prichazi ono slavne “ale” – nikdo a nic vam nebrani projet krizovatkou, kdyz mate cervenou: pokutu za to nedostanete, ostatni ridici jsou na to vicemene pripraveni a i policejni auto me prekvapilo projetim cerveneho svetla. Problemem je temer neexistence prechodu pro chodce takze i bezna prochazka po meste se stava adrenalinovym sportem 🙂 Jako prevenci pred silenymi ridici a taxikari (kterych je tady mimochodem jak nasr.. tedy velmi mnoho) pousti jedna z mistnich televizi porad o nejhorsich bourackach, jejich podrobnou analyzu, priciny, rozhovory se zachranari a zabery na zbytky tel pod plachtami. Kazdy vecer, pul hodiny. Mam pocit, ze tohle by pres nasi RRTV neproslo..

Co se tyka vozoveho parku, kazdy den jsem ohromovan mnozstvim offroadu a obrovskych kamionu krizujicim silnice. Neni se co divit, cesty tady stoji za starou backoru a kazdy pruvodce na to upozornuje. V drtive vetsine jsou v prevaze vozy japonske (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) nebo korejske (Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, SsangYong) vyroby, z evropskych znacek semtam Fiat nebo Renault (ale ty jsou beztak taky nekde z Asie 🙂 Kamiony tady nemaji unifikovany evropsky vzhled, ale poradne robustni ‘chlapskou’ vizaz, MACK a Freightliner jsou nejcastejsi. Prumerne stari osobnich aut bych tipoval tak nekde kolem desiti let (coz je hodne dobre, v CZ je to kolem 17..), kamiony kolem patnacti. Zato autobusy, to je bida. Pocitam, ze tady se autobus stava vyrazenym az se na ceste rozpadne za jizdy, nektere z nich mozna zazily druhou svetovou..

MHD tady taky neznaji, v podstate tady fungujou pouze mezimestske linky, kde se plati predem stanovena suma pri kazdem nastupu, nezavisle na vzdalenosti, kterou pojedete. Cestovani je pomerne levne, za 30 minut cesty zaplatite priblizne 7 CZK. Jenze, neni pulhodina jako pulhodina. Linky funguji tak, ze vsechny zastavky jsou na znameni (provazek nad okny nebo tlacitko nahore) a to i tam, kde zadny oznacnik zastavky neni. Zvenku proste staci zamavat na autobus a on zastavi, vetsinou. To pak bohuzel vede k tomu, ze autobus stoji kazdych 30 metru, nastesti jenom v obydlenych castech linek.. V San Jose k tomu ‘pro zmateni nepritele’ pridali fakt, ze autobusy do ruznych mest vyjizdeji z ruznych mist, vzdalenych treba i nekolik bloku..

Na druhou stranu, cestovani tady je sranda – ridic stiha odbavovat cestujici, komunikovat vysilackou s dispecinkem, ladit radio a jeste si povidat s matkou a jejim ditetem, kteri sedi hned za nim. Uz jsem slysel vyrok, ze ma v podstate dvoji zamestnani – rizeni autobusu a DJ 🙂

A na zaver jeste neco k taxikarum. Zatim jsem nezazil neprijemnou zkusenost. Sice se snazi nalakat lidi na predem smluvenou castku bez taxametru, ale o te se da smlouvat, takze to v konecnem dusledku vyjde nekdy i levneji. Nejspise jsou radi za kazdeho zakaznika/cestujiciho, asi jako ti autobusaci, kteri zastavi uplne vsude..

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For a long time I was thinking about the next topic, because actually not a lot of things happened during the last days, and then I decided to describe one of not-so-many big differences that have been awaiting here for me.

The quotation marks in the headline are purely intentional. If you ever heard stories about Italy and the right of the faster when being at the road crossing, here this system has been advanced to a new level. All cities have rectangular blocks of houses (so that they can give directions) and so that a vast majority of road crossing is composed of 4 roads – one route is set as the major and from the other roads there are stop signs. In case that the crossing is in an important place (or the traffic density is higher than usual) traffic lights are added. And now the famous “but” – nobody and nothing restrains you from driving through red lights: you will not be fined, other drivers are more or less prepared and I was even surprised by a police car by passing on red. The problem is almost inexistence of pedestrian crossing which turns an usual walk in the city into an adrenaline sport 🙂 As a prevention for people behind the wheel, especially crazy taxi drivers (by the way – there are sooo many of them) one of local TV channels is broadcasting shots about the worst accidents, their analysis, causes, interviews with rescuers and also shots on the bodies lying on the road and being covered. Every day, half an hour. I don’t think this would be possible in our TV channels..

Concerning the cars itself, every day I’m amazed by the amount of offroad cars and giant trucks cruising the streets. No wonder, you just need them on these roads, every guide warns about this fact. A majority of cars have its roots in Japan (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) or Korea (Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, SsangYong), from european marks only some Fiat or Renault (but they are most probably from Asia as well 🙂 The trucks don’t have this unified european look, but a robust ‘manly’ visage, MACK and Freightliner being most usual. Average age of passenger cars could be around 10 years (which is quite good, in CZ it’s around 17..), trucks around 15. But the buses, that’s a different world. I think the bus gets displaced only after it falls to pieces on the road, maybe some of them even could tell us something about WWII..

Local transportation is different as well, in fact there almost only lines between cities (not inside them) where you pay a set price every time you enter the bus, independently on the length of journey that you go. The travelling here is quite cheap, for half-an-hour ride you pay around 0.2 USD. But 30 minut is not the same everywhere. The lines here have only bus stop on signal (a string above the windows or a button in the roof, both producing a sound), even at the places without specified ‘bus stop’ sign. When waiting for the bus you just have to wave and the bus stops, usually. But this leads to the fact that a bus stops every 30 metres, luckily only in places with settlement.. In San Jose another ‘tourist trap’ is added – bus to different places depart from different places, sometimes several blocks away..

On the other hand, travelling here is sometimes fun – the driver is able to dela with passengers, communicate with dispatching center over the transmitter, tune the radio and talk to the mother with a child behind him, everything together. I even heard a saying that a driver should get double salary – for driving a bus and being a DJ 🙂

And at the end a small word about taxi service. I don’t have any negative experience yet and I have already been driven more times than during those years in CZ. They are sometimes trying to attract people to a ride without a taxametre, but you can bargain about the price and sometimes it gets even cheaper. They are probably glad for every customer/passenger, as the bus drivers that are willing to stop anywhere..

Minuly patek, 15. zari, slavi stredoamericke zeme Den nezavislosti na Spanelsku, kterou ziskali v roce 1821. Narozdil od naseho 28. rijna, ktery bychom ani nezaregistrovali nebyt to den pracovniho klidu, se obyvatele a skolaci na mistni oslavy obyvatele pripravovali velmi svedomite – dva tydny tady na kazdem dome visi aspon jedna vlajka, obchodni domy jsou jimi ovesene a vlajecky ma samozrejme kazdy autobus a taxikar na prednim skle (tady bych to ale na jejich miste az tak neprehanel).

Samotne oslavy probihaji dve hodiny, mezi desatou a dvanactou hodinou dopoledne, a zaci mistnich skol prochazeji slavnostni okruh mestem, drtiva vetsina z nich zurive bubnuje do rytmu (taky to byl poradny randal, kdyz nejmin tyden predtim nacvicovali) a ostatni jenom mavali. Nase skola mela vysadu, ze jsme nemuseli bubnovat, ale kazdy student mel za ukol privezt svou vlajku a nejake narodni obleceni. Nekteri to vzali velmi vazne – a vypadalo to cele vazne dobre. 110 lidi z necelych 70 zemi.. Pochod si vylozene uzivali a mistni taky, bylo jich na ulicich nespocetne! (i kdyz, co je to proti obrovskym vojenskym prehlidkam, jake jsem videl na zaberech z Mexika)

Na jeden den tak mohl kazdy ze studentu byt patriot, hrde nest svou vlajku a naoko “opovrhovat” ostatnimi. Ale naslo se i nekolik zajimavych momentu, napriklad kdyz si kluk z Izraele a holka z Palestiny na chvili vlajky vymenili..

Koneckoncu posudte sami, odkaz na fotky je nahore a popisky budou odted primo u nich (na prani ctenaru 🙂 ..

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Last Friday, September 15, central-american countries celebrated their gaining of independence from Spain (1821). As a contrary to our October 28, which you wouldn’t notice at all if there was not a public holiday, the locals had been preparing themselves very well – for two there had been at least one national flag on every house, the supermarkets are full of paper flags on the walls and railings and a flag on a windshield of every bus and taxi is a must (but I wouldn’t exaggerate it so much being in their place).
The celebration itself took two hours between from 10 to 12 in the morning and the local school pupils form a parade around the whole city, a vast majority of them drumming like crazy (and it was really loud when the practised the whole week before) and the others only waving. Our school didn’t have to practise drumming but every student was previously asked to bring a flag and a national costume. Some of the kids took it very seriously – and it was really ‘cool’. 110 people from almost 70 countries.. They really enjoyed the parade (me as well) and also the locals filled the streets completely! (but it’s still nothing compared to military parades that I saw on television shots from Mexico)

For one day every student could be patriotic, hold his flag proudly and to feel “above” the other countries (bot of course not seriously). But some interesting moments occured as well, for example a guy from Izrael and a girl from Palestina exchanging flags for a while..

Well, see the pictures, the link is above and the comments are added directly to them (readers’ wish 🙂 ..