Dear Cub Reporters,

Can you guess where I am now? I am In Panama City!

Not Panama City, Florida. But Panama City, Panama.

Ok, well, where is Panama?
Finding Panama on the map is easy. Just look at the map of North and South America. Look between the two continents, and the land bridge called Central America that connects them. Now find a strip of land that looks like the letter S. This is Panama. Panama is the narrowest strip of land that separates the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

What is Panama like? I’ll have to write more of my own experiences and share some pictures in my next letters, but till then I’ll give you a few facts to start. If you traveled by car across Panama it would only take you about an hour to see both Oceans! Panama is a country covered with rain forests and fertile plains, mountains and rivers. As it is close to the equator, its climate is hot and humid.
It’s rained almost every day since we got here (Aug 2nd).  It is rainy season now.

The largest city, Panama City, is also a major banking center.  Panama’s exports include coffee, bananas, shrimp and lumber. The restaurants in Panama have wonderful food such as brown rice and jalapeños, or a tasty chicken salad with vinegar dressing. Dad took us out to eat the next day after our arrival to a restaurant called Mi Ranchito (my little ranch). That was my first meal in Panama.

Mom took a picture of the back of the chair. I had chicken, rice and some vegetables.  I drank freshly squeezed orange juice. Mom loves fish. She got a whole fried fish and it barely had any bones! Our table was under a cute straw umbrella. We watched pelicans and enjoyed the fresh breeze on Amador Causeway.  It’s a strip of land that was built using rocks from the Panama Canal and made into a 3 kilometer (1.86 miles) highway. It is located at the southern entrance of the Panama Canal.  We watched people bike, jog and stroll.  It was almost noon by the time we got served and dad didn’t feel like biking in the heat (he forgot the sunscreen) but promised to take us biking another day. If you stop by tourist areas there would be people selling some things that are very interesting. I bought a cute little necklace to keep for a souvenir. The same day we went to a grocery store. I bought something with my American money, and she gave me 25 cents back in Panamanian money. I kept the 25 cents for a souvenir. The Panamanian people’s cents are the same weight as the American cents are.
The prices are almost always in US dollars.  The local money is called Balboas and it has the same value as the US dollar. 
Their coins look very similar to US coins. We went to a tourist area and lots of people were selling stuff for anyone to buy. There is lots of cool stuff to buy like Panamanian clothes, beaded necklaces, crystal earrings, wooden pens and pencils, colored paper, animal stickers, cute and fancy fans, and lots more jewelry. We also got free coffee samples in one of the stores.  It was yum!

If you don’t have a car, you can take a taxi for a few dollars to take you all the way across town or you can rent a car for $50 a day.  My parents, brother and other 2 sisters don’t really fit in a taxi.

Right now I’m enjoying myself in a nice cool apartment on the 9th floor of an 18 story building. We go to the pool on the 5th floor of our apartment building almost every day.  It’s a small one but it’s something to do since we can’t really go outside and play with kids. We don’t speak Spanish yet and there isn’t a common yard around our building to play.  Sometimes there are kids at the pool but we are too shy to talk to them.

Someday if you visit Panama, hopefully you will enjoy yourself also. More to come.

Ana Beth Meyer, age 10