Page 38 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

36 BASICS The media • FeSTiVaLS
National Travel Health Network and Centre Wnathnac.org. with healthy scepticism, you will gain some
Excellent website for health professionals and the travelling public valuable insights into the dirty side of politics and
providing factsheets on travel health risks and a free database of business.
country-specific health info. Liberally sprinkled round hotel lobbies and
STA Travel UK Wstatravel.co.uk/travel-clinic.htm. List of STA travel restaurants around the country, the free bilingual
clinics in England and vaccination prices; full-time students with student weekly The Visitor/El Visitante (Wthevisitorpanama
card can get a ten-percent discount. .com) offers a bland summary of Panamanian
Tropical Medical Bureau T1850 487 674, international news, features and a decent listings section of
T00 353 1 2715 210, Wtmb.ie. List of travel clinics in Ireland and events in the main tourist zones of Panama City,
country-specific info from US consular service. Bocas and Boquete. The latter two expat enclaves
also produce free English-language monthlies:
AUSTRALASIA AND SOUTH AFRICA The Bocas Breeze (Wthebocasbreeze.com) and The
Travellers’ Medical and Vaccination Centre Wtraveldoctor Bajareque (Welbajareque.net). Primarily run by and
.com.au. User-friendly site listing travel clinics in Australia, New Zealand for expats, they occasionally contain some useful
and South Africa plus accessible factsheets on travel health and postings listings.
of health alerts worldwide.
TV and radio
The media On evenings in a bar or cafetería you’re likely to
catch an unremittingly awful soap opera (teleno-
Aside from one government TV channel vela) on one of Panama’s six terrestrial television
and one radio station, the media in channels. many middle-class Panamanians have
Panama is privately owned. The five access to cable TV with channels in Spanish and
national daily Spanish-language english.
news papers – and three Chinese-language Check out Wcoolpanama.com for a list of radio
papers, catering to the country’s sixty- stations, frequencies and their musical preferences.
thousand-strong Chinese-Panamanian
community – are widely available from
street vendors in urban areas, and in Festivals
supermarkets countrywide. It’s hard to
escape TV in Panama – screens adorn most Panama is awash with festivals and
eating and drinking establishments, even public holidays. Alongside the
upmarket restaurants, and are standard in numerous commemorations of histor-
most hotel rooms. ical events, there are copious Catholic
celebrations – including each town’s
Newspapers patron-saint bash, agricultural fairs
and cultural extravaganzas that reflect
The most respected paper is La Prensa (Wprensa the country’s ethnic diversity. Whatever
.com), which also produces informative supple- the differences in the details, they all
ments with in-depth writing and interesting demand the ability to survive several
features on tourism, history and culture. La Estrella days and nights of music, dancing and
de Panamá (Wlaestrella.com.pa) and Panamá processions, fuelled on mountains of
América (Wpa-digital.com.pa) also count as street food and gallons of booze. Head
“quality press”, with El Siglo (Welsiglo.com) and and shoulders above the rest stands
La Crítica (Wcritica.com.pa) the popular tabloid Carnaval – generally referred to in the
options. plural as Los Carnavales – a five-day
Given the large US expat population, there is no marathon of hedonism at its most
shortage of English-language news. aside from outlandish in the tiny Azuero town of
the imported Miami Herald International Edition and Las Tablas (see box, p.167). Major
USA Today, there is the online The Panama News festivals are listed opposite and in the
(Wthepanamanews.com), which has the mantra relevant sections of the Guide. Public
“writing for thinking people not cattle”. it pulls no holidays are listed in our “Opening
punches and frequently contains features that hours and public holidays” section
border on the libellous but, picking through them (see p.47).

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