Time Travel in Panama
I am sitting in an internet cafe here in Panama thinking about that fact that I am sitting in an internet cafe in Panama. Life sure does some changing when one leaves their homeland and goes somewhere else. Sounds rather exotic… "sitting in an internet cafe in Panama". Well its not really. In fact, the thought of sitting in an internet cafe in the States, if they even still exist there, sounds quite a bit more exotic. The fellow a couple booths down from me has his computer speakers cranked up and is listening to some really raunchy Latin rap. I guess he figures that the rest of us here want to hear what he is listening to… NOT!
Oh, now someone else has decided to crank up their video game that they must be playing online. It sounds like a speed car shoot 'em up kinda thing. Lovely environment to write in. Actually, it is this very environment that is stimulating the writing.
Internet cafe's in Panama are in super high demand. I am sitting at booth #27. It's 27 of 36. Sometimes there is a line here waiting for a computer. I don't ever have to wait though, and I always get booth #27. The reason being that I bring my laptop with me. Booth #27 is a laptop hookup booth… well sort of. Its got a bare-wire connection for the network, and one beater desk that the keyboard tray falls out of when you pull it out. They've got me tucked back here in the corner where there isn't a lot of air flow, so be glad that you are there reading in the comfort of your computer space and not here beside me where the act of typing makes me break a shirt-soaking sweat. Earlier on, I thought that I might find the nearest competing Internet cafe and see if they had a laptop terminal that was any more comfortable. Turns out, it is about 3 doors down on the same street, and features at least as many computers in it. I asked the fellow behind the desk where their laptop terminal was and so he escorted me into a glass walled room that had about 8 machines in it, separated from the rest. There were two young boys in there using computers, presumably surfing the web, one of whom asked me for money. Outside of this little glass cubicle were the majority of the computers, and they were all in use. What the purpose of this glass walled cubicle was is anybody’s guess. From the circumstantial evidence gathered during my brief visit there, I’d say that it was a highly specialized room for young beggar boys and Gringos with strange requests. My guide started dismantling one of the stations for the purpose of accommodating me and my machine. I interrupted the process and told him I'd just go down the street to booth #27, where they were already set up for laptops, warm though it may be.
There is a high contrast between Dominical and Panama. I think about the internet cafe above my office in the San Clemente commercial area in Dominical (we haven't yet come up with a definite name for the restaurant and office complex there). There are about a dozen computers there, and they are, on occasion, full. There are also a bunch of laptop stations since so many patrons of the Internet café there have their own machines.
This hugely successful Panama internet cafe, that is open 24/7, has only one laptop hookup, and it is always available for me when I come in. During wake-time hours, the 36 machines are nearly always in use. The reason? I suspect it is due to the fact that most people here are poor, well at least poor by a North American standards. They don't have a computer in their homes, and so needless to say, nobody has a laptop computer either. Interesting. This reminds me of a time back in the States, a time when just a few truly adventurous souls actually had computers in their homes.
I think that this is one of the aspects of living in Latin America that I find really appealing. It is a form of time travel. We are actually able to step back in time and re-live it, while being fully conscious of the fact that we lived this stage of the cycle once before. From within the mind-bending technological changes taking place in the U.S and other first world countries, we don't take as much note of the changes. From without, they are more apparent, and sobering. We live in the future. To be sitting in Latin America at all, and able to post stuff to the web, so that others can read it elsewhere on the planet…
It is pushing the past further into the past, and is making these last vestiges of simplicity all the more cherished.
Oh, now someone else has decided to crank up their video game that they must be playing online. It sounds like a speed car shoot 'em up kinda thing. Lovely environment to write in. Actually, it is this very environment that is stimulating the writing.
Internet cafe's in Panama are in super high demand. I am sitting at booth #27. It's 27 of 36. Sometimes there is a line here waiting for a computer. I don't ever have to wait though, and I always get booth #27. The reason being that I bring my laptop with me. Booth #27 is a laptop hookup booth… well sort of. Its got a bare-wire connection for the network, and one beater desk that the keyboard tray falls out of when you pull it out. They've got me tucked back here in the corner where there isn't a lot of air flow, so be glad that you are there reading in the comfort of your computer space and not here beside me where the act of typing makes me break a shirt-soaking sweat. Earlier on, I thought that I might find the nearest competing Internet cafe and see if they had a laptop terminal that was any more comfortable. Turns out, it is about 3 doors down on the same street, and features at least as many computers in it. I asked the fellow behind the desk where their laptop terminal was and so he escorted me into a glass walled room that had about 8 machines in it, separated from the rest. There were two young boys in there using computers, presumably surfing the web, one of whom asked me for money. Outside of this little glass cubicle were the majority of the computers, and they were all in use. What the purpose of this glass walled cubicle was is anybody’s guess. From the circumstantial evidence gathered during my brief visit there, I’d say that it was a highly specialized room for young beggar boys and Gringos with strange requests. My guide started dismantling one of the stations for the purpose of accommodating me and my machine. I interrupted the process and told him I'd just go down the street to booth #27, where they were already set up for laptops, warm though it may be.
There is a high contrast between Dominical and Panama. I think about the internet cafe above my office in the San Clemente commercial area in Dominical (we haven't yet come up with a definite name for the restaurant and office complex there). There are about a dozen computers there, and they are, on occasion, full. There are also a bunch of laptop stations since so many patrons of the Internet café there have their own machines.
This hugely successful Panama internet cafe, that is open 24/7, has only one laptop hookup, and it is always available for me when I come in. During wake-time hours, the 36 machines are nearly always in use. The reason? I suspect it is due to the fact that most people here are poor, well at least poor by a North American standards. They don't have a computer in their homes, and so needless to say, nobody has a laptop computer either. Interesting. This reminds me of a time back in the States, a time when just a few truly adventurous souls actually had computers in their homes.
I think that this is one of the aspects of living in Latin America that I find really appealing. It is a form of time travel. We are actually able to step back in time and re-live it, while being fully conscious of the fact that we lived this stage of the cycle once before. From within the mind-bending technological changes taking place in the U.S and other first world countries, we don't take as much note of the changes. From without, they are more apparent, and sobering. We live in the future. To be sitting in Latin America at all, and able to post stuff to the web, so that others can read it elsewhere on the planet…
It is pushing the past further into the past, and is making these last vestiges of simplicity all the more cherished.
posted by Ben at 9:44 AM
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