Individually there was nothing really extraordinary about what we did on two successive evenings this week. But talk about different, read on.

  
Sunday evening I was walking Wags and stumbled upon a stage (plus a couple of hundred people waiting for a performance to begin) in Plaza de Francia. When I got back to the apartment I told Jane that something was about to happen and we should go check it out. Shortly after we got back to the plaza a modern dance troupe started their performance. We had good seats - on the steps of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (same steps James Bond used when he entered the "Grand Andean Hotel" in the last Bond movie) and we had a nice breeze, under a starry sky. We're not into modern dance - but stuck around for 30 minutes and it was . . . . well, interesting, and after a short walk along Las Bóvedas we were back at the apartment.

The next afternoon it was off to the movies. I guess we have eight or so multiplex theaters in the city and although we don't go to a lot of movies, it's a nice change of pace and the price is right - normally $2 each. You do need to pay attention, when buying your ticket, because most movies are offered in two versions, subtitles in Spanish with the original language (usually English) or dubbed in Spanish (no subtitles) and both versions will be playing in the same complex. This outing we were going to see Avatar in 3D so it cost $3.50 each (fancy glasses, I guess) plus popcorn and a coke - total for us both $11.00, not bad. I thought the movie was great, Jane was a little less enthusiastic - but that was probably influenced by her getting vertigo.

Panama continues to provide something for everyone and we keep on having fun sampling it all.

Take care.

Tags: Cultural