Lazy Days in Panama

Yesterday was a relatively lazy day, hence my lack of posting. We pretty much just got up to eat breakfast and lay by the pool. After lunch we had a discussion-like lecture on our discoveries and opinions so far. I have really enjoyed seeing a lot of Americans (as well as a lot of other nationalities) that have moved out of their comfort zone to come here. They also get paid well.

Really well.

Many top management positions provide housing, cars, and food, and usually more. Plus a banging salary. Panama has no skills or talent being raised so they must bring their talent in. To convince top talent, it takes money. Soon enough there will be a supply of Panamanians coming from the hotel school and a lot of people will willingly transfer here without so many perks, putting Panama at an equilibrium as far as salary and such go. For now, it is an unknown gold mine while everyone else gawks at Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRIC countries). While they have a huge population, setting up business is almost impossible in many of them. Businesses are going to lose out on a lot of money if they keep following everyone there. I hope that by the time I graduate the gold mine will be in a French-speaking country.

Hopefully in Africa.

One can hope.

Today we were able to sit in on one of the hotel school's culinary classes.

They were discussing chocolate.

Yum.

I learned a lot even though the class was in spanish. He drew on the board and I have also been picking up more spanish the last few days.

I learned that white chocolate isn't really chocolate at all.

And milk chocolate just has more fat.

And then I was fed a chocolate covered strawberry.

Yum.

From there we headed to the construction site of the Westin. It is on the east side of the Canal, overlooking the Atlantic. We toured the property with Emperess Bern's VP of development. Bern's is the family that owns nearly all of the hotels here in Panama. They are so large they have their own design and construction crew. Mr. Champion noted that the recently hired GM will receive a salary of around $250,000, a car, free food, and even be housed at the on property apartment complete with the most gorgeous view of all of the Pacific.

Not bad.

I can't imagine what Mr. Champion's perks are.

Afterwards we headed next door to the Intercontinental. Also a Bern property, this one is relatively new. It was different that the Intercontinental in NYC. It was less modern, yet still very up-to-date. I guess Intercontinental gets the benefit of a chain with the look of a boutique, built to blend in to its surroundings.

We were greeted with mixed punch and a delicious buffet (including sushi!). Afterwards we spent time in the infinity pool that overlooked the salt and pepper like sand of the Pacific. You watched as ships waited to go through the canal. They even had poolside beds with terry-like fabric for sheets.

Gosh, it is so hard being a hospitality major.

Ha!

We are a little spoiled.

It started raining, which was a great cue to move on. The staff brought umbrellas down from the main building for us to use to navigate back up.

A really nice touch.

The last scheduled item of the day was a tour of the City of Knowledge. The City of Knowledge is the part of Panama we are staying it. It is privately run, but was started up by government grants to raise talent up from Panama. It features a lot of business, international organizations, and educational offices. Basically our "tour" was a round table discussion of the area.

Back at the hotel, as we were bootlegging wifi on our phones a couple Canadians walked up and introduced themselves. They wanted to hang out tonight, but we were looking for an early night. Since we are probably going out the next two nights, we may invite them along. They are studying at the University of Panama for the semester.

Since we were a little unsatisfied with our tour we decided to take our own. We ventured past an an unknown park and school as well as the UN office and special olympics of latin america office through small neighborhoods that turned into giant mansions.

It was a really great walk.

The weather is so nice, I will probably freeze back home!

Other than that, the rest of the day has been full of relaxing!