Researching Panama and need to know the common food, <span title="music,celebrations,culture">music,celebrations,cultur...</span> life, languages spoken?

Question

Only serious answers please on this!

Answer 1

The language in Panama is Spanish.Ive been there twice, i speak English and no one there understands English.The two times i was there they had some float or parade but i could not ask what was going on coz no one understood English. I fed on fast food there because they had most of the fast food franchises am acquainted with. Their food doesn&#039;t look appealing.

Answer 2

The most common languages are spanish and english.

Answer 3

OK Panama has a lot to offer.

Common foods:

OK if you&#039;re referring to local foods there are a number of fried food usually used for breakfast.  For example you have the corn tortilla, which is very different to a Mexican tortilla.  You also have Carimañolas, which are made out of yucca/cassava and have either ground meat or chicken in the middle.  There are hojaldres, and if you ever had Indian Fry Bread while visiting Arizona or New Mexico you&#039;ll find they are the same.

The other 2 traditional Panamanian dishes are Sancocho, which is basically chicken soup made with local spices, culantro, yucca and chicken; some people also add yams to the mix; and Arroz con Pollo, which is rice with chicken cooked with local spices, green olives, chopped onions, etc.

Regarding general food in Panama, there&#039;s also a lot to choose from.  Panama City has a lot of restaurants for you to visit and explore new cuisines.  You have your usual franchises like TGI Friday&#039;s, Benningans, fast food franchises, etc.  You also have nicer restaurants that you can ask your hotel desk to recommend.  Some restaurant guides mention that Panama has the best chinese restaurant in the western hemisphere!

Music:

Local music is called Tipico.  It&#039;s an accordeon based music somewhat similar to certain Mexican rhythms, but the beat is driven in a different way.  However you hear every type of music there is in Panama City.  I mean you walk into a music store and you get the latest music worldwide.  You turn on your radio and you can listen to anything you want.  It&#039;s not like if you come to Panama you won&#039;t be able to listen to Rock &amp; Roll anymore.  In fact there are quite a couple of good Rock &amp; Roll bands here in Panama.

Celebrations:

That will come as a shock to most Americans, as there are a lot of celebrations in Latin America, and Panama is right there in the mix with the rest of the countries.  However, contrary to popular opinion, there are a lot less holidays in Panama than in other countries.

The major celebrations are:

New Year

Martyr&#039;s Day - Jan. 9

Carnival/Mardi Gras - it stars on the Sat. before Fat Tuesday, and it ends on Ash Wednesday at 6 AM.  The whole nation basically comes to a stop, and it&#039;s partytime all day long with different celebrations depending on where you are located.  They usually involve &quot;culecos&quot; which is a party where in a park there are water trucks shooting water all over the place getting everybody soaked; and then at night there are the carnival queens riding the floats.

Easter - In Panama it begins on Good Thursday at noon when usually government offices close.  Good Friday is a national holiday so no one works, and it runs through Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Memorial Day - Nov. 2

Independence Day - Nov. 3 National Holiday so no work.

Flag Day - Nov. 4 National Holiday.

Cry of Independence - Nov. 10 National Holiday

Independence from Spain - Nov. 28 National Holiday

Mother&#039;s Day - Dec. 8 National Holiday (yes no work)

Christmas - Dec. 25 National Holiday

You&#039;ll also find that there are some regional holidays that only apply to that particular region or City.

Culture:

Panama has a very diverse culture.  Most people consider Panama to have a very diverse racial mixture.  Some even call it a racial melting pot!  So in escense you&#039;re going to find a great mix of races and culture.  

OK, just to get it off my chest, sure Panama City may look very much like a US city, but culturally it&#039;s very different.  People here are laid back, we take time to do things, it&#039;s never a rush unless it has to, so don&#039;t expect things to be just like the US.  That usually shocks people, but once you get the hang of it, you&#039;ll do fine.

Don&#039;t worry about being a foreigner, we hardly get into anyone&#039;s case for being from out of town.

Languages:

Spanish is the official language of Panama, and English is widely spoken in Panama City, Colon and Bocas del Toro.  Apart from those places you will run into difficulty if you only speak English.  The best solution for this problem in the short term is to get into a tour if you&#039;re visiting.  If you&#039;re planning to stay for quite sometime, then it&#039;s recommended that you get into a Spanish Immersion course.  There are a lot of them around.

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama