TRAVEL DISPATCHES FROM THE GLOBAL TRIP BLOG
Panamania
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: The Central American Eviction Tour"
Posted January 23, 2008
DAYS 36-37: “People who come here think Panama is going to be similar, like the other Central American countries,” said my Panamanian driver Benny (short for Benigno), who cited Costa Rica as an example of the general Central American vibe. “But it’s completely different.”
My time in Panama would be short — I’d only see Panama City for that matter — but any educated person without any amount of time there could tell you what the obvious difference was: unlike the other Central American countries, it harbored the big famous canal that cut through the country — cut through the Americas for that matter — so famous that it had its own famous palindrome: “A Man, A Plan, A Canal — Panama!” And it was this canal whose prosperity has made this Central American city ”the showcase city of Central America,” combining colonial legacy, ultra-modern architecture, international banking, shopping, and tropical climate — much like a Spanish-speaking Hong Kong of the West (without the abundance of Chinese people).
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ABOUT ERIK R. TRINIDAD
When he’s not making a living as an interactive designer or playing with fast food, Erik R. Trinidad is a Contributing Writer for Discovery.com, focusing on adventure articles. His work has also been featured in National Geographic Traveler, the New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Pilot Guides’ GlobeTrekkerTV.com, and BootsnAll.com. His short story “Disbelief of Wonder” appears in the best-of-travel-humor anthology, 
Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why, which also includes the work of Tim Cahill, Doug Lansky, Jennifer Leo and Rolf Potts. He has also referenced his travel experiences in his solo book, Fancy Fast Food: Ironic Recipes with No Bun Intended.
For over ten years, Erik has traveled to the seven continents of the world — from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo — with a curiosity for exotic foods and a thirst for adventure (and writing material). In his travels, he has been mugged at knifepoint in Cape Town, extorted by corrupt Russian police on the Trans-Siberian Railway, stranded in tornadic storms in the American midwest, and air-lifted off the Everest Trail by a helicopter that was thankfully paid for by his travel insurance. But it hasn’t been all fun; he has also donned a tuxedo amidst the penguins of Antarctica, paraded with Carnival-winning samba school Beija Flor in Rio, run for his life at Pamplona’s “Running of the Bulls,” cage-dived with great white sharks, gotten shot point-blank in the stomach in Colombia (while wearing a bulletproof jacket), and above all, encountered many people around the world, including some Peruvian musicians in Cuzco who learned and played “Y.M.C.A.” at his request. He loves the irony that, after everywhere he’s been, he has never been to Mexico.
Erik writes stories and news articles when he’s at his base camp in New York City, and continues his blog when he is on the road — provided he’s not occupied tracking down lost luggage.
News/article clippings furnished upon request.
See Erik talk about travel in an American Express ad:
Read about Erik in this feature article from Filipinas magazine by National Geographic Traveler Associate Editor Amy Alipio.
