Things Panamanians Like

One of Panamanian’s favorite things to do is take English words and change them a little bit so they sound slightly Spanish. Some examples of this are “wappin” (what’s happening) and “fokot” (fuck up). But one of the most omnipresent English terms that Panamanians have made their own is con fley (corn flakes) which actually [...]

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One of the easiest ways to create a store that Panamanians will like is to put bird cages out front and just wait for the throngs of customers to come in. Large white bird cages are the most popular by far: these are ones that could probably hold a harpy eagle. There is, however a [...]

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If you have been in Panama for more than 2 months and have not heard someone say, “hey, you should really get your teeth whitened by my friend, he’s a dentist,” then you probably have not been truly living. The dentistry infatuation in Panama starts as children. An important part of Panamanian childhood is going [...]

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If you come to Panama, you will hear the word chombo said in a lot of scenarios. People use it in affectionate ways, they use it in condescending ways, and they even use it to describe hot sauce. But to help out the foreigner trying to assimilate to Panamanian culture, can someone help us understand [...]

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Although there is a full Panamanian consensus on a lot of things, perhaps the most universal one is having the water shut off without notice. In most cultures, hearing your water will be disconnected for multiple days in a row is considered a disaster, a horror. How will I wash my hair? most people think. [...]

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If you see a Panamanian woman and wonder what she likes to do in her spare time, the best thing you can do is ask her if she knows about any handbags for sale. It is a known fact that all Panamanian women, at some point in their life, have sold handbags or hair products [...]

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Panamanians aren’t much for change. But to combat, one of the easiest ways to create something new that Panamanians will like is to adorn it with some form of plantains. This usually applies to food, but sometimes, the mere comfort of having a pile of raw plantains around a room is enough too. You see, [...]

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Submitted by “Le Habla Dios” Panamanians have a lot of superstitions but the most serious and dangerous one is something known only as “espasmo.” Espasmo is as mysterious as it is harmful and you should not do anything in Panama without knowing the central espasmo rules. First. Don’t iron. Don’t ever iron. If you iron [...]

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In the old days of Panamanian culture, people used to look up to tribal chiefs and Spanish conquistadors and the Arias family. These were the people they loved and every night before they went to sleep, they wished the next morning they might have half their fame or fortune or charm. But in the modern [...]

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It is a fact that Panamanians will never turn down the opportunity to WIN BIG so when they are presented with “chance” or “billete” which are Panama’s domestic lottery tickets, they almost always give in. At the traffic stoplight, in front of El Rey (another thing Panamanians like), or even just shouted out in the [...]

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