So if you are the type that likes Peace & Quiet, Panama is probably not the country for you because of the noise pollution in Panama. Not unless you can find a house in a remote area away from the locals & not in the myriad of large complexes they have all over the place where the houses are soooo close together,  you can hear the person flush their toilet, take a shower, have sex, even get ready in the morning doing the dishes. I used to get woken up by high heels clanking on the floor at 6 am.

I don’t know how the locals survive or even get enough sleep to think (this is probably one of the reasons for the brain issues they have), all I can tell you is that the noise here drives me up the wall.

Panamanians let their dogs bark ALL THE TIME. They never shut them up. If someone complains, it’s probably an expat living in a Panamanian neighborhood although the odd time I hear other Panamanians shusshing the dogs when they bar, but most Panamanians just accept it & somehow (don’t ask me how) sleep through it all. Idiotic expats tell other expats to buy ear plus. LOL, why should I have to buy ear plugs, stick them in my ears just to sleep like a normal person??? And I should preface that I believe this is a problem throughout all of Latin America, but I’m sure some countries are worse than others.

In fact the dogs can be so bad, I’ve heard people have to move & I have to move too, because this small house I just moved into has dogs on both sides of me & they bark into my ear almost every night. They are more quiet during the day than at night time.

Even if the dog is far away, the dogs just don’t SHUT UP. It’s constant bark after bark. And then if one starts barking because of the other one, the next thing you know, you could have 10-30 dogs barking all at once.

Part of the reason for this is because Panamanians abuse their dogs. The Panamanians in the city usually don’t, but I’m sure there’s many in the poorer areas who do. I’ll post about that another time. So these dogs bark to get attention, because they are thirsty, hungry, I don’t know why, it’s just terrible. They seem to always be on edge even though their owners NEVER yell at them, which just goes to show you, there’s other ways to abuse a dog or people than yelling.

Then there’s the roosters. When I first moved here I thought roosters only crowed at sun rise, but I learned NOOOO, they crow at 4 am, some even crow during the day, several times a day & if it’s near you, WATCH OUT, they are VERY LOUD. Many Panamanians have their own chickens & roosters. Some even in the city, but mainly outside Panama City.

Then there’s the music. So far I’ve been pretty lucky about the Panamanians blasting their music only one night a week on the weekends, but if I am tired or have a headache, you can only imagine how upset I am to not be able to go to sleep. Or if I am tired & want to sleep during the day & it’s a Sunday, I once had my next door neighbor blaring his music while I was very sick.

AND if you think as the night goes on the music will get more quiet, think again. The music GETS LOUDER as the night goes on. One time they had it blasting until noon the next day, but that’s rare.

If you live near the American highway, you will hear the rojo buses gunning their engines, because the buses are pieces of crap, so to go up a hill it has to really use all of its power & you can hear the metal & engine blast into your house from far away. Every time it sounds like the bus will break down & a lot of them do.

So if you are the type that either sleeps normally (not like a log), or lightly, I wouldn’t recommend coming here.

One expat told me it took him & his wife 3 years to find a quiet place to live. So it is doable, but you may be moving around quite a bit until you find a place.

Most people in North America have no clue about the health hazards of noise pollution, so you can bet your ass not a single Panamanian knows or cares about how constant noise will deplete your quality of life on a myriad of levels, one of them you not getting any sleep.

Oh & as an aside, they play the SAME song every single time unless they listen to North American music. It’s like listening to a teenager who can’t listen to anything but that ONE SONG. Hey I told you they are immature.

Michelle