Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a tip of $1-2 per day for the person who has cleaned your room, but it's not
de rigueur
. It's
not usual to tip taxi drivers or guides on organized tours. If, however, you hire the services of
an ANAM park warden (
guardaparque
) to take you on a guided hike, you should ask what
the going rate is; if there isn't one, $15 should be adequate for a full-day outing.
Overtipping is not helpful; it sets a precedent which other travellers may not be able to live
up to, and can upset the micro-economy, particularly in small villages.
Opening hours
Opening hours
vary but generally businesses are open Monday to Saturday from 8-9am to
5-6pm. Government office hours are Monday to Friday 8.30am-3.30pm. Shops usually open
their doors Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm, though places selling souvenirs and crafts
to tourists may open on Sundays too and Chinese-Panamanian supermarkets often open early
(6.30-7am) until late (10pm-midnight); some of the larger outlets of the major supermarket
chains, eg Super 99, Extra and El Rey, operate 24 hours.
Churches
rarely have official opening hours and are all free to visit; most are open from
around 8am until early evening, with the odd one closing for lunch.
Phones
Telephone boxes
are found even in the smallest of villages, where the lone phone box - as-
suming it works - may be the community's only means of communication with the outside
world. Easy to use, with instructions in English as well as Spanish, some phones accept both
coins (5, 10 and 25 centavos) and cards; others only accept pre-paid phonecards (generally
$3, $5, $10) purchasable at shops, Cable and Wireless offices and local pharmacies. Note
that some cards can only be used for either international or local calls but not both. Seven-di-
git phone numbers denote
landlines
- the first three digits comprise the area code, whereas
eight-digit numbers are for
mobile phones
.
USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS
Police,
including Transit Police
104
Ambulance:
Red Cross
455; Seguro Social
107 - both are free
Directory enquiries
102
International operator
106
Making a call
To make a call
to Panama
you need to dial the international prefix (generally 00), followed
by 507 - the country code for Panama - followed by the number. Phoning out
from Panama
you need to prefix the country code (UK - 44; Ireland - 353; US & Canada - 1; Australia
- 61; New Zealand - 64; South Africa - 27) with 00. Local calls to landlines anywhere in
