Stephan Schwab

Over the last few days my family and I went on a road trip from Ohio to southern Virginia to see a Peruvian Paso horse. We drove through the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and even had some snow on the way. West Virginia’s slogan is Wild and Wonderful and, yes, that fits well.

We then arrived at Wheaten Point Farm where we met Maximiliano. He is a tall black Peruvian Paso gelding.

Here is Maximiliano with Carlos Gallegos, his Peruvian trainer.

After a demonstration of Maximiliano’s gaits by Carlos I was allowed to ride him. He is energetic and arrogant as a Peruvian Paso horse should be. To some people that might be a bit intimidating but it’s part of the breed’s characteristic. These horse just want to to go and perform. Initially I had to establish a bit my role on Maximiliano’s back but then we did understand each other well. He was born in 2006 and got some basic training, which is just enough to start riding him. It will be up to me to continue his education and carefully get him exposed to all the spooky things this world has to offer to horses.

Thanks to Rob Park, who is also a LeanDog software development coach, I am learning more and more about Clinton Anderson’s training method of natural horsemanship. There are some differences between the Peruvian training methods and what Clinton does but the basic ideas are pretty much the same: teach the horse respect and respect the horse to form a mutual relationship.

Maximiliano now has to wait a couple of days for his ride from Virginia to his new home in Ohio.

We are on our way back to Ohio. Yesterday we just crossed through a part of West Virginia again and then spent the night in Frostburg, Maryland. Today we have another 5 hour drive ahead of us, which will take us partially through Pennsylvania. All in all it will be about 1100 miles (1700 km) when we arrive.

After speaking in Tampa and Miami at the beginning of this week I flew to Columbus, Ohio, yesterday night to visit my good friend Brian Sam-Bodden of Integrallis. What a difference between warm and sunny Florida ;-) As you can tell by the picture, snapped this morning, winter is coming and the temperature has already dropped quite a bit. While in Miami and Tampa it was about 27ºC/80ºC here in Ohio it’s only 4ºC/40ºF, which to me is not chilly but actually quite cold.

That temperature thing is particularly funny, as I, being German, should be used to low temperatures and show. Apparently the human adapts quite good to different climates. Now that I live in warmer places, such as Florida, the Dominican Republic and now Panama, my body has adapted to heat and I need to put on more warm clothes than I used to in the past. Quite funny this experience ;-)

This is not meant as a rant, neither serious criticism. I can understand their reasons for doing this. Still it makes me think and, as I have to admit, feel a bit uncomfortable and less welcome.

Apparently Panamanian traffic police performs license checking campaigns preferably on major holidays. That’s when you can see them on all major streets, but as well as in remote locations where you really wouldn’t expect a roadblock. They make you stop and want to check your drivers license. I have no problem with that and see the reasoning behind these checks.

Another new measure to improve road safety is a new law that went into effect earlier this year. Every driver is required to carry a copy of the traffic rules in the vehicle. I guess the idea is to make people at least skim the book once in a while.

But what gets me mad is this: they ask you for your drivers license and if you happen to show them a foreign drivers license, the very next question is “For how long have you been in the country?”. What has checking drivers licenses to do with immigration issues? And what might a potential residential tourist think who gets asked this kind of question on his very first visit exploring the country in a rental car?

There is an enormous amount of construction aimed at residential tourists going on. In Panama City alone there are more than 90 projects in progress that each will put about 200 apartments on the market. And then there are all the other projects in the countryside. I guess every other lawyer in the city works for foreign investors buying property of some sort. The majority of these people will buy a car and drive around … If they decide to stay and buy property, they will receive their residency with all the national documents such as ID and drivers license at ease. But while this is in progress they are subject to the question “For how long have you been in the country?” I guess many people will questioning their decision to move here due to this less welcome feeling this treatment causes.

The police officers should be instructed to welcome tourists instead of treating them like illegal immigrants, which is what this question implies. In fact they did welcome bearers of a foreign drivers license last year. Now there is a lot of talk going on about foreigners being responsible for increased crime activity. But I doubt whether it’s a smart move to harass people who present a US or European drivers license and beyond doubt look like visitors from these countries.

On the other hand Panama sees a lot of immigration from Colombia and Venezuela and there has been some negative attitude against Colombians amongst a lot of common Panamanians. From what I can tell – that’s only casual observations – it’s envy as many Colombians buy properties in the better neighborhoods and start businesses.

Still street opinion should not lead to this kind of questioning when checking for valid drivers licenses.