The Story of the Month - SUNTRACS Riots

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Welcome to March 2008. Now that February is done, looking back over my shoulder at the news from last month two stories jump out - the SUNTRACS riots and the filming of the new James Bond movie the "Quantum of Solace" in Panama. I don't know how many of you know this, but there's a really nice directory function on the website. If you click this link for example, you will be taken to a list of all of the articles published in the month of February 2008. Just click on the "Directory" link from the top title bar to quickly and easily browse through titles from any year or month. Traffic to the website continues to grow and expand nicely and we broke records again in February. (more)

Traffic and Stats: Again, I'm spending less and less time looking at and worrying about traffic statistics and number crunching. As long as I continue to see strong and steady growth over time, then I'm happy. During the month of February 2008 we *broke records* for every measure of traffic and statistic in all categories. This was a surprise, actually, because February is usually a low traffic month (because it's usually three days shorter than other months.) So, thanks to Leap Year and SUNTRACS we saw:

• 60,973* Unique Visitors. Anyone who visits the website is counted only once per month in this category. If you came ten times, you are only counted as one here. These Unique Visitors made;
  
  
• 123,825* Visits to Panama-Guide.com during the month. The same ratio continues to hold true - the average Unique Visitor comes back an average of about twice a month. During those visits you readers requested a grand total of;
  
  
• 906,844* Web Pages. When you come to the site and wish to read an article, the web pages are generated on the fly (and I can count that activity.) The server produces and delivers those dynamically created content, produced and delivered on the fly. This activity generated;
  
  
• 6,031,693* Hits to the server. Another way of measuring activity levels. And during the process we used;
  
  
• 114.07* GB of Bandwidth, a measure of the volume of data we pumped out.
  
  
• 4,269.83* - Daily Average: The number of people who visited the website during an average day in February 2008. I remember when I though 50 people a day was flat-out kicking butt. Again, slow and steady growth.
  
  
• (Note: All numbers annotated with an asterisks were records - highest ever seen.)

It Helps Having Something To Write About: Traffic was good in February thanks to SUNTRACS. Running battles between tear gas sucking lunatic leftist striking construction workers and riot control police equals "traffic" for us website managers. If everyone was taking a siesta in the shade under the coconut tree all month long then nobody would come to visit because, well, that's a pretty boring story.

Shaken, Not Stirred: James Bond was (and still is) in Panama during the month of February 2008. Filming for the upcoming "Quantum of Solace" has been running for weeks and has generated a good amount of interest in Panama. From my point of view I'm most interested in the economics - having an international film crew working happily away here in Panama City is a wonderful thing. These guys come in to work and leave behind millions of dollars. Hopefully, they had a great time and there will be a long string of directors and producers following right behind. Most of the mainstream media picked up on the story, and the specialists like Entertainment Tonight came down to do interviews on the set. There are a whole raft of "Bond Specific" websites such as www.mi6.co.uk and CommanderBond.net who follow every shake and stir of the filming. And then of course there's the famous British press pack and paparazzi who stake out the film sets to get exclusive photos for their publications. So, it's been a month of Bond fever in Panama.

My Pick for February: My favorite story this month was "Serious Incident at the Bocas del Toro Airport Yesterday" - sent in by Teresa Loberg, about an accident which could have been a whole lot worse. And note, this incident was not reported in any of the local Panamanian media, anywhere.

What's Coming in March? Here's a quick look toward the month of March:

• Back To School: School starts back up in about a week. Be prepared for some goofy early morning traffic situations starting on the week of 10 March as school bus drivers and parents get their new back to school routines worked out.
  
  
• Politics: In the political arena the ruling Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) is having a critically important internal election on Sunday, 9 March, to elect their Comite Ejecutivo Nacional" (CEN) (National Executive Committee.) This election will establish the leadership of the PRD which will be in place through the next national election to be held in May of 2009. This internal PRD leadership election will select the party's Secretary, President, Vice Presidents, and other internal partly leadership positions, and will be a good barometer for what's next - the PRD internal primary fight to select their candidate for the 2009 election.
  
  
• Weather: Not much here, probably. The dry season is still in full swing during the entire month. "La Niña" conditions remain in effect, causing massive flooding in Ecuador as well as the tornadoes in February in the United States. It has been raining more than what's considered normal for the dry season, and it's possible that this month we might seen more rain as well. So, for what it's worth...
  
  
• Back to Bocas: I'm expecting some movement on the ground in Bocas del Toro this month. There's some slow rolling background stuff taking place, and sooner or later I'll be able to talk about it. Coming soon, to a website near you...
  
  
• Real Estate: There is a lot of new inventory coming on line soon. Many of the buildings that have been under construction for the past two years are nearing completion and delivery to buyers. And, many of those people purchased their properties at preconstruction rates. Now those buyers will have to either follow through and close on their purchases, or flip them for a profit. The rental market remains very tight right now with high demand and low inventory - so prices are inflated. I expect that trend to reverse in the next six to nine months as some of this new inventory comes on line and speculators and investors put their properties on the market - the increased inventory might drive down prices somewhat. Of course, if people keep coming and demand keeps pace with the new inventory then rental prices could remain high.
  
  
• Hotel Room Shortage: If you want to come to Panama make your hotel reservations early. There are consistent and steady reports of people having a hard time booking a room. Do not expect to be able to just fly into Panama and find a place to stay. If you do that, you'll end up either far away, or paying too much for some rat-infested hole. Plan ahead, or pay the price later. Hotel owners are building new rooms as fast and hard as they can, but right now there is still a shortage. This shortage might ease somewhat as Canada and the Northern US thaws out and it's safe to go back to the Great White North. March is still peak season - warm and sunny here, freezing friggin' cold up there. All of that translates into a lack of hotel rooms on the ground in Panama.
  
  

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.