This country, already so desperate even before the April 25 earthquake and now facing destruction from a second major temblor, will literally be stuck as its roads become slick clay mud.
Their hypnotic, infective African beats were the perfect wake up call for the post-breakfast crowd who made the pilgrimage across the slick-mud site.
The heavy rainfall on Friday night and throughout Saturday morning had worsened conditions as the ground became slick with mud.
Where I'd been tiptoeing gingerly through slightly browner-than-usual grass, this was a huge, porridgey slick of mud.
Some of the sites are quite steep and difficult to traverse, especially when the ground and rocks are slick with mud.
For some of those looking glumly from the windows of stationary buses, flooded streets awaited at home; or worse still, soaked sofas, ruined fridges, and kitchen floors slick with mud.
A mile-long slick of mud and debris reaching depths of more than 20ft buried the stretch of Highway 530 that ran alongside the close-knit community clustered around Steelhead Drive, just below the hill that consumed them.
The weather had been cold; an early storm had left slick icy mud in the roadways, and icicles "like chandeliers" hung from the trees.
The day, like every day in Panama, was hot and humid, the trails (where there were trails) were slick, red mud, the mosquitos were voracious, and we had to keep on the lookout for venomous snakes and other biting creatures.
The supply trucks are traversing roads slick with mud, the product of heavy rains, and are expected to arrive today.
