Instead of a hanging at a local cantina with just 'los hombres', last night I went to a Panamanian discothèque.  It was ‘Ladies Night’ and you’d think that would mean that the girls get in free, but they didn’t.  The cover for the ladies was $3 and for the guys, $10.  But that included ‘open bar, open beer’ (advertised just so—in English) for all.  Well, I’m not a huge dancer, and spent the first couple of hours just drinking beer and watching the girls fling their bodies around.  Then I closed my eyes, swayed in my seat for awhile and simply imagined passion.  And I began, still with my eyes closed, to glide astrally above and beyond the dance bar, far out over the isthmus, mixing with soaring birds that exploded into brilliant colors—mixing the music with flight into a soaring delight. And I imagined that I enjoyed the music more just listening with my eyes closed than I could additionally  watching, or even dancing, for that matter.  But I once again proved myself wrong as, after several more beers, I found myself engaged in a flow of motion on the dance floor.  I’m afraid I’ll never know what I look like at such moments for I’m much too mindless then to harbor any measure of self-cognizance.  But I believe that sometimes mindless is good.  And whether good or not, it’s proving indispensable to my enjoyment of this trip.