I remember a young man from my days in college who everyone referred to as Reef because of his intense obsession with marijuana. Reef would smoke a joint of marijuana around fifteen times a day and I once overheard him describing the dependable feeling as euphoric.

While I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Reef any better than the next student who happened to pass him in the dorm or at a party, I do remember smelling fragrantly the exotic perfume that would steam from his body and thinking to myself I might like a euphoria like that some day.

It is said that morning sunshine is linked to positive market returns in many of the leading stock exchanges around the world. “There’s a great deal of evidence from psychology that sunshine helps put people in a good mood,” claims David Hirshleifer, the Kurtz Chair in Finance at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. “And people in good moods make more optimistic choices and judgments. I have known this ever since I started living in Panama, the positive correlation between weather and moods, but it feels nice to have someone with a long title back me up. Should I have been interviewed by CNN back when I was twelve, I could have explained clean and simple that cold and rainy New Jersey winters made me avoid going to school. I think many of my comrades would have concurred.

Mood-lifting climates is one major reason Panama is such a hit with foreigners. Panama’s summer which lasts roughly from November to April is characterized by, what the Kurtz Chair in me likes to call awesome weather. Days hover around 80F and nights a bit cooler, very little rain if any during these months. The winter or rainy season is from April to October and contrary to its name, does not produce enough rainfall to ruin a vacation. Not unlike Florida, rain falls in Panama’s wet season usually only last only few hours before opening up into sunshine again.

One benefit of living in Panama is that, to escape the rain or humidity, one needs only to drive a few hours. Sunny beaches, steamy rainforests, and cool mountain air are accessible from almost every major city in the country. The feeling of great weather around the clock evokes a feeling in me, I imagine, not unlike Reef’s euphoria that I recall he explained while balancing a pencil on his nose. Walking out into the street, it puts you in a good mood whether you woke up in one or not.

I like lollipops and rainbows too, but I’m not sure I can have them everyday. In Panama, awesome year-round weather is something I undoubtedly can.

This post's rating:

Related Stories

Filed under: Country Guide on March 28th, 2008