World Happiness Report 2018

The annual World Happiness Report is out again and March 20th is the International Day of Happiness. The report measures six key variables supporting well-being: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity. I first saw this in the news in 2016 and wrote about it then. It's interesting to see how the rankings change for the countries I've lived in and will live in next.

The top 10 is dominated by Nordic countries. Sweden is #9 and about the same as the previous 2 years I've looked at this since I lived there. The U.S. slipped from #13 to #14 last year and slid further to #18 this year. It's not a good trend so we definitely need to work on those key variables contributing to everyone's well-being instead of mostly benefiting the rich and well-connected. We could learn a few things from the countries above us on the list. That's assuming happiness is a shared goal in American society and the metrics for this report are the right ones. Wasn't there something about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness at one time in our history? It's worth looking at more deeply.

Top 20

1 - Finland, 2 - Norway, 3 - Denmark, 4 - Iceland, 5 - Switzerland

6 - Netherlands, 7 - Canada, 8 - New Zealand, 9 - Sweden, 10 - Australia

11 - Israel, 12 - Austria, 13 - Costa Rica, 14 - Ireland, 15 - Germany

16 - Belgium, 17 - Luxembourg, 18 - U.S., 19 - U.K., 20 - United Arab Emirates

Caracas Museums

We took a tour of some local museums we haven't seen before. We started with a look around the architecture of Teatro Teresa Carreño but we couldn't see inside the theater since they were setting it up for something. We stopped in the natural science museum (Museo de Ciencias Naturales) with a lot of stuffed animals. We spent some good time in the fine arts museum (Museo de Bellas Artes). All of these buildings are in an arts district together near Parque Los Caobos. The day ended with the national art gallery (Galería de Arte Nacional).

Caracas Architecture Tour

We went on a little tour in Caracas to see two completely different eras of architecture. First was the colonial era Quinta de Anauco built in 1797. Second was Villa Planchart or El Cerrito built in the 1950s. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside that one but it's high on a hill with outstanding views so I got pictures of that and the exterior. The house itself was a 1950s artistic cool inside. You can see a few pictures of that at the link above.

Panama Canal Rainforest Boat Tour

Another enjoyable outing in Panama was a rainforest boat tour of the Panama Canal. We were taken around parts of Lake Gatún on a small tour boat dodging huge container ships and cruise ships passing through the canal. It was wonderful seeing the beautiful scenery and getting up close with various monkey groups. They've learned to come to the tour boats for a little easy food but they're still wild. We pulled up under a huge shade tree after several hours and tied up for a quiet lunch on the boat before heading back a little too soon. The animals would be hiding from the heat of the day anyway, but we wouldn't have minded just boating around the Panama Canal for a few more hours. Unfortunately the tour ended anyway just like vacations inevitably end.

Panama - Emberá Village

The most unique thing we did in Panama was to tour a village of the local Emberá tribe. They're a friendly people still living with their traditional ways. There's an interesting history on the tour website. It's a little weird to step in to their lives as a tourist but the tourism helps them to continue living and preserving their traditions and culture for sharing.

We started with an hour drive from Panama City but it was filled with stories and information from our wonderful tour guide, Anne Gordon de Barrigón. She's American but married one of the tribesmen, so she knows a lot about them as an insider. We then loaded up in dugout canoes with outboard motors because the lake and river journey would take too long if we rowed. We're tourists so we don't have that kind of time on our hands... unfortunately. Who has the better standard of living? It does make you think.

Panama Canal, Biomuseo, and Nature Center

If you need to plan a day in Panama City then here's a potentially full day that we did over two days. The Panama Canal, Biomuseo, and Punta Culebra Nature Center are not too far from each other in a line from north to south.

Panama City - Casco Viejo

There aren't very many international destinations available from Caracas during this failing economy. Panama is a main gateway to the rest of the region with 3 daily flights on Copa. It seemed like a good idea to pick it as a vacation spot to avoid having an airline cancel on us when yet another airline stops service to Venezuela. It's just one of those things you have to consider while living in Caracas right now.