In 1991 I agreed to meet some friends in a restaurant in Panama City. I got a taxi from Balboa, where I was staying, to the restaurant they had given me the address of over the telephone.
The cab driver didn't say much, until we were pulling up outside, when he volunteered the information that it was a very good restaurant. Being polite I asked him if he had eaten there. "No" he said. "How do you know it's good" said I. "Senor" he replied "only the best restaurants give the doormen Kalashnikovs".
Apparently the bandits had been going into restaurants to rob the diners, and so the proprietors had started issuing their doormen with machine guns. Not something I have ever seen in England!!!
I had a good evening and got a cab back to Balboa.
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