Panama

This past weekend we made the long trek down to Panama City. Although we were only 6 hours from the border, the journey took about 16 hours all meal and bathroom breaks included. Nevertheless, our journey proved worthwhile thanks to Panamas rich history and interesting urban life.

Upon our arrival after and overnight trip on the micro-bus we had a quick tour of downtown Panama City. Panama's capital is a sprawling urban center with huge buildings mostly pertaining to large financial institutions and wealthy citizens living in luxury condos. It was a bit surprising to see after spending nearly four months in Costa Rica and visiting San Jose only a handful of times. It reminded us of some of America's largest cities which I suppose we should have expected, considering the heavy handed American presence there over the past century or so. We could definitely tell that urban dwelling Panamanians received there idea of development from American culture due to the large shopping malls and huge stores of imported American and European fashions. This aspect of Panama draws in a lot of tourism from Costa Rica because of the significantly lower prices for American and European brand names there. Aside from the American-esque developement the most striking feature of the city was surely the buses. Each one is privately owned by the driver and diAnother strange aspect for us was handling American money again. Even though Panama has its own currency in the form of balboa's, US dollars are welcome and balboa's have been made to look like USD so there is little confusion.

Our second day we visited a few of Panama's richest cultural heritage sites. We first ventured to Panama Viejo, the sixteenth century colonial ruins of Panamas original capital that was destroyed by the infamous pirate, Henry Morgan. At the UNESCO World Heritage site we were able to explore the ruins of the old cathderal, plaza mayor, as well as various other buildings that comprise a large park in the middle of the city. Eventually, however, we sought refuge from the already intense morning heat in our bus which took us to a local mall for lunch where we ate some traditional American fare at Taco Bell.

After lunch we made our way to the Panama Canal's Miraflores locks (pictures below) where we watched a handful of ships make there way through the last stretch of the canal before arriving at the Pacific Ocean. While the museum and informational video provided us with more Panamanian propaganda than useful historical facts the experience was nevertheless a profound one.

Following our two hours at the canal we made our way back downtown this time into the Casco Antiguo or the Old Quarter of the city. There we walked among the neo-colonial buildings and ruins along the coast. Enjoying the cathedrals and plazas that are now home to nice restaurants, coffee shops, and small souvenir stores. Different plazas payed homage to revolutionaries and patriarchs like Simon Bolivar and Spain and others to the French and American engineers and workers who conceived of and completed the canal respectively. Also in the old quarter lies what has to be one of the few Latin American cathedrals with a baroque alter covered in pure gold, la Iglesia de San Jose. I wish we could have spent some more time relaxing down among the old part of town, but our guide insisted it was a bit dangerous after dusk so we made our way back to the hotel.

In the evening we checked out some of the local nightlife, which proved to be quite vibrant and inexpensive (before 11 at least) but seeing as how our driver needed to take us home and bring us to the beach at 6 a.m. the next day we didn't stay out for too long.


For our second and last full day in Panama we made out way up to the Caribbean in search of beach. Along the way we stopped at in Portobelo, the site of the important colonial Caribbean port before the canal. Still standing there is the old "customs" building of colonial times (to the right) where all the goods arriving from northern South America and the road from Guatemala through Central America arrived to be counted before shipping out. We also visited a cathedral housing a typical Latin American African interpretation of Christ. The church is often the last stop for pilgrims coming to pay homage and pray at the feet of an unorthodox interpretation of the Son of God. We the proceeded to travel along the coast in search of a beach. However, despite the copious amount of coast line in Panama there are very few beaches. The ones you can find however are generally white sand, well maintained, and hopefully not too busy. Due to the long journey we were only able to spend a few hours enjoying the sun and cool Caribbean water, but it was more than enough. The journey back to Panama City was a long and sleepy one and upon arrival we were more than ready to hit the sack before another long drive back to Santa Ana, Costa Rica.

Above you can see how far the water dropped.

Off to the Pacific ocean....

Pet Spider Monkey?