A LOOK AT CASCO VIEJO


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Published: March 20th 2009
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Sat next to me in the bus was a guy with a phone so i asked him if he could help me call accomodations in the city he obliged and i probably called all that was on the LP cant find any thing, we stumbled into a hostel that was a former US army barracks i think, got a booking yay. To thank Ligdo, the dude who has the cell phone i treated him for lunch when we stopped at a town called Santiago, the AC on the bus broke so they fixed it here as well. Arriving near the city we saw the locks of the Panama canal, looks cool at night, got to do a day trip here.

At the terminal Heilke a tall Dutch dude asked if i want to come with him to Casco Viejo at the Pension Colon, i called themn and asked if they can accomodate 2 people, yes they said and cheaper so I went with him, the taxi driver charged us $4 total but i heard it was only $2 supposedly, oh well. the hostel has a good facade but it was old inside and looks like it is falling apart but
PENSION COLON ROOMPENSION COLON ROOMPENSION COLON ROOM

TAKE NOTE OF THE PEELING PAINT
we got a good acoomodation with private bath and a fan so we took it. Asked the señora at reception where to eat, and pointed us to the Coca Cola restaurant, dont know if it really was called that but we found it. The old part of Panama City is full of old buildings and i think if they spend time renovating this part it would be lovely in the future, right now it still is vibrant lots of things going on at night. The food at the restaurant was excellent and cheap!! We met Heilke´s French friend on the street and joined us, he told me how to get accross to Colombia on my own not using the yachts that advertise in hostels, but I already made up my mind, the weather has been bad last couple of weeks that crossing it by sea might be dangerous at the moment. Daniel, the English dude I met in San Jose walked in the door, small world, we exchanged travel stories as usual, then went back to my hostel and slept like a baby.

The next day met Daniel again and we walked around the old part of town with him, we briefly stopped at the Luna Hostel to check for trips to San Blas, saw Kiwi Andrew there, I keep bumping into people..
Satisfied with what we saw on the brochure we booked ourselves for San Blas the next day. We walked around some more, the buildings here are cool, we saw some locals playing baseball next to the beach so we watched it a bit. Then we took a bus to Albrook Mall where we got overcharged by the moron driver! We had lunch and walked around the mall to kill time, Heilke was shopping for computers. When we went back to Casco Viejo, we bumped into Hannah the Kiwi girl from the border crossing bus. She flies to Colombia tomorrow so we said our goodbyes.

Heilke and I got ready for tomorrow, we get picked up by the truck for San Blas 5am! We bought some food to supplement our meal there as we heard that food was not that good as their resources are limited.
Left our backpacks at the Hostel Colon and Mario our driver picked us up half hour late.


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CASCO VIEJO, PANAMA CITYCASCO VIEJO, PANAMA CITY
CASCO VIEJO, PANAMA CITY

HEILKE AND DANIEL
CASCO VIEJO, PANAMA CITYCASCO VIEJO, PANAMA CITY
CASCO VIEJO, PANAMA CITY

LOCALS PLAYING BASEBALL


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