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Published: January 18th 2009
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You can’t come to Panama without a visit to the Panama Canal so the Miraflores Locks were first on the agenda. We caught a taxi for the half hour journey (US$15) and arrived about 0745 to be greeted with the news that the visitors centre opened at 0900. We couldn’t find a cafe for breakfast so we passed the time walking down the main road to the locks to try and find a vantage point to watch the three container ships queued up pass by. Whilst not the best view, we saw a large MSC vessel pass through as P&O and NYK vessels edged slowly forward.
We were back at the front gate before 9 and were allowed through to the visitors centre soon after - just in time to see the Antwerpen Express pass through the last lock. Once inside we found the cafe on the ground floor and watched as the NYK vessel sat waiting for the lock to fill with water. All the while a bloke wandered around with a microphone explaining what was going on, facts about the vessels in the locks and historical information pertaining to the canal. We just caught a big screen video
Owl Butterfly
Miraflores Locks about the canal (in English) and also spent time in the four storey museum.
The bottom floor was about the building of the canal, the second floor was full of examples of local wildlife, both sea and land, the third had a mock bridge with 180 degree views as it went through the locks whilst the top floor was dedicated to expansion plans for a third lock capable of handling the larger post-panamex vessels. The Panamanian Port Authority did a fantastic job of opening these areas up to tourists - the lookouts over the locks in action were excellent with the vessels passing no more than 50 metres away and the exhibits were informative.
We left just before noon and caught a cab back to The Causeway (20 minutes - US$12), a 2km stretch of palm tree lined roadway linking four islands to the mainland. The views across the bay to the city reinforced my initial comparison to the U.S.A. - the city was very modern and high rise buildings dominated - whilst the queue of vessels at the entrance of the canal clearly reminded me that we must have been in Panama. We stopped for lunch at
La Parrillada Steakhouse where Jo had buffalo wings (again) and I ordered the mixed grill of pork, chicken, sausage ad steak. The whole meal with a few beers cost US$27.
A $4 cab took us about 5kms away through some gloomy slums to Casco Veijo - one of two older historical areas of Panama City. Casco Veijo was built after the destruction of original Panama City in the late 17th century. Our cab driver gave us instructions as to which streets not to venture into for safety reasons and let us loose on the old town. We walked through some market stalls around the waterfront past some well kept older buildings reminiscent of Cuba with a bit more paint - and pride. Just as we were about to get to Plaza de la Independencia the heavens opened heavier than any rain we had encountered on the trip to that point and as heavy as anything we have in New Zealand. We just managed to get into a cafe before the worst of it hit and we passed an hour or so with coffee and beer watching Spurs smash Liverpool on the TV.
We had a bit of trouble
getting a taxi back to our hostel in El Congrejo but finally found a driver that knew Calle Uruguay - the road that Luis had recommended for restaurants - and we were dropped there after experiencing heavy traffic on the Panama City waterfront.
We spent what was left of the afternoon over some nice cold beers at The Terrace - the pub next door from our hostel before crossing the road to Sorrento’s, a pizza and pasta restaurant where I had shrimp spaghetti and Jo had lasagne. It was a good feed and only came to US$25 with garlic bread and beer.
Jo went to bed early and I stayed up until just after 2300 watching CNN and ESPN.
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