Panama City

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Made it to Panama City last night and what an ordeal. Yesterday we left Boquete around 11 am and went to the bus terminal in David to get our tickets to Panama City. Well everyone had the same idea and we waited in line for 2 hours just to purchase tickets. So, in the end, we did not leave for Panama City until 3pm. Eight hour bus ride that cost $12.60 each. The bus was nice, played movies, had a bathroom and was air conditioned. Took 8 hours and we were unsure what bus to take to the hostel. Finally found information at the bus station and were sent on our way. The information desk ended up giving us the wrong information and we went to the wrong side of the city. No taxi was willing to take us to the correct location because it was too far and gas is so expensive. Thank goodness that we ran into a guy who spoke English and he found us a taxi that would take us for $10. Very expensive but too tired to mess around anymore. Got to the hostel Luna's Castle at midnight and they had no beds available. We were able to sleep in the theatre which is better than nothing. We do have beds tonight at $12 a person. Anyway, really bad sleep and was really having a rough time with the whole situation. Finally unwound enough to get a couple hours sleep. They have free pancake breakfast in the morning and we did that and then off to the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal was a fantastic experience. It is so amazing to see and to think that the locks were built in the early 1900s and are still being used today. We saw several boats go through and a huge ship. The ship paid @ $40,000 to go through but the highest ever paid occurred last month. They paid $370,000, a new record. I have some good photos which I will add shortly but bought postcards that look much better, too. After that we went to Summit Botanical Garden and Zoo. Saw more animals and it was great except that it rained most of the time we were there and it became very muddy. My camera died, needed a charge, so no pictures at the gardens. I was really upset because we got to see several new creatures. The first was a Tapir. Now I have seen Tapirs in photos but I never realized how huge they were. I thought they were more the size of a large rodent. No way, they are like a small hippo weighing in around 770 pounds. Then we saw a Harpy Eagle. It is a magnificent bird and really cool looking too. They were once endangered here in Panama but now their numbers are on the rise due to efforts this zoo has made. The other amazing animal we saw was the Toucan. They were really fun to see up close. They are so colorful and really odd looking. I liked them very much. We saw more Macaws and one kept saying Hola to us over and over again. Very entertaining. Made it back to the hostel by 7pm. We ran into a girl, Meredith, that we met in Bocas Del Toro so we spent some time visiting with her and another girl from Germany. The most interesting think about Meredith was that she bought a motorcycle in LA and took 6 months traveling from LA to Panama on this motorcycle. How brave and cool is that? I am so amazed by her. She is very interesting. Tomorrow are going to do a bit more sightseeing in Panama City before taking a bus back to David and then on to Boquete. I made a reservation for Sunday night at the same hostel, La Nomba that we stayed at before. Then we will be heading back to Costa Rica and up the Pacific coast. Anyway, they have some ruins here that I plan on seeing tomorrow and maybe a museum if we can fit it in. Will see how it goes.

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Photos

Panama
Miraflores Locks - Panama Canal

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Locks closing.

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Locks closed. Water level high on one side and not the other.

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Big ship going through locks.

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Water pumping into locks.

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Yacht going through.