City of Salsa

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Panama City has been a very comfortable city to be in so far. The old city, Casco Viejo, is so charming....somewhere between the French Quarter in New Orleans and the ideas one has of the old city of Havana. Although it is kind of dangerous to walk around in, it is so lively and beautiful. The city in general is terrific; the nice walkways along the bay remind me of Naples, Italy, and the tall business buildings along the peninsulas jutting out into the water are like a mini-Manhattan. Except of course with a tropical climate. There is great shopping, nightlife, and restaurants in this town, and I have met a ton of people from all over the place. Funnily enough, I am staying in the Jewish quarter of the city and have learned more Hebrew in the past few days than Spanish, and have eaten tons of Israeli food (which is fantastic) and Greek and Thai food. I did however find the best thing about Panama which is the rampao, a hand shaved ice cone, like snow cones, which just taste divine in the humidity.

Staying in the Bella Vista quarter is great; it is quite safe and there are lots of restaurants and clubs within walking distance; I am also so happy to be in a city with 24 hour restaurants and clubs that get pumping around midnight....still haven't kicked that night owl thing. I went with a Panamanian to a salsa place on Thursday night and I may as well have been an alien for the looks I got, particularly when I started dancing. Needless to say, this neighborhood dance place doesn't see many gringas. Last night we all went to this place called the Mansion, which reminded me quite a bit of a place I went to with the salsa crew in Miami, and it was a lot of fun too. Ulrike, the German girl, and I had our picture taken by random people about 15 times (Pam, it was very Carla Rajkowski-esque); I thought this was totally weird until some traveler told me that the clubs try to post pictures of foreigners on their websites to prove their popularity somehow, like they are the "it" bar of the moment or something.

I finally got a little bit of sun today, which should hopefully be a nice warmup for the next couple days; Ita and I are heading to the San Blas islands, an archipelago in the Caribbean that is an autonomous region ruled by the Kuna Yala, an indigenous matriarchal society. Most of the islands are uninhabited and have great beaches and snorkeling, but I hope to visit one of the inhabited islands as well and get a picture of the great traditional dress and the handicrafts they make. We have to catch a taxi at 4:30 am to the airport to try to get our tickets since the hotel guy here who was supposed to arrange our tickets totally flopped on the deal, so hopefully we will luck out and get the 6 am flight tomorrow!

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Photos

Panama City
The business district skyline

Kids playing soccer
Plaza de la Independencia in the Casco Viejo

Comments

[anonymous]

Hello
Hi Jenn, I stumbled across your travelblog and have really enjoyed reading about your adventures so far. Being in cold, snowy D.C. I am dreaming about going to Central and South America. What other places are you planning on seeing? Thanks for sharing your adventures with us random daydreamers out there. - Casey

[PanamaCascoViejo]

Liked your Casco Viejo post!
It was really cool. I live in the Casco and loved the pictures you posted. If you want to stay in touch with what´s going on, dont´forget to visit my blog here in TravelBlog or at www.arcoproperties.com

[Anitta]

Salsa
Hi Jenn, I am writing because I am planing to go to Panama city. I am a salsa dancer and see that you go dancing in Miami. Do you have any recommendations about places to go where there are good salsa dancers adn I might be asked to dance? Feel free to email me! Thanks!