Friends, old town and a canal

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Our first introduction to Panama City was at the Albrook Terminal, the main bus station for the city. A huge shopping mall is adjacent and so the city appeared to be quite modern with new facilities, even though the chicken buses were visible everywhere. The city is quite modern to an extent, but we were quickly introduced to the poorer side of the city once we entered Casco Viejo, an old town that was built after the Old Panama town was Panama La Vieja, but before the modern city took off and moved over to where the centre of the city is now located.

We had read and heard good things about Casco Viejo and had reserved our accommodation there for 3 nights. Upon entering the area, our cab driver told us to not walk past a certain street north because it was very dangerous, however the area we were in was fine to walk around. Tourist police are everywhere within the main section of Casco Viejo, but it appears as if you need a car or a taxi to safely guide you back out into the rest of the world! We passed slums that had buildings falling down around them and it was a shock to have come from such a modern terminal to such a change in scenery.

Our hotel website looked and sounded great. We stayed in a hospedaje, which is like a very budget hotel, and found that our room was a windowless box located behind/under the stairwell, so we could hear everytime someone climbed or descended. With that said, we had our own bathroom and a wonderful big ceiling fan, so it could have been much worse. We had a couple of daylight hours to spare after checking in and so we went for a brief wander around this old section of town. The buildings are protected under UNESCO, however the money hasn't been available to fully restore the area, as yet, but there is great potential as the beautiful old buildings will look great once they get some attention. From the watersedge of Casca Viejo, you can look across to the city centre with its very modern skyscrappers and new buildings, which seem like a totally different world compared to the location of where we were standing.

We quickly found that there really wasn't much to do in town, except to go out and see the Panama Canal. We caught a chicken bus out to the Miraflores Lock and the visitors center there. We were told that the best time to see the big ships pass through would be from 9:30am to 11:30am and then some time later in the afternoon, so we ensured that we were there at a good time, however once we got there we were told that the next ship wasn't due until 12:30! It was too long for us to wait unfortunately, so we took our happy snaps of the lock checked out the gift shop and went back into town to meet up with some English friends, that we had met in Guatemala, who were due to arrive that day.

We met our new friends at Luna's Castle, a backpackers hostel not far from our lodging, and organsied to meet up for dinner later that evening. In the meanwhile, we went to the Panama Canal museum with Mia and Tom to fill in some time. All of the information was written in Spanish with one section in English about the medals given by the US President at the time to those people who worked on the canal for at least 2 years. It was interesting to see the photos of the people back in the early 1900's working on the canal, with the lady visitors wearing their long sleeved dress and big hats. Fashion in those days must have made the women overheat in Panama! We were sweating just from casually walking around the area in short sleeve tops and shorts. It was interesting to see past and present photos of locations that we being excavated for the canal. There were even drawings of plans, where before the canal was agreed upon, steam engines would carry the big ships overland! That's crazy, but I suppose forward thinking for the time. At the moment, there are plans to widen and lengthen the locks to allow the bigger ships to pass through. The only problem would be that by the time the canal is enhanced, with the rate at which the ships are being constructed bigger and bigger, the canal will need to be expanded again to match.

We filled the rest of our time in Panama City by visiting a local indigenous village (another blog to come), walking around the old town and partying with our friends.

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Photos

Big storm brewing
View across to the new town.