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Published: March 8th 2011
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After consuming pancakes for breakfast we met up with Rafael again to do a tour of the city. An English girl by the name of Lisa joined us, she had just finished a trip through South America and had been in Africa before that. She works a few months each year and then travels for the rest on a tight budget, not a bad life really.
We started our tour at Panama Viejo the site of the ruins of the old city which was raided by pirates in the 1600's. The old tower still stands so we ascended it and had great views of the city. After the attacks, the city was moved inland and to a higher vantage point to avoid being sitting ducks on the shoreline.
Our next port of call was to a church that houses a humongous gold statue. The statue avoided being plundered by the pirates as large pieces of it were dismantled and sunk in the nearby sea. The rest was painted black to make it look old and crappy, so when the pirates saw it they took no notice. Not a bad plan really, not sure it would work these days with
our plasma tv though.
We continued on to Casco Viejo, the historic part of town, where there were a range of colonial style buildings, one of which was used in a recent Bond film. Outside here I tried one of the local delicacies - a grape flavoured shaved ice that was covered with condensed milk, powdered milk and honey. It was too sweet to be refreshing, but being a sweet tooth I devoured it.
We strolled down a path overlooking the bay and the city, it is dubbed lovers lane, unfortunately a nearby school had to be closed down because all the students were skipping school to make out.
Next up was Bolivar Square where the Panamanian Embassy is located. Simon Bolivar liberated many countries in South and Central America from the Spanish Empire. Rafael also informed us of local day politics and said that he was worried for the country because the local prime minister was nearing 5 years in office - the maximum term a prime minister can serve. They must wait for another 10 years to re-apply. This system removes the problem of dictators taking control, but if a prime minister is doing a
good job it is a bit of a waste.
The current prime minister encouraged cruise liners to stop in Panama creating a wealth of jobs. Plenty of road and building construction can be seen so it appears as if the country is progressing well. Rafael did however mention that guns are a problem, many guns still remain from when the Americans took over the city to build the canal, and have been buried only to reemerge years later. Being next to Columbia, the country is apparently used heavily for drug trafficking, although drug usage and cartels aren't rampant according to Rafael.
The causeway was next up, it was being used widely by people running and cycling. It had a very American feel, and was lined with bars and restaurants, with mega yachts nearby. Apparently in the recession, in both Panama, but mostly in Miami, people couldn't afford to moor their boats, and no one wanted to buy them, so people were taking their boats into the open ocean and sinking them. Why didn't they just call me? I'd have taken them off their hands.
From here, we went up Cone Hill and had amazing vistas over the
city and of the canal. We were a bit gutted because a family of sloths (or lazy bears to the Panamanians) frequent the hill, but were nowhere to be seen.
We couldn't go to Panama and not see the canal, so after checking out the bridge of Americas that links the North and South American landmasses we did a tour of the museum and checked out the canal locks in action. I really didn't have any idea of how they worked so it was really informative. The canal is currently being upgraded so that there are three locks at each end.
I won't bore you with the details of how the locks work, but thought it was interesting that the larger boats pay $100,000 to use the canal each time! That may sound expensive for an 8 hour trip but the alternative of going round the bottom of South America and back up again takes around 21 days, and the boats cost around $50,000 a day to run, so it really is a bargain.
The schedule is tight, so boats have to be on time, certain types of boats, like ones with toxic or flammable material must
go through during daylight hours. They don't want more deaths on the canal - they suffered so many during the building of it, from the original French to the Americans and the hordes of West Indians that they employed. In fact safety is so paramount that the control of the ship is given to special canal masters, it's the only place in the world where captains have to hand over the reins of their ships.
The museum also mentioned that special care is being taken to preserve the wildlife through the canal and surrounding areas. I'm not sure if everyone would agree with this preservation, as you can see from the photos, the insects they have in this part of the world are on steroids, they're bloody huge!
Back at the hostel, we conked out from a busy day, later in the evening we ventured down to the waterfront to try and find a restaurant that Rafael had mentioned. This turned out to be an unsuccessful venture - we were a bit scared because the streets looked dark and dodgy, there were no tourists to be seen. Things got worse when we got told off for taking photos
down at the waterfront - which was actually nice, but currently being developed - in 5-10 years time it'll be awesome - I think people thought we were government spies stealing their ideas, I do have a James Bond look about me. The night took a dive when we couldn't find the restaurant, and when a rabid dog scared the sh!t out of me from someones driveway we decided to head to the hostel and have 2-minute noodles for dinner.
(If you like my blog check out a website I've been working on -
www.getfact.co.nz)
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