Panama - More Than Just a Canal

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Hi All,

Omer and I will cooperate in this entry to tell you about the time we have spent in Panama city.

Casco Viejo is the old area of Panama city - it has massive colonial style buildings, which many of them were restored in recent years and now host restaurants, bars, hotels, different souvenir shops and many stalls of handicrafts and arts - some are real constructed stalls, some are a simple sheet placed on the sidewalk and on it the articles are shown for sale. Yet, there are still many locals living in the area. We have spent the first afternoon walking in this area, enjoying the light sea breeze, the scenery and watching the different handicrafts that are gathered here from all the different areas of Panama. We have encountered many women of the Kuna tribe - an Indian group that has an autonomy in a certain zone of Panama. They are all dressed in their traditional clothing and sell embroidery articles they create which are similar to the embroidery they wear in their traditional cloths.

From Casco Viejo there is a very good view over modern Panama with its sky scrapers. It was amazing to see how massive is the development in Panama - there are so many buildings in construction, it seems like the city has not even felt a the tip of the world economical crisis.

We gave a short visit to the fish market which is a few minutes walk out of the Casco Viejo zone and I have tried the local Ceviche of shrimps - fresh shrimps “cooked” by lime, mixed with spices and chopped onions. To accompany this and also for the kids we also tried the local 'breezer' - chopped ice topped with syrup to your choice and topped with sweet condensed milk, all served in a paper cone. The kids liked looking at the preparation of this, especially how the guy chops the pieces of ice from a huge ice block with a special tool that also squeezes the ice flakes into the paper cone - the result, which resembles what we call in Israel “Barad” and in Spain sometimes “Granizo” - is very tasty.


The next morning, we met with Michal and Ido, two “old” friends we have met in Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) and since then, have already met several times and spent many days together in Brazil. Together we all went to see Panama's most famous landmark - its canal. And I will let Omer tell you about this visit.


Hi it is Omer,

I am going to tell you about the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is the biggest canal in the world. Cargo Ships use it a lot to pass from the Atlantic ocean to the Caribbean ocean or from the Caribbean ocean to the Atlantic ocean. Sometimes also passengers ships pass there. Although the oceans are at the same height, the water in the middle of the canal are higher because they come from a river and become a lake. This means that the ships that come to the canal need to go up and down.

There are about 3-4 locks in the canal. We were in one of them, called Miraflores, it is the closest one to the city. There is a control house and when a ship comes the people inside press one of the buttons and the gate opens slowly. Before the ship enters, a kind of train tie a cable to the ship 2 trains in each side and one cable for each train. Then, the trains pull the ship because the ship cannot go there alone because the canal is very narrow. So when the trains take her they are in equal speed and progress together from both of the ship's sides. Then she enters with the trains. When the boat is inside the chamber, the gate behind her closes, it takes about 10 minutes until it gets closed. When the gate is closed, water flows into the chamber of the ship. The water raises the ship up - 8 meters. When the ship is up in the same height as the next chamber the gate in front of her opens and then she goes with the trains to the other lock.

I was fascinated looking at this whole process, and mom and dad really had hard time to take me away from there. It really helped them that there were no more boats coming to pass because it was the time of break. In the morning the boats coming from the Caribbean side pass and after they pass then come the boats from the other side, but it takes time - this is why there is a break and no more boats to see.

Bye for now,
Omer

When we were done with watching the action in the canal, we continued to Metropolitan Park. The park ensures that there will be a continuous link in the ecological environment of the flora and fauna that surrounds the city of Panama, and thus ensure its conservation. We were very skeptic of how much animals or birds we will be able to see at that time of the day (already lunch time) and in a park that is basically in the middle of the city, but we were proved wrong.

After walking not more than 5 minutes in the park trail we saw Toucans, 2 of them, and a minute later we saw a group of Titi monkeys - these are very small monkeys with long tail and a cute face reminding a bit the face of “Gismo”. Later in the trail we saw some other beautiful birds, some water turtles in a small pond and right at the end of the trail, we saw from a distance 2 cuatis (Central American Racoons) crossing the road in front of us. It was a lovely 3-hour walk.

But our day is not over yet... Our next activity for the day was shopping - something which many of the tourists are doing in Panama. In part of the time, while Nitzan and I were looking around, Tal took the boys to a do some climbing on a special climbing practice wall that was in the mall. If it would have been our last stop in the trip, we would have easily spent hundreds of dollars, but it is not yet the end and it is a complex process to mail packages from Panama (so we read the day before in one of the hostels). Hence, we have limited our shopping to the bare necessity (you already know our mantra - “no space in our backpacks..”) and only bought new pairs of sandals for all 3 kids instead of the ones they had before - what can I say, even while traveling, kids have this weird phenomena of growing up...

To finish the day we have all taken a taxi back to the old city for a restaurant Michal and Ido had a recommendation for. However, upon arrival we have learned that it is a VERY expensive restaurant and none of us wanted to spend that much. Looking around in the neighborhood, did not help much. And then, while we were trying to consult the travel guide-book, someone in a fancy jeep stopped next to us and asked in English if we needed help. We have explained that we are looking for a reasonably priced restaurant and after consulting with his wife seating next to him, he just said: “let me take you to one, hop in”.All 7 of us boarded the car - Shachar in the front seat on the laps of the driver's wife; Ido, Tal and I in the back seat and on our laps Michal, Nitzan and Omer (respectively). Somehow we even managed to get in also our day-backpacks...

Since we were so happy with our walk in the Metropolitan park, we have decided to see more of the area's birds. Pipeline Road - suggested our guidebook, is only an hour away from the city and a place were a world record was set in counting different species of birds within 24 hours - a very promising statement you must agree. As we all wanted to be back in the city early enough, we decided to try and go early. But, we were unlucky. We arrived to the bus terminal at around 9:15 and only then learned that the next bus leaving toward pipeline road, is at 10:30... Well, even the mall next door was not yet open at this time of the day, so we have just waited in the terminal. Eventually, we made it with the bus close enough to the starting point of this famous trail - then we walked back and forth for about 4 hours, but hardly saw any birds. The world record is still alive... The few we did see, were birds we have already seen the day before - what a disappointment. The only achievement in the day, was that Michal and Ido saw Howler Monkeys which they have not seen before (we did see them already before in many places). Disappointed, we took the bus back to the city. The remainder of the day was dedicated to preparations for our trip to the San Blas islands and onwards to Colombia - shopping for food, registering for the trip etc.

Hasta Pronto,

Lilach


If you wish to view all our Panama City photos, click on the following link: Panama CT Photos

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Photos

"Granizo" maker
Panama city

Slaty Tailed Trogon
Metropolitan Park, Panama City

A Toucan
Metropolitan Park, Panama City