Panama City Day 2


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Published: May 17th 2011
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 Video Playlist:

1: Panama Canal Lighting 27 secs
I woke up really early today. Someone walked down the stairs over our head with a roller suitcase & went bang bang bang down each step. It was around 5:30 am. Really thoughtful. I'm sure the entire hostel heard them. So, I'm up & typing & waiting for a more appropriate hour to go out & buy some coffee. At 7 I headed out & walked a bit. It's still a bit sketchy feeling at this time of day so I followed a couple of the police (there's tons of them in this area because the President's house is a few streets away, which you cannot walk within 3-4 blocks of) to a Fonda where I ordered a grande coffee that the guy served to me in a large styrofoam soup bowl. It made me laugh a lot (not in front of him but after). Coffee soup. Back to the hostel with my coffee soup to type some more. Geoff slept until almost 9 & I was really wired from my soup by then. Poor guy. I always kind of feel bad for him at this point in the day when I've been up for hours, I'm totally wired, & he's
Keep the area clean...Keep the area clean...Keep the area clean...

Seems unlikely based on how they deal with trash around here.
just waking up & barely opened his eyes yet & I'm already blabbering on about the million & a half things I've thought about for the last few hours. I'm sure he just loves these mornings.

The hostel provided bananas, little rolls, & peanut butter for breakfast, & coffee (just what I needed!). After we made mini banana/PB sandwiches we headed to see the city. There's a paved pathway that follows the waterfront from our part of town all the way through downtown. It's fairly new but there are always people walking on it day & night. It's really nice. From our vantage it didn't seem like that far of a walk to get to downtown so we headed out, in real shoes today, ready to walk. However, about 2 kilometers into the walk we were drenched in sweat, almost out of water, hiding in the shade whenever possible, & my shoes (my Fike's I call them = fake Nikes) were starting to lose one of their heels. But somehow we made it through & got all the way downtown. Probably 5-6 kilometers in total of walking to downtown & around downtown. The weirdest part was that it is this huge city but it was like a ghost town because today is their Labor Day & apparently everything is closed. The only things open were fast food restaurants & a handful of little clothing stores. It was kind of eerie but interesting at the same time. The streets were practically empty with the exception of the very main streets & those just had buses & taxis. Apparently, people here really just stay home for their labor day. So we did a little shopping at one of the open clothing stores & bought some lunch at the grocery store across the street (after walking around for a good while looking for somewhere open to eat, nothing was except McDonalds & I was not into it). Then we caught a cab (because we waited for the bus for some time & gave up) & headed to the main bus terminal to catch a different bus to see the Panama Canal.

I got directions to the proper bus gate, this place is seriously huge! We waited on a very very crowded bus for about 15 minutes & finally headed out. Thankfully a ton of people got off the bus fairly quickly
Girls & Rooms!Girls & Rooms!Girls & Rooms!

Dorm rooms & communal showers are disturbing enough, yikes!
& we could sit & not stand like sweaty sardines. I asked the bus driver to tell us when we arrived at our stop, but then I also asked the girl next to me if she knew where we should get off & she explained it to me in great detail & then reminded the bus driver about us when she got off the bus. So nice! We arrived at the Miraflores Locks entrance & had to walk about 15 minutes to the actual entrance (we are getting a little tired of walking by now). The Canal was really cool. We watched a huge cargo container ship go through (it started at the entrance of the locks when we arrived & it took almost the entire amount of time we spent there while we went through the museum & gift shop before it actually got all the way through). The museum was really informative & interactive which is always fun. While we were standing out on the observation deck a huge storm started moving in over us. There was lighting & thunder that kept booming & flashing & got closer & closer until lightning flashed right next to me while I was standing on the edge of the deck, leaning on the metal bar. It scared me & 3 other guys standing there so badly that we all jumped & then ducked for cover. I actually felt the electricity in the metal bar that my arm was leaning on. It was nutso. Geoff thought it hit a radio tower that was right next to us but I have no idea. It was just bright & I jumped high off the ground. Then right after that the Heavens opened up & it was dumping buckets of huge raindrops on us all. The deck was empty within seconds & we were all soaked that quickly. It was great! That's when we went to the museum, with everyone else.

Once the rain finally subsided we headed back out to the bus stop. On our way there a bus drove by us. Dangit. Those are the times it is annoying that you don't know all the secrets. There's a bus that picks up at the main main entrance. Shoot. So we went to the main entrance & waited for about 40 minutes for a bus that never came. We finally caught a cab (the second one we asked because his price was fair, the first guy graciously offered to drive us for over 2x as much as the going rate, jerk!) to Casco Viejo. There was another guy, from Brazil, who had been waiting for the bus with us & we shared the cab with him. Our cab driver was funny. He talked the entire way about the political history of Panama & what got them to where they are today, all because the Brazilian guy asked something about the bus fares & whether they're run by the government or privately. After the history lesson & the cab ride we were finally home. Our legs were aching & we were starving & tired. But, we had made plans to meet up with Salomon, who we met diving in Coiba, so we showered & got ready to go.

We talked with a guy who organizes tours through San Blas & into Colombia to get a better idea of what we should do to get there as inexpensively as possible. He was very helpful & full of info so we now have a plan, but it's keeping us in Panama City for an extra
Kassandra's night out with the boys!Kassandra's night out with the boys!Kassandra's night out with the boys!

Salomon takes us out for a night with his friends.
day since flights are already sold out for tomorrow (when we originally wanted to leave), oh well!

Salomon picked us up near our hostel & we laughed about the way people give directions differently. In Panama, he said, most people give directions purely by landmarks so when I gave him street names only (the corner of 8 Oeste & Avenida Central) he had no idea where I was talking about. But we found eachother & he took us out to a bar in the city near where he lives. His friends joined us & we ate & drank far too much. It was a lot of fun but we finally had to pull the plug at 11 because we were exhausted. Salo drove us home & gave us some ideas on what to see & where to eat tomorrow. He offered to take us out again if we wanted which was really cool. He brought his memory card with him & gave us all the pics he took while we were diving which was Awesome!!

We were both sound asleep the second our heads hit the pillow.


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