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Published: October 2nd 2015
Panama Viejo
... almost disappearedFor breakfast I had what is probably a local dish, chorizo sausage with onions and peppers in a brown, sort-of BBQ-flavoured sauce. I also tried “cassava pearls”, deep fried mashed cassava balls with an unidentifiable filling. Not to my taste. Plus lovely papaya and watermelon. Watermelon juice was too weak for flavour.
Our first stop on the tour this morning was the museum of
Panama Viejo (Old Panama City). We were expeditiously divided into two groups (door side and driver side of the bus) to meet with two local guides from the university, probably students. The museum’s architecture was modern curves and angles. The contents were sparse; apparently many of the artifacts that survived a 19 century fire were too fragile for display. Fortunately, a short bus ride took us to the burnt (but secure) stone walls of the Cathedral and municipal buildings. Most of us climbed the bell tower of the Cathedral for wide views of the coast and the tall buildings of this century’s city centre. The coast is formed of wide tidal flats – no beach.
From here we rode to the
Mira Flores locks, where a buffet lunch was served in a private room. (I ate salads, fish
The essence of "lock"
One hundred years operating! and vegetables, fruit and two little cakes, accompanied by a sweet fruit punch.) This room had a private viewing deck with unobstructed views of the canal and locks. At first it seemed that nothing was happening; then, we noticed a catamaran and a sail boat tied side by side to each other, and they were slowly being pulled into the lock by a few men. (Not hard due to good flotation). And soon three sail boats came into the same lock, where they were secured by ropes many feet apart. They slowly went through the lowering of the water and towing three times, allowing for many photos and much video.
Joyce and I went down to the main floor, as most others had already, to watch a couple of videos about the
expansion of the locks. New wider and longer locks are being built beside the current ones, and I later learned that all the locks, new and old, will be used. The new ones recycle the water, operating side by side instead of all in a row. Also the gates will push out from the side, rather than two gates closing on each other in a V. The canal channel is
Ship dominating the lock
Captain cedes control to lock workers. also being deepened, all to allow ships with twice the cargo to transit the canal.
After the video we rather rushed through the museum’s four floors. First: the history, as described in
The Path Between the Seas. Second: the details about water - how it’s used and how the adjoining rainforest is protected to ensure that the watershed keeps feeding the canal. This floor also had fish tanks and small displays of the many insects of the area. The third and fourth floors were about operations and trade, skimped by us because a big ship was entering the locks.
We rushed upstairs to the thrill at the sight of two large ships enter the locks and make their way through. The sheer scale of the “
Panamax” ship (biggest possible) made the transit seem quicker than transit for the little sail boats, although there is no difference.
That was a good afternoon, followed by a rest in our hotel. Then we decided to go window shopping in the mall next door. We walked all around, seeing virtually only high-end international and US stores. I bought some postcards and a map. We were drawing our shopping to a close when we
Frigate Bird
More elegant than seagulls heard excited, childish screams from the next floor down. I thought there was some contest on, so we went to look over the railing. Actually, people were running scared, and I saw a security guard on our floor shoot his gun down to the other floor. I heard other shots and backed away quickly. Some distance away I saw shops pulling down their metal fronts with people inside. I rushed over to one, asking in gestures to let Joyce and me in, and gestured to Joyce to get in. We dipped under the metal shutter, and I stood well to the back. Children inside were crying loudly and everyone looked really worried. After a few minutes a lot of the women and children (it was a shop for children’s things) were streaming out to leave by a more remote exit, rather than the main one we usually used. I suggested to Joyce that we go also, and we walked around the far sides of the mall to enter our hotel. Along the way a security guard stopped us for a moment to say (in Spanish and gestures) that guns had been fired.
This has diminished our excitement about Panama,
New Panama City
... as seen from Panama Viejo especially since the mall was repeatedly described as very safe. A lot of people were still leaving the mall. At dinner we heard from a woman that a man either shot or stabbed his wife in a jewelry store and security shot him. Long after the incident an ambulance came and much later the police.
View map of tour to date.
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Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Safety
Shooting and shopping don't mix in my view, either, but maybe "very safe" is a relative term that depends on your baseline: Only one shot today? In Guatemala, I was quite startled to see armed guards outside every bank and jewelry store. I never saw any violence, but heard about a fair bit.