Blogs from Panama City, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 36

It's now Sunday and we are heading out of the city to begin the rest of our adventure. Leaving Panama City, we wind our way through the market area and try to find our way to Puente de Las Americas...that bridge we could see from a distance while in Amador. As usual, signage is hard to read and anything on any of our maps is suspect. During a long wait in traffic, right in the middle of the busiest, most crowded and densest open market area of the city, we see a sign for food that Richie just must take a photo of....comida (food or meals) for only a buck! What a deal. However, we must still find our way to the bridge over the Pacific end of the canal so that we can be on ... read more

We decided to explore the Canal without really knowing where to go. Ended up making it to Amador...this is a small penisula of land that was created by the dirt and soil dredged up during the creation of the Canal. The long winding peninsula has several restaurants, a Smithsonian station, some residences (that we didn't see), and lots of natural beauty. Good thing I didn't rely on Richard's interpretation of the maps we had and that he was reading...none helped much and we kind of fell into the area we were trying to get to by pure luck and chance! I am not sure why, but the majority of countries in Central American have most of their major roads without any street signs!... read more

What a fantastic day! I went on a personal tour around Panama today with a group of other crew: Kristina & Chelsea (production singers), Ricky, Luke, Ellie & Candice (dancers), Kevin (internet café manager) and Natalia (supper club server). One of the bartenders, Elmer, is from Panama and he arranged to have a couple of his friends rent a van and be our personal guides for the day. We started out in Colon, the city where our ship docks which is on the Eastern side of the country on the Caribbean Sea. We drove to the Miraflores locks and visitor centre on the Panama Canal. It was great to see, only because it’s so famous and such a major achievement in bridging the two oceans. There were big ships and some smaller ferries going through as ... read more

We are finally arriving at the airport in Panama....Aeropuerte Tocumen de Panama. We feared not making our connection between Atlanta and Panama since there was this HUGE wind storm in Michigan the day we left. It even knocked out power at the edtec office and threatened to ruin the beginning of our trip. Believe me, it was one of the scariest take-offs I have ever experienced. Every single plane had to be moved to another take-off location to deal with the wind. In the end, we made it on time and arrived in Panama without incident. Anna... read more

I’m not actually writing these on the dates listed, but they coordinate with what I’m writing about, so I works better for organization sake. Having said that, here is the review of my weekend of Carnivales: Since we didn’t plan ahead that far and the idea of not being able to remember an entire weekend of my life due to an alcohol-induced stupor does not appeal to me, I was at home this weekend. Friday was spent relaxing at home, while Saturday was spent with a few hours at the hospital (volunteering, not as a patient or anything). Saturday afternoon consisted of shopping with the other “party-poopers,” then going out to dinner at Crepes and Waffles with a pretty view of nighttime Via España (crepes…yum). Then we watched Blood Diamond, which was in English with Spanish ... read more