Blogs from Panama City, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 6

Another sleepless night in an airless room of 30degrees with a broken fan and a plastic mattress - the joys of hostels! Great if you are a jockey trying to drop every last lb before a race, but not conducive for my sleep when I have strong preferences for cold rooms. So I took myself off for a stroll, which meant more 'glowing' and overheating - you can't do anything in this stifling heat without glowing! Taylor was due to come to Boquete with me this morning, but he had his money stolen from the club last night, the third possession of his being that has been stolen in the local clubs on consecutive nights (the first being shoes and then his bank card). So I head off to the bus station by myself - which ... read more

I traveled to Panama City, Panama recently for work and decided to to extend my time to tour the city as well as check out the San Blas Islands. Panama City Things to do: Esclusas de Miraflores (Miraflores Locks visitors center): A great place to learn about the history of the Panama Canal and gain a better understanding of how it works. I would recommend watching the movie they show, walking around the small museum/exhibition area, and then going outside to see the boats go by. The restaurant on the top of the building is also pretty good for lunch. Museo de la biodiversidad or BioMuseo (Biodiversity Museum): This museum has gotten a ton of buzz even here in the US and travel magazines. It was designed by Frank Ghery and is located on "El Causeway" ... read more

Geo: 8.99427, -79.5188It was a five-hour flight to Panama City, which seemed to go very quickly; at least to me. Our delayed departure meant that our connection was going to be incredibly close. I had already asked about availability on the subsequent flight to Quito and though reassured by the availabily of seats, I had no desire to draw out the journey with an unplanned layover. We rushed off the plane and, to our great fortune, our connecting flight was only two gates down. They were making a final boarding call and we just made the flight. They had, alas, given away my upgraded seat, but I was just glad to be on the plane. If you look at map of our journey, it is somewhat ironic that the trip from Washington to Quito is literally ... read more

The main point of this trip was to fulfil a long held wish to visit Colombia, but it would be too easy to just fly there so I arranged to travel my boast from Panama City via the San Blas Islands. My flight to Panama City took me via Atlanta. My taxi driver that I had pre-booked from the hostel obviously had better things to do on a Friday night so decided to do that rather than pick me up so I had to get a taxi from the airport, which delivered me to the Hostel just in time for a few beers before I hit the sack (even though it was equivalent to 04:00 in the morning UK time. The first thing I had to do the next morning was get some money, which was ... read more

When Welsh pirate Henry Morgan trashed the Spanish colonial city of Panama in 1671, looking for a gold church alter, he probably didn't think much about what would grow in its place. These were simpler times, when ransacking your neighbour's stuff, burning, looting and pillaging, was not just ok; it was expected..... Morgan would not have foreseen a 21st Century forrest of glass and concrete towers or a canal which links 2 oceans, but he might have predicted a diverse, multicultural and prosperous city, because Panama had been that for 150 years before he dispensed his version of Brittish justice. And it still is that way today, nestled on its strategically located isthmus on a most important world trade route. Yesterday morning we flew in from Quito, the world's second highest capital to Panama City at ... read more