Advertisement
Published: September 21st 2008
Beautiful old hotel ruins
Left to rot, this hotel would have been incredible. Beach front, with its own private beach, indoor swimming pool, large dance hall up the top, views on 3 sides... wow! Now, its concrete ruins... anywhere else this land and building would be priceless!Tim version:
* Landed in Panama City and had an adventurous intro to Panama on the bus then taxi.
* Checked out the Panama Canal, Casco Viejo, Panama Viejo.
The not too heavy, not too light, just right version:
Panama City! Land of the... well.. new high rise building, colourful commercial signs, and the most incredible bus service around!
Starting at the beginning, I landed at Panama Airport at night which is always a fun more adventurous start when you can't really speak the language, the dodgy characters are out in force, and you don't know where you're going! Thats not a whinge by the way, thats a serious remark. As my first personal venture into a land where I really cant understand anything anyone is saying and the way things work are foriegn to me, and running solo, it was a good adrenalin rush that I needed and once experienced might be harder to find next time as I'll get used to this kinda thing pretty quick I think. Off the plane and immigration and customs were slack as! The customs officer looked like he was going to be a real hassle, spotting me with
two passports and seemingly not understand dual nationality thinking one was fake, it got a little tense until he saw my last name. "Crowe, like Russel Crowe! haha, Russel Crowe!" in broken English and a strong Panamanian accent. As soon as he saw that and had a laugh, he waved me through without asking any customs questions and looking at my bags or anything, heh its great how that works sometimes... so a mental reminder on the russel crowe link, might save me some trouble with the law or something later on! The heat outside is wonderful, so hot and in your face. I love that kinda weather!
I tested out my Spanish on a female security guard knocking off duty heading towards where I thought the buses were, only for her to reply in English that yeh the buses were the way she was going. So grateful she came over with me coz I sat down and started waiting at the wrong bus stop! Once at the right one, as soon as I got out the travel guide and my Latin American phrase book, a couple of hosties from Iberia took pity on me and asked me where
I needed to get to and they tried to work out where I might need to get off the bus... then the bus rocked up. If anyone has been to Panama, and probably much like the buses in Peru and probably many other places down here, you'll know about these, they're great! They're privately owned and done up by the owners in all sorts of crazy paint jobs with custom horns, big truck exhausts, sound systems, painted inside too, with streamers and sparkly paint shit everywhere (or some combination of all that). They are in essence really shit Kalamunda bus style old old buses done up. Its a US quarter from wherever to wherever, simple. The gears crunch, the bus lurches all the time, and there are no such things as indicating or your side of the road it seems. You can stop just about anywhere, and get picked up totally from anywhere. Drivers have their hand on the horn for seemingly no good reason and to try and guess what the traffic will do is as reliable as guessing lotto numbers! However in all the chaos it seems to work seemingly very smoothly! Much better traffic flow than Perth,
Out the back of Zulys
Jungle creeping in everywhere although thats not too hard... Anyway, the magical bus aside, neither hostie knew where my place was and they hadda get off early. Oh yeh, almost forgot to mention: The buses - the door is usually open regardless of speed, and you get on and off mostly while the thing is still moving unless there is a few people. There is NO room for bags, and I had a big backpack, so it sat wedged next to the driver in a hole in the front of the bus, half in peoples road getting in and out of the bus, teetering on the edge of the steps while the bus jerks left and right, my bag moving closer and closer to the open door at some high speeds! It did however survive so now I kinda trust it. Anyway, distracted, the hosties got off and I was stuck with a phrase book, the lonely planet guide, my wallet just in my pocket, and felt like the biggest dickhead tourist target with a neon sign on my head saying please rob me! Another kind lady gave me some help though after i struggled to ask her what the local time was, and
Random Panama City building
this just made a nice picture... the building was beautiful up close but surrounded by a dead dirty and full of rubbish spare lot. showed me where to get off, and even got off and hailed me a taxi and explained in Spanish to the driver where to take me. I owe these locals already! However there was no need to explain to the taxi driver as no roads have signs, and he didnt know where the hell the place was anyway... after 20 or more minutes of driving when we were under 5 minutes away he gave the place a ring, and two descriptions later I was in the hostel happy to get there. Welcome to Zulys! See photos for description... a basic place, but cheap and did the job.
OK maybe I should have broken this one up into multiple blogs... yeh? yeh. Ah well, cant be bothered now...
Didnt talk much to anyone that night as I was kinda screwed so went to bed around midnight. Germain, the night watchman for the place spoke some English and was a pretty funny bloke. My room mates, well, they were asleep.
So the next morning I actually get my first glimpse of Panama City in the daylight, and the area Im in looks kinda seedy but is apparently real safe.
Enough containers?
The ship that passed through the canal while we were there Its a commercial kinda dirty so not too pleasant. Met a dude called Steven from Holland who was awesome and despite planning to do bugger all that day we actually ended up seeing both Casco Viejo and Panama Viejo (viejo means old, so they're the old parts). Panama Viejo, or The Ruinas is the ruins you see in the photos from a long time ago that were burnt down. Casco Viejo is the now delapitated run down old commercial centre for Panama as far as I know. Panama Viejo is cool to see but nothing breathtaking as it is more the written history and stories of the place that make it interesting. The ruins arent too well looked after and the poorer areas encroach and build on it so some of it has been lost to that and yeh, it just isn't maintained too well... I did get one mean milkshake combined with passion fruit and something else that Steven knew about though, that thing was awesome. To get to Panama Viejo isnt a long bus journey but its an interesting one as you pass through the main city centre and through some real dodgy looking areas that you wouldnt
want to get off in. It also gave me a good walk along some less built up coast where you see the tide waaay out. Casco Viejo is where the beauty was at: the buildings, the smaller streets, and the mingling of nature and man made with grass, trees and shrubs growing out of all corners of various buildings really gave the place some serious character! Its mostly due to it being run down but none the less its what I loved about the place. It would have been beautiful in its hay day. Walking around there I could have done all day, though seeing multiple police guards on every corner for the first few streets you walk, then seeing no police at all on the next few can be a little un nerving and exciting at the same time! Firstly the fact that they needed to be there, and secondly that if it is that bad then how bad is it where we are walking now with none around! Heh one street we were starting to walk down got me a greeting from a local guy coming out of it speaking spanish waving his arms saying not to go
down there and to go back and go around, followed by him pointing us out to lots of other people further on as he went... later I found out it was a real bad area to go into so thank fuck for him aye? I wont bore you with the details od Casco Viejo much more but suffice to say that the old hotel was awesome, the point where you look out onto the bay, where the old english cannon is, affords some seriously beautiful views, and this gave me a good taste of the area. Oh yeh, the walk to Casco Viejo from Panama City, wicked! Walk it, dont bus it, at least one way. Youd miss so much detail and wonder if you did. A warning though - theres some serious reconstruction going on along there. Its charm may soon disappear, replaces by artificial so called beauty. The Panamanians are so proud of it but to me it is a reason not to bother coming to Panama City again once its done as its going to destroy much of what I loved and extend the part that I didnt like at all. On a side note, one cool
character we met was from NYC and was hell dirty carrying an old bicycle tyre, doing some kinda work around there... he said he used to work in tourism, was from NYC, and was well spoken. As for why he was now in Panama looking dodgy doing scrappy work I didnt ask but your imagination can make up a whole lot of scenarios as to why he might be. Truthfully maybe he just wanted to live in Panama and would do any job to achieve that! He asked for change after the directions though so he hasnt exactly found his fortune here... but his directions and advice on Panama places was gold and so it was well worth it.
Casco Viejo also gave me a look at what I dont want to be already, and it reconfirmed it! A touristy tour taking tourist. A bus load of tourists in touristy clothes, big cameras around necks, getting off the bus with open maps that could block the sun, rocked up at one safe central point, checked out a church and museum, then left thinking they had seen casco viejo. They had seen nothing! All the beauty and real feel of
the area was away from that spot, that area was setup, and it sucks that they missed the rest! But it reminded me why Im not here to take guided tours when possible and why I just wander by myself. To me they may as well have not bothered coming. All the incredible shots off buildings and the run down hotel ruins etc. were NOT where they went to. The only cool thing they would have seen was the old building with the tree growing out of it, though I didnt see any facing that way and they were more interested in the Jade museum. They do however make good company as they are a pickpockets delight, with wallets half out of trouser pockets, gawking making stupid loud obvious comments about the place, carrying bags so big and open that itd be hard to resist taking something from just to point out to them how silly that stuff was! This is not to knock touristy tourists but instead the way that these particularly bad ones acted - they are by no means the standard and dont take this the wrong wayif you go to a country and do tours... theyre
good as an intro to place, but I think really need to be treated like that, and I dont think any of this lot would expand their journeys outside of the tour and they acted quite rudely towards the area I think so they're copping my verbal wrath...
OK enough of casco viejo, it was a basic quiet afternoon after that with some chilled chatter wit some Americanos doing some volunteer work in Panama to do with water treatment, 2 girls and one guy, and a basic dinner later I was sleeping soundly.
Day 2 it rained and rained hard till about 2pm. It didnt rain straight away... it waited for me to wash and hang out my clothes, THEN it poored! Heh, good luck eh? So we took it easy until the rain was over then me and Steven trekked our way to the Panama Canal. He travels just like me, on foot where possible, as cheap as possible (not for stingy reasons but because you see and notice so much more that way), and always on local transport with the people of the country rather than tourist buses or taxis when possible. The travel to the
Zulys front porch view
Heh not the nicest view or area but good enough Canal was half the fun and we caught the last English run down of what was going on for the day so our timing was perfect! The sight itself as a raw sight isnt breahtaking but when you start thinking about the enormous size of the operation, the precision involved, the impact it has had on shipping and ship design, and the death toll of its construction, you look at it with very different wide amazed eyes and suddenly it was a much much bigger impact. We saw the whole process in action at the Mira Flores Locks and Im glad I did! One of the wonders of the world ticked off the list aye? The area is really lush being near the water and is beautiful to walk through, a battle slowly but surely going on between man made and nature with both sides winning small battles here and there but with the war never ending. We bussed it back, made it near home, then managed to walk and talk for about an hour at which point we found ourselves waaay lost! Locals when you ask for directions dont say they dont know if they dont know... they just
The Rock!
Hes made it in Panama! I love these buses... on and off wherever you want, getting on and off without them stopping, 25 cents to wherever you want. Perfect! confidently point you in some direction! So we zig zagged our way so far outta the area that we hadda taxi back as it was after dark and getting dodgy. Had a good talk to Germain again and a chick from Vancouver Canada called Laura, then hit the hay for the night... no partying in Panama City for me but saw what I wanted to see and really enjoyed it. Id had enough though and couldnt see anything else in Panama that I wanted to see as much as things in other countries I would rather spend my time in, so decided it was on to Costa Rica the next day... I never planned to spend much time in Panama, mainly just a point to fly into and to see the canal. There is however lots to see and do here, so Panama lovers dont bag me out for not seeing the rest! Remember Ive got the rest of Central America and some of south to go, so its gonna be a bit like this in every country... its only a tasting plate, Tapas style, of each country, not a 3 course meal. Ill come back for that if I
love it. I also really needed to get outta the big smoke and hit up some beaches again, so I made Pavones, THE Pavones, legenedary wave and destination, my next target...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.181s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 71; dbt: 0.0993s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
itzsodebo
Dennis
did you go to Bocas del Toro yet? I just found this website called www.davidsbeenhere.com, this guy travels and promotes different restaurants, nightlife, sights, activities and hotels. That is one of the places that he has the most videos. Pretty cool place he also went to Gamboa, San Blas, and Boquete. Maybe this can be of a great resource for you! have fun in Panama, Dennis