Heading Home from Panama City

Our flight from Panama City to Houston left at 2:45 pm, so we didn’t need to get up early, which was a really fun (and unusual for us) way to start the travel day. We had a relaxing morning in the hotel and then wandered around looking for a post office to mail some postcards. We were able to find a post office after a few wrong turns and one accidental visit to a bank.

The lobby of our hotel. They put the tree up about halfway through our stay.

After checking out of the hotel, we walked a block away from the hotel with our bags and hailed a cab. We were a little worried that going all the way out to the airport would not be something the cab drivers were interested in doing based on our bad luck the day before.  A cab stopped immediately, though, and the driver was more than happy to take us to the airport. I think we offered $25, and he agreed to that price right away (this included the tolls). The traffic leaving the city was terrible, the worst we had seen during our time there. It took at least 25-30 minutes just to get to the highway. The cab driver was kind and spoke English so we chatted with him a little. He was also probably the craziest driver we had, which made those 45 minutes with him a little nerve-racking. At one point he pulled into a gas station, never turned off the car, gave the gas clerk $3 (gas is slightly more expensive in Panama than in the states and they use US dollars so this did not buy very much gas) and the second the clerk put down the gas pump, we sped out of there hitting the street going at least 25 mph… it was crazy. Once we got to the highway, the rest of the drive was smooth, quick and most importantly uneventful. 

Security at the airport went quickly without long lines or problems. We grabbed some lunch and a bottle of water and had thirty minutes or so to burn before boarding. A second security screening was set up at our gate. (I assume this is something that is chosen randomly and not something that occurs for every flight.) They took everything out of our bags, went through everything, unfolded everything AND made us throw away the water bottle we literally just purchased at the store across from the gate. Oh well. We sat together on the flight, always a bonus, and easily caught our flight to Salt Lake City from Houston.

Such a great trip!

A nice sunset before landing in Houston

Exploring Casco Viejo

We spent our last full day in Panama exploring Casco Viejo, the old town part of Panama City. We had the cab driver drop us off at the Seafood Market. We read that the fresh ceviche there is amazing, but the market wasn’t open yet. It was probably around 11:00am. We stood there for a little while watching the fishing boats. 

The fishing boats at the seafood market

More fishing boats with the skyline in the background

    

Walking up to Casco Viejo

We walked up along the edge of Casco Viejo and just started wandering around. It is a truly beautiful section of the city. The French influence on the architecture in this historic district is clear; it reminded us a lot of New Orleans. There is a lot of construction going on in Panama City in general, but it was almost unbearable in Casco Viejo. The neighborhood is in need of the construction being done, but it really does take away from the beauty of it. It was possible to imagine, however, what Casco Viejo would be like without the construction, and we spent much of the day saying out loud how amazing it will be when the construction is finished.

A beautiful balcony in Casco Viejo decorated for Christmas

Another picture of Casco Viejo and a small glimpse of the construction

It looked like it would definitely rain at some point in the day. It started sprinkling about 30 minutes into our wandering and we thought a down pour was imminent so we stopped in a restaurant for a few appetizers and a beer. We went to Diablicos, a Panamanian restaurant near the edge of town close to the water. We had ceviche with plantains, which was awesome, some empanadas and some Panama beers. 

We enjoyed delicious ceviche at Diablicos

Enjoying a birthday beer at Diablicos. There are four main Panamanian beers: Atlas, Balboa, Panama, and Soberana. We liked Panama and Atlas the best.

 The rain never came (or not yet, anyway) so we set off to do some more wandering. We hooked around the outside of Casco Viejo near the water and walked along the Paseo las Bóvedas, which is a long walkway along an old seawall. There are great views of the Panama City skyline, the Amador Causeway and the many ships waiting in the Pacific for their turn to go through the canal. At this point we could really tell that rain would come soon, so we wound our way back into the heart of old town and found a Mexican restaurant called Tequila’s. It did take a while for the rain to start, but when it did, it rained harder than it had on any of the other days. It was windy and dumping rain for about an hour and a half. We ended up having a couple of beers, a birthday tequila shot and eventually we ordered a burrito to share as well. The inside of the restaurant was small and after about an hour of raining, the roof started leaking and water was coming in the building. The atmosphere was nice, and it was a great place to wait out the rain. There were two other groups of people in the restaurant. One couple had their two year old with them. The two year old was out of control which provided us with some great rainy day entertainment. 

The Baroque Golden Altar at the Church of San Jose

After the rain stopped, we ventured back outside and continued the day of wandering. We made our way to the Church of San Jose, which is known for its Baroque Golden Altar. We also walked to the Church and Convent of Santa Domingo completed in 1678 and best known for the Arco Chato (flat arch). 

The flat arch at the Church of Santa Domingo. According to the guidebook this arch was reportedly used as evidence of Panama's seismic stability when the US Senate was deciding where to build a canal. It recently collapsed (this is the rebuilt arch).

After we were finished seeing Casco Viejo, we ended up walking about a mile and a half toward the city before trying to get a cab. The walkway along the water is really beautiful. We were definitely tired at this point and losing steam quickly. We’d probably already walked more than 3 or 4 miles in the day easily so we were ready to be done. We finally made our way off the walkway across a few streets and back over to a neighborhood and tried to get a cab. Unfortunately it was almost as difficult on this day (a Monday) around rush hour to get a cab as it had been on our first day. No cab driver wanted to go to the area where our hotel was located (El Cangrejo, Bellavista). The traffic is atrocious in Panama City and we assume they just didn’t want to battle the drive even if it was only 2 miles or so. We did eventually find a kind cab driver who was willing to go that 

direction.

The view from the walkway as we headed toward the city

We rested a little in the room and then got ready to head to dinner. The plan was to go to a restaurant that is known for traditional Panama food (Tinajas). We checked online at least five times and all the reviews and information indicated that it is only closed on Sundays. I think we checked so many times because we had a bad feeling it wouldn’t be open, but we were assured every time we looked it up that it was open on Mondays. The walk from our hotel to the restaurant was about 15-20 minutes. When we arrived we weren’t that surprised to find that it was closed, but we were really disappointed. Instead of pulling our usual wandering around for an hour looking for a new place to eat, we decided to just try the somewhat chain restaurant looking place across the street from Tinajas. It was already 9:30 and we just needed to eat dinner. The food was a little expensive and not that great, but the Monday night football game was on, so we enjoyed watching some football and enjoying dinner regardless. We took a leisurely walk back to the hotel and then had a beer on the roof before heading to bed.

Parque Natural Metropolitano

I am really terrible at sitting down to blog while Andy is home, hence another week in between posts. I was excited to sit down today and write about our third full day in Panama. The final day of the trip should be up tomorrow...or Saturday.

We left the hotel around 7:45am and caught a cab quickly to the Metropolitan Natural Park, which is a piece of protected tropical forest in Panama City. It was a 5 minute cab ride from our hotel ($3). The entry fee to get into the park is $2 per person. For the first hour we only saw two other people on the trail and after that ran across two or three small groups. We were absolutely fascinated with the leaf cutter ants (sadly there are no good pictures). They were huge, and they were everywhere carrying leaves in an orderly and amazing fashion. We also heard what seemed like thousands of birds and monkeys throughout our walk. It was such a beautiful hike!

The trail through the Metropolitan Natural Park

Andy standing in front of the same tree pictured to the left

Looking up at a very large tree

We took the trail up to an amazing lookout where there is almost a 360 degree view. We saw the canal and the skyline as well as miles and miles of lush, green forest. It was a wonderful way to start the day. We hiked for about two hours and by 10 am it was starting to get very hot, so we finished the loop and got in a cab and headed back to the hotel. A morning hike through this park is a must-do while in Panama City.

A view of Centennial Bridge and the canal from the lookout

Another great view from the top of the trail in Metropolitan Natural Park

After being dropped off near our hotel we went to Manolos, the place we’d eaten the first day. It was nice to relax and eat a hot breakfast after a long hike. We went to the pool at the hotel for an hour after breakfast before getting ready for the day. We had learned from our few days in Panama City that American football is popular in the city. College football was on televisions everywhere in restaurants and bars. Even the channels the hotel carried were showing many football games. The Bears were playing the Seahawks on this Sunday (I am a Bears fan, my husband is a Seahawks fan). We originally hadn’t thought we would bother to find the game while in Panama City, but seeing that it would be relatively easy to do, we decided it might be fun. Unfortunately the closest place that we were sure would have the game was Hooters, about a half mile away. We walked over there and got to Hooters about half time. The game was on a few TVs and the place was packed with NFL fans. It was fun to watch some of the game (the Seahawks won). The food was gross and the beers were expensive, but we enjoyed the hour and half or so watching football. 

We took an afternoon walk to get a closer picture of this building- Revolution Tower.

We planned on having dinner at the Istmo Brew Pub because we could see it from our hotel room and read that it was the first place to serve microbrews in Panama City. We thought it would be really fun to try the beers even though we’d read that the food was bar food type food and overpriced. We found a table on the patio. The waiter did not speak any English but eventually we understood he was trying to explain that they were not serving any of their own brews that day at all. He offered only a handful of beer choices available in bottles, none of which were Panama beers. We decided, just for the ambiance since it was a nice patio, to have a Bud Light, and then we would leave. We drank our Bud Light, and then the waiter tried to charge us a dollar more each for the beer than what the menu indicated, which was already a lot compared to what we’d been paying for local Panama beer. We ended up paying the price on the menu, but we were glad we spent such a short time there.

Unfortunately we weren't able to try any of the micro brews at Istmo Brew Pub.

We did not feel like walking a long distance to find dinner, and we ended up at Caffe Pomodoro again. We really enjoyed it on the first night and loved the patio so it was worth going again. We enjoyed our meals even more the second time. Andy had chicken lasagna, and I had some vegetable pasta and was impressed. The vegetables were plentiful and not overcooked. There was some confusion with the check this time. The waitress brought the wrong amount of change (short about $10). She didn’t speak a word of English and we were having trouble coming up with enough Spanish words to figure out her confusion. Eventually the correct change was brought to our table. She was nice about it, so I don’t think she was trying to just rip us off, but we still don’t know where her confusion started.  It could have been a scene from a movie though. I am sure at least a handful of the other restaurant patrons within earshot spoke both English and Spanish, and it must have been hilarious to overhear our confusing bilingual conversation. 

It was another great day.

Panama City: Canal Day

I took a break from blogging to enjoy a trip to the Seattle area for Christmas. I am excited to finish the blogging from Panama so I can start planning our January adventure! So, here it goes…

We booked a partial canal tour through Panama Marine Adventures on our second full day in Panama. It was about $120 each to do this tour, and it was well worth the money. We left the hotel around 8am, caught a cab quickly (a much easier process on a sunny Saturday morning) and arrived at the Flamenco marina about 8:20am. It was a beautiful morning. The Flamenco marina sits out on Flamenco Island which is the last island of three that are connected via a causeway called the Amador Causeway.

The view of the Panama City skyline from Flamenco Island

We knew there were many restaurants out on the small island around the marina, so we ate a cliff bar in the room before leaving the hotel assuming we could grab something before getting on the bus to start the tour. EVERYTHING was closed. We were so hungry. We had an extra bar and some trail mix and ate those, but by 10 am we were feeling very faint…luckily the view and tour were great and kept our mind somewhat off the hunger until lunch time.

We took a bus from the marina and drove about 45 minutes to the small town of Gamboa which is where we boarded the boat for the tour. We were immediately overwhelmed with the beauty of Panama and the overall impressiveness of the canal.We have so many pictures from this day, and we love every one of them. We entered the canal at the north end of the Gaillard Cut where the Chagres River flows into the canal. The Gaillard Cut was carved through the Continental Divide, which was a really interesting part of the tour. 

A view of the Centennial Bridge and the flag of Panama

The Centennial Bridge and the section of the canal where they carved through the Continental Divide

Throughout the tour it was possible to see the work being done as part of the canal expansion project, which is an impressive seven year project that is slated to be finished in 2014. Right before reaching the first set of locks that we would cross, we went underneath the impressive Centennial Bridge. In the Pedro Miguel Locks our vessel was lowered about 29 feet. 

Pedro Miguel Locks--The arrow tells the ships which side of the locks to enter

 

 

Pedro Miguel Locks

A large container ship waiting its turn to go through the locks

It is a short distance between the Pedro Miguel Locks and the next and final set of locks before reaching the Pacific Ocean, the Miraflores Locks. Here we were lowered 54 feet in two steps. After the Miraflores Locks, we passed under the Bridge of the Americas and back out to the Flamenco marina. It rained for about an hour of the tour, but afternoon rain showers were what we expected and there was a large section of the boat that was covered.

Miraflores Locks and the visitor's center

A great view of Ancon Hill from the canal

The tour company provided a great lunch; I think we ate as we were in between the two sets of locks in Miraflores Lake. They served traditional Panama food, which we enjoyed. We had so much fun on the tour and learned a great deal about the history of the canal and the impressive engineering work that was necessary for this project to be successful in the early 1900's and continue to operate successfully today. 

Looking past the Amador Causeway at another great view of the skyline

Looking back at the Bridge of the Americas

These are ships waiting in the Pacific for their turn to enter the canal. The wait is about an average of 24 hours but can take many days. 

 After we got off the boat, we walked to the next “island” and found a snack there as well and did a little shopping for souvenirs. We decided to get in a cab after our stops and head back to the hotel. At this point we were exhausted anyway and ready to relax for a little while before figuring out what to do for dinner. We got our bathing suits on and went up to the roof top pool planning on sitting in the hot tub for a few minutes. Although the temperatures were in the 80’s every day, the rain really cooled off the afternoons, so sitting in the hot tub actually sounded really nice. Unfortunately the hot tub was as cold as the pool, but we sat with our feet in the water for a little while and enjoyed the view of the skyline. For dinner we wanted something simple and ate at a small Greek place about a block from the hotel. We enjoyed our dinner and then headed to bed early since we’d planned an early start for Sunday as well.