Gran Hotel Casino Soloy Panama City

... the best tamales! From there we jumped in a cab and headed towards the Miraflores Locks. There was a ship coming through the locks right as we arrived, so we got to see the whole process- pretty impressive! We read that each ship has to pay a fee to pass through based on its weight- the most a ship has ever paid is $200,000, a 90,000 ton French cruise ship, and the least was 0.36 cents, a man who swam through in the 1930s!

From there we pretty ...

... and talk with commercial boat captains over the radio, no luck with that, so we walked down the causeway to the Balboa yacht club. Here we found a bulletin board to post our sign and a Country Inn and Suites that we got to know well. The first time we went in was just to buy some water, but after free cookies from the front desk and some wandering around ended with Evan taking a shower in the locker room - a WARM shower! We bought a cigar and ...

... that the airport rocks. It's spacious, has a bunch of different dining choices and shops, and the one feature I loved....super-sized, roomy bathroom stalls! Easy in, easy out when you've got luggage with you. : ) You could probably do jumping jacks in these stalls they were so wide.

After all this fun, I continued on to Panama City, but ...

... and kitch for lack of a better term.  We went into the "Gold Church" which is the San Jose, and it was flashy and ornate and people stood in front of the alter to get their picture taken.  This was a first for me to see.

After visiting the churches, and getting my Mola's before heading out of San Blas tourist traps, we got an ice cream, one for me, one for a stray dog.  Ohhhh the dogs and cats!!!  Without fail, even though I know it's a culture different than mine, it just ...

... surfkiting 2t fra Pan. city!!! Dette er en krevende vannsport hvor man maa vaere ultrataalmodig foer man kommer til maalet! Instroktoren ble ikke sa veldig imponert da Live aapnet kurset med foelgende sporsmaal: " Is it safe to camp here?" "hoh??" "Yeah, there are ...

... to Panama City was an all day affair. It took Michael less time to get to the city from Richmond. All our plans worked out well, and Michael and I met up at La Estancia by about 6:00. This place is a palace compared to my hostal in Boquete, mostly Americans here. It is in a classy section of town called Cerro Anton, which is away from the business district high on a hill overlooking the city, a cab ride away from the downtown area and quiet. There are ...

Passing thru the Panama Canal. This morning at 7:00AM we entered the breakwater at Port Cristobal and began our transit thru the Panama Canal. It was the largest engineer project in the world when it was completed in 1906. It stands out as a government project because it was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Even thought this was our second transit of the canal, it was as magical as the first. This trip had even better weather than the first. We had one heavy ...

Panama City is a very large city with many modern skyscrapers along its shore and is dubbed the "Miami of the South". Our main objective here was to see the canal and head north to a smaller town. We started our day by heading out to Casco Viejo, the old city which laid in ruins for decades by locals who preferred to move to the more stylish areas being built around the city. The old city is now a ...

... of Chinese prisoners of war were donated to some guy who dissects bodies and you could see all the muscles and livers and stomachs, as well as small foetuses at different stages of development. I´m not sure where he got these from as I´m pretty certain the chinese POWs were all male... Also took in a great view of the city in a nearby park with hiking trails - really surreal to be walking in the rainforest when you can hear sirens and car horns. Today we finally saw the ...