Panama City - Day 5
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2008
1
5
12
Trip End
Mar 24, 2008
Panama City,
Panama
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Forgot to mention, but at our last hostel (Casa de Carmen), we ran into the people whose boat ran into the ship we were on in the canal! We were on the Pacific Queen whose window got smashed in by the bow of a small sailboat that had tied up alongside. We didn't see what had happened and we had been curious ever since then whose fault it was! Two of the people from the sailboat were at Casa de Carmen! In fact, one of them is the co-owner (Virginia), the other being her boyfriend, Carl. They both were right there on the deck of the sailboat when the whole thing happened. In a nutshell, they said that all the lines tying them to our boat had not been untied, and suddenly our big boat takes off! Our boat's captain gunned the engines! Their small sailboat was getting dragged along, still tied to our huge boat, quite dangerous! The sailboat's anchor ended up going through the window of the Pacific Queen. Sounds to us like it's the Pacific Queen's captain's fault, despite his presumably superior experience.
Estancia Dining Room
But Carl said that Pacific Queen nastily refused to allow the sailboat to tie up again later at the next locks.Carl was a very nice guy and very fun to talk with. He lives in Pennsylvania, though he's been in Panama for several months now doing some improvement work on the Casa de Carmen house (new roof, several new rooms, building a fountain) for his girlfriend Virginia, the co-owner. Talk about long distance relationship...
Another fun meeting we had at Casa de Carmen was another guy with an Asus EEE PC! First other EEE I've seen in the wild. Very excellent! He also loves his EEE.
Well, last night we did get to see a movie! Our first choice was Horton, but they said it would be all in Spanish, a bit much for us to understand. Our 2nd choice was "The Bucket List" which they had in English, and Spanish subtitles. There is no saying "kick the bucket" in Spanish, that's only an English thing, Spanish-only people would have no idea what "The Bucket List" means. So, the movie title down here is "Antes de Partir," which translates to "Before Leaving." We enjoyed it! Nice movie, fun, good moral, and two good actors. It's SO great to see movies in English with Spanish subtitles, you learn so much Spanish that way! We only wished they had more cussing in the film, would be nice to learn some of those words in Spanish.
Then after the film we taxi'd down to Calle Uruguay to check out the ritzy nightlife scene Panama is famous for. Didn't find much, being a Monday during Holy Week.
Estancia Internet Room
Pretty mellow, many clubs not open. We had dessert at "Crepes and Waffles" restaurant (yum) which they pronounce "Cray-pays y Wafflays".This morning we woke up early and went to the ruins of the original Panama from the 1600s, called Panama Viejo, which was sacked and burned by the pirate Henry Morgan. We got up at 6am to beat the heat and the traffic getting down there. NOT! Though that would have been very industrious of us. No seriously, we slept until about 9am and finally dragged our butts out of bed in time to have breakfast and check out at noon. Maybe we'll get to Panama Viejo later in the week?
We moved again to our third hotel this afternoon, La Estancia Bed & Breakfast. It is also very nice! It's on the hill overlooking town called Cerro Ancon. The owners and staff here are VERY friendly and helpful and they all speak excellent English. They have really thought of everything for their guests' comfort - very nice sitting areas with good sofas, free Wi-Fi, community computer, and of course the free breakfast tomorrow morning. Hope it's good!
We have had three VERY different views of Panama City from our three hotels:
From Hotel Acapulco - Panama City is a bustling, traffic-choked place, very loud, very smoggy. During the day, keep an eye out around you and watch your stuff (pickpockets); at night do not walk anywhere, take taxis only. Panama City people are not very welcoming of outsiders.
From Casa de Carmen - Panama City is a bustling, traffic-choked place, very loud, very smoggy.
Keli jonesing for a McFlurry
Panamanians are very friendly welcoming people who love to talk and laugh! During the day you can walk anywhere, at night it's best to take taxis.From La Estancia - Panama City is a beautiful place with the most gorgeous natural beauty right up to the edge of the city. Watch out for monkeys, sloths, and other critters. Feel free to walk around anywhere on the hill during the day or in the middle of the night. Panamanians are very welcoming and friendly!
La Estancia is only $5 more than Carmen, and only $11 more than Acapulco. Only thing is, it costs more for taxis to bring us up here onto the hill. The first taxi that brought us up here wanted $15 since he got lost and wandered around. Hardly our fault, he's supposed to know where he's going! But I didn't argue. The next taxi we had a little map from the hotel and he asked only $5. We have been talking in Spanish with all the cabbies, it's so fun! As long as they don't talk too fast we do pretty well.
This afternoon, we took a walk down the hill into town. The hill where our hotel is located, Cerro Ancon is where the canal administration people lived in former times. It's very peaceful and there's a gate on the road for security. Once we got back down into town we were right back into the traffic and smog. But there was a McDonald's! It was fun going there and ordering a McFlurry with M&Ms in Spanish. We found a little buffet restaurant for lunch and then took a taxi out to the Amador Causeway to ride bikes.
Keli on Cerro Ancon
The Causeway is a road they built in the bay that links 3 islands that were there. They built the road by dumping in about 10% of the rock they dug when cutting the canal! It was fun riding bikes and getting some good exercise, though the ride back was hard against the wind.For dinner, we taxi'd over to our Mexican restaurant, El Patio Mexicano. They are so nice there! And happy to make food just the way we want it. Then we had one of the more fun experiences of our time here, Salsa dancing at Calle Uruguay. We went to a club called Bamboleo where they have open Salsa dancing lessons and took a great private lesson from a woman called Gloria. She's the wife of the main instructor there named Alberto. Both are very nice and very good teachers. It was very fun dancing together and it was really great talking with Gloria. She answered all our questions about living in Panama and about Salsa dancing. It was a wonderful cultural experience and also just lots of fun. We walked around Uruguay street for awhile to see what other clubs were hopping, but it was still early, not too many people. Things don't get moving until at least 11pm, even on a Tuesday! We probably should have stayed but it was only 9:30 and we thought it would be too late if we waited around for two more hours. Oh well.
Then we taxi'd back to our Cerro Ancon and walked around the streets on the hill near our Estancia B&B. So liberating to walk around at night and feel completely safe! BTW, Keli has the record between the two of us - 20 mosquito bites total, 16 on her left leg and 4 on her right. Probably all received at our last hotel. Gotta get her some anti-itch cream so she doesn't go crazy.
Last night's salsa dancing was EXACTLY the kind of experience I was hoping for here in Panama - fun and a fascinating cultural experience. Friendly local people who let us be part of the gang so that we get a glimpse of what it's like to live here. I LOVE IT! But I have to say it's been pretty hard to find on this trip. It seems to be the type of thing that you only find out about after you've been here awhile. Only the locals know about it. It's very hard to find on the Internet from back in the US, and the guidebooks don't talk about it. And it's the main thing I want from traveling! A different type of guidebook is needed for this type of culture-rich traveling.
Well, tomorrow we do plan to get up early and go to the Parque Natural Metropolitano, the big jungle park right outside town. Think we'll actually wake up? We'll see...
