Scenic Sights of Panama City

  Panama City, Panama
Friday, January 25, 2008

Church Tower

I have been in Panama City for almost two weeks and now have a few photographs to show.

Panama Viejo

Starting with Panama Viejo, the old Panama City founded in 1519 by Spain. It was a thriving city that provided a port for ships carrying plundered gold up the coast of South America. It was destroyed by the Pirate Henry Morgan in 1671.

Old Stone Walls

      

More Stone Walls

 
There is only a church tower and some stone walls left standing. 
                                                                     

Miraflores Locks

       Panama Canal

The next pictures are of the canal. At the time of Panama Viejo the gold was carried by mules across the swampy land for about 40 miles. Then it was loaded onto small boats to float down the Rio Chagres to the Caribbean Ocean where it was reloaded on ships and sent to Spain. 

The modern locks were completed around 1915, after efforts by the French and then American engineers to build them. It is incredible that they are still working after 90 years. 

Ship Moving out of Locks

The new locks will be added on the north side of the canal in a wye configuration so that both old and new locks can be used simultaneously. The new locks are also being built to conserve water. 

A view of the bridge from the Balboa Yacht Moorage

There is an interesting museum in Caso Viejo that has pictures and movies of the canal construction. Unfortunately all the description boards are in Spanish. That's more incentive for me to practice my Espanol.

 Caso Viejo

After the Pirate raid the town was rebuilt on a peninsula called Caso Viejo. There is some interesting architecture and trendy restaurants in one small area. It is being restored and will be a tourist hot spot in 5 to 10 years. When I was on a group tour in this area, whenever we drove past an old gutted building I would joke ¨That would make a good bed and breakfast.¨

A Trellised Walkway with flowers!

Walkway and City

It is safe to walk from Independence Plaza to the end of the peninsula, by day there are a lot of tourists there. From the plaza toward downtown is rundown and poor, and generally not a good area to be walking in at night - so take a taxi. I was going to dinner one night when I made the mistake of asking the taxi driver to drop me off so I could photograph some interesting statues.

Museum Steeple

He would have waited - but like a gringo I waved him on. It was getting dark as I walked through the part of town I just warned you about. A few police stood at corners as the people walked home from work. As darkness fell I walked faster and faster, keeping both eyes open for trouble as I navigated through the narrow streets. Fortunately nothing happened to me - but TAKE A CAB.  

Steeple at Night

I finally arrived at Manolo Caracol where I had an excellent dinner with friends from Juneau. For $20 you get an 18 course meal with a variety of excellent flavors. Portions were small, from one to five bites. Ahh but what tasty bites they were! They also have a wide variety of foreign wines.

Mi Pueblito

Traditional Dresses

Other touristy areas of interest include Mi Pueblito, it is a small scale village and full scale souvenir shop. The picture of the dresses was taken in a small museum there. I bought a few small trinkets there, and at one shop I stumbled on a real good deal. A Cuna Indian lady was selling a strip of moles (brightly colored cloth designs of birds and other things). She showed me a strip about three foot long containing 5 square moles, and she only wanted $10 for it. I was so excited that I asked for two. I could just imagine the two long colorful strips hanging on my wall. Then she asked me which one I wanted. Puzzled I pointed at the first strip, and she took it in her hands and ripped it in two! My eyes bugged out and I almost screamed --- Stop! What are you doing? I guess I only bought two small squares, not the long strips I had imagined. Darn it!  

                                                 Late at Night

Other nice night spots to eat or party at include Via Argentina and Calle Uruguay. Via Argentina has a variety of small restaurants. Last night I had dinner at Taberna 21, a small air conditioned sports bar with excellent Spanish food. I had a kabob with roast chicken, onion, and peppers, and covered with a tomato sauce.  

Statue in wall of a Theater

Calle Uruguay is where you go on weekends to party all night! I recommend Peoples Bar for Latino Hip-Hop, all the people were bopping up and down. El Bomboleo has hot salsa music with a small dance floor. There are numerous other bars with cover charges of $5-10. If you want a bite to eat the street vendors serve fresh tacos and nachos. I just love Mexican food, but most restaurants don´t serve that style of food.  

                                                     Tours

My friend Kevin has some nice tours of Panama City and the surrounding countryside for prices that are half the competition. If you have two weeks to spend here, I would highly recommend him. Search for barefootpanama on the web.