Panama City
Trip Start
Nov 20, 2006
1
8
9
Trip End
Jan 22, 2007
3 days in,
Panama
Friday, January 19, 2007
After a really crap night's sleep in a noisy dorm room I went looking for another place to stay but couldn't find anything so I paid for another night and hoped for the best. I caught a taxi to the ruins of the original Spanish settlement that the Pirate Henry Morgan plundered in the late 16th Century. Lots of interesting Spanish ruins here including the old church belfry, one of the iconic symbols of Panama. Then off to the museum for some knowledge and culture followed by a taxi to the historical centre of Panama City.
I walked around here for a while and came across a large sound stage for the Panama Jazz festival. After another hour or so exploring the wonderful streets lined with grand colonial building and crumbling homes I listed to a couple of hours of Jazz at the free concert. Then it was off to the Cuaseway.
The Causeway was built during the construction of the Panama Canal from 1904 to 1914. It used millions of tonnes of excavated rock to build a break-wall between four islands at the Pacific entrance to the canal. I walked the length of the causeway then jogged back.
The next day I walked a few kms through Panama City and caught to bus to visit Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is one of the engineering wonders of the 20th century and stretched 80km across the isthmus of Panama from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic ocean. I saw two huge ships go through the lock system that lowers (or lifts) them 54 feet from the level of the Miraflores lake to sea level in less than 20 minutes - very impressive stuff. Then it was back to the hotel to load up the pictures for the blog and to start looking for a job online.
So I am finishing this off at Panama Airport about to fly to Santiago then Auckland and finally home to Sydney on 24th January. The last 6½ months of travelling through Africa, South America & Central America have been full of wonderful experiences and it has been the trip of a lifetime. Thank you very much for sharing the journey with Dee and I.
