Arrival in Panama City
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2008
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2
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Trip End
Feb 07, 2009
Panama City,
Panama
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
W stayed at the Hotel Milań. Nice palce for $55. We next took a cab to Casco Viejo old town. We have been to and thru Panama City before and therefore skipped the Canal Museum and the emerald Museum. We simply walked through old panama and marvelled at the amount of development going on. Everywhere you look there restoration work going on. These old buildng and the wooden supports are all rotten. The crews are replacing the wood supports with steel beams. All this effort is provided by a Unesco World Heritage Grant. The plan is to have all the structures n Casco Viejo restored by 2020.
The old city is located on a penninsula, thereby provding better defenses from attack. It has numerous squares in the city , each having important municipal and church buildings around each of the squares
Barb heading out
. We poked our heads into the Churck of San Francisco. It sits on the Plaza Independencia, where Panama declared its Independence. The nearby Plaza de Bolvar is where Simon Bolivar made a speech after expelling Spain from Equador, Columbia, Venesuela, and Peru. We had lunch at Casa Blanca, an upcale resturant. We were pleased to see that we recognized the waiter, Rick, who had served us two years before after a trip to Brazil. Rick had been busy since then. He now has a drink named after him , ¨Ricks Blue Mojito¨¨. In addition, he worked as an extra in the movie PRISON BREAK. He was offered the extra role by the crew who ate at Casa Blanca during filming the movie. So, if you get the movie lok for Rick, in his role as the waiter in the resturant scene.
Ther are a lot of Gringos here. Wherever you sit down to eat, neighboring tables are talking Condos, developments, etc.
We looked into the Inglesa de San Jose, with its Golden Altar. There is a story behind this church. It used to be located 8km to the east. That is untlil 1871, when Henry Morgan, the Welsh pirate AKA Blackbeard , with 1200 fellow pirates and sacked the original city of Panama
Hotel Milan
. The story goes that the Padre had heard that the pirates were coming, and had the gold covered altar covered in blackpaint. When Capt Morgan entered the church, the Padre explained tha another pirate had stolen his alter and this was all he had now for the church. The Padre asked Blackbeard for a contribution towards a new alter. Blackbeard reportedly gave the Padre 300 colons, and said ¨Me thinks Padre, that I am not the only pirate in this church.¨¨ Morgan or the reteaating Panamanians set fire to the city and it burned to the ground. The altar survived, and was moved to the new city, and is now on display n the Church of San Franbcisco. AThe weather changed in the afternoon. Big dark clouds appeared and it raned slightly. There were thunderclasps. We fly in the morning to David in the mounrtainous NW. We are hoping the weather calms down.
