It´s Tip Top, it´s chicken, it´s $2, its all good
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2006
1
26
90
Trip End
Dec 25, 2007
Loading Map
Panama City,
Panama
Monday, April 9, 2007
Christopher Cross: Sailing (Yeah this is the last one and what an absolue belter it is....as a wave of nausea sweeps over me again)
So here we are...vowing never again to try email one months travel in one hit. So how is Panama City, well I confess to liking it, in fact I like it a lot. Not least because the local Panamanians are so damn friendly, always good for a smile, the food is great and really cheap in places and once again I have been spenfĄding it with come great company. That helps a lot!
My first two days were my last two with Lisa and Jen as they were both flying out of Panama City on Saturday 31 March, Lisa continuing on to Buenos Aires and Jen back to San Francisco.
01 - Amazing engineering that is the Panama Canal
But not before a new Lisa rocked up, one without the ice-blue cast and ill-fitting crutches having had the cast removed to be replaced by a walking cast (complete with pump, think Austin Powers in International Man of Mystery) and a set of crutches displaying no sign of duct tape or the socks as padding. Classy indeed! That night saw us meet up with a Dutch mate of Lisa's, Hendrick as the four of us took in a local Panamanian show, complete with the 'stop or I'll shoot, is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me' dancers. Crazy Panamanians (try typing that quick) indeed! Then we spent the night watching the locals in action at Unplugged, Panama's attempt at the Seattle music scene. What's not to like about Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer...although the people of Seattle might have a problem with it.
This was followed by about four hours sleep before it was up at sparrows fart for a tour of Panama City...including the canal which had me really excited, Big Kev style. The three of us were feeling a bit sketchy and the tour presented in Spanish, French and English just added to the sketchiness. The tour guide was the female Panamanian version of Basil Fawlty, commenting time and time again on how the Jews are running the show, they have all the money and expensive shops and condo's whilst everyone else is left with the scraps. She was entertaining alright with such wisdom as 'Panama City has 40 McDonalds and many more fast food stores to choose from' not to mention our stop at the duty-free store where the temperature in the shade was hitting 35 degrees.
02 - The canal in action
Talk about cross promotion! And then we got to stay in the van for the rest of the tour through the old town trying to snap a photo through the window as we were clearly not allowed to get around and walk. And just as you thought it was drawing to a close we sped off in the opposite direction to the hotel to check out a pile of old bricks, all from the safety of our bus lest we get bored and fall asleep whilstb standing. However the Panama Canal was the clear standout and after spending only 90 minutes I was to return in coming days for a big session.
I treated the girls on their last night to my favourite digs, Tip Top...in Spanish they call it fritanga meaning a sidewalk bbq...the best chicken in the city by far. Just pay the non-smiling girl at the counter (still to smile after 6 visits...to anyone) for your 1/4 pechuga (roast bbq chook) and potato salad (with egg and beetroot...sweet fancy moses) and grab a beer in a styrofoam cup for the sum of $2.25. Take your tray to the bbq chef (the tongmaster of Panama...at least 10 quartered chooks on his bbq...this mans suffers for his chook), get your icecream scoop of potato salad, your 1/4 chook macheteed into 3, add the special sauce (don't go crazy with your condiments now kiddies), pull up your red plastic chair in full view of the bikini-clad Atlas Beer girl staring at you from the wall and enjoy the experience that is Tip Top. Glory days!
51 minutes left on the PC so I have got to finish this beast.......besides 6 hours in one hit on the net is about 5 1/2 hours too long!
In fact I feel some bullet points coming on to sum up my past week as my stomach growls, the eyes feel scratchy and the throat is getting as dry as..
My digs in Panama for the first week was at La Casa De Carmen, a great spot within walking distance of everything Panama City has, and it is a very easy city to walk around.
03 - A beer, a couple of boats, whats not to like?
The place was clean, the beds great, staff and guard dogs friendly, the kitchen and free internet a bonus and the talking parrot downright annoying.My posse for my time at La casa was Tracey (Barbados), Meredith and Rachel (US) who were all down from Costa Rica where they taught English. And the laughs were pretty much on tap, not to mention the fluffy animal suits. Long story but if you watch CSI you will know what I mean. But you should have seen Ted and Alice, crazy couple they turned out to be! Alice with her mean serve and forehand, Ted with his annoying twitch and ability to fart at rather innopportune moments. First stop was the Panama Canal where we went for an afternoon session as the Transatlantic ships pass through for the Pacific (reverse in the morning) but these ships are downright massive.
The trick is to wait for the umbrella wielding tour groups to leave, head down to the restaurant for pole position, grab a beer and sit and marvel at how these massive ships stay afloat, let alone the engineering feat that is the Panama Canal. Each time a ship passes through the Miraflores locks about 52 million gallons of fresh water is released the ocean. And so it was that we stayed until dusk, on the one beer watching huge freight ships storys high and oil tankers negotiate their way throught he Miraflores Locks on the Canal. Without a doubt one of the best things I have seen on my trip so far. Who would've thought?
Panama City is a shopping mecca so it has come to be that I have managed to ditch and replace those t-shirts showing signs of no return (refer climbing and biking in sweat and dust of Ometepe), grab a pair of trainers as the thought of going out in hiking boots for the rest of the trip was a no go.
04 - Lets call it a night...
And I have never seen more sport or shoe shops in the one city than what is here in Panama. Those with a shoe fetish (yeah, you know who you are) would go crazy and froth at the mouth in Panama City. And did I mention cheap? Due to the locals kind and friendly nature it came to be that Tracey and I managed to wing it into the pool at the classy Intercontinental Hotel for the afternoon. After trying to fit in as best we could we proceeded to hop the lift and find out exactly where the pool was in this joint. We went high to the 20th floor with no sign of water so a call to reception was in order (21st we were told), a fake argument for the camera`s should security be watching, a close call as we were nearly locked in the fire escape before our cunning plan was stopped by a lack of room key to enter pool area. So down we went only to discover near the lobby was a pool, a massive pool complete with towels and banana lounges and not a sign of security. So through we went and spent the best part of a couple of hours with all those suckers who had paid an arm and a leg to stay here, with our $12 digs a mere 15 minutes away, or as it turned out in trying to locate the salsa school, about 90 minutes walk away. And yes we did locate the salsa school 3 days later and it was near a casino (different one) and it did indeed have yellow doors.
Food has played a big part of the time here in Panama City, with for once, the Lonely Planet getting it right. Italian, Greek, Steakhouses, Tip Top and what should be standard for any fishmarket, a restaurant upstairs.
05 - Come Mr Talisman, tally me banana...
Heading to the market the Thursday before Good Friday was no different to back home as it was a hive of activity with the locals going crazy for the fish. The restaurant provided me with a great seafood risotto and being the only gringos you just knew you were onto a winner. Anyone heading this way should make a pōint of getting the fish soup, it looked damn fine. And how can I forget Niko's 24 hour cafe, an institution in Panama and the bay-marie to beat all bay-maries. Only the food tasted great and there was no mixing of flavours...no chicken souvlaki, touching sweet and sour pork touching spaghetti bolognese like back home. And you get change from a $5 as well. As for movies well at $2 a pop for new releases how could I go past Apocolypto (if squirmish avoid at all costs...unless the sight of a Jaguar feasting on the face of a bad guy (kinda OK I suppose) is something you can stomach. It was like watching The Fugitive in Mayan times. Which contrasted to Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happiness (Busca de la Felicidad in Espanol). No blood spilt in that one.
So now that brings me to now, Monday April 9 in Panama City. I have moved digs and am staying at Zuly's place, where there are no clean towels, free internet and thongs in showers could be the go, but at half the price I am not complaining. I have met Dave from Melbourne who had also met Shannan from Perth in Guatemala (small world I tell you) and we plan to head down to Cartegena in Colombia on Saturday by air as the boat stories have been pretty sketchy of late. Panamanian jails do not make a good nights accommodation! But before Saturday I will be heading across to the San Blas Islands...'fantasy-island islands with uninhabited beaches, covered by cocount trees, ringed by white sand beaches with the turquoise Carribean lapping at the shores. Fish, rice and hammocks here we come!
So my next email will commence the start of my trip down through South America so until then I trust everyone had a great Easter back home and around the globe and I look forward to hearing from you all soon.
Take care and sorry for the length and the trees that may crash to the ground in printing.
Cheers, love and everything in between,
Daz
