Panama City photos

Here are pictures from my Panama trip.

Beach day

Today was our last full day and Vicente had planned an outing to take us to a beach club about an hour away from the city in Coronado. We hit the road driving over the Bridge of the Americas. On our way, we stopped at a super nice rest stop (like European ones) as well as a famous and very busy dairy stand, Queso Chela for a rice milk drink. We learned that cows are let out of trucks at the side of road during daytime because there is a 1 hour limit for them to be in the truck. The stand was also a place to buy lottery tickets and fruit from different vendors. The first stop at our destination was the club house and the pool, with beautiful warm water and lounge chairs in the ankle high shallow area. Lunch at the club was a Panamanian chicken soup called sancocho which was delicious. After a short pool break, we hopped on a shuttle to the beach, passing some fancy houses on the way that are primarily used for weekend retreat. A beautiful beachside bar with cabanas on the black super soft sand greeted us. The water was as warm as a bath if a little murky. 

On the drive back, we swung by Vicente's families old home here and made a brief pit stop back at Queso Chela to meet Vicente's daughter, who was heading out of town. We had a smooth drive over the new Centenario bridge until we hit bad traffic, even coming to a standstill for awhile. For our last meal, we headed to Diablicos for traditional Panamanian food. The food was only so so but the room was wonderfully decorated with devil masks and there was entertainment of folk musjc and dancers doing traditional dances in full costume. It was a nice way to end our last evening.

Panama Canal

Today we had a bit of a surprise in the morning: no water! After a delayed start, Vicente came, fixed it and we went to the American Trade Hotel for a really nice breakfast.  

Then it's off to the Canal. We got to see a ship passing through from Pacific on its way to the Caribbean at the Miraflores locks. They have a nice exhibit here explaining about the old as well as the new locks, plus some of the local wildlife, and a simulation of being in the captains deck of a ship passing thru part of the canal.

After a drive through​ some horrible traffic (Panamanian drivers are crazy), lunch was at a lovely Italian restaurant with delicious spaghetti and spumoni ice cream followed by Frutita (of course). I tried the guanabana bastido this time. So yummy! When we got back to the house, we dropped off some stuff and we ladies went out to do a little souvenir shopping.  

Tonight we headed back to the American Trade Hotel's adjacent jazz club for a singer that Joel remembered from last year. It was a Cuban band with an amazing singer, Idomea Dowman. They played at least one song I recognized from Buena Vista Social Club. There were a couple of larger groups in the club and a few ladies sang along with a conviction and passion that would put American Idol contestants to shame. The group performed for two solid hours and we ended up quitting for the night before they did! 

Old ruins and tropical storms

Today's breakfast spot was a cute French cafe called dodo. My omelette was small but unsatisfying. We stopped at some shops, returning to Casa Sure for a smoothie and almond croissant for the road before getting into Vicente's car for the drive to Panama Viejo to see the ruins of the first colonial settlement which was burnt down by the pirate Henry Morgan. The site has a nice small exhibit of the daily artifacts that have been found here. It was particularly hot and humid so while I would've liked to take more time to stroll among the ruins, I didn't protest when everyone else chose to take the tram back to the car.

Lunch today was at a Greek place where all the staff knew Vicente (which happened at all the restaurants we went to), I had delicious pork gyros, we all shared grilled pulpo (octopus) and eggplant. No meal is complete without a drive through Frutitas of course. Vicente took us on a mini tour of a different part of the modern city on our way back to the apartment. Our original plan was to return to Panama Viejo after a rest for free ballet but it was pouring rain in the early evening. It cleared by 7p but when we got there, turned out to have been cancelled. We drove around the Costa d'Este new developments which are built on landfill. The area is full of fancy condos and houses but Vicente was skeptical of the value of the area.

Biomuseo and Peruvian food

This morning we tried a different place for breakfast, Casa Sucre. I had a typical Panamanian breakfast​ tamale of chicken & raisin in banana leaf. We headed back to the Canal Museum again, which has some nice info on pre-colonial Panama and the American canal building efforts into modern times but is missing the French efforts entirely, which is strange. We met Vicente for the drive to the Biomuseo again. This is Frank Gehry's only building in Latin America and has a small but interesting exhibit on the wildlife interchange when the land bridge that became Panama emerged out of the sea. Thr staff are young and friendly staff but the exhibits are only partly complete. The museum has some nice gardens around it and a view of the Bridge of the Americas, which was the first bridge to connect North and South America, and the Pacific entrance to the Canal. 

Lunch today was at a Peruvian restaurant, Puntarena, where we had our best meal of the trip, mostly delicious seafood. Dessert was suspiro tres leches pudding (which definitely made us all sigh). On our way back we stopped to visit a small banking museum with stamps and coins (and also because Vicente needed to visit his lawyer in an office across the street). After a short rest, our evening stroll took us to the roof top of Barlovento for drinks and light snacks.

Exploring Panama City

On our first morning, we went to the Super Gourmet/Cafe Testa deli as Vicente suggested for breakfast. I had an arepa with ham and gouda and a cafe con leche. Coffee here is so smooth! Starbucks should take sone lessons. The proprietor is originally from Venezuela (hence the arepas). We would discover there are a lot of people from lots of different places around the world here. Many came generations ago to work on the Canal. Some are more recent arrivals.

We had planned to visit the Canal museum in Plaza Independencia (which is the square that Vicente's apartment is in) however we discovered it was closed on Mondays so we walked around the area to check out the local shops and the open air market that's located on the old city wall. There were crafts people painting jungle critters on bird feathers and carving them into palm nuts, woven bracelets and baskets along with the usual touristy fare. The market leads to Plaza Francia where a column is topped by a rooster. Apparently this is a memorial to the French workers on the original Canal project (over 100 years ago) many of whom died of yellow fever and other tropical diseases. 

Later in the morning, Vicente picked us up to go to the BioMuseo but that was closed also (Mondays!). We drove along a causeway towards a yacht harbour for lunch at Leno & Carbon. I had a mixed brochette and we shared some ceviche while overlooking the yachts and tons of large birds. In addition to the vultures, there are a lot of other migrating birds here who are funneled through this narrow strip of land between North and South America. Brown pelicans are the most conspicuous but there are frigatebirds and a crow-like bird called talingos. The talingos are particularly vocal and social and we can hear them every morning chatting in the treetops.  On our way back to the apartment, we drove through Frutita again. This time, we also drove through a drive-up ice cream stand for some miel de cana ice cream. Vicente took us on a 'scenic' tour through​ the older part of modern city but I was sleepy and napped in the car. Back at the apartment, we all chatted with Vicente a bit then headed up to the roof for a view of the modern skyline at night. We walked Vicente back to his car and headed to check out Casca Corso, a three story restaurant with a roof top bar for a drink and appetizers.

Arriving in Panama City!

Somehow I got myself invited to Panama City with my friends Joyce and Joel, along with another friend Suzanne. 

Joel has a friend, Vicente, who he met in military school. They had lost touch but he found him again recently. They went down last year to visit. Vicente has an apartment in Casco Viejo (the colonial part of town) in addition to his regular city home. Vicente told them that they should invite friends to visit because the apartment doesn't get used, his kids are busy, he's busy. Joyce decided that Suzanne and I are the kind of people who are open to new adventures. So here we are, arriving at Tocumen Airport from a red eye flight. As we approach the airport, from my window seat I can see a whole pack of ships sitting offshore, waiting for their turn through the Panama Canal. This is definitely a unique place!

Vicente picked us up in his BMW SUV and drove us through the modern city, with its skyscraper skyline. The air is humid and hot. We are clearly in the tropics. 

On the way into Casco Viejo, we pass by the fish market, pass some rough looking neighbourhoods, lots of trash piled around, coconut palms and unusual flora on the way. As we enter Casco Viejo, the streets turn narrow. There are ruins and shells of buildings next to beautifully renovated buildings with beautiful ironwork and, strangely, black vultures everywhere. The condo entry has super steep stairs and a rough looking entrance but inside is beautifully decorated in an Italian style with 2 small bedrooms down stairs and a bigger master suite upstairs, each with its own bathroom. A metal staircase leads to a roof deck with a view of the ocean. Vicente left us to get rested for a couple of hours. In the afternoon, Vicente came back with his wife Gina. We walked to a cute restaurant, Pastissima, with a cool old stone wall, for a delicious Italian lunch. After lunch we drop off Gina, and Vicente took us around the area of town that he lives in (everything is 'two blocks from' his house). We went to a drive-up little fruit stand, Frutita, with a giant line of cars and I had maracuya (passion fruit) batido (basically a fruit milkshake). Delish!! We returned to Frutita many times over the week.

In the evening, we took a stroll around the neighborhood, noticed all the lines at various ice cream stands, before turning in early.