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.