Panama City Day 1

Whew. Finally made it back from Panama, and what a trip it was. I highly recommend Panama as a vacation spot if you are looking for somewhere to travel internationally. Just take me with you when you go...I'll do the translating!

After waking up and cooking chocolate chip-banana pancakes for breakfast, we began to explore the city since we got in late the night before. We enjoyed making pancakes every morning, as well as cooking dinner every night at the hostel.

Next, we headed off to the Panama Canal. We went through the museum, and then got to watch a ship go through the Miraflores Locks. It cost this ship $193,000 to pass through the canal, which saved it over $2 million should it have to go all the way around the South American continent!

Note the change of the level of the ship as it sank down with the water in the locks. They are getting ready to build a new set of locks that are more efficient. The current locks are too small for really big ships, and the canal will become obsolete in the trading world by 2012 if they don't improve the system.

Afterwards, we headed to the walkway between downtown Panama City and Casco Antiguo. It is probably a mile long, with great views of the city skyline and the Pacific.

Next we headed to Casco Antigo/Viejo. This is an older part of the city that has parts fixed up very nicely, and others are more like slums. The parts that are fixed up are very pretty, and there is a lot of history in this part. The president lives here, and it is also the location of the national theatre and many places to eat and shop. This pic is an example of how the historic streets looked.

Remember you can click on the pic to make it bigger in order to see more details.

Pura Vida,

Billy