Rainy Days in the City

On Thursday we decided to walk along Via España in the opposite direction than we have been traveling and see another side to the city. We’d already ridden past on the bus the day before, but wanted to visit the bookstore we’d heard had a good selection of both Spanish and English titles.

The 45-minutes walk took us past several shopping plazas and enabled Anthony to take some photos of the vibrantly painted buses. One thing we have loved throughout Central America is the bright, lively buses with amusing scenes and images. Here we have seen the backs of buses painted with varying images, like Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, The Rock, and religious symbols.Every bus is unique.

The bookstore was great. Yesterday happened to be the most humid of all our days so far so the air conditioning and smell of new books was a welcome respite from the heat and exhaust of the city streets. We found some great books, but with limited carrying space, we will only be trading in books as we finish them (one thing we’ve also enjoyed while traveling is the books trade and discovering new books).

We hopped on a bus to return to Mamallena for lunch and soon thereafter, it had also begun to downpour so we opted for staying indoors. Since we still had a few hours before dinner, we got on a bus to the Albrook Mall – the huge one we saw by the bus terminal.

This mall is bigger than any we have been in, we think. It had two food courts, filled with all kinds of American and other fast food brands (how come the malls in America don’t have every type of fast food in one place? What if someone didn’t want only McDonald’s as an option? Just a curious thing). There were also numerous shoe, electronics, accessory, watch, and clothing shops interspersed with department stores and kiosks. It was good for walking around indoors and gave the opportunity to search fruitlessly for a memory card for the Nikon. Unfortunately, the type ours uses is not the common type anymore, so it is not easy to find. Ours work fine, we just thought one additional back-up couldn’t hurt.

We enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner of bean, corn, and Spanish rice tortillas.

Parque Natural Metropolitano

We decided to visit two of our planned sights today since we skipped one yesterday. The Parque Natural Metropolitano is a tropical park completely surrounded by the city. The park is home to Monos Titi (Geoffroy’s Tamarin Monkeys), Perezosos de tres garras (three-toed sloth), white-nosed coati, Blue-Morpho butterflies, and many birds living among the tropical flora and fauna and other critters. It was a short taxi ride to the park and then we spent two hours walking the trails (los senderos) looking up for monkeys and sloths. Anthony heard something in the trees and when he looked over there was a little monkey right in front of us. The monkey hid behind a tree for a bit, but came out for a quick photo op before jumping among the branches out of site.

The park has a mirador overlooking the city all the way from the canal on one side to the Bahia de Panama and the skyscrapers on the other. It was well worth the walk and was not a difficult or overly strenuous hike. It is very much a rainforest right in the city – it was hot in there, but fortunately we had a nice morning and cool breezes made their way through the canopy.

We are fortunate to have seen the one monkey, because we did not spot any others. We also had no luck with the sloth, but we saw one in Costa Rica, so we can’t complain. On our way out, we saw a man taking photos in the trees, and looked up to see several different brightly colored birds romping and flying about. We took some pictures before they all hid away again. We also saw several blue morpho butterflies and other types of butterflies, some hummingbirds, and one mystery mammal (maybe a gibnut?). It was a lovely morning walk in the park.

Mi Pueblitos

Following our morning in the park, we traveled to Mi Pueblitos, an area at the foot of Cerro Ancon that has different types of villages found throughout the country. Since we have a short time in Panama it seemed a good idea to take a look.

Lucky for us, the rains decided to come as we left the park, so we had to wait them out browsing through some of the shops in the first pueblito that is modeled after those found in the interior regions of the country. We looked in at the model schoolroom (I wish schoolrooms had such good furniture in Belize!), a home, the village chairperson’s office, the barbería, the iglesia and a courtyard. We also had a lovely conversation with a local man who explained the type of village and shared his tales of traveling for six months in the US – to Wisconsin and all the beaches of Florida!

Next we visited the Afro-Antilleno village which differed with its brightly colored wood buildings.Since more rain began to fall, we sat in the church and waited again for some clearer skies.
We followed the road to the Aldeas Indigenas, but the section was closed. We actually were looking most forward to seeing a model Kuna Yala village, but were not able. However, we did meet an extremely friendly Kuna woman who invited us into her shop in order to “conocerlos” (get to know us). She told us all about Kuna traditions and how she learned to make molas simply by watching her mother and picking up scissors and fabric and using her imagination. She makes beautiful pieces and also talked to us about the traditional “uniform” she wears and that she feels the younger Kuna girls are now losing because they don’t want to dress that way. She explained she makes the beaded leg wraps in different colors for each month. She even thought ginnie could learn it easily, but ginnie explained in her broken Spanish that she did not quite pick up artist talent!(there is a picture of a Kuna Woman in her native dress in our previous post).

A brief respite from rain came again, so we made our way back out, only to be stuck again in the Afro-Anilleno village when the rains fell harder. Finally, with only drizzle we went to the main road to catch a taxi back to the hostal.

With these visits, our week in Panamá City comes to a conclusion and we travel on to our next stop on Sunday morning.

Where to next?*

We will travel west to a higher altitude and cooler, drier climate. Our next locale is home to “the world’s best coffee” as claimed by some, and brings us close to Panamá’s only Volcano as well as its highest point. Also, we will be there during the annual Festival de Flores y Café. Where will we be?

*Dear Friends and Family: to play along, either email us directly to the joint account or post a comment here (which goes to the same email anyway) with your response. The first person to answer correctly will be entered into a raffle. The raffle will take place at the end of our trip when we will pick a name from ginnie’s hat. The lucky winner will receive a special prize representing our travels! J

Old Panama

Casco Antiguo/Casco Viejo (we haven’t discovered why the name changed)

On Wednesday we took a walking tour of Casco Viejo, the “Old Quarter”, where original settlers of Panama relocated after the famous pirate Sir Henry Morgan attacked Panama Viejo in 1671. Today it is a piece of Panama that shows both its historical heritage and modern development. Additionally, both sites are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Let’s step back a moment and talk about the UNESCO World Heritage List. In July of 2009, we sat in Barnes & Noble during Anthony’s home leave and ginnie’s vacation looking at travel guides to plan our route. We had our dream list of places and it was getting complicated to figure out how we would map it out and what would tie it together. Our quite limited budget also factored into the plans. As we began to feel slightly overwhelmed, a thought came to us; we became familiar with World Heritage Sites in Belize due to the Barrier Reef and visiting other listed sites in our travels, so we thought we should theme our trip on these sites. Figuring there must exist a book on the sites, we immediately asked at customer service and lo and behold we found a large UNESCO World Heritage List book. To be honest, the layout of the book is a bit random, but by looking on their website it is easier to plan by country. As it happened, most of the places we had on our personal sights to visit list are World Heritage Sites, so it was a perfect combination. This helped us with planning for some of our coming country visits and provided a clear focus for prioritizing our limited time and budget. Take a look through the list, and you’ll see that many of the sites are recognizable.

Back to Casco Antiguo. We opted for bus transport since it looked a bit cloudy and our feet were pretty tired from the walk along Amador Causeway the day before. Ginnie wrote the basic site list of the various ruins, museums, and other points of interest in our small notebook so we would not have to carry a guidebook. Anthony recreated the map and we had all we needed to be on our way. Fortunately, we hopped on the correct bus (which wasn’t hard since a fellow traveler had done this a few days ago and told us which bus to take – Calle 12). The tricky part was being sure to lookout for el parque de los aburridos (the park of bored men) and Café Coca Cola. When the bus pulled near a small park, it seemed right so we decided to just hop off – luckily the café was right where described! Unfortunately, at the same time the clouds opened up and we found ourselves in quite a heavy downpour. We sought shelter under the small overhang of a building next to a fruit vendor’s cart. When the rain began to fall even harder, we found a wider overhang in the doorway of a cash advance place and just balanced on the ledge. It felt like quite a long time, and ginnie was ready to get on a bus and go to a movie when Anthony suggested a few more minutes (his instincts were honed well by Belizean rain storms!). Suddenly, blue skies began to move in and the rain slowed and we were on our way down Ave Central and into the heart of Casco Antiguo.

We first came upon one of the churches, Iglesia de La Merced and then continued to the Plaza de la Independencia where the Cathedral overlooks the park, much like in any Central American Spanish colonial city. We toured around the ruins and saw the famous Altar de Oro (Golden Altar) in Iglesia de San Jose. This altar was reportedly painted black by a priest when he heard of Henry Morgan’s attack on Panama Viejo and allegedly this priest convinced Morgan that it was stolen by an earlier pirate.

Whatever the truth is, the altar survived the attack and was moved to its new site when Panama Viejo was deserted for Casco Viejo. The altar is quite impressive; hopefully, our photos do it justice!

Below are scenes from La Plaza de La Independenica

we thought this was a unique way to reuse plastic bottles!

More walking took us by the Palacio de las Garzas where the president of Panama resides on the top floor. Due to a heavily armed guard and a blocked street, we simply looked from afar! The walk continued along the city and brought us to Parque Bolivar where we found yet another church and el Teatro Nacional and got to go in for a little walk-through and tour of the beautiful theatre.

the church tower

Behind el teatro we came to the seawall where we could walk along for yet more views of Panama and moored ships awaiting entry to the canal and came upon some Kuna women selling their craftwork. Kuna women dress as their traditional ancestors did in a colorful fabric skirt wrapped around the waist, a short-sleeved blouse covered in bright-colored molas (traditional colorful hand-stitched applique textiles made by the Kuna women), a gold ring through the septum, and with their legs wrapped from ankle to knee in long strands of tiny beads in beautiful intricate patterns. Many also wear a headscarf, many necklaces, rings and bracelets. We have seen many Kuna women walking through the city and tried to capture a photo while along our walk. We like to have a textile from the places we visit, so we’ve been looking at the molas and will soon find the perfect one!

By the time we reached the Plaza de Francia at the tip of Casco Antiguo, the rains opened up again (a few other showers came down as we were in some churches and ruins, so we just waited them out). This one caught us close to the dungeons that have been converted to shops and a restaurant, so we waited in the Thai/French restaurant there.

Once it cleared, we walked back through the colonial neighborhoods to return to catch a bus and got another downpour right by the waiting area – outside! We were not certain which would get us back around by our section of Ave Espana, so these extremely friendly gentlemen explained (in the fastest Spanish we have ever tried to interpret) which bus to take and where it will pass and where to disembark… needless to say, we had no idea which one to take, but one said to follow him and he’d show us and sure enough we were dropped right at the corner where we needed to be! We continue to meet some of the most friendly and helpful people in Panama. Also, we have heard some interesting Kriol-type speaking as well, sometimes we feel like we’re back on a bus in Belize when we hear Spanish and Kriol-ish in the same area.

Our day ended with a simple meal of tuna and crackers and some green beans – we will definitely have some interesting meals along this journey!

Panama Viejo

Thursday we planned a quiet relaxed day to rest the shin splints and blisters. After a very leisurely morning of breakfast and researching places to visit in the coming days, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and head out to the ruins of Panama Viejo.

This area was founded on August 15, 1519 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias de Avila (who, it is said, was so barbaric he beheaded Balboa in 1517 and ordered attacks on the indigenas and would roast them alive or feed them to dogs) and was the first European settlement along the Pacific. We caught a bus from Cinta Costera and took a busy ride through the more developed business and banking section of the city, passing two malls and a lot of American fast food until we reached the museum and entrance to Panama Viejo where we disembarked and walked along the ruins. It was a nice walk and we could read little tidbits on each of the ruins, most of which were churches.

We took a quick look in the Mercado de Artesanias but no molas caught our eye today…

The relaxed day concluded with a dinner of stirfry vegetables and soy meat we found at the Riba Smith supermarket. Another beautiful, and hot hot day in Panama City!

Paz y Amor!

Correction: the previous post states we visited Amador Causeway on Wednesday, that should have been Tuesday (we are sort of unsure of what day it is at any given time!)

Bienvenidos a Panamá!

We arrived in Panamá City on Saturday night after 12 hours of travel, 3.5 of which were spent in the Houston airport. It was a good day, though. We got a taxi to our hostal – Mamallena. It’s a great place Ant found online and booked for a few nights so we’d have a place to start. We decided to change our plans some and will be in

the city for a full week, so we almost had to move to a new place, but fortunately found out yesterday there was a cancellation so we will be able to stay until we head to our next locale. The best feature for us is the kitchen – we’ve been making our own meals, which we always prefer.

We've already been busy visiting sights around the city. On our first day we took time to just walk around the neighborhood. We are located in a great spot that is close to a major road with buses passing continuously and not a far walk to reach several interesting spots. We also took the day to readjust to the tropical climate, though in top form, ginnie again started off a journey with a bang not focusing on drinking enough (not feeling thirsty and not being conscious of the heat played a role) and we had a bit of a bout of dehydration. Fortunately, Anthony packed rehydration salts and after a dose and a rest, she was back up to speed and learned her lesson.

We now purposely bug each other frequently to make sure we are staying hydrated!

The sights so far:

Panamá Canal

We could not come all this way and not see ships pass through the Miraflores Locks to enter the canal. There are two good times to see the large ships: 9am and after 2pm. In order to ensure we did not miss anything since we were navigating the buses for the first time, we opted for the afternoon slot so we could leave early and just spend time at the museum and visitor center while we waited for a ship. We spent the morning walking in Cinta Costera, a beautiful seaside park with great city views and a completely relaxed feel.

We quickly boarded a bus after a delicious lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with yuca (aka: cassava) chips and made our way to the Albrook Bus Terminal. In all our travels through Central America we

have not been to such a ginormous terminal! It was as long as the neighboring mall, which looks bigger than any we have back home and had buses to pretty much anywhere from here. All the way at the far end was the spot for the buses passing by the locks. Anthony noticed a taxi stand, so rather than wait an undetermined length of time for the next bus, we opted for a taxi. The first one tried to get double the typical fare (which we had asked about before leaving) so we declined and immediately got the next one who gave the fair price of $5. (Panamá uses the USD, called the Balboa here, which makes it easy for now!). A lady in the taxi who spoke English told us to make sure we did not pay more to get back since this was a good price and told the driver what the other taxi tried to charge. Once she reached her destination, the driver gave us great information on where to catch a bus to get back and was really helpful with other questions we had.

Once at the locks, we purchased a full ticket which gave us the access to the museum and the top floor viewing spot. We headed out to the bleacher view area and since ships were still a bit outside the entrance, we decided to walk through the museum. Good thing, too, since we hadn’t realized we had entrance to a higher viewing spot at that point! As we made our way to the 3^rd floor of the museum, we saw a ship had entered the locks and immediately rushed to the 4^th floor and outside to the viewing area and squeezed in to a spot. The whole process is just an incredible engineering feat! Watching the water drain and the locks open and the tugboats and trucks (on train tracks) pull these gigantic ships was amazing. Ginnie took 165 pictures to capture the whole experience! The Auriga Leader ship you see closest was filled with over 5000 Toyota vehicles and paid $254,300.35 just for the initial fee, then $300 per wire for 12 wires with the trucks, then $2000 per tugboat for 7 tugboats, and who knows what else! All ships have to pay in cash 72 hours in advance of their entrance and absolutely no credit is accepted. During the day, from different parts of the city, one is able to see long lines of boats moored as they wait their turn to enter the locks and make a transit. It was well worth the visit.

Cinta Costera

This seaside park is one of the best parks we’ve visited. It has lanes for cyclists, runners and walkers and rollerbladers. It’s also right along the sea with incredible views of the skyline of Panamá, which is much taller and longer than either of us anticipated. Our first impressions when driving in on Saturday were that this was a massive city; it’s definitely bigger than Boston. The park has places to sit and relax, portable bathrooms (something we both find positive in a public place), recycling for everything, and is super clean – clearly people respect their environment here and that’s a nice sign. Our camera decided it had enough of pictures and the battery went on us, so we plan to return again, perhaps for a sunset stroll.

The walk to Cinta Costera passes right by an enormous hospital compound with the general hospital, a maternal hospital, and a children’s hospital. The street also has lots of pharmacies and a funeral home (which makes sense from a business perspective, but is sort of sad). We were impressed with the hospital facilities.

Amador Causeway

Wednesday we took another interesting and crowded bus trip to the Amador Causeway. This links three islands to the city and was created with the land dredged from the formation of the canal. It’s 3km long and we walked nearly the entire length. It also happened to be the first day the sun was out in full force without cloud cover and we both burned slightly (despite ginnie’s copious use of SPF 50 sport sunscreen!). There is a decided lack of sunbrella use in Panamá City, so that did not prompt us to get one!

The causeway provided more views of the city and we saw La Puente de Las Americas (Bridge of the Americas) and many more ships awaiting their entry to the canal. We enjoyed the scenic stroll (both now having a touch of shin splints and ginnie with blisters galore – oy!!) and took a LOT of pictures. We came out in order to visit the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Culebra and see their Centro de Exhibiciones Marines. When we arrived, we were quite hungry and in need of more water – we quickly entered the small shop and got ice cold water and Gatorade – refreshing! We sat at picnic tables by the turtles and had our power lunch (yep, more PB and yucca chips!). We explored El Centro and saw turtles, starfish, lobsters, an eel, and the lightning fish that is not native to Panamá but came with Hurricane Andrew in the 90s and has been eating a lot of the smaller fish in the region. We learned that Colombia is working to actively remove these fish from their waters since they wreak a great deal of havoc on the local marine life.

We were ready for a bus back to the city after several hours of walking, but it was a while before we saw one pass us going into the islands. We continued to walk toward the city and once the bus returned we flagged it down and squeezed in. The wonderful part of having lived in Belize and traversed the buses there is the preparation it gave for the packing in of as many people as possible to a small space – we are good at the bus travel!

We found a grocery store that sells “exotic” foods and they have Amy’s pizza, so we made a spinach pizza for dinner and spent time playing around with ginnie’s new favorite program, Picasa. Yes, we know, we’re late in the game on this, but for whatever reason we didn’t use it before. Better late than never, now ginnie’s hooked and has been making collages and correcting color balances on photos for your enjoyment.

We’ll try to post regularly with photos and new experiences. There is much more to see and do in the city, as well as in other parts of Panamá, so we’ll keep you posted right here J

Paz y Amor!