However, don't let me get ahead of myself. It's been about a week without any updates, and I plan to fix that. As I mentioned in my very brief post I spent Monday through Thursday in San Blas, an Archipielago of 365 tropical (ie covered by palm trees) islands north-east of Panama City.
Whoops - once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Lets start at the beginning. On Sunday morning I arrived in Panama City at 4 AM after taking the night bus from Bocas del Toro. (Note to future travelers - dress warmly for the night bus - they put their AC on arctic ice storm). After a brief nap (somehow my sleep on the bus wasn't that good - who'd have guessed that?), I met up with Kim and Barb, travelers from the west coast (CA and WA) who I'd met in Bocas del Toro. We then went out to see all that Panama City had to offer. Turns out, not too much - by dinner time we had seen all we wanted to see and were ready to go (good thing, as our plane to San Blas was going to leave the next morning).
Our first stop was the Miraflores Locks, one of the series of locks in the Panama canal (as soon as I knew I'd be going to Panama I was determined to see the Canal - this was the only must-see thing on my checklist). It was pretty awesome watching the huge-ass cargo ships be pulled into the locks by these train cars, and then see them slowly rise up as water filled the lock. The Miraflores lock also had a cool movie and museum which had a lot of interesting info about the history of the canal.
After that, we went to Casko Viejo, a gorgeous old neighborhood with some fantastic architecture. We just had to be careful not to wander too far, as only the few blocks close to the water were really safe. (We ended up here for dinner as well - it was great to enjoy a nice outdoor dinner and stare at a building which was probably older than the USA).
After our afternoon trip to Casko Viejo, we headed back to the Hostel for some rest. We ventured back out again right around sunset, so we could walk along the Causeway (basically a long narrow peninsula with a great ocean view of boats entering the canal) as the sun set. Unfortunately, our cab driver misunderstood what we wanted and took us all the way to the end of the causeway, where our view of the sunset was obscured by a large hill. Oh well. It was still a nice walk. We then cabbed to Casko Viejo for dinner (as mentioned above) - I'm glad it was a pleasant night, because the service was sloooooow!
As a final bonus in Panama City, I was able to catch up with former 1216 roommate Tyler in between his trips to Columbia and China. We grabbed a beer, and chatted about traveling, the meaning of life (travel), and all that good stuff.
And the next morning I left for San Blas, which will be the subject of the next post.
As always, pictures below - enjoy!
kim, barb, and I pose for the obligatory "us with huge ship from the canal in the background" photo
a boat exiting the miraflores locks
me expertly piloting a boat through the panama canal
cool view from Casko Viejo - new city viewed from the old city
1216 mini-reunion in Panama City! The busy travelers find time to grab a beer during their very brief time in the same city
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