Panama City

We left Peru on 20 December. We had a flight from Cusco, Peru to Lima, Peru and then another flight to San Salvador, El Salvador and a third flight to Panama City, Panama... it was a day long adventure of flights. The next day we decided to explore Panama City, which we discovered is very different from Peru. Panama City is very busy and very loud. We walked to an area called Casco Viejo where the old colonial buildings are being re-developed, the old facades are held up by wood planks and new walls and floors are being built up behind them. This area is right on the water and will be a booming area in a few years. We got slightly lost walking to Casco Viejo and ended up in a rougher neighbourhood where both Scott and I got whistled at. Once we found our way we decided we needed to wind down with a pitcher of sangria! We walked along the boardwalk and visited the Museo del Canal Interoceanico, which was a very informative museum on the history of the Panama Canal. Did you know that many Caribbean people migrated to Panama to help build the Canal, which changed the culture, food and music of Panama? During of the construction of the Canal, Malaria and Yellow Fever was killing many of their workers it was during the building on the Canal that they started to understand how these diseases propagated and how they could manage it by managing the mosquito population. The museum had a beautiful Christmas tree which we got our pictures taken in front of it to send as an E–Christmas card to everyone. On our way back to the hotel that night we walked up the main street called Central Espana Ave. This street for several blocks is closed to traffic and is pedestrian only and since it was Christmas time it was packed with vendors selling, shoes, t-shirts, toys, food and really anything you wanted. We decided that the city was not for us and that tomorrow we would see a few things and then take the night bus to a hostel called Lost in Found “Cloud Forest” near a city called David. The next day we were off to the Albrook Mall to see if we could get a back up camera battery. No luck but the mall was very interesting very similar to back home and the prices are pretty much the same. But we did learn that Panama loves fried chicken and Chinese Food. We then hopped in a cab to the Parque Natural Metropolitano to do a quick trail before we headed to the canal. We were hoping to see more wildlife, but were able to see some turtles, a small lizard running on the water and some banana trees and along with numerous trails of leaf cutter ants carrying small bits of leafs. Another quick cab to the Canal – Miraflores Locks where we were just in time to watch enormous container ships coming through the locks, watch a quick movie on the old Canal and the new expansion set to be finished in 2014 and visit the official Canal Museum. Around 7pm we headed to the bus station which is right next to the Albrook mall. We were several hours early so we headed to the Cinnabun stand in the mall (just like back home mmmmm). The overnight bus was soooo cold and the connecting but was filled to the max. In Panama number of bus seats does not equal seats sold. By about 7am we had reached our drop off Lost and Found Hostel outside of David.