Flying into Panama City, you could be forgiven for thinking that your plane had been diverted to a major city in the USA. They have lots of skyscrapers and they use the US dollar. And similar to San Francisco, lush apartments buildings and offices are situated only a few blocks from really rundown and poor areas. Not many people seemed to speak English, but by this point I was practically fluent in Spanish so it wasn't a problem. </sarcasm>
 |
| The largest flag in Panama |
 |
| My funky hostel |
Before coming here, I was warned about the humidity (spoiler: it's humid) and the fact that people nick all the drain covers, so it's very easy to fall down a hole when walking about at night.
Panama has a new clean, efficient, and very cheap ($0.35 a trip) metro, so I hopped on board to go to Ancon Hill, which gives panoramic views of the whole city. And a walk that should normally only take about an hour, ended up taking three times that as I continually got lost. Who knew it was so difficult to find the top of a hill?
 |
| My rather circuitous route to get to the top of the hill (click to expand!) |
 |
| The Causeway viewed from Ancon Hill |
 |
| Panama City |
 |
| For those of you who thought Robbie had gone to robot heaven |
I took a tour of Panama City, and because it was the rainy/low season, instead of getting driven around with other tourists in a minibus, it ended up with me in the passenger seat of the tour guide's motor. Chris was a nice guy and went out his way to show me the kinda stuff I like to see. Sadly, one thing he couldn't do is make boats appear on the Panama Canal by magic. Added to the fact that the most interesting bit of the visitor centre was closed, and it turned into a bit of a damp squib.
 |
| There's that sign again |
 |
| What's missing in this picture? |
As part of my solo tour, Chris took me the canal zone, which used to be owned by the US but was handed over in 1999. He made a joke that the steps in the picture below were used in the Rocky movie. I asked if that's why Panama's currency is the Balboa. Sadly, that joke sailed over his head.
 |
| Rocky. Not filmed here. |
 |
| The Old Town and the Presidential Palace |
 |
| Panama City has quite a few of these crazy statues |
I'm almost giddy with excitement about the next leg of my trip. Boquete - up in the mountains - where the climate is rumoured to be a bit like Scotland. Mild and wet!
Comments