With a friend’s promise of a fab time in Panama, especially Bocas
del Toro, we set off for urban and beach adventures.
Arriving in Panama City at rush hour, we overspent on a taxi
to our AirBnB in Casco Viejo. (Why didn’t we think to check if Uber or Lyft operated
there? Doh!) But an hour later, we could watch the action from our perch above
Plaza de la Independencia. We mostly stuck to Viejo, joining the tourist crush for
a few days in search of food, tasty beverages, historic architecture, and
Panama Hats (claro!). We found a Pacific-Northwest-worthy local brewery in Rana
Dorada, a tasty restaurant and hopping rooftop bar in Tantalo, cool tunes at
Jazz Bar Danilo’s, and rum cocktails in Pedro Mandinga.
But of course we also had to visit the Panama Canal. A
simple Uber ride to the Miraflores Locks and Visitor Center got us there for the last ship passage of the morning. Activity clusters at the
Pacific- and Atlantic-facing locks in the mornings and afternoons because ships
take about 8-10 hours to transit the Canal to the other side. It was a mad
scene at the railing. A shoving match broke out next to us with my foot and
Pelle’s elbows serving as defensive bulwarks.
The feats of engineering that realized the Panama Canal and
keep it in tip-top condition are incredible to see in person. What the
visionaries and builders accomplished is all the more astonishing because
construction of the Canal started in the late 1880s. Steamships had only just
been invented. Photography was in its infancy. Tropical diseases ran rampant.
The visitor’s center offers a comprehensive look at the Canal and its
environment, including the 3rd set of locks recently opened in 2016.
But the Museo del Canal in Casco Viejo is not to be
missed either – the history of Panama’s discovery by the Western World, cycles
of settlement, and ambition to join the world are explored through pictures,
artefacts, and stories.
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