Day 1:

Flying in from Cancun Airport we arrived after a 2 and a half hour flight into Panama City. The airport seemed modern and is apparently a major hub of the Americas. We exited the flight and walked around the airport as we couldn’t find any signs for baggage claim or passport control. Eventually after walking and passed all the boarding gates we found a sign, that we followed to passport control. Along the way Izaskun noticed an ATM and decides that it would be a good opportunity to draw some cash. The machine returns a “transaction not possible” message. We try again with a different machine but same result. This was the beginning of a long persistent issue that we had in South America, our bank card kept getting blocked. It appears our bank doesn’t like us going to exotic countries.

 

So with no cash and a bit of a concern regarding our cards, we waited for a good 30 minutes for the passport control. It seemed that most of our fellow passengers were Brazilian which got us asking if this is a popular location for Brazilians. We arrived to passport control officer who we were taken back how rude he was. He was clearly not interested in doing his job and was probably nearing his shift but instead of helping us through the process, which is quite Americanised with the various photos and fingerprint scans, he would rudely say one or two words which to me didn’t make any sense as it was in Spanish but even for Izaskun she struggled to understand what he wanted. After about 10 minutes of passport entry and fingerprint scans he stamps our declaration paper (barely looking at it), which is another mystery we have started to wonder about. Every airport makes us fill in a declaration, which is fine but they always seem to make us do it twice and it appears that no one even looks at them.

 

After the passport and luggage claim we were officially in Panama City. It was humid and hot. We asked tourist information regarding taxis and a city map who toss the map over the counter and pointing to a cabin a few metres away without any greeting or acknowledgment. Along the way we see a person standing representing the Hard Rock Hotel, the hotel we are staying at. Could this be a spot of luck for us? – it turns out that the shuttle for the hotel is $32 but when we return we can order a shuttle for free. The first piece on non-alignment messaging – something else we struggle a bit with in South America, there is no single version of the truth. So, it transpires that it is cheaper to take a regular “authorised” taxi then take the hotel shuttle which we decide to do. We go to the Taxi counter who calls a young man to escort us to the taxi stand. We follow him to a white van and on arrival he asked for a £5 tip. We were a bit surprised, especially as the man didn’t say a word or even bother to help us with our luggage. I asked him for what and proceeded to give an excuse that I have no dollars on me. He scampers off offended. The taxi ride was again a bit like Mexico City with speeding, hard braking and traffic weaving but as we near Panama City centre we are impressive with the sudden contrast in landscape from rural land to large skyscrapers over looking a large bay. A truly impressive introduction.

 

We arrive to the hotel fine. I pay the driver and proceed in. The entrance, and building for that matter, is grand and impressive. The hotel is an entire 62 story “Metropolis” as they call it. It boats 1000 rooms, 4 hot tubs, a large swimming pool, a shopping mall and casino next door as well as various restaurants and bars. Another contrast to what we experienced in Mexico.

 

We take the rest of the day we admire the impressive views from our room, especially at night, as well as start to explore the huge hotel, including a dip in one of the hot tubs, and admiring the various rock ‘n roll artists memorabilia such as Jon Bon Jovi’s tight pants, one of Slash’s various guitars and Madonna’s bikinis to name a few.

That evening there was lighting storms which made the place even more… electric.

Day 2:

The next day we wake up and proceed to the breakfast buffet, a huge display of food that I didn’t quite know where to even start. In the end a bit of everything was the solution to the dilemma. We planned to go see the Canal and the old town that day but we before we can go we would like to lock up our valuables with the safety box in our room, only issue is that it doesn’t work. We call reception and ask them to send someone to look into it. 10 minutes later a technician comes up and tries to work it, but he couldn’t and recommends we get someone else but we shouldn’t worry it will take 5 / 10 minutes to resolve. 30 minutes later the next technician comes in and pretty much does the same thing. Again, he needs a specialist to resolve this, 5 minutes. Another 30 minutes pass. We get annoyed as ask the reception to see if they have any update, they’re not sure. They’ll send someone over as soon as possible. 15 minutes another man arrives but he cannot fix it as the specialist only comes in the afternoon. We decide that as to not to waste our day we will go nearby and we will have to take our most valuable items with us, not great but at least we can do something.

 

We walk around the small mall near the hotel to see what sort of shops and brands are popular in Panama City. The shops were not as grand as the hotel with some shops looking like more like knock off type stores than exclusive boutiques as they are advertised as. Izaskun buys a new pair of flip flops as the old ones got some what destroyed from trampling in swampy land at Chichen Itza. We proceed to draw some cash from the nearby bank and grab some food to eat. We also ask around if there is a post office, yes they say and point across the road, however when we get there is no post office to be seen. Again, not entirely sure if we are silly or people just tell us something to get rid of us.

 

We return to our room after about 3 hours and the safety box still hasn’t been fixed. We were frustrated and called again the reception for the someone to fix it. This time we were more assertive. About 15 minutes another man arrives, he finally resolves the issue after about 5 minutes. Finally we have the box fixed but we have essentially wasted a day as a result. We decide today we will relax, we go to the gym to burn off some Mexican burritos, followed by a swim in the large pool with a view. It is also a clearer night so we are able to take some good night shots with our cameras. We then proceed to have some good steaks and wine in one of the hotel’s many restaurants.

 

Day 3:

Our last day we finally get our act together and plan a trip to the Canal and the old town, after a bit of discussion with the hotel and the local travel agency we decided to simply get a taxi for half a day to see both sites which was much cheaper than a organised tour. We agreed $60 for the taxi driver to drive us to the canal, wait for an hour and a half, then take us to the old town where he would wait for us again, well at least that is what we understood.

 

We drove to the canal and paid the entrance fee of $8 to enter the small museum. The building was a bit dated but seem good enough to house a small museum. Once inside we were told to go up to the fourth floor where there was an observation deck, there we could see the process of one of locks letting through a huge cargo ship. It was busier than we thought it would be. We stayed around for a while, watching the various activities from people running around to large machines pulling things up and down the lock. There was also a small museum that explains the history of the canal including some of the hardships and technology used by people digging the canal. There is also an area dedicated the various creatures that occupy the area which are all massive!

After an interesting 1 hour 30 minutes we went outside to the taxi, who then promptly took us to the old town. Upon arriving at Plaza de la Francia we had a conversation with the taxi driver who informed us that he will not wait for us and that we will need to pay an extra $15 should we want him to come back for us. Again, we were frustrated at the seemly different stories that people were telling us. We argued about this for a while as we understood we would have a return trip. In the end we paid him and decided to walk home which was only about 5kms away. We got out and followed a pre-arranged tour that I saw, it starts in the Plaza de Francia which was the main area for the French to stay while they were attempting to build the canal (the French actually attempted to build the canal first the Americans followed the same path that the French determined but were more fortunate with technology and resources). It was estimated that 20,000 people died in the first French attempt of the canal, in the Plaza de Francia is a monument dedicate to the French who sacrificed their lives.

After that we walked along the old coastal fortified built by the Spanish when they settled, today it has been converted into a nice promenade with nice views of the canal’s entrance and the new city centre on the other side of the bay.

Continuing further is the actual old city centre, however despite the name this is not the actual old centre as the older city centre is located slightly in land (not far) which was destroyed by the pirate captain Morgan (isn’t that one on the Spiced Gold bottle?). We proceeded to the various sites in the town, one particular interesting building was the original building where Simon Bolivar attempted to create a union for all of South America which as we know today failed. The town centre was quiet and empty, perhaps due to the heat and humidity, so we had an easy time walking around. It was an interesting experience not only due to the history of the buildings but also due to the major changes between buildings, there would be a eloquent building recently renovated and next door would be an abandoned building with trees growing from it and generally falling apart. It was a real shame to see those ruined buildings as they appeared to have been magnificent buildings at one stage.

After buying a souvenir or two and an interesting chat with the souvenir attendant (a foreigner from Tanzania now living in Panama), we started heading home to the hotel. The area quickly became dilapidated with dirtier roads, less impressive buildings leading to shacks and other informal housing. We read to avoid an area called El Chorillo, which was only a 2 minute walk from the president’s house. We did but we did manage to see the border of this area which seemed to start in its density of people, the buildings became more less like homes of offices into more apartment blocks.

A few minutes later the buildings changes from low high-rise buildings into large skyscrapers and private yacht parked in the bay. The buildings were impressive and we discussed what the buildings were used as (eg: hotels, personal apartments, offices, etc…). We couldn’t fully determine all of them. After about an hour of walking through the town and along the nice promenade along the bay we arrived at our hotel, tired.

 

It was around 5pm so we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day, we were tired and our feet were sore from walking all day. We thought having a quick swim and a soak in the hot tubs were the solutions to our aching muscles. Especially when it is possible to Pina Coladas in the hot tub, needless to say we stayed in the hot tub for while.

After which we got out of our relaxing immersion and walked around the hotel, we had a bite to eat and saw a live performance of a band. All pretty cool. After this we knew that the Sky Bar would be open, which was located on the top floor (floor 62).

 

We went up and were immediately impressed by the huge bar / club that they have on the top floor. We dedicated to stay on the roof top under the stars with great views of the entire city. Fortunately out hotel was one of the highest buildings around which meant we pretty much uninterrupted views, a great end to our stay in Panama City. We were sad to have to leave our luxurious accommodation for the upcoming remainder of the trip which we were not sure will be quite… cool but were of course excited to see what sights and experiences will be had Ecuador the next day.