Tourists in Panama City

May 27, 2012

             Today we got to play tourist and travel around Panama City.  Our bus arrived about 9AM which gave us time to sleep in a bit.  Our first stop was to the Casco Viejo or old section of Panama City, and our guide, Bianca, was able to give us a good deal of history about the city as we drove along.  At one of the historic churches we were let off in order to explore it and a few of the nearby streets on the way to a local market.  The church reminded me of a scaled-down version of the ones I saw in Spain with the gilded altar, stained glass windows, and dark wood.  It was significantly smaller than those, but evidently had a rather interesting past.  When the pirate Morgan invaded Panama City he and his crew looted and burned most of the town.  The people of St. Joseph's covered the altar in clay and mud so that they wouldn’t know it was gold, and apparently it worked!  Bianca informed us that under the gold the altar is wood, so it also might have been destroyed had Morgan chosen to burn it down. 

Altar at St. Joseph's

One of the walls at St. Joseph's

Stained glass (unfortunately in direct sunlight)

               

              

                Down the street a bit was an old stone monastery.  Its roof and some of its walls were gone, but it was interesting to see how it was built.  The entire floor was made of small stones from the area which was also very pretty.  

Arches at the monastery

Front of the monastery from the street

               As we left the monastery on our way to the next stop a man pushing a cart with a big metal box and several syrups came by.  The guide told us it was one of the best ways to cool off in Panama, and seeing as it was only 10 and quite warm, we stopped him to give it a try.  Actually, it was a Panamanian snow cone, which the man made by scraping a metal tool across a giant block of ice (under the metal box) and then adding the syrup.  I had one with passion fruit and strawberry, and it was delicious!  Much better than the ones you get in the States, which never have enough syrup.  It came with a straw too so you can drink the juice as it melts.

Panamanian snow cones :)

                 After the snow cones, we eventually made it to the market which was set up along paths in a park next to the ocean.  The vendors were mostly indigenous people from the area along with a few transplants from other countries trying to make a few bucks.  They were nearly all handcrafted, so there were unique items at each of the tables.  We probably spent a good hour/hour and a half walking around and looking at what they had to offer.  Unfortunately, our professor led us to believe that the other market we would be seeing later in the afternoon would have more to offer at lower prices – she was wrong, and many of us were disappointed that we didn’t purchase more at the first one.  Nonetheless, some people did pick up some souvenirs and from there we left for lunch.  Most of my classmates were hoping to have some local fare as they arrived with Cadena and had only eaten what they purchased at the grocery store last night.  Unfortunately, Dr. Cadena (professor) thought we would have more options at a cafeteria, so we went there on a budget of $5 each.  There was almost nothing edible (lots of meat, a wilty salad of nothing but lettuce and carrot shavings, or sandwiches).  I opted for a cheese sandwich which, unfortunately, came with ketchup on it.  Not a good start.

                Following lunch we went to the second market which, as I mentioned, was rather disappointing, and then to the Panama Canal.  Apparently there are actually three different sets of locks along the Canal.  We went to the Miraflores locks which have a little museum showing the building of the Canal and several observation platforms.  The platforms were very crowded as one might expect, but the museum was nearly empty and, I thought, more entertaining.  They had a bunch of artifacts from the construction including model ships and trains to show how they dredged the Canal and freighted rocks out of the area.  I wish I had taken notes, because what the workers were able to accomplish with the technology available to them is incredible.  

Me in front of the locks

Ship passing through the locks

               

Ship waiting to enter the locks

               After a couple of hours of roaming around the locks, we loaded back on the bus to head back to the City of Knowledge to freshen up for dinner.  Dinner was at a “local” Panamanian place near the water that we had passed in our travels earlier that day.  Jenn and I split a seafood plate consisting of clams, shrimp, prawns, octopus, and calamari sautéed in a garlic sauce served with fried plantains (patacones) and vegetables.  It was really, really good – as was the bottle of wine we split J.  Following dinner we went back to the house and went to bed to rest up for the nice 8 hour bus ride the next day.