Panama City (1/9/11-1/10)

I made it!!!!


driving onto the bridge

So cool driving over the Bridge of the Americas. Dreaming it and planning it was one thing, but actually getting here in one piece...priceless. I was smiling like an idiot the whole way. The actual bridge structure doesn't match the grandeur of the name, I don't think, but just the symbolism for this trip, seeing the ships waiting in line below, the city skyline for the first time, very exciting for me.

Maria Sophia told me when driving off the bridge to stay left and then "right, right, right". This turned out to be good advice and I soon found myself on the beautiful, sweeping Balboa Ave. Some of it is brand new, created by using fill from the dredging of the canal expansion, with the sea on one side and all of the new towers on the other. Like all towns and cities I've seen on this trip, they don't really go for the street sign thing here. I ask directions to the Hotel Marbella 3 times, getting a bit warmer as I go. But, as I'm wandering about some cops pull up alongside me, ask what's wrong. I tell them "estoy perdido" and they say follow us! Somehow, we end up at the hotel. Thanks.


skyline looking east along Balboa

The hotel has parking in a garage on the first floor. It's a bit tight and a man helps me to avoid walls and a large natural gas tank as I slowly back in. We spend several minutes in a serious back-and-forth ala Austin Powers and his golfcart before squeezing into a corner. Not before I really scratched up one of the rearview mirrors, though, my very first flesh wound of the trip. The rooms here are adequate for $55, and it's centrally located. Not easy sniffing out this place. The new highrises on the water can run some $300/night, and that's for one person.



street in old Panama

The next day I went walking thru the city, following Balboa for the entire way until making it to the colonial part of the city. Seeing all this new glass and steel going up, the smell of real money, for a nanosecond I considered checking out the want ads, that's how jazzed it got me to be in a real vibrant, western city again. But the moment passed.
 

refreshing

I really like the old part of the city, too, as there has been a concerted effort to gentrify what had been falling apart a couple of decades ago. Some of the best restaurants are over here but most were closed as this, Monday the 10th, is yet another big holiday. I found one open, Las Bovedas, a French place. After a couple hours of walking in the tropic heat, I had what has to be one of the most satisfying beers of the year.



Panama to the canal



I have yet to check out the canal or the Caribbean side since travel agents were also closed on Monday (my meter's running here, people!). Meanwhile, lots of restaurants to choose from and they have big casinos here (Trump is building one), not that that interests me much. This city has everything you expect back home. For the record, it took 111 days and 6490 miles to get to the Canal. The days on my map - click to enlarge - don't reflect the 8 days it took to drive to Mexico (I miss their food).