Panamá! (The Canal and Casco Viejo)

We made it safely to Panamá (country #57 for me, I think!). Despite being delayed 3 hours leaving San Francisco due to a sick crewmember, we arrived late Friday morning (EST so a three-hour time change) after sleeping (albeit with frequent wakings from Iver) most of the 7-hour red-eye flight.

We are staying at an Airbnb 2-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco (fitting! From SF to SF) area of Panama City, and it was very easy to find our way here via cab from Tocumen International Airport. My sister, Vanessa, joined us from Ecuador late afternoon (country #62 for her... while I stayed close for a while, there's no hope of me ever catching up!), and we checked out Las Clementinas, a restaurant in Casco Viejo (or Casco Antiguo, old colonial town) for dinner, where V had a special Gin & Tonic, Iver devoured Octopus, and we had some good ceviche (one of my favorite foods in the world!). We also have started using Uber to get around, which has worked out really well!

On Saturday, we took a Panama Canal tour. Having just read all about the construction of the canal in David McCullough’s exhaustingly detailed Path Between the Seas, it was nice to see (and actually traverse in part) this 20^th-century engineering marvel!  After the French couldn’t get the job done in the last third of the 19^th century, the U.S. paid for the completion of the extremely expensive interoceanic passageway, which was completed in 1914. It was a bit challenging entertaining ambulatory Iver aboard our ship, but he didn’t fall overboard, and actually did nap once, so I’d call it a success. We got to experience being lifted up through Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks (which was really cool) as we headed in a (north/east) direction towards the Atlantic side of the canal, and then were bussed back towards La Playita on the Amador Causeway.

Bridge of the Americas

The locks

It was a challenge to get this guy to smile for the camera!

 

We spent a bit more time around Casco Viejo in the daylight, where we were able to appreciate the colonial architecture like the National Theater and Plaza de la Catedral (or Plaza de la Independencia).

near la Plaza Francia

Panama hats (which are really from Ecuador, Vanessa informs us) for sale

Teatro Nacional

We enjoyed (and Iver tried his first) tasty sorbet, which was refreshing in the 90-degree heat we have here!

Catedral Metropolitana

Chasing pigeons in the Plaza de Independencia

It was a great day exploring Panamá!