panamá, panamá

Panama City is cosmopolitan with modern skyscrapers and high costs to match the buildings.

Our hostel is in the old historic, more touristy part of town. The hostel is located in a convenient spot, and it's well set up, but it's not the kind of hostel I like to stay at since it's a party hostel where early twenty-somethings come to do coke and get drunk, and perhaps sprinkle that with visiting a few local sights. These types of gringo tourists are embarrassing.

Back to 'alto.' 'Para' must be a South American thing.

I checked out numerous places in the quiet Casco Viejo neighbourhood such as the President´s house, the Museo de Historia de Panama, and the Iglesia de San Jose.

The old haunt of General Noriega - Club de Clases y Tropas - now an abandoned ruin.

Apparently there are many mix-ups when the Panamanian flag has been recreated. Sometimes the colours are in the wrong order, other times the stars aren´t level.

I was planning to go to a museum on the Panama Canal nextdoor to the museum of history, but I ended up spending too much time at the former. All turned out well, though, as the exhibit at the Canal had oodles of information to fill my curiosity.

pancake morning at the hostel

When in Panama, go to the Panama Canal.

We visited the Miraflores locks and we had great timing going early, just when boats were passing through and just before it became crowded with tourists.

The French arrived in 1881 and soon after began construction of the canal, but they were unable to complete their project due to numerous obstacles as unstable terrain, tropical rain, landslides, malaria, and yellow fever. In 1904 the US came and took over construction of the canal.

Mosquitoes are beyond a nusisance. These are some of the things done to combat the jerks: streets were paved, screens were put up on houses in Panama City and Colon, houses were fumigated, marshes were drained, sewer systems were put in place, undergrowth was cut, cisterns and cesspods were oiled, and stagnant water was dealt with.

From 1907-1913 dry excavation took place, removing 153 million cubic metres of rock and earth. Between 1905-1912, over 60 million pounds of dynamite was used. The Canal officialy opened in 1914, and our visit marks 100 years of engineering success. A third set of locks is under construction currently, and it received a 78% approval rating from citizens.

The Miraflores locks are the highest set of locks. These steel gates are 20m wide by 2m thick. The locks work in a way that lifts the ships up to the level of Gatun Lake (and then back down to sea level) so as to permit passage through Panama.

It takes about 8-10 minutes for a ship to pass through each lock and 8-10 hours to cross the Canal. It´s the only canal in the world where the master of a ship grants control of the vessel to a Panama Canal-trained pilot.

A huge variety of insects and animals live in the Panama Canal watershed, not limited to butterflies, beetles, scorpions, wasps, tarantulas, scarabs, fish, and birds.

The museum and movie at the canal were great and the displays had extremely detailed information about many aspects of the canal. The comprehensive overview included wildlife in and around the canal, construction, the political background, and future projects.

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160 countries

"It is probable that some of the products that you have at home, your electrical appliances, clothing, or even your car, as well as the food and beverages that you consume, came to you through the Panama Canal."