PANAMA CITY
But first, a quick, gratuitous picture of Michael and his hair:
After leaving Mono Feliz, and with only a few days to go before needing to get our car on the ferry to Ecuador, we began our journey down to Panama City.
On the way we stopped at the idyllic Las Lajas on the Pacific coast, a vast expanse of almost deserted beach with only a handful of people staying there, sleeping in their hammocks. We spend two lazy days hanging out with Canadians James and Erin soaking up some sun and experimenting with our cooking!
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We also met up with a couple doing a similar (but much more advanced!) journey to ours in a 4X4. Having finished driving through Africa and Europe they were conquering South, Central and North America and then heading onto Asia. All this in a Landrover Defender with no air conditioning and in the 50 - 65yr old age bracket!
After 2 days in the sunshine, we then made the move to the capital, Panama City. This hugely diverse city contains colonial neighbourhoods (Casco Viejo), monolithic skyscrapers (the Financial District), windswept ruins of old Spanish settlements (Panama Viejo) and the infamous Panama Canal. In addition to its geographic diversity, it is also very culturally diverse with residents from many countries including those in Europe, the US, the Middle East, Asia, Columbia and Cuba as well as a broad selection of the country's indigenous groups (for example the Kuna people) added to the mix.
The wealthier areas are comparable to Western cities with all the modern conveniences of shopping malls, 24hr supermarkets and state of the art skyscrapers and apartment blocks. On the flip side, there are many poverty and crime stricken areas where gun crime and drug related problems are so severe, no amount of police walking the streets seem to make any difference. When driving through these areas we were warned by police, after they gave us directions, to wind up our windows and keep driving, not to stop for any reason whatsoever.
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We met up with an old friend of Michael's, Dominique and her boyfriend Gustavo and spent a great weekend with them celebrating Michael's 30th birthday. This included sampling some of Panama City's nightlife, eating good food (at the hotel that never understood us!) and joining the street festivities celebrating the holiday season.
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One of the most spectacular sights we have seen since being away is undoubtedly the Panama Canal, one of the great engineering marvels of all time. Constructed by the US during the early 20th Century after a disastrous attempt by the French Government, the canal extends 80km from Colon on the Caribbean side to Panama City on the Pacific, passing through three sets of locks, a colossal excavation that cutes through the Continental divide. Each year more than 12,000 ocean going vessels transit the canal and it is so significant to international shipping that many ships are built the fit within the dimensions of its locks.
As well as seeing the canal as tourists we also had an important mission to accomplish.... the shipping of our own car. This was no easy feat and despite numerous phone calls and emails with the shipping company prior to us arriving in Panama City, it still took 2 long days of wading through a bureaucratic minefield to get the job done. We finally confirmed the shipping date for the 12th December, squeezed our car into a shipping container and kissed it goodbye. While writing this it is still en route and we are looking forward to seeing it tomorrow in Guayaquil, Ecuador...
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