I think that we hit the luckiest travel streak of all time on our journey to Panama. Firstly, our flight out of Bristol was so empty that we both had a row of seats to ourselves and could stretch out. Then we were checked into the exit isle for the New York to Panama leg and once again we had the whole row to ourselves. It was bliss and made a 17 hour journey almost relaxing. Interestingly, the authorities in New York make you check through customs and immigration even though you are only in transit, so we had 2 hours stateside as a bit of a bonus. Although, had we known this we would have tried to have a longer layover so people could pop to see us if they wanted! The downside of this is that there aren’t many services landside in the departures building so we had to twiddle our thumbs for a bit. Still, we made the most of the last bit of cold weather for a couple of months.
We arrived in Panama City on time at 9pm and made our way speedily to the hotel we had booked. Having read many, many horror stories about the dangers of Latin American cities we were a bit worried about being stuck in the hotel until the next morning, but as it was, the hotel was only 200 yards from a busy street with a restaurant etc. so we were able to have a little wander and find some much needed food and beer.
We are discovering that Panamanian hotels are not particularly geared to providing all the comforts of home! While the ones we have been at so far have been clean, they are very basic and each has its little quirks. We have been surprised (and a bit disappointed) at how expensive the hotels are given how little they provide. We understand paying $60 for a room in the city, but $70 for a tree house next to the beach seems a bit steep!
We spent our first day getting over the journey and ventured into el Casco Viejo (old town) of Panama. It is a small area of small streets with the old-style rows of houses with shutters and verandas. It is currently undergoing a big regeneration project - which is just as well as most of the buildings are VERY precarious. It seems that they have managed to ensure that the restorations are done with an eye on the authenticity of the area. Unfortunately, this invariably means that the locals won’t actually be able to afford to live there once the buildings are restored. There are a lot of wealthy people in Panama City and a desire to have ‘nice’ neighbourhoods to match their desired lifestyles is not surprising.
Panama City and the bits of the countryside we have seen so far seem fairly typical of Latin American cities. The buildings are very angular, with corrugated iron roofs and in various states of decoration; from newly painted and very bright (generally the churches and government buildings) to peeling and fading (most of the rest). The oldest style buildings are wooden, but there aren't many of these left now and the majority are now concrete. There is an enormous amount of construction going on - and a big push to encourage retirees to choose Panama. We’ll probably hold off on making that decision just yet …
The Panamanians have a great bus system that covers the whole country. Bigger coaches go between the major cities but there are also a lot of minibuses that cover all the journeys in between. Our ticket for a 2 hour trip costs $3.75 each … not bad at all. We will use it to head to the beach to make the most of the SUNSHINE and to thaw out after the last two months.
Hasta Luego.
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