Panama City

In Panama City we stayed at Luna's Castle in the oldest part of the metropolis, a neighborhood called the Casco Viejo. The Old Quarter sits on a promontory jutting out into the Pacific and reminds those who ought to know of old Havana. Up until quite recently its graceful 18th and 19th century buildings had been left to go to rack and ruin, abandoned by those who could afford to move elsewhere.

In the past few years it has been undergoing renovation, some might say gentrification (there is a wonderful gourmet ice cream shop), and restored residences stand beside dilapidated homes and crumbling facades that house nothing but grass. The area is a historic site and the old buildings must have their remaining original elements retained as they are renovated, meaning that in 10 years this is going to be a quite beautiful, probably quite expensive neighborhood. Whether the people living in those unrenovated buildings are going to be there still we don't know.







The Casco Viejo is home to the presidential palace, also called the Palace of the Herons. On passing we were amazed to see a pair of tall blue herons standing in the marble tiled courtyard. A smaller white heron stood in the fountain that is visible from the sidewalk. From what I read online, herons have been living at the palace since 1922 when the then president's poet friend gave him a pair. There is also a report that President Carter's Secret Service detail accidentally poisoned the herons when he visited in the '70s, never officially confirmed.

Across the Plaza de Francia from the French Embassy stands a monument to the French who died in the first attempt to build a canal across the isthmus. Mike delights in calling the chanticleer and obelisk chicken-on-a-stick.



A good deal of our time in Panama City was spent visiting the museum of the Panama Canal, contemplating the locks or esclusas on the Canal, and riding the Panama Canal Railway. Mike drank a ceremonial beer at the Miraflores Locks, and we spent a pleasant hour riding the rails from Colón to Ciudad de Panamá. On the train we met Christina and Devin, a norteamericano couple driving their Westfalia van from Canada to Patagonia. We were quite jealous contemplating their upcoming introduction to South America.











Along with repeated visits to Granclément (the aforementioned ice cream parlor) we spent time walking on the waterfront where a lovely path stretches from the red roofs of the Casco Viejo to the highrises of the relentlessly modern banking district. And we met up with our friend Steffen, probably for the last time south of the Rio Grande, though he and his parents will be visiting the U.S. sometime. Steffen, Colonel Sanders is waiting for you!