Panama

Wednesday 14^th September – Saturday 17^th September

Lunas Castle, Panama City. $13 US (p/n) 8/10

Good bar, nice people and very informative.

After Puerto Rico we headed to Panama city, In panama we stayed at this huge hostel in Casco Viejo is the historic heart of the city. Here we were so close to the Presidential Palace, Plaza Bolivar, el Teatro Nacional, Plaza de Francia, la Casa de Cultura, the Plaza de Independencia and Catedral Metropolitano, the Canal Museum, the ruins of Santo Domingo, Plaza Herrera, and la Iglesia de San Merced. We also found an artisanry market nearby and brought a few little souvenirs here.

         

  

On our first night we attempted to make friends at the bar… it felt a bit like we were both trying to pick up haha! It was a pretty clicky hostel and everyone there was in pretty big dorm rooms so they had already met each other and had friends… so we headed home that night with our tails between our legs haha! The next morning we met some people that were wanting to do the same sailing trip as us to columbia... three Australians and they needed more people for there boat so after meting the captain and seeing the boat we decided to sign up. This was a huge stress of our shoulders as we previously had no plans on when/how to leave panama, AND we had made some friends yah!! 

Over the next few days we headed to the panama canal a 48 mile-long (77 km) international waterway known as the Panama Canal allows ships to pass between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, saving about 8000 miles (12,875 km) from a journey around the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn.which is was pretty cool its so crazy that they designed this stuff like hundreds of years ago. 

 

We also visted the Causeway which is Located on a strip of land that until 1999 was US-owned territory, this long causeway linking three islands on the entrance to the Panama Canal is being developed rapidly. You can rent bikes near the entrance but we got dropped at the wrong end so we just decided to walk it J 

The following day we headed up to Cerro Ancon, this is a huge mountain located in a perfect location between the canal, Casco Viejo and the modern Panama City; Cerro Ancon offers amazing views on all sides and is a great way to get a good feel for the city. Unfortunatly on our way back down we got caught in a downpour and we were soaked luckily after bout 15 miunutes we got a taxi and through my pour Spanish I actually bartered the price up thinking he said 22.50 dollars instead of 2.50 haha and to top it all off we lost the photos somewhere along the line :(