We left Los Angeles Friday night. Jason drove us to the airport to catch our 10:30 flight to Panama City. John had splurged just a bit and bought us seats in business class. On Central American airlines, this only costs a couple hundred dollars more than economy, but it was worth every penny of it. I slept most of the way on a seat that actually reclined! Six hours later, I woke up to breakfast. They served me something called a “Montecristo.” This is a turkey and cheese sandwich dipped in batter, deep fried, and served with maple syrup. Somehow I do not think it will be a regular menu item at our house.
We arrived and cleared customs without any problem. As our Suzie, our fabulous travel agent, had arranged, we were met by driver holding a sign with our names on it. What a pleasure to not have our first minutes in a country not spent dealing with predatory cabbies! We had a thirty minute ride into from the airport into town. Along the way, we saw an enormous new city where a few years ago there had only been mangrove swamps.
We had been given the option of staying in this part of the Panama City, but we chose to stay instead in Casco Viejo, the old section of town. We are staying at the Magnolia Inn, a strange combination of youth hostel and hotel in the heart of Casco. We arrived at about nine o’clock in the morning, so of course our room of was not ready for us. We left our bags at the hotel and went off to explore a bit of this historic area. The Magnolia Inn is near the old central plaza, and like any proper Spanish colonial city, the cathedral sits on the east of square.
As I walked around taking some pictures an old man came up and started to talk to John.
He introduced himself as Conrad and explained that he had been raised in the Canal Zone and educated in American schools there. He told us that he had lost his wife and his house in the American invasion in 1989. Conrad became our guide for an hour as we walked around Casco. He did not provide that much information and kept repeating the same things over and over again - including the assertion that 40 percent of the new construction was owned by Jews! - but he was basically a harmless old guy.
Panama City was destroyed by the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan in the seventeenth century, and when they rebuilt it Casco became the center of the new city. This area was obviously quite prosperous through the early twentieth century. However, by the later part of that century Casco had turned into a dangerous slum. Now identified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Casco is becoming quite chic. Dozens of colonial buildings are being beautifully restored.
There is still a lot of slum left, though at the pace of change I doubt much will be left unrestored in five or ten years. Walking around Casco reminded me of being in SoHo in the 1970’s or South Beach in the 1980’s. A little nostalgie de la boue, I suppose.
As we strolled around we saw some of the famous sites such as the Iglesia de San Jose with its gilt altar.
We also saw the famous flat arch at ruins of the Santo Domingo monastery. Panamanians say that the Americans decided to place the canal in Panama instead of Nicaragua because when they saw this arch they decided that Panama must not get earthquakes! The arch sadly collapsed in 2003 without the aid of a temblor, and this is the repaired structure.
We did have some practical matters to attend to, so we went shopping for shaving cream. This proved surprisingly hard to find. We did, however, find Panama City’s Chinatown.
At a bakery there, John convinced a slightly bewildered Asian sales clerk to let him snap her photograph.
By this time we were exhausted, not having had quite enough sleep on the plane, and we returned to the room to take a good long nap. When we woke up, we couldn’t quite decide what to do with the rest of the day. I decided that we should go to see the Municipal Park, a huge expanse of rainforest in the center of the city. But before we left to get a cab, we decided to ask Uri, the young Dutchman at the desk, what suggestions he could give us for seeing the canal.
Uri told as that the hotel had a full-time driver who could take us around and that he was expected back at the hotel soon. We actually waited close to an 45 minutes until the driver Karlos - his spelling, not a typo - arrived. We liked Karlos and made arrangement with him to go on Monday.
By this time, it was a bit too late for hiking in the park. So we walked a little more around Casco Viejo. It was about five in the evening by this point, the time of day that David Lean called “the golden hour” because the light is so perfect for photography. Here is the monument to the Venezuelan liberator, Simon Bolivar.
I took this shot of the new Panama City rising through the rubble of Manuel Noriega’s Officer’s Club, one of the first buildings destroyed in the 1989 invasion.
Uri, along with a couple guidebooks, suggested that we go to the rooftop bar at Tantalo for sunset. It was definitely a happening place. We had a reasonably good dinner there as the sun went down and the city lights came on.
Tomorrow, we’re off to explore more parts of the city. Maybe we’ll even check out that new high-rise district on the other side of the bay.
