30 January – 01 February 2017
Looking back I think that the catalyst
for our trip to Central America was actually the number of times we were
required to touch down at Tocumen
International Airport, Panama City, during our South American tour two
years earlier. Utilising Copa Airlines, the flag carrier of Panama, to get in
and out of both Colombia and Cuba, we had spent close to 15hrs in Tocumen
International across four separate stops.
Now it was time to actually STOP
there, for a few days perhaps.
We’d taken an overnight bus from
Almirante, the coastal port from where we had ferried across to Bocas del
Torro. For those that are unlearned or aren’t watching every penny like a hawk
let me say than an overnight bus for those on a budget is a win. It provides
travel and in-built overnight accommodation all rolled into one ride. Of course
some countries do it better than others. Argentinian overnight buses provided
meals, cama and semi-cama seating and the occasional game of bus bingo. Panama
was mid-range in their service, comfortable seating and a movie without
subtitles. A pass mark for sure but not exceling in any department.
Arriving in the capital as the
sun was just breaking over the city, the morning at the Gran Terminal Nacional de Transporte was just starting to move into
a state of alertness. Grand for a bus terminal, we needed to get our bearings
before figuring out a strategy for commencing our stay. This however is the
point in time when the one-eyed focus of the budget conscious Latvian conflicts
with the Australian need for convenience. What we didn’t know for sure, but
figured out by deduction, was that the bus terminal was a distance from the
city. A rough guess would have put it at least at 5-8kms away – actually
checking now, as I write this entry, I see that it’s 6.3km. A comfortable walk
if you delete the 20kg packs that we also were obliged to carry along.
In this situation the Australian
thought of the practical solution, ‘OK, lets
Uber this’.
The Latvian followed up by saying,
‘C’mon, lets walk, we can’t check in
until 2pm anyway, what else are we going to do?’
In my mind I thought, perhaps we could leave our bags at the
accommodation and head out exploring – but no, I gave in to a bit of
frustration and just said, ‘OK, stuff it,
lets walk’.
Welcome to Panama City - Panama
With back packs on we proudly walked into town
Panama City - Panama
In total we walked about
1.5-2hrs, mostly due to the fact that we guessed our way to the city centre.
Uninspiring and surely boring in large part, we only really encountered
buildings of note when we reached the outskirts of what looked to be the CBD.
It was there that we found Panama City to be quite unlike the other major
capitals of Central America. Sleek with
an ultra-modern skyline, the skyscrapers of downtown glistened as the morning
sunlight crossed the Panama Bay and reflected off their tinted window
exteriors. Located on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, the city is uncharacteristically
large by Central American standards, 1.5million strong in terms of inhabitants
and un-typically cosmopolitan for a city in the region, there was a lot of
Miami glitz about what we saw in our first brushes.
From what we had found out in
advance, it was said that the city is a real capture of influences from both
east and west, making is a liberal, dynamic and quite a vibrant city. Acting
also as a regional hub for trade, immigration and finance, you automatically
see on first viewing that there’s a typical first world type of buzz to the
town. With traffic jams, well known restaurant chains, a flourishing night
life, Panama City was an unexpected hive of activity that we didn’t expect and
in all truth didn’t encounter again until we reached Mexico City.
Panama City - Panama
Drinks down at Casco Viejo - Panama City - Panama
Casco Viejo - Panama City - Panama
Walking around the city during
the day it we found it to be a typical urban jungle type of place. Not that we
find that problematic or immediately detrimental to the vibe we feel for a
place, but it allow us to frame our observations and utilise it as a base for
comparison.
Our first evening was spent in
Casco Viejo, the Old Quarter of
Panama City. This cool part of town is the hip, gentrified, revitalised area of
town. A neighbourhood where cool restaurants, cobblestone streets, rooftop bars
and music abound, providing all-comers with the foundation for a marvellous
evening. It’s immediately obvious that quite a lot of restoration work had gone
into both preserving and modernising this area of Panama City. Operating as the
perfect foil to the burgeoning city ‘up
the road’, the old town virtually
stands alone, just on 5kms from the CBD. In its own precinct, proud and representative
of a bygone era but with the flair, charm and vibrancy to be its own drawcard,
this area was definitely a favourite part of Panama City for me, and this being in a city that actually had a
few surprises.
The next day Inga and I shifted
our accommodation to the Hard Rock Hotel
Panama Megalopolis. Not really your conventional option for those on the
budget but for me the Hard Rock franchise is something that I enjoy, and I
enjoy it not so much for the Hard Rock
element, which is cool by the way, but more for the geography. These places are
located virtually on every continent and turning up to each location is like a
cool little tag identifier.
The Hotel itself is impressive
enough. Great facilities, really good rooms and the views out over the CBD out
onto Panama Bay. Quite a few hours were spent lazing about the open pool on the
15th floor and acquiring a few cocktails in order to lubricate our
mood up from smooth to ‘smooth criminal’.
Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama
Whilst Inga decided to stay at
the hotel the next day I headed off in order to check out one of the greatest
modern engineering achievements of our time. An artificial waterway cutting
across Panama, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the canal cuts through
the Isthumus of Panama, linking the Pacific to Gatun Lake and then locks on the
Atlantic Coast in Colon.
Cutting 82kms from ocean to
ocean, it is simply one of the longest, most difficult and finally, the most
successful projects ever undertaken. So grand and so audacious, it’s mind
boggling that humans actually had the capacity to accomplish something of this
scale, but perhaps even more incredible was the fact that the concept of
undertaking the project had actually been around for nearly 400 yrs. Of course
the Spanish had the idea very early on but to me the oddball suggestion for
taking on the job came from the highly unlikely source of the Kingdom of Scotland. Their suggestion of
extreme audacity came via their ill-fated Darien
Scheme which was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom to become a world
trading state by establishing a colony on the Isthumus of Panama which they
were lining up to call Caledonia.
Initially to be an overland trading route, the idea was eventually develop the
canal at a later point in time.
Control and ownership of this
part of the world obviously had strategic, commercial and financial importance.
And whilst the French gave the canal a red hot go in the late part of the 19th
Century, their defeat came at the hands of yellow fever and malaria which
unfortunately too out a lot of the manpower. The French also had a track
record. Their work on the Suez canal was experience enough in terms of scale
but it was the terrain of Panama, the tropical rain forests, the debilitating
climate and the need for canal locks that made their work from 1881-1894
virtually useless. With a spend of $287,000,000, a loss of 22,000 men and a
plethora of investors whose money was completely sunk, the failure was epic.
Eventually the USA took over
control of the of the canal property and completed the project in 1914. Not to
the applause of Chilean ports whose trading routes just got decimated in one
foul swoop.
Panama Canal - Panama
Panama Canal - Panama
Panama Canal - Panama
Panama Canal - Panama
Panama Canal - Panama
Panama Canal - Panama
Still, to stand atop of the main viewing
platform overlooking one of the main locks in the canal structure and view with
my own eyes the scale of what was in front of me, plus consider the project in
its entirety, was absolutely mind boggling. Again, since I was a child this was
one of those constructs of man that I knew about. It was iconic and such a feet
of engineering that it really has stood as testament to the capacity of man as
a thinking being to be able to achieve something of this magnitude. It has to
stand up there alongside such feats as going to the moon, the Great Pyramids,
the Great Wall of China & Palm Island.
Viewing the canal was definitely
one of my highlights of Panama and probably in the top 10 highlights of the
trip.
One of the cars used for U2's ZooTV Tour back in 1991
Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama
View from our room at the Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama
View from our room at the Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama
We finished off the day/evening
having dinner at the Hard Rock Café and a view drinks at an oddball bar next to
the Hard Rock that seemed to overtly masquerade as a brothel, potentially. I’m
not sure what the game was there but buxom girls were providing table service
for a bar/restaurant that looked perhaps like a Texas Ranch House/crossed with
a sports bar. There was no discernible policy that we could see and of course
Inga and I were served without issue but the amount of overt flirtation that
the all male tables had and the type of interaction that was going on seemed to
suggest something altogether ulterior than what was on offer. If anyone is at
all interested, just look up the Red Lion
Multicentro across the road from the Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis –
apparently from the reviews it’s a ‘clip
joint’, a place where you get smacked across the face with prices for the
sake of ‘apparently’ partying with the girls…lol…good luck guys, steer clear.
