Panama City

Quote of the Day: “I’m in the middle of another tricky divorce. She’s Thai, and everything was good up until she got permanent residence. Then it all changed. So I put a wad of money into my travel agent’s trust account, and now I’m spending up large on cruises.”

Ruins of Old Panama

With the change of port from Cartagena to Colon, we were given the opportunity to view the locks from land, or travel into Panama City. I took my first ship organized excursion, and went to view the Old City of Panama.

Colonial Old City

This was actually divided into two areas. First was the ruins of the early city, which burned down in 1665. The ruins were the remaining brick walls, with a few towers dotted around. A brief call at the Visitors Centre gave us a bit of the early history of Panama, but the artifacts from this time were fairly sparse.

From there we moved on to the Colonial Old City, which is post-1665. The style of the buildings is Spanish, and the area is gradually being restored. (This area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) It was interesting seeing very smart, fully restored, colourful buildings right along side dilapidated ones, still waiting to be upgraded. The latter have had their roofs removed to discourage people from squatting there.

We then drove back past the New Panama, which looks like downtown Singapore. This area is booming. Our guide told us that with the development going on, and the new canal being built, the crime rate has dropped drastically, unemployment is low, education is compulsory until 18, and the minimum wage has been doubled. So not quite the tin-pot town we learned about at school!

The tour ended with the obligatory craft shop visit, where a few of the women bought up large. I couldn’t believe the tack they were buying! The same women also hopped off the bus at the shopping mall opposite the ship’s berth when we got back – just to pick up a few extra bits and pieces… Go granny…

Modern skyline