Panama City

From the Golfo de Chiriqui, we wanted to go to Panama City. There were several other people wanting the same thing, so we all set off together.

From the island hotel, we got a boat back to the mainland. (Turned out that kid scammed us when we paid nearly $2 each. The return journey was only $1 each! Good on him!) We all piled into the same truck that got us there the day before; there were 11 of us in a small pickup. Fun!

Then the real fun began. There were 6 of us who wanted to get onto a bus to Panama City, and we were told that all the buses to Panama City would be packed due to a local holiday. Sure enough, when a bus to PC passed by, only 3 of our group could get on. Chris, a really nice Canadian named John, and I waited and waited in the heat. Finally a minibus passed by that was headed for Tole, on the way to PC, so we hopped on. We got to Tole and then got another minibus to Santiago (and got ripped off fare-wise, I'm convinced, but at least we got that far). Then it was a proper bus to PC. On our way there, we had to call a few hostels before we found a place with a room available.

We arrived in PC a bit earlier than expected and found ourselves in the absolutely massive bus terminal. We asked a security guard where we could find a taxi, and he very kindly lead us to a dodgy taxi driver mate of his who wound up charging us double what he should have. And then he couldn't find the place we'd booked. After consulting lots of people along the way, he found our placey. They couldn't find our reservation; of all the notes the receptionists had written to themselves, our names weren't up there. Luckily another receptionist passed through and remembered my phone call. We were in!

We then had a few very nice days in PC. We mostly explored the old bits, which have plenty of interesting stuff to look at, as well as the Panama Canal museum. We greatly enjoyed using the public city buses, not only because they're a LOT cheaper than taxis but also because the guidebook refers to them as red devils for good reason: they go really fast and excel at cutting off other drivers. We wound up spending a few evenings at the ginormous mall attached to the massive terminal...we found a movie theatre there with some English-language movies that are subtitled in Spanish rather than dubbed. Woo-hoo!!!

We spent one day around the canal. We visited a zoo/garden area in search of tapirs and harpy eagles. In the process, we got caught in a torrential downpour (without our jackets or panchos on us!), but at least we got to see a harpy eagle and a tapir in the closest we could get to their natural Central American habitats. We also spent a couple hours at a viewing station at the canal's Miraflores locks. By this time, we'd moved to a lovely B&B in a tranquil suburb of PC, and its owner advised us that if we went to the viewing station's restaurant, we could check out the passing boats while sipping drinks rather than paying the hefty admission fee for the viewing station itself. We took his advice and had a lovely time on the restaurant's terrace. The highlight for us was watching pelicans on and around the water.

We also had our 10-year wedding anniversary during our time in PC, a very lovely relaxing day. So we'll remember this place fondly indeed!