1 night in Panama City I stayed at the Panamericana Hostel in the old part of the town.
Common area of the hostel reminded me of a summer camp where everybody has time to kill. Sleeping. Eating. Reading. Playing guitar.
“The Breakfast” consisted of a pack of the bread to be toasted and a huge jar of a peanut butter.
When you are in Panama you are going to see the Panama Canal. Miraflores locks is made perfectly well for tourists. With 4 floors of observation decks, a museum and a cafe.
The Panama Canal celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2014. Runs like a clock since.
40 ships a day. Over a millions ships in 100 years.
You can even take a ferry to run through the canal at the cost of $115. I didn’t. Just watched ships passing by. 10 mins/ship.
The museum tells the whole story of the canal being started by the French who tried digging dirt for 11 years with little success. Americans took over and build it over in another 8 years. Yet the engineer behind the master plan was a Japanese.
A view over the modern part of the Panama city from the place of the ruins of the old town, originated 500 years ago.
A fruit market in Panama city is probably a hundred years old still run rustically. Farmers bring their produce selling off the car decks. Customers drive through the market on their vehicles too.
This guy peeled and sliced the pineapple in 10 seconds.
Yukka.
Buying mango on the market might seem odd, as it grows as a grass everywhere.
Climb the vista point to see the canal from the height.
3 mln people live in Panama, 1.5 of them are in the capital.
Old Town is gaining it’s prestige again. The road is the toll.
Santana Area is considered to be the most dangerous part of the city. The murals are made by artists who gathered in Panama in 2013 in celebration of its 500 year anniversary.
And it looks amazing.
Old town is under active reconstruction these days preparing to be announced the UNIESCO word heritage site soon.
However the best time to see the Old Town to me is now…. when you can still see the contrast, the spirit of the time, the true inhabitants.
The money for reconstruction are private of building owners.
June is a low season for tourists. It’s incredibly hot and humid during the day.
Panamenians are laid back and amicable. Easy to talk to.
The old lady on the balcony was chatting to people passing by.
Work in process.
The building of the Ministry of the External Affairs. The Minister is waiting for his car to arrive.
“If the World would need to choose a capital it surely should be in Panama” Simon Bolivar
The White House of the Panama. Free access for all.
Guards are sent off onto the streets to watch the order.
The architecture of the old town is a unique combination of Spanish and French colonial heritage.
Every corner is an eye-catcher.
She was shy to take a smiling photo.
A vanishing epoch.
Every latin city has The Main Square: a cathedral, a hotel (which used to be the aristocracy house), a mayor’s office, and a rotunda in the middle.
See-through.
Suddenly. A dolphin.
Something the archeologists might be discovering centuries later.
“I can’t take my eyes off you”
A down coming over the city.
It rains usually an hour or two a day as a must.
National Theater has an amazing acoustics. I wanted to attend a performance but for my poor spanish mixed up the time.
Instead I happened to attend a graduation concert of the Arts University guitar students.
Moises Hernandez is a Panamenian musician, took care and time to tell his story which was so random thus so precious. He is a lucid dreamer.
The rehearsals of the evening performance I didn’t make it to.
Thank you, Panama for surprising my curiosity and feeding your story.
