Posted on by dhoch49

Off to Panama City: 1.18.20-1.19.20

Frank and I headed to Panama City to start our tour of Panama with Overseas Adventure Travel, O.A.T. Of course snow was in the forecast for today. Yesterday I received an email from United saying that we could reschedule our flight without a fee. After spending quite a long time on the phone and checking the forecast, I decided to change our flight to a red eye leaving at 11:59 pm and arriving at 5:20 am. (Of course, our original flight was delayed but was not canceled. Figures!)

A driver met us at the Panama City airport to transfer us to our hotel. We checked into our room by 6:30, ate breakfast and attended the first meeting of our group at 8am. What a way to start our tour!

Kenny Weeks is our tour guide. He is a native Panamanian. He speaks English without an accent because he grew up in the canal zone and his teachers were Americans. He will be with us throughout our entire tour.

After our introductory meeting, we were scheduled for a bus tour of Panama City. Even though we hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep on the plane, we decided to go on the tour. Panama City is the capital of Panama. It has a population of 900,000. Located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, it is the political, banking and commercial center for the country.

This is one of the modern office buildings in Panama City.

We headed for Panama Viejo, Old Panama. This first settlement was founded in 1510 by a Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Davila. From here expeditions went to conquer the Incas in Peru. It was also through this port that gold and silver was taken and sent back to Spain.

Old Panama was added to the UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997; many of the ruins were undergoing restoration. In 1671, a pirate named Henry Morgan and his men attacked, looted, and burned the city. It was rebuilt in 1673 but in a new locationabout five miles southwest of the first one.

\

Returning from Old Panama, we had lunch at a restaurant near our hotel. The Central Hotel Panama is located in Casco Viejo or Old Quarter. This is the where Panama City was relocated in 1673 after the first settlement was destroyed. It was built on a pennisula where walls could be built around it. It was designated as World Heritage Site in 1997. There are strict laws that prohibit changing the original style of the buildings in this area.

The Panama Canal museum is on the left and part of our hotel is on the right. In the foreground is the Plaza of Independence.
C
This is an arch inside the remains of the Society of Jesus Convent.
These stands are selling Mola, a traditional textile craft that uses brightly colored fabric to make patterns and shapes.
On our walking tour we saw this young lady. The young man was taking her picture. We assumed she was dressed for her Quinceanera, the celebration for a girl’s fifteenth birthday to mark her entry into young womanhood.
Frank and I ate dinner at our hotel, These ladies came in wearing the traditional Panamanian dresses called a polleras. I asked it I could take their picture, then they motioned for me to join in the next picture. I pointed to my shorts and shook my head. Don’t you like their solution?
Our hotel at night taken from the plaza.

Frank and I were really exhausted when our heads hit the pillow that night. We couldn’t believe that we made it through the whole day. It was a tiring, but a good start on our tour of Panama.

3 Replies to “Off to Panama City: 1.18.20-1.19.20”

Comments are closed.