PANAMA CITY - QUITO

Day 58 06.09.15

After a great nights sleep, I marvelled a little at the skyline outside of the bedroom window before getting up. We went down for breakfast and I had some stewed sausages, some bread, orange juice and a hot chocolate. After breakfast, I quickly packed my entire luggage and left them in another room, as we would only be back about an hour after check out time.

We then got a lift to the red hop on and off busses, in order to get to know Panama City a little better. We started driving around the city when we passed a building the locals call the corkscrew tower. Architecturally it is quite impressive.

We passed a park dedicated to a true Panamanian, who tried to defend its country from the Spanish conquistadores.

On the bus you always had to look out for any low hanging branches, especially when sitting on the top part of the bus. Also the electricity lines all hung very loosely, and I was sure that at some point we would all get electrocuted.

We passed the administrative building of the Panama canals, which is especially important to the Panamanians, as here they celebrated their independence from America and the day when the reign over the Panama canals was passed on entirely to Panama.

The bus also stopped at several malls. The one most impressive was the one that had a hotel!!! In it. Obviously for people with a severe shopping addiction.

Onwards we went to the Panama canals, where we saw the port activities, where large containers were placed onto a train owned by the Panama Canal railway.

We then drove onwards, passing the Panama Canals dam that regulated the overall water level, today being more like a lake, whereas yesterday it had nearly been empty.

We again passed the Panama Canals visitor centre, but this time didn’t get off, as we had already seen the canals and time was ticking (my taxi to the airport left at 2).

The next leg we took, drove us part more of the port and its container city.

We drove past several churches, which looked like they could have sprung from a 60s American movie. Apparently now they also offered services in Spanish, whereas before it was only offered to Americans, therefore the services being solely in English.

Panama is very engaged in its educative system, providing the children with backpacks and uniforms, the children in their last two years are provided their own personal computers to facilitate their start into the business world. For this they have constructed this educative monument.

We drove onwards to the islands, which have been connected to the mainland with stones taken from the excavation of the Panama canals. Before reaching the islands we passed the colourful biology museum.

The road to the islands is rather narrow, and so you still get the feeling of the islands being islands.

Alongside the road you can observe the buoys that frame the Panama Canals passage, indicating where the water is deep enough for large ships to pass through.

Everywhere you can see smaller and larger ships anchored before the Canals awaiting their turn to pass through the canal. (Maybe some are just waiting for their payment to go through (which has to be made 48 hours in advance of passing through the canals).

The view of the skyline from this road to the islands was spectacular, especially with all the boats from the islands yacht club in front.

From the islands we headed onwards towards the fish market where we were planning on enjoying some lunch. We stopped, had a short look around the Casco Viejo and then walked on.

Just in front the fish market, several fisher boats had anchored and were now framed by the skyline.

I bought a new pair of sunglasses along the way, as I thought that if the glasses of your old pair are falling out, it is time to buy a new pair. To be fair, they had done well all the way from Playa del Carmen in Mexico, so buying a new pair was alright.

The fish market was bustling and everywhere people were selling their fish and seafood. It wasn’t as big as you see them elsewhere, but definitely something we hadn’t seen along this trip.

On top of the fish market we followed a Lonely Planet guide recommendation and visited a small restaurant. I had some great ceviche, which you know is fresh when you have to pull out some scales from your mouth.

After lunch we tried to get back on the red bus to finish the tour, but somehow we missed it by 20 minutes. We then took the taxi back, I dried up, went down to the reception area and said my goodbyes.

It was tough, seeing as we had spent so much time with each other and especially as we all live so far apart, who knows when we will get to see each other again.

I took a shuttle to the airport, decided I would wrap my luggage with the plastic wrap from the airport, seeing as I didn’t quite trust my body bag to survive maltreatment by the airports staff. The check in went quickly and I had loads of time to kill. I stopped by for some raspberry ice cream – a delight – and headed on towards my gate. Luckily I still had an interesting audio book to listen to, and soon came the time for me to board my flight to San Salvador.

The flight was fairly quick, but I still managed to watch an entire movie, which they offered on the flight. I wasn’t so lucky on the next flight to Quito, so my audio book had to make due. The layover in San Salvador was weird, as I had a time change and I was never quite sure what the time was, whether the “local time” on the display referred to the time in Quito or the time in San Salvador. I just sat at the gate, and waited for another hour to then board the plane to Quito.

It was already late and dark when I landed in Quito and I took a taxi. Yes I could have taken a bus, however that takes about an hour and wouldn’t have taken me close enough to the hotel, without me having to wander about in the dark by myself. I was too tired for that. I took a taxi that had a counter straight at the airport and the price to the hotel was predetermined, so I didn’t have to barter with the taxi driver. It cost me 26$, where as the bus would have only been 8$, but the extra price was worth my safety.

The taxi driver even gave me a mini tour through the old part of Quito and then dropped me off safely at my hotel. I checked in and fell straight into bed.