Northern South America Travel Diary 2012 17

I am sure that parts of Panama City must look quite attractive on a sunny day under a blue sky. Unfortunately, I haven’t really had the opportunity to see the place under such ideal conditions.

The skies today have been constantly overcast, though sometimes more brightly than at others. However, there has been a constant thin haze in the air that has had the effect of soaking up colour like a blotting paper soaks up ink. Therefore, when I say that I haven’t found Panama City all that aesthetically pleasing, I am the first to admit that I have almost certainly been influenced by the off-white to greyish lighting that has engulfed me.

I came to Panama with two main aims, which were to see the Panama Canal and to explore the Old City. Knowing it was the wet season, I had allowed two days to achieve my two goals, but with good planning and a lot of luck with the weather, I managed to achieve both goals yesterday. That meant that today was something of a ‘bonus’ day.

I have been travelling in Panama without the benefit of a guidebook. Therefore, once I found out I would have a ‘bonus’ day of exploring today, I went online to see might be of interest. The results were fairly disappointing.

An article from the New York Times called “36 hours in Panama City” mentioned the Canal (of course), but almost everything else listed was an expensive restaurant or a night club. Being a travel writer for the New York Times must be quite a nice job if you can get it!

TripAdvisor was a little more helpful, although it tended to break up sites into multiple “sub-sites”, which meant I had already covered many of the places mentioned. Others places that were mentioned were way beyond Panama City or involved overnight travel. One place did catch my eye – the BioMuseo until I found out that it would not open until 2013 – not that this has prevented it from getting a couple of rave reviews already!

In the end, I decided the best way to get an overview of Panama City was to join one of the open-top double decker bus circuits (yes, I know, I am a sucker for these). I found out that the nearest stop to my hotel was at the Miraflora Locks, so after a good breakfast I walked the 2.5 kilometres to Miraflora.

Unlike my experience with one of these buses in Cartagena, I was not disappointed today. The ticket included a pair of earphones which provided a very thorough commentary (channel 2 for English), and the bus covered a winding route that included a great cross-section of Panama City.

Leaving the Miraflora Locks, the bus proceeded south past the vast wharf area and railways sidings that mark the southern entrance to the Canal and on to three small islands that have been connected to the mainland by a long causeway (Isla Flamenco, Isla Perico and Isla Naos). The (former) islands themselves weren’t that interesting, accommodating as they did some restaurants, hotels and marinas, but the scenery across the water from the causeway was good, and we did pass the construction site for the BioMuseo (which will be quite an eye-catching building when it is finished) as well as the convention centre whose main (only?) claim to fame is that it hosted the Miss Universe pageant in 2003 (today’s extreme piece of trivia!).

We drove back northwards along the causeway and then proceeded to the east, stopping at the northern end of the Casco Antiguo (Old Town) that I had explored thoroughly yesterday. Like many parts of Panama, it confirmed the general rule that places here often look better from a distance than up close.

Most of the rest of the circuit was through more modern parts of Panama City, past some large shopping malls and through some residential areas. They were interesting enough but not especially noteworthy or distinctive, except I suppose in some areas where recent redevelopment of former American areas is leading to a mild form of gentrification.

The circuit concluded in the area where I am staying, which is a government sponsored development called the “City of Knowledge” (or in Spanish, ‘Ciudad del Saber’). Located in a former US Army base called Fort Clayton that overlooks the Panama Canal, Ciudad del Saber is a vast cluster of academic organizations, technology companies and NGOs (including the Red Cross and a fair share of UN affiliated bodies such as WFP, UNICEF and UNDP). Organizations locating in Ciudad del Saber are provided with certain benefits, including tax relief and high-speed fibre optic internet access (that for some reason does not seem to have been extended into my hotel). I wouldn’t say that Ciudad del Saber would win any prizes for aesthetics, but it is an interesting place to be staying.

There was one good aspect of today’s overcast conditions – the temperature was significantly cooler than yesterday and there was a glorious, refreshing sea breeze blowing. Furthermore, unlike yesterday, the rain held off and the day actually became a little brighter as it progressed. By late afternoon, with a bit of imagination and a dash of wishful thinking, I could pretend to make out some fuzzy shadows on the ground (at least for 10 minutes or so).

Day 17 - Panama City, Panama

Tuesday

10 July 2012

Today’s extra bonus images