Our trip to Panama City and Panama Canal 2016
Panama is quite literally the crossroads of the world, where ships from the East pass ships from the West through the Panama Canal. It is one of the engineering marvels of the modern world, and it would be remiss to live so close and not see it. Along with the engineering wonders of the canal, Panama City has a vibrant culture great shopping, and environment complete with jungles and Spanish forts once attacked by the real pirates of the Caribbean.
Day One – Figuring out the metro and buses and malling around Panama City.
Albrook Mall
After hearing stories about the outrageous prices that the cabs charge you, and how cheap the public transportation is here, we decided to give it a go. Our choice of Hotel put us right next to the metro line, that went directly to the Albrook Mall. With very little effort we found the metro entrance and proceeded to buy the $2.00 card that would let us use the metro. Unfortuatley there was no one in the one booth manned by a human being, but a very nice transit helper guided us through the process of purchasing our cards at one of the vending machines. For under $10 we had more than enough money on our cards to ride where we needed to go. It’s quite easy to ride the metro as long as you know which stop you want. The Albrook Mall was at the end of the line, so it was pretty easy.Pretty much any time of day the metro is very crowded; but since we only had a few stops to Albrook Mall, we managed.
Albrook is the main transit center for all the buses and metros going into the Panama City. Just across from it is the Huge Albrook Shopping Mall.
Albrook Mall is the largest Mall in Panama and features every type of store you can imagine, as well as several huge food courts. After traversing about half the mall we discovered that although there was an abundance of stores, there was no really great bargains, but the prices were camparable to those in the US, and much better than in Costa Rica. More to the point, you could find stuff there that we couldn’t outside of San Jose.
Albrook is the main transit center for all the buses and metros going into the Panama City. Just across from it is the Huge Albrook Shopping Mall.
Albrook Mall is the largest Mall in Panama and features every type of store you can imagine, as well as several huge food courts. After traversing about half the mall we discovered that although there was an abundance of stores, there was no really great bargains, but the prices were camparable to those in the US, and much better than in Costa Rica. More to the point, you could find stuff there that we couldn’t outside of San Jose.
Figuring Out the Buses
After lunch we decided to go to the Miraflores Locks and Canal Museum. Although we could have hailed a cab and gotten there for around $15, I had read up on how to go by bus from there on an blog Internet post. The instructions were spot on. Unfortunately the original card we got was only good for the Metro instead of the one for Bus and Metro. Note to self – get the combined one next time. We had to spend another 2 bucks to get a new card and then search the right portal in the huge Albrook Metro Station. We asked people to show us where to catch the bus we wanted and they were all very helpful. Before long an old style school bus appeared and we piled on. It unfortunately was not one of the famous colorful painted Panama “Red Devil” buses. There were No chickens om it, but the ride was about the same as our chicken bus. Still for all of 35 cents, it was a bargain, and the bus driver told us when to get off. The only down side is that it's quite a walk from the road to the museum but to save more than $15 it was well worth the effort.
Miraflores Locks and Museum
It cost $15 to get into the Museum and locks viewing area, and the museum showed a lot of history about the building of the canal and subsequent improvements. From the top balcony, you had a ring side seat to watch the huge ships pass through the locks. Before going to see the canal was watched the American Experience Episode on the building of the Panama Canal – something I heartily recommend to anyone since it filled in a lot of the gaps that the museum guides glossed over.
Day 2 - Gatun Locks, Jungle Boat, and Fort San Lorenzo
For our second full day we had booked a tour with Panama Day Trips, whom some friends of ours recommended. We started early in the morning in an effort to catch the jungle animals when they were most active. The boat put in at Gatun Lake and took us to two island inhabited by two species of monkeys. Gerald, our guide, explained to us that although he was against feeding wild animals, these monkeys had become isolated on their island and had now grown dependent upon humans coming to feed them. Without this they would starve. They had no fear of people and were quite amusing to watch.
After the boat tour, we continued on to the Gatun Locks on the Pacific side to watch the boats enter and leave the huge locks. Unlike the Miraflores ones, Gatun Locks had no museum , but they did have guides explaining what was happening. These locks were even narrower and there was barely two feet in either side of the walls and the side of the huge ships.
From there we went to “French cut” , which was a picnic area on the river cut by the original French Project in the 1880’s. After that we headed up the mountain to Fort Henderson that was once a large US Army base, but now turned over to Panama for a National Park. It contained Fort Lorenzo which was a ruined fort overlooking the entrance to the Chargras River from the Caribbean that had been attacked numerous times by Pirates .
After the boat tour, we continued on to the Gatun Locks on the Pacific side to watch the boats enter and leave the huge locks. Unlike the Miraflores ones, Gatun Locks had no museum , but they did have guides explaining what was happening. These locks were even narrower and there was barely two feet in either side of the walls and the side of the huge ships.
From there we went to “French cut” , which was a picnic area on the river cut by the original French Project in the 1880’s. After that we headed up the mountain to Fort Henderson that was once a large US Army base, but now turned over to Panama for a National Park. It contained Fort Lorenzo which was a ruined fort overlooking the entrance to the Chargras River from the Caribbean that had been attacked numerous times by Pirates .
Fort Lorenzo
Day 3 - Embera Village and Jungle Tour
The next day we had booked a second tour with the same outfit to travel to an Embera Village where indigenous people lived along the river. The trip was by dugout canoe, and the only concession to the 21st century were the outboard motors. Our first stop though was to a waterfall, accessible by a short jungle hike. The weather throughout this trip, much to our surprise, was delightful. Temperatures were in the 80’s, humidity was low, and there was always a cool wind to keep away mosquitos and make it feel more comfortable. After hiking to and from the waterfall, they took us back to the village for a locally cooked lunch of Talapia and Plantains and fruit. The Embera people were very friendly and showed us how they make their native baskets, carvings, and clothes. We then joined them in a dance – only to affirm that I am a terrible dancer in any culture.
After dropping us back to the hotel, we made once last shopping trip to the local Price Mart a short walk from our hotel. The previous two nights we had eaten Indian Food at a wonderful place called AVATAR which satisfied both our foodie needs. Tonight though we were tired so opted for a little place across the street called “Jap Jap” . Although the atmosphere was strictly fast food style, the Pollo Asado was both delicious ample and cheap. We both ate for about $13.
After Thoughts
Panama City is a large modern and prosperous city in the heart of Central America. I refer to this as Central America Lite – having many of the amenities that you’d find in the USA, but still has enough “Central Americaness” to it so that you don’t feel like you’ve walked into a Miami suburb. The climate this time of year was delightful with “not-too-hot-not-too-humid”, and cooling breezes from the two oceans. Prices were comparable to the USA and far better than Costa Rica and with the dollar being the currency, there was no need to figure exchange rates. Traffic was horrendous, but that is pretty much the way it is throughout the modern world. Public Transportation is everywhere and very cheap provided you invest the time to learn how to use it. We also tried Uber for the first time to get bak to the airport and found that very easy and more reliable than cabs since we knew in advance what the cost would be. We purchased a Pay-As-You-Go phone card $10 so we had internet access everywhere through our mobile phone. Many people there spoke some English but knowing Spanish will make the trip a lot easier.