The legend has arrived in Panama. My dad got here on a flight from Houston in the middle of a horrible afternoon rainstorm on Thursday at about 1. He's staying with me until Tuesday morning so I have a friend to see the sights of Panama with before my interviews and all that start for my research project.
Thursday we took a walking tour of the neighborhood and then had a short nap. At about 6:30 we took a cab to the old city (think French Quarter like 150 years ago, crumbling paint, moderately dangerous) to Restaurante Las Bovedas, an awesome jazz bar and restaurant built into the dungeon chambers of the seawall at the very tip of the old center. Great atmosphere, questionable decision to order a caipirinha when I wasn't on the beach in Rio. After a quick drink, we headed doen the street to Caracol Manolo, a cool place where you order a drink and they bring you 9-10 mostly seafood tapas to share. Awesome dinner.
Friday we ate breakfast at Manolo's, a neighborhood place famous for its chorros. Big breakfast and we were off to Panama La Vieja, the oldest city center that was burned down by pirates and abandoned in 1672. I made that date up. Cool ruins, though. We moved back to Casco Viejo (where we were the night before) to go to the churches and musuems. Pretty interesting, but my favorite parts was being allowed to wander in front of the Presidential palace that overlooks the water. The herons in the courtyard are a Panama symbol, and rumor is that when Jimmy Carter came to visit in 1977 his security team accidentally sprayed a poisonous cleaner that killed them all. They had to smuggle more back into the palace before the Panamanians revolted. Good day, then we moved to El Cangrejo (where I'm staying) to grab some dinnner. Watched the Truman Show and crashed.
Today we went to the Canal. First to the Cerro Ancon, a huge hill that has great, Rio-style views of the entire city and Canal. Gill, our cab driver, gave me some interesting things to think about for my research, and then dropped us at the Miraflores Locks, one of 3 sets of locks along the 40 mile Canal. We saw a huge ship get lowered down on its way to th Pacific, then had lunch on a balcony overlooking the canal. Very cool.
The plan tomorrow is bold- renting a car and driving to Central Panama to a mountain village and a beach town 2 hours away.
Al is loving Panama; it's great to have him here.
Davis
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1 comment:
Glad no one told me about the rainstorm when Alan landed! Have fun...find some cool bargains at the market to put in that empty suitcase!
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