Panama City Tour
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Mon 27 Jan 2014 13:16
This spiral shaped building is the one they are most proud of - each corner looks directly down to the ground
The ARC had arranged an optional tour of the city so we all decided to go and see what it was like. It is a while since we have been in a proper city! The city is basically in three parts, the Old City, the Colonial City and the New City. Our tour was to go round all three.
Panama City was originally founded in 1519, and quickly became an important port used to transport goods from the New World to the Old.
The English Privateer, Captain Henry Morgan, same chap as in the Portobello story, arrived in 1671 with 1,200 men having travelled up the Chagres River and sacked and burned the whole of what is now know as the Old City.
As it was a Monday, we were unable to go into the main Old City area as it was closed - quite why you would arrange a city tour on a Monday when all of the attractions are closed is a bit of a mystery!
Some ruins in the old city
After this, a decision was made to rebuild the city in a different area, using some of the building materials from the ruined city, in a more defensible position, on a rocky peninsula. This now forms the Colonial City.
An interesting fact, the reason that Panama was chosen as the site of the canal was that in the Colonial Town, there was a monastery with a flat arch which had not collapsed in over 300 years. Panama is outside the hurricane belt and gets few earthquakes etc., a major factor to consider when planning a canal project such as this. About 80 or so years after the canal was built however the arch failed and collapsed. It has been re-built and parts of the original arch have been kept.
The famous flat arch
The bit that fell off!
This area is currently undergoing a massive renovation project, the plans are to rebuild the whole area back to its former glory, hopefully sympathetically. The problem is that there are thousands of residents living in the old buildings, most of whom pay no rent at all, who are being moved out to allow the project to be completed. These people will end up living way out of the city as they will not be able to afford to remain once the renovations are complete.
This part is starting to look very smart...
This street is more of a work in progress
Even the new city is undergoing constant improvement with he installation of a brand new subway, due to completed very soon which will have taken only 3 years to build. The whole infrastructure of the new city is very impressive. The are huge shopping malls and the whole place has a very American, wealthy feel to it. We visited one shopping mall and were astounded by the sheer size, it made the Trafford Centre at home seem like a small town shopping precinct!
Today was, very sadly, our last with David and Suzanne, so as the tour was half a day, we planned a lunch stop afterwards as a farewell. The tour ended rather abruptly, as the last sight we were due to see was Ancon Hill. This gives a view over the old and new cities, the canal and both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, when we arrived, we were told that the bus was too large to up the hill! We did have the option of a later bus, but were too hungry and tired to be bothered, so we left the tour and went for lunch instead. Lunch was interesting. We had asked the guide for a restaurant recommendation for the 8 of us, including the crew from Brizo as well. We ended up in a very touristy place, which didn't serve white wine at all. This was an issue for the girls, but David managed to resolve it by sending the restaurant owner to the shop. What started as a 30 minute break in the tour ended up in a three hour lunch with lots of wine and brilliant company. A great end to our buddy boating. The rest of the people on the bus, 5 Americans, had sensibly decided to do their own thing as well rather than wait for us!
We were all rather subdued when we got back to the boat that evening and spent our last night together sipping tea on the back deck!
We were sad to see our buddies leave in Panama!
Oh, I forgot to mention, although we were supposed to go the New City on the tour, for some reason that part was cancelled as well!
Sent from my iPad