Wow, Panama City looks just like Miami! There's obviously a heap of money here with massive highrise apartments everywhere and fancy cars. It came as a bit of a surprise to us but apparently Panama is the #4 place to retire for Americans not to mention the money that the canal brings into the country so it sort of makes sense.
It's not all minted though, our hotel was right near the main hospital so there were always crowds of people in the street out the front (which made for a bit more interest and excitement). A bit weird to go from the States and speaking English for 5 days to having a very basic command of the local language. Plently of opportunity to practise for the next 3 months I guess.
Had the best fried chicken I've ever tasted in my life for $1 from a street stall and went for a big walk around town. Not loving this heat, we were dripping in seconds. The standout feature of Panama City are the crazy buses. They're called Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) and they're painted up American school buses with minimal exhuasts and insane drivers. Apparently they're all being scrapped next year because they're too dangerous but at the moment the streets of Panama City are filled with these loud, revving monsters!
We checked out the old city on the second day (pretty cool streets and buildings although wouldn't want to walk around here at night) then headed out to the Miraflores Locks, part of the Panama Canal. I'm not sure it's everyone's cup of tea but pretty damn impressive for a geeky engineer like me (like us actually). We got there at the right time to see a couple of huge ships being processed through the locks, dropping down to sea level and heading off. Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing. We also got to catch one of the Red Devil buses back into town which was an experience in itself, pounding reggae from the massive sound system and very little leg room but a bargain at 35 cents!
Panama City was fun but after two days here (and 6 weeks of not surfing) it was time to find some waves. We got ourselves to the bus station and booked ourselves on a little Toyota Coaster bus to Santa Catalina. Watched our boards and bags being strapped to the roof then boarded the packed bus to settle back to more pounding reggae!
