P A N A M A !

This year to escape winter Amanda and I headed South to Panama! Panama is a beautiful little country in Central America. It is one of the most diverse countries on earth and we got to see just a little of it's diversity during our 10 day stay, We got to see Toucans, Alley Cats, Sloths Howler Monkeys, and huge number of birds of every colour of the rainbow and maybe...just maybe... we got to see the elusive Resplendant Quetzal Bird... You shall have to read on to find out! 

Did we find the elusive Resplendent Quetzal?

Enduring a five and a half hour plane journey with no food was a small price to pay to avoid the polar vortex although we were ravenous and hangry when we arrived! In fact the first day was a bit of a disaster, Not only did we not get any food but we booked a private room for the first night in a hostel instead of a hotel because I am cheap and because it happened to be called LUNAS castle! This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, having arrived very hungry and very late we were greeted by the beats of the many nightclubs that seemed to be attached to the hostel - one on the roof, one in the basement, one in the garden and I am pretty sure there was one in the pipes as well. This mixed nicely with the... Ehm... Very creaky bed in the room next to us to create a quite wonderful cacophony of noise. Luckily Amanda, always prepared (:D) pulled some earplugs from her bag which morphed all the noise into a rather soothing gentle boom, so all is well that ends well!

Our First Toucan!

How many Toucans can you spot?

Lunas castle did have a redeeming feature, the best free walking tour I have ever been on. After waking up to hear the beats replaced with the honking rush hour traffic we sat out on the pretty veranda, resplendent with tropical flowers to enjoy our free pancakes and fresh coffee and get ready for our walking tour. The tour took us from the old town up the Ancon hill where stunning views could be had over to the canal on one side and the city on the other. Ancon hill was the center of operations for the American canal zone when they were based here and it looks and feels like suburbia, an uncanny resemblance when you realise you are in the middle of the tropics. Once you have left suburbia you end up in dense jungle, right to the peak of the hill which is topped off with a huge Panaman flag, dominating the skyline. This was where we saw our first toucan, right at the top of a tree at the top of the hill enjoying the view! The walk got even better on the way back down through suburbia when our guide pointed up and there were 5 toucans! In the same tree! We saw a cute little sloth, all curled up asleep and not moving much before heading back down into town to explore the old city some more. The Casco Viejo (Old City) is a curious place, a mixture of beautifully restored colonial and crumbling colonial buildings which make for a great base to explore Panama City. It is clearly booming, with construction happening on almost every corner.

There are many obstacles to avoid in Panama City like this toilet seat.....

......And this hole! It is very dangerous for a clumsy person like me!

Looking out towards the new Panama City

One of the many crumbling colonial buildings

While in the old city we got to try a bit of a treat. The Casco Viejo is home to Cafe Unido, a small coffee shop inside the best and most expensive hotel in Panama City - The American Trade Hotel. One of the treats on offer is a Cafe Geisha - The worlds most expensive coffee. It sells for $40 a cup in New York and $68 a cup in Dubai so we got it for a snippet at $9 a cup! Is it the best coffee in the world? I couldn't say. It is a very 'herby' coffee, almost like a really strong herbal tea which the locals drink with honey not milk. I thought it was very nice indeed and I am delighted I tried it yet in future visits to the Cafe Unido we opted for the good old regular coffee with a dash of milk at a much more reasonable price!

The most expensive coffee in the world at the Cafe Unido

You cant talk about Panama City without mentioning the canal and this blog will be no exception although I do have a confession to make... We never went to visit it! We did however visit the museo canal where we learnt a ton about the canal and really about the history of Panama as well as for better or for worse the two are inextricably linked. Panama is a thin strip of land bringing the two Americas together but also separating the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It had long been a dream of many nations to unite the two oceans through Panama and many had tried and failed. The french wasted millions, nigh on bankrupting their nation trying to build a canal before landslides, floods and the dreaded yellow fever caused them to throw in the towel having wasted wasted close to 300 million dollars in 1890s money and completing just 30 percent of the canal. The biggest problem for the French was that they insisted on building a sea level canal with no locks which is not a easy feat when there is a mountain range in the way. The French weren't the only ones to try as even the Scottish established a small settlement in the Darien gap with the goal of building a canal. Needless to say this was a abject failure with our great king eventually giving up on them and cutting off all their supplies before the Spanish came along and turfed them out for good. The Darien gap really is the definition of a impenetrable forest as even now a hundred and twenty years later there is no way to cross the Darien by road, either North to South or East to West so the Scots and their pick axes were clearly up against it. Other ideas aside from a canal were floated as well, check out this idea of a container ship carrying train from the 1880s! Can you imagine!

A ship on wheels!

'Quel Panama!' which means a insoluble mess is the term the French used to describe their misadventures in Panama and I may start using it to describe certain current events, Brexit and Donald Trump perhaps! I discovered the term Quel Panama in John LeCarre's novel 'The Tailor Of Panama' which is a wonderful tale of espionage set against the backdrop of a tailor shop and the canal which I highly really recommend! After the French gave up on the canal it it didn't take long for the Americans to move in. They defeated the Yellow Fever, built a dam and a couple of locks(no sea level canal like the French insisted on) and were laughing the rest of the way. American ingenuity at its finest. Now 5 percent of ALL maritime freight traverses the Panama Canal.

The ferry over to Taboga Island

We weaved our way through all the ships waiting to pass through the Panama Canal, like this one...

..... And this one!

I know I said earlier that we didn't visit the canal BUT we did catch the ferry over to Taboga Island, a gorgeous little island about a 30 minute boat ride from the city where Paul Gauguin once lived! The ferry ride was fabulous, the boat weaved its way through all the huge container ships queuing up to enter the canal, it was a amazing sight seeing so many huge vessels as far as the eye could see. Taboga island itself was beautiful with a apparently fabulous beach. Anyone (especially Mum, remember Savannah?!) who knows Amanda and I knows how we get along at the beach.  we love it for about 5 minutes before we get crusty, salty and sandy and cant leave soon enough. Even just that 5 minutes of sitting there leaves us crusty and sandy for days, I am still coughing it up and picking it out my ears now. A week later, at least unlike Britain the sea was warm. Overall a miserable experience. Luckily the island had many redeeming features including a wonderful beachfront restuarant Calaloo where I got to eat the freshest and best Ceviche in the world! Ceviche is Panamas national dish and it is delicious, raw fish in citrus juices with some veggies thrown in for good measure... YUM!

There are magnificent flowers blooming all over Panama City

A little rum on the beach! All the fried Plantains were not good for my belly!

I don't believe you!

Panama City was a ton of fun made funner by its army of cute alley cats who deserve a blog all to themselves so you'll have to look out for that next! Soon I shall also post about the second part of our adventure - A trip deep into the jungle in search of the elusive Resplendant Quetzal bird!

Enjoying a heavenly cookie at 'Royal Cookies'

Nom Nom Nom

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