We arrived in Panama City in the evening and caught a taxi to the old part of town (the bit that got burned down by the pirate Captain Morgan years ago). It took us a while to find somewhere to stay and after a brief trip out to find some food we weren't exactly in love with the area. It didn't help that the local internet cafe ripped us off hardcore. They knew what they were doing, and so did we, and so they were too embarrassed to even look us in the eye as they asked for 4 times the normal price! Anyway, after that we moved to a different area of town to a hotel with a roof top pool which was very much appreciated. The first full day was spent just walking around and stocking up on the various things we'll need before we get into malaria zones again. It's a very western city which you can imagine fitting in perfectly in the USA, they even have the huge super malls, but at the same time there are still the customary overpacked buses and crazy taxi drivers found everywhere else in the Americas. The second day we made the obligatory trip to the Panama canal: a huge serious of locks which take massive ships between the pacific and the carribbean. Reading other peoples' accounts of the canal we were expecting something truely amazing but while it was clearly a big acheivement to build it all those years ago, and the prices ships pay to use it (hundreds of thousands of dollars) make you gasp, we weren't exactly feeling it. So instead we left and went to the local botanical gardens and zoo to look at all the wierd animals they have out here. We're looking forward to seeing some wild ones soon.