After the canal and in the following few days, I visited Casco Viejo, Panama Viejo - Panama City`s original location before pirate Henry Morgan burned it down - and also National park Metropolitano. This entry is just to separate these pix from the Canal pix.

I have been quite the tourist here in the big city. My first stop, however, was the famous Panama Canal. The museum and facts about this "engineering marvel" are pretty cool but to see it in operation is amazing. My German buddies and I arrived in time to watch a Panamax cargo ship pass through. "Panamax" means a ship designed to barely fit through the canal. The ship I watched was 965 feet long and had about 2 feet of clearance on either side, just squeezing thr...