Arrived in Panama City on Saturday afternoon and I immediately liked it. It really reminded me of a hybrid of Singapore and Dubai - on the water, lots of tall modern buildings and a hell of a lot of construction going on! It's known as the 'Miami of the South' except more English is spoken here! It's the most cosmopolitan and modern city in Central America and a place I reckon I could live (if I were ever to go back into the corporate world - which I don't plan to do!). What's interesting about this place is how much it used to rely on the US (they used to say that if the US sneezed, Panama caught a cold) but given other foreign investment (mainly Asian and European), Panama was hardly touched by the economic crisis and construction hasn't stopped. It's incredible how much is going on here.

That evening, myself, Kat and Esteban went out for dinner (the other boys were too intent on getting pissed and eating burgers!) so we went to the old town which is full of lovely old restored buildings - very French-influenced. We found a fabulous restaurant called Manolo Caracol (in case you're ever here!) which had an 11 course tasting menu - yum! Armed with a very good bottle of red, we demolished 3 cold, 7 hot and a dessert course of seared tuna, ceviche, sweet salad, seafood soup, octopus and mango skewers, lamb kebabs, beef loin, chicken and mole, fish and mustard leaves, veggie coconut rice and a fab dessert of gat's cheese and passionfruit balls (delicious!!), chocolate truffle, mango and lemon ice cream and dulce de leche. I haven't been this enthusiastic about food in a while! Anyway, it was a very civilized evening with sensible conversation!

On Sunday, it was pouring down but we had hired a van and guide for a city and canal tour. We started at the original old Panama which was founded in 1519 and there are various ruins remaining of churches, convents and monasteries. We then headed to the business district and new town - basically where the skyscrapers meet the waterfront. Pretty impressive what they are doing here, including a Donald Trump project to build a Burj al Arab-esque sail building which is to be swanky condos, a casino and a private beach club. We then moved on to the Casco Viejo which became the old town after the other one was destroyed (confused? I am!). Anyway, it is in the process of being restored and there are some beautiful buildings - very French in style (this is where we ate dinner last night) - different colours with small balconies overlooking narrow cobbled streets. A lot of Quantum Solace was filmed here (the bits that were supposed to be in Bolivia and somewhere else - can't remember where - must start listening properly!). I also had an embarrassing incident. While taking a photo, I started to walk without looking where I was going and basically straddled a bollard so now have bruises on both legs, not to mention a very bruised ego as 2 policemen were watching me!!

After a ceviche lunch and a glass of wine down at the snazzy yacht-filled marina we made our way to the Miraflores Locks - a visitor centre, museum and the actual locks on the Panama Canal. We timed it o see some container ships passing through which was incredible.

So, the Panama Canal - an engineering marvel! Now I'm no engineer but even I appreciated it! So, I thought I should include some facts and figures to get the brain juices flowing!

It took 75,000 people to build the canal. 20,000 came from Barbados but others came from other Caribbean and Latin American countries, the US and Europe. Over 152.9 million cubic metres of material were removed to make way for the waterway. If this material was placed on railroad flatcars, it would circle the globe 4 times! More than half of the material removed during the construction of the canal was solid rock. Every day more than 500 holes were drilled and blasted to slice the rock over 7 metres down. Between 1905 and 1912, more than 60 million pounds of dynamite was used. With the drilling that took place, a hole could have been bored straight through the planet and 900 km beyond!

The canal officially opened on August 15th 1914 and remained under the governance of the US. Panama assumed full responsibility of the running of the canal on 31st December 1999 (I should remember that but I really don't!).

The canal unites the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at one of the narrowest points of both the Isthmus of Panama and the American continent. It works with a lock system (there are 3) and every year, more than 14,000 vessels pass through it! The vessels are elevated 26 metres above sea level to pass through Gatun Lake on the Continental Divide and then lowered again to sea level to enter one of the oceans. For each lockage, about 197 million litres of fresh water are used which are then flushed into the sea.

The canal contributes around 8-10% to the Panamanian economy and employs almost 10,000 people. It costs about $250,000 for a large ship to pass the 80km through the canal and it takes around 8 hours. The containers ships we watched go through were carrying around 4,000 containers and were about 250 metres long. Amazing! They are currently building some new locks to increase business and the number of ships that can pass through - the new locks will be 427 m long and 55m wide, the size of 4 football fields. The new locks will allow ships with 10,000 containers to pass through!

Anyway, it was all very impressive and seeing such huge vessels close up was pretty cool!

We all went out for our final dinner in the evening and said our goodbyes. I have thoroughly enjoyed this leg of the trip and it's the first time I have got to the end not necessarily wanting it to be the end - we had no difficult people, no arguments, no politics - pretty good going!

On Monday, I had a lazy morning (although trying to sort out the next month of my trip which, unlike me, I have neglected to do anything about months in advance!), then said goodbye to Kat and headed to the mall. Bloody hell, when they said it was big I was fairly skeptical as it normally means there's more than one level but this one was huge! Not aided by the fact that there were no signs, no maps and no help desks! Great place though with proper shops that you actually want to buy stuff in (and I did - whoops!). Found a hair salon and decided to chance it - mainly because they stocked every hair product I have ever seen and known so it must be good, right?! Anyway, came out 3 hours later, beautified and with enhanced knowledge from the Latin American versions of Glamour and Marie Claire magazines (only understood 1 in every 3 words so made the rest up). Oh, and he straightened my hair. Aaaah, I remember the bliss of hair straighteners - and will soon be reunited with mine!!

So, all dressed up with nowhere to go and billy no mates, I went to the supermarket to buy my dinner - wine, cheese and chocolate (yes, chocolate!) - and also stopped by the pharmacy as I am now covered in bed bug bites - even on my face. I look horrendous - and I can't reach half of them to put the cream on (must start exercising!).

Anyhooo, I'm on my own from now on and a new adventure starts tomorrow as I head into the wilds of nowhere on the Caribbean coast for a night and then get on a random boat early on Wednesday morning to sail to the San Blas Islands (which look beautiful and deserted) and then 3 days to Cartagena in Colombia. Wish me luck!!