We decided to take a day long tour today to get information about Panama CIty and the Panama Canal, since we are only here for 3 days. We had to meet our tour guide at 8:00 am in the old city. 

Our taxi took us along Avenue Balboa, which used to be part of the ocean. They used the rocks and dirt from the new Canal as landfill and then built the road and parklands. It's quite pretty. We met at the Cafe UNIDO Coffee Roastere inside the American Trade Hotel for our walking tour which will take us for a walk around the Old Town and then to see the Canal.  

After being met at the American Trade Hotel by our local guide, we began our tour by walking around the Old Town, on the southwestern tip of Panama City, overlooking the Pacific entrance to the canal. The neighborhood is small, but we saw grand old houses carefully restored as luxury condos; squatters on filthy sofas watching brand-new flat-screen TV’s in abandoned buildings, the presidential palace, crumbling pastel façades, and endless construction sites. It's very pretty with different types of architecture - old buildings mixed with refurbished ones from new money coming in. it's now the hot spot in town. Casco Viejo  (Spanish for Old Quarter), also known as Casco Antigua or San Filipe, is the historic district of Panama, and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997Completed and settled in 1673, it was built following the near-total destruction of the original Panamá city, Panama Viejo in 1671, when the latter was attacked by pirates. It was designated a World Heritage Site in 1997. However the smell is pretty overwhelming. I thought I might recreate the sea lion spewing! 

Then we headed to the Miraflores Locks in the legendary Panama Canal. Here we saw the ships on their journey through one of the most famous canals the world, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. I think I already gave you more info than you probably wanted to know but seeing the canal was amazing.  It looks like a GIANT version of the Trent Severn Waterway, which I find pretty incredible in itself, but knowing the history of the Canal impacted how I saw it, I think. It was truly an incredible feat of engineering. We saw a brief film on how the Canal wasn't made and went through the museum which portray the Canal's history, biodiversity, and its functioning and international importance. On the way there we saw all the US military complexes which are now In disrepair and not used except by squatters. I asked Juan, our guide, if many soldiers married Panamanian women. He said yes but there were many illegitimate kids as well. They were given special names: Usnavy, Usarmy, and Usmilitary (US Navy...), because that's what the women saw on the men's uniforms and thought it was their name!!! Can you imagine having one of those names and living with the connotations of it?  

The Panama Canal administration building was inaugurated on July 15, 1914, exactly a month before the canal itself. This building dominates the area as it sits on top of a large rolling hill. Chief Engineer George W. Goethals Had construction started on the building in 1912. The main attraction of this building is the high domed rotunda with dramatic murals which adorn the cupola, painted by William B. Van Ingen who also painted the murals in the US library of Congress and the Philadelphia mint, which depict a huge amount of labour involved in building the Canal. There are four scenes: the Culebra Cut excavation, the Gatun Dam Spillway construction, the Milraflores locks construction and the building of one of the colossal lock gates. is during the Cupolla, along with stately marble columns and floor. 

From the balcony of the administration building we saw the giant Hills called Cerro Ancon where a giant Panama flag flies – the largest one in Panama. 

The Amador Causeway is a narrow land-bridge, built with rocks excavated during the construction of the Panama Canal, that connects the continent with four islands next to the Pacific Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal. It had lots of great views of the skyline and the Bridge of the Americas. 

The Bridge of the Americas (Puente de las Americas), originally known as the That her Ferry Bridge, is a road bridge in Panama, which spans the pacific entrance to the Panama Canal at Balboa. Completed in 1962, at a cost of US$20 million, it was the only non-swinging bridge (there are two other bridges, one at the miraflores locks  and one at the Gatun locks) connecting the north and south American land masses until the opening of the Centennial Bridge in 2004. It was a key part of the Pan-American Highway and greatly increased road traffic capacity across the canal.  

We grabbed a bite to eat at a traditional Panamanian cafeteria. It was an adventure as no-one spoke English. The staff looked at us like we were aliens (which, I guess, technically we are) but, nevertheless, it was very uncomfortable. Most places we've travelled, the people speak at least some English. In Panama this is not the case (funnily enough, we found the same thing in Quito). 
 
Then we and enjoyed a little nature walk at the Punta Culebra Nature Centre, part of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Centre. It's located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and is dedicated to the exploration and discovery of the natural world. We saw nurse sharks, iguanas, starfish, colourful tropical fish, and sea turtles.  

 At the end of this long day we were dropped off back at our hotel where we had a couple of cervezas by the pool before going for a fantastic seafood dinner.  

It was was a busy but very informative day.