¡Hola!

Panama City was to be the answer to all of our woes: for weeks lots of little practical tasks had been piling up on our 'to do' list, and we were forever saying, 'oh let's leave that until we get to Panama City'.As the only truly metropolitan city in Central America, we had been relying on it as a source of cheap toiletries and electronics.We weren't disappointed in this respect as there was a massive US-style super-mall just outside of town that boasted just about every way conceivable for you to spend your money.Having spent the last 7 weeks in predominantly rural locations, walking through this unashamed beacon of capitalism was a bizarre experience, but one that was surprisingly agreeable.The air-conditioning, the gourmet ice cream, the snazzy window displays and all the other razzle-dazzle that you find in shopping arcades was a refreshing change, and everything was so affordable.In fact, after a few weeks of mumbling that I might buy a laptop there if they were cheap, we found a tidy little ACER with everything we needed for about £200, which I am happily typing away on now.It's been so useful and we've not stopped playing with it since we bought it.We often have free Wi-Fi in our room, so no more paying to sit in internet cafés to write the blog or organise files and photos, plus we can watch films in the evenings and on bus journeys etc… anyway, you get the idea.Did I mention it was nice and shiny too?

We stayed in a (the) hostel in Panama City called Luna's Castle, which, for the moment, effectively enjoys free reign over the backpacker market there.For anyone looking for an obvious business opportunity in this part of the world - open up a backpacker hostel in Panama City and break the monopoly.Easy money.In fact, the whole area of Casco Viejo is a real estate gold mine; buy here now, because in 5-10 years this place will be the crowning jewel of central America.It's a bit like the old town area of Havana, but with a lot further to go in terms of restoration and kicking out the riff-raff ( there are still lots of shady characters about after dark, and there is a very determined armed police presence on the streets, which is both reassuring and unnerving at the same time).

Many Latin American cities have two parts to them: the old original colonial town built by the Spanish (usually a architectural gem lying in tatters) where all the poor people live, and the sprawling modern city centre and surrounding suburbs, where all of the rich people live who left the old bit behind during industrialisation.But Panama City also has an old, old bit too - Panama Viejo - the original Spanish settlement just east of where the city now stands that was destroyed by Sir Henry Morgan (we were good at ruining all the Spaniard's fun in those days… and all that they could come up with was that silly Armada!Well, actually that was 100 years earlier, but you get the idea).The ruins of this city are still embedded in the suburbs of the new city and make an interesting place to visit.

The other main attraction of course was the Panama Canal; definitely one of the world's greatest engineering marvels, and one with fascinating story too.We visited the observation platform and museum at the Miraflores locks and watched a couple of massive container ships go through the lock, which was fascinating; they use these tiny little trains to pull the ships through the locks, and they even have their own pilots there that have to board each ship and relieve the captain of his duty for the duration of the transit.Further north there is a massive artificial lake , Lago Gatun, and even bigger locks at Gatun.We could have made a day trip there by taking an amazing train journey across the lack to Colon, but in the end it seemed too expensive, and Colon is not the kind of place you want to visit, let alone kill time in waiting for the return train.Instead we took a day trip to a zoo just outside Panama City, where we saw Toucans for the first time, albeit in captivity, but still Toucans.They really are amazing.

The hostel was a 'happening' place full to the brim with mostly young backpackers (some more nauseating than others) and was equipped with all of the clichéd outlets through which they could express themselves - paintings, guitars etc.We would usually avoid these places, but we couldn't deny the convenience of it all.The room was expensive but safe, and we had free Wi-Fi and all-you-can-eat banana pancakes and coffee, plus a kitchen, a bar, a cinema and a fleet of helpful people on the front desk.Actually the kitchen was usually too busy to use so we had most of our meals in the hilarious Coca Cola Café round the corner, which was always full of very entertaining locals.We were in dire need of some healthy food by the time we left though!

In an effort to curb our spending a little and to focus our time and money on the things we really want to see, rather than just ticking things off from the guide, we were beginning to get a bit more picky about our itinerary.With this in mind we chose not to explore any more of Panama, even though we knew it had lots more to offer, and we would miss the glorious San Blas islands in the Caribbean too; but there is just so much we want to do in Argentina and Bolivia, and the Inca Trail date is looming.We had originally intended to sail to Cartagena in Colombia from Panama, but it turned out to be much more expensive than we had previously thought, and the only boats available did not sound good at all.The airstrip near to the only safe Panama-Colombia border was also closed at the time, so, reluctantly, we flew from Panama City to Cartagena quickly and cheaply, with a no-frills Colombian airline.

Goodbye Central America; hello South America!

R&M

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