On My Own (Sorta) in Panama City

By Sunday, April 10, the organized portion of the trip was over.  I was still in Panama City, and would be for a few days, but I had to figure out things to do on my own.

Actually, I wasn’t completely on my own.  Some people from the group were still milling around so I usually had people with whom I could do things.  On Sunday, I was toying with the idea of going to Casco Viejo (the old town) because that was the only thing in the world other than the Panama Canal that I knew about in Panama City.  While I was toying with the idea, I ran into some people downstairs who were toying with the same idea.  Once we realized that Casco Viejo was within walking distance (about 35 minutes), a group of six of us decided to head down there together.

We had to walk through some of the dirtier parts of Panama City to get to Casco Viejo.  Once we got close, however, things cleaned up quite a bit.  Just before we got there, we crossed a bridge from which we were able to get great views of the Panama City skyline.  The views would have been much better if the weather had cooperated, it was raining off and on all morning, but they were impressive, nonetheless.

Once we got to Casco Viejo, we ducked into a restaurant for some coffee and to escape the rain.  Once the rain passed, we walked around for a bit.  My Australian and English friends from the prior legs of the trip (remember them?) had told me that there wasn’t much to the Old Town and that I shouldn’t expect much.  All-in-all, I suppose they were right, though I do think that I enjoyed it a little more than they did, despite the weather.  I did some last minute souvenir shopping and then we walked into downtown.  (For the record, that’s where I stopped taking photographs on this trip.)

By the time we got into downtown, we were starting to get hungry and my long-time roommate from this trip still needed to buy a t-shirt from Panama.  We decided to kill two birds with one stone and stop by the Hard Rock Café.  (Believe it or not, this was the first time in my life that I had ever been to a Hard Rock Café.)  (Sorry for the “é” in Hard Rock Café, but my autocorrect is adding it on it’s own and I don’t feel like correcting the autocorrect any more.)  I had some buffalo wings that were the hottest on the menu but still weren’t very hot.  Or very good, for that matter.  But the beer made them passable.

After lunch, I returned to our hotel to get my stuff and move to my new hotel, which coincidentally was only about two blocks away.  Finally in a room by myself, I turned on the television and air conditioning, watched ten minutes of the final round of the Masters and then fell fast asleep.

That night, those of us who remained in town went to a so-so restaurant where I had some spicy shrimp and more Balboa.  Afterwards, I said goodbye to the two guys with whom I had shared rooms with throughout most of the trip since they were leaving in the morning and I went back to my hotel to try to figure out what to do with my last day-and-a-half in Panama City.  What I ended up doing will be in the next post, but don’t expect anything exciting.