Part 7 Panama! Panama!, mid May 17

Part 7: Panama! Panama!

Day 40 Panama City

Our hosts, Nadya and Riccardo gave us a great breakfast and we were on our way again at 8. We enjoyed the hilly farmland and scenes of Saturday activities such animals grazing, children playing and horsemen out for a ride before it got too hot. The Pan-American highway was in great shape for the rest of the journey into Panama City. Navigating went really well too.

Photo taken on the ride back toward the Pan-American Highway

We tried a new method of combining information from “Open Street Maps”, “Google Maps” and people’s word descriptions to place a waypoint flag on Open Street Maps in the computer. Gone are the failed attempts at trying to get any mapping programme to search for a specific address and then help us navigate to it. The method that works so easily and reliably back home, for a number of reasons simply does not work here. The new waypoint is labeled then sent from the computer to the GPS unit and a route to it from anywhere can be easily generated. This method was tested successfully today. We easily found our hostel through all the crazy turns and traffic in Panama City.

Photo taken from a lounge chair in the hostel courtyard

It’s an urban location and they said there was secure motorcycle parking in the courtyard. This is true but the hostel staff haven’t had a large moto try it yet. Going through a narrow doorway into the hostel then through the dinning/lobby area and out the back door to the courtyard proved too much of a challenge for the 1200 with its gigantic “boxer” type cylinders jutting out on either side. The bike never made it past the first obstacle, the front door frame. The 700 did easily make it to the courtyard but only after removing the side cases, soft bags, tool tubes and spare tires from both motos. I jumped the front end of the 1200 up a curb, over the doorway threshold and throttled straight into the slightly wider laundry room doorway with a just a little wiggle to fit the handlebars through. There it sits, an 
versized towel rack.

Day 41 Panama Canal

After a pancake breakfast at the hostel we took the new metro ($0.25) and bus ($0.35) to the Miraflores locks along the 80 Km Panama Canal. There is a good series of displays there and a chance to view passing ships from a set of bleachers. It was a quiet day at this attraction because it is Sunday. We opted for coffee and snacks from a counter and not the $48USD per person buffet lunch offered at the restaurant overlooking the locks.

The displays taught us that Panama benefited greatly from the construction of the canal. Several waves of design and construction attempts beginning in the late 19^th century and ending in the early 20^th brought European money and paid for tens of thousands of jobs. These early ideas included one that would require massive excavations to create an entirely sea level passage and other ideas that used above sea level routes with various lock combinations to raise and lower the vessels. The present system has three lock sets and uses pre-existing rivers and a huge man-made lake. The locks are all gravity powered and use little energy. New and larger lock sets are under construction as part of canal expansions

The Americans were among the last to try to make it work. They succeeded and during the process they wanted to protect canal construction workers from the diseases that had thwarted earlier attempts. Yellow fever and malaria were the worst of those diseases. The Americans’ solutions included installing modern water supply and sewer systems, paving streets, draining mosquito breeding grounds and improving drainage in urban areas. Everyone drinks water from the tap here in Panama City, a first for us in Central America.

Panama took over full control of the canal in a deal with the US signed in 1999. They have modernized the fee structure for ships wishing passage and have added higher capacity lanes. The prices now generate large amounts of money that are benefitting the country as a whole. Prior to this and under US control the fees for passage were designed to only cover the canal’s operating costs. We passed by the former US base near the locks. The Panamanians have transformed the former base into the “City of Knowledge” by using the infrastructure to accommodate a university, library and other training facilities.

We located “Panama House”, the hostel that will be our meeting place for the ride out to the dock to meet the ship. We took a walk there first thing this morning since it is only a few blocks away. Isabelle and I have booked a room there for our final night in Panama City. I will put the motorcycles back together the day before we go to meet the ship and we will take advantage of the easy courtyard parking at Panama House that night. We need to depart at 6:30am for the ride to the wharf and the job of putting the bikes back together will easily take a couple of hours. It’s best to do it the day before.

Day 42 Panama City

A pancake breakfast at the hostel was followed by a bus ride and long walk to Touratech. I had e-mailed them photos of the missing part and not received a reply. We thought it might be fun to go to their shop anyway. They were friendly and helpful but didn’t have the part. They though that the Touratech outlet in Bogota might have it. One of the employees is from Medallin so we chatted with him for a while.

Casco Viejo (old) and new Panama in the distance

Some restored colonial buildings in Casco Viejo

We took buses and trains today and toured the old city/port area. Beautiful restorations of the original colonial architecture are everywhere and work on others is progressing. Panama dates back to the 16^th century and has seen waves of wealth come and go. The Welsh pirate Henry Morgan, working for the English in the 17^th century, sacked and destroyed the city of Panama. The Spanish rebuilt it 8 Km away at a more easily defended location. They eventually abandoned it as an administrative centre and the city spiralled downward. There was a time of prosperity again when gold-seekers passed through on their way to the California gold rush. Today Panama's stable economy is based on a well-developed services sector, including the canal and banking services, that accounts for nearly 80% of its GDP. It is a time for rebuilding and building anew in Panama.

Isabelle bought a small bracelet from a stall run by a Kuna man and his daughter. We will get to know some of these indigenous people when we visit the San Blas Islands.

Day 43: Panama City

We visited the artisan market at Cinco de Mayo station off the Metro but there were very few stalls open, too early in the day perhaps. This place is off the regular tourist maps and was said to have better prices and to have the actual artisans at the stalls. We did see a line-up of people waiting to receive free sacks of rice and some other provisions. The streets along our route were quite run down. Garbage and uneven, crumbling pavement led to broken down shop fronts, many obviously not opened for a long time. Panama, like many places we have seen on this trip, seems to have a large gap between the privileged and the poor.

We hiked up Ancon Hill to enjoyed the best views of the city. 

On the way up Ancon Hill

View from Ancon Hill

Panama City is probably the most modern and wealthy city we have seen in Central America. Everywhere there is evidence of restorations, of modern construction and of respect for the Kuna and other indigenous peoples. There is ample evidence of new wealth, from the canal and other sources, being put to use. Perhaps the near future will include more improvement in opportunities for Panama’s poorest and most desperate.

Day 44 Panama City

The first thing that was done today was bringing out the motos and putting them back together. Tire pressure adjustments and chain oiling added about fifteen minutes to the job. It all took about 3 hours. Then I phoned Panama House to let them know we were coming. They told me that a biker on the same sailing as us was mixed up about the sailing date and would stay 1 day longer with them than planned. They did not have a room for us. Thinking quickly and not wishing to strip and assemble the motos one more time I offered for us to stay at the Zebula Hostel again tonight in return for a free early breakfast tomorrow and free storage of the motos at Panama House. The lady from Panama House jumped at the offer.

Isa and I rode the fully packed motos, minus our day bag, the 1.8 km to Panama House. That took about an hour in heavy traffic. We met and had lunch with the other biker, Glen at Panama House and he offered to keep our riding gear in his room to save us carrying it back and forth on foot. We will meet with him again tomorrow over early breakfast then head out to the wharf.

Panama City, photo by Isabelle, photo enhancements by Colin Traquair