Panama City and Colon, Panama

When we finished passing through the locks, I quickly unloaded the pictures I took of the canal crossing.  While that was happening I got ready for our excursion to Panama City.  The ship is now anchored in the lake and after meeting with our excursion group; we take the tender to get to our bus at the dock.  Our tour will take us to old Panama City, ruins from the 1500 and 1600's. 

As we leave the docks, we get a glimpse of the new wider locks.  We actually drive on land that will not exist when the locks are finished.  You can see the new rolling gate that these locks will use.

We pass different parts of Gatun Lake on our way to Panama City.  This section, created when the valleys were flooded to create the very large Gatun Lake, still has tree trunks exposed above the water line. 

Just before we get to Panama, a building is pointed out high on a hill side.  The tour guide tells us that the building, which looks like a bee hive, is a Monastery. 

Driving through a part of the city, near the old ruins of the first Panama City, we come across power lines.  We have seen a number of the poles like this, just filed with a rat’s nest of wires.  Guess they do not have any rules or laws that limit this type of line clutter.  Wonder if they have many power outages?

Panama Viejo, or the old ruins of it, is our first stop on our tour.  Our guide tells us that the old city was first settled in 1519 and was the first permanent European settlement on the pacific coast, Spanish in this case.  Panama Viejo became a city in 1521. 

Walking through the ruins we find out that, after Panama Viejo was abandoned, the bricks were taken by neighboring residents.  They would collect the bricks to use for new buildings and residences.

More of the Panama Viejo ruins.

As we continued pass more ruins, we came upon this tree while walking along the walkway.  It looks like a Banyan tree or a similar type of tree, dropping branches that become part of the root system.  It is nicely symmetrical.   

Across the walkway from the banyan tree is an Almond tree, with a number of fruits on the tree.

The tower near the end of the group of ruins we have passed is four stories above the ground.  On the left side of the tower, you can see what looks like a modern circular stairway.  Not sure if it was made to show what it might have been, but it goes nowhere.  Inside the tower is a modern staircase, so we took the stairs to go up to the top floor, all 125 steps of them.  In either case is is pretty impressive for an early to mid 1500's building.

I call this; moth on flower.

Part of a wall from one of the old high rises, with a new high rise in the background.

We climbed to the top of the 4-story tower and from the upper level you can clearly see the grounds.  Modern stairs and platforms inside the tower allow entry to the different levels.

Looking the other way across the bay, from the top floor of the tower, you can see the high rises in Panama City.

More close ups of the ruins, these with an arch clearly visible.

Leaving the old ruins of Panama Viejo, we head into the new modern city of Panama.  As we begin to enter the city we pass an area not quite so modern.  Looks like fishing boats that didn’t go out today.  Clearly visible are the houses in the background in the not-so-new part of town, each with their satellite dish.

Check out this building we passed while driving to our next stop.  Sure would like to see what the inside of this building looks like.  Now those are corner offices.  Also, looks like a new building going up right next to it.

Check out this reflection on a glass building we were passing, thought it was interesting.

This is how the rest of the people live in Panama.  Or at least those that do not live in the condo buildings like the ones in the background.

More of the power and telephone wires jumbled on the poles.  I can’t get over the number and jumble of wires that they have on these telephone poles.  We past some poles that were so messed up it looked like a wire junk pile. 

We get to our next stop and begin the walking tour of the old walled city and turn down several narrow streets.  We travel several small streets and alleys stopping at a shop or two and eventually reach the Basilica Metropolitana de Santa Maria la Antigua, the Cathedral of Panama City.

We are inside looking at the front of the Basilica, very colorful.  As we were leaving there is a date on a floor tile indicating the year 1875.  Not sure what the date references, the date the basilica was built or something else.

One of the bell towers of the Basilica.  You can see that trees are growing up from the merlons on the roof.  One of those looks like it has been there for some time 3-4 years at least.

Next we arrive at one of the several “shopping” places on our tour.  These are small 8 by 15 foot booths sent in a large building like a flea market.  A number of the “shops” had masks, in one of the booths in the indoor market had these masks available. 

Again, as we travel down more of the narrow streets, we see more balconies on the buildings, these have large bunches of flowers and plants. 

As we are walking back to the bus to end both our walking tour and the tour of Panama, I see this building which I thought looked interesting.  With its tree growing out of the wall and the roots growing down the wall looks very medieval. 

Leaving Panama City in the bus, I get one last view of the high rises with the Pacific Ocean in the background and also fishing boats in the front.

Back on the Atlantic side we reach the Port of Colon where we meet the ship.  It is beginning the docking process here from the return from Gatun Lake and the trip back through the Gatun locks.  The shopping center where we wait to board the ship is as colorful as some of the houses we have seen here in Panama.

Tomorrow we will dock early in Limon, Costa Rica where our plan is to visit a banana plantation.