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.
