Greetings from Panama. Land of Canals. Or Canal. I don’t know if they have more than one. But as Panama says, “It’s not the size of your canal, it’s your canal’s importance to world economics!”
I’ll have photos soon, but for now I’m just happy I got to use this thing right here:
I have one that isn’t spelled backwards, too!
This is my first trip out of the States in six years. The flight in was over five hours and I walked off the plane feeling like my head was splitting apart. Didn’t do much last night apart from get to the hostel and pass out, so I’ll skip that.
Today has been the first real day of the trip, and the word of the day for Panama City is HOT. The mercury brushed 95 degrees today before the rains came in to cool things down. The city is actually pretty lovely right now. I’m sitting on a balcony one block off of Via Espana with a number of Miami-style high rises off in the distance. Today featured a walk to the Bella Vista neighborhood and the area around Via Argentina. Caught a glimpse of the Roberto Duran statue and took in a sizable lunch at El Trapiche, which included a world-class tamale casserole.
This is just travelogue right now because I haven’t figured out just yet how to structure these updates. This is my first attempt to blog on a consistent basis, and I imagine it’ll take some getting used to before I can provide any kind of insight into the places I’m seeing.
But as far as first impressions, this city feels far smaller than it actually is. It’s surprisingly walkable, as long as you don’t mind gaps in the sidewalk and mend-bending heat (which New Orleans gave me some training for). I suspect Corrinne and I would have covered a lot more ground if it was about ten degrees cooler, but so be it. The cost also puts one on guard if they are beginning a trip rather than ending one. It is far cheaper than the States, to be sure. But it’s more expensive than the rest of Central America. Our funds are limited, so we’ll have to be careful not to go broke in the first few weeks of the trip, which will cover the two most expensive countries (Panama and Costa Rica).
I’ll have another update tomorrow as I figure out how to attack them. But the news so far is good. Safe and sound in Panama, on the terrace of the Hostel Mamallena with a cold Balboa beer next to me and plans to visit the Panama Canal tomorrow.
In the meantime, here’s a shout New Orleans way. Bunk Johnson and George Lewis performing “Panama.” Of course.