« Last Day in Costa Rica | Main | From the Panama Canal to South America »
October 7, 2005
Long Bus-Ride into Panama
At six in the morning we work up at the Panamanian border and before long were making our way through immigration and customs. Aside from Cuba, it was the most complicated border crossing we have been through so far. (We are expecting the U.S. border to be even worse for us: “WHERE have you been traveling?”.) Luckily there was a representative from the bus company to help us through the process which took about an hour.
We stopped for lunch and a few hours later we reaching the outskirts of Panama City and we got our first view of the Panama Canal. An older woman towards the rear of the bus yelled out “Que linda! Que preciosa!” (in English, “How beautiful! How precious!”) as we crossed the Pan-American bridge. It was a fitting description. It makes quite an impression.
We said goodbye to Mauricio and exchanged emails as we might see each other again in either South America or even England, then it was off to a hotel we had picked out. Panama City looks like another well-developed capital. I’m sure that has to do with a good deal of U.S. investment that stemmed from the canal. Bustling with energy. Our hotel was great and we actually have a view of the Pacific.
Next we needed some food so we picked a restaurant nearby in the book. We were a bit wary about walking around as Mauricio had told us that the last time he was in Panama City he decided to walk around and explore the city. On a couple occasions good samaritans would yell out to him frantically not to walk in the direction he was heading. And this was during broad daylight. At 6-5 with dreadlocks he was a bit more of an imposing figure than me walking around the city with my glasses on. Thus, if he could have had problems I have no doubt it was a possibility for us.
But after walking around looking for the restaurant for about an hour we finally threw in the towel and realized it must have gone out of business. Not even the locals knew where it was. At this point we were starving so we picked a nicer place in the LP guide and headed there. We a great Panamanian meal and then called it a night.
Posted by Peter Mork at October 7, 2005 7:21 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.economicswithaface.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/289/[What is Peter Mork's first name?]
(Please add the answer to the question to the end of the link in order to trackback this entry.)
Comments
Email Comments Here