This is Just the Beginning

OK, I'm a little behind in my writing.  Bare with me while I play catch up...

In the past few days, I have gone from David, Panama to Panama City, took an Olympian bus ride from Panama City to Granada, Nicaragua (24 hours and two border crossings!), spent two days in Granada, backtracked in order to visit the Isla de Ometepe, spent two days recuperating in sleepy Masaya, Nicaragua and now I am settled comfortably in the paradise-like Leon, Nicaragua.

Panama City was overwhelming at first, made more so by the fact that I had just left a beautiful, cool mountain town (Boquete) far away in western Panama. Almost immediately after stepping off of my plush international bus, I found myself in the middle of rush hour at the busiest bus terminal probably in the country. The buses line up outside (think about the last time you picked someone up at the airport at Christmas with cars zigzagging around each other to get to the platform). Each bus driver has an assistant who stands in the door and calls out where it’s going. If it’s a popular destination, the bus will pull over and wait for everyone to get on. If you’re the only one going, you better be ready to trot up to the door and jump on the bus as it drifts by. The city buses here are retired American school buses, decorated with loud, multicolored paint, outfitted with a sweet sound system that plays Latin Beat music at full volume, and each packed with three people in every seat and the rest standing like sardines in the aisles. Oh and each one has a little benediction painted on it like God is Love or God Bless this Bus - as if it will take the interdiction of God to help you survive the bus ride. Ironically, the buses are nicknamed Red Devils.

After walking down the length of the platform once and not finding a bus that sounded like it was going where I needed to go, I picked one that at least sounded like it was headed downtown. I was almost right. It cut across the northern part of the city, so I watched with some dismay as the city flew by to my right. I managed to get off before it got too far away from the city, which required me to climb over a few people with all of my luggage in tow. From there, I managed to grab a taxi and get to my hotel in relatively short order (of course, we had to pick up the taxi driver’s girlfriend from work before we could go to me my hotel - at least Panamian men have their priorities straight).

I spent 3 days in Panama City - one at the Canal and the other two exploring the historic parts of the city, including Panama Viejo and Casco Viejo.  Casco Viejo was most fascinating. It is very evidently a part of the city that was pretty run down, but has recently been the focus of a redevelopment project.  Now, it is a pretty even mix of old and new and the new has maintained its old world charm.  Rather than go into details, I'm posting a bunch of pictures to show you what I saw:   

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Big Cargo Ship Passing through the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal

Golden Altar at the Iglesia de San Francisco, Casco Viejo - this altar was saved from the pirate, Henry Morgan, when he sacked Panama City.  A priest had it painted black and told Morgan that it has already been stolen by another pirate. 

 
 

Casco Viejo

                                                                        Casco Viejo
                                                                   

Church in Casco Viejo

Club de Clases y Tropas, Casco Viejo - a favorite hangout of Noriega before the US invasion.  It's just a shell now (presumably because of the invasion), but seeing all of the renovations going on around it, I imagine it won't be long before this place is bought up by a Donald Trump type and turned into a fancy club.