Decided to go wander around in the Casco Viejo area. This is the oldest part of Panamna City--walled town, narrow streets, etc. Wall was built to keep the pirates from sacking the town again. We walked out on the wall--was a beautiful day, bright and sunny and not many tourists out and about. From the wall you could see the skyline of Panama(modern), Bridge of the Americas and ships waiting to transit the canal.
Wandering down the streets is stepping back in time in some ways. The streets are very norrow, balconies overhanging them, shuttered doors leading into homes. We found a restuarant that was open and wandered in. There was a fixed price menu and the owner was very kind as we tried to make our choices. Very nice inside--lots of wood. Food was nice and we enjoyed a glass of wine and beer with the meal. After lunch we wandered around for a little while longer then took taxi back to room. Taxi is not because we are lazy but the air quality on the ground is pretty rough----Busses and trucks belching smoke
Trip to the Miraflores Locks
Negotiated with a taxi driver to go out there. Once we got there we also negotiated for him to stay while we went and looked at the locks. Paid our admission and went to the top observation platform. As we arrived, you could see there were two boats in the locks. We got to see them be moved out of the locks--with the little "mules" keeping the ships in line. The ships take up the entire space side to side in the canal. It is pretty amazing to see this going on. We watched the lock refill and another ship begin the process of coming into the locks. First a series of tugs pushed this huge ship into position and then lined to "mules" up with their guide ropes. We saw one of the gates open up and the ship begin to be pulled in. We didn't watch the entire process because we had to go on back with the taxi driver.
Had to taxi driver drop us back off in Casco Viejo--Went back to Cedros(place in Casco Viejo) Place was closing but said we were welcome to come in and have a beer and glass of wine. While we were in there, a gentleman came walking in. He was hungry and thirsty==no food but did order a bottle of water. We invited him to join us at our table and had a very interesting conversation. He is from Veracruz, Mexico and build aquariums. He discussed things ranging from Taoism to proper breathing (seven second in, hold for four and breathe out fo seven) to his dream of building a ship that is just really a floating aquarium.
From Cedros we headed over to the wall and walked over there again and then down to Los Bovedos. This is a restuarant that was built in to the old dungeon of the fort at this part of the city. It is really beautiful today but the bartender told us it was really like a torture chamber because the prisoners were chained and when the tide came in the water rose to the prisoners necks and the crabs moved in and nibbled on them! Ugh! Food was delicious -- the menu was on a board instead of printed menus. After dinner we finished up at the bar and then had a taxi called for us to go home.
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