Panama City
We learnt quickly how to get around with a bus pass that got us on to the local subway and bus system. With a bus pass and Google maps we were able to find our way around the city for the most part. We shared some taxi and shopping time with Dagmar and Matt from Matylda, which cut down on the taxi fares. Taxi travel is cheap and regulated in Panama but it can take some effort to negotiate a fare that does not include the “Tourist Levy”. Our favorite was the $1 trip to Cinco de Mayo – a major shopping and transport hub. Even though this was a standard fare, there were some that would try the tourist levy on us. In the end, we would just ignore them and eventually we would get picked up at the right fare. We managed a big shop at Pricesmart – the Panamanian equivalent of Costco, and then we traveled over the next few days to the various supermarkets around town. This enabled us to get almost everything on the list. The boat slowly sank into the water as we tried to fill every cupboard and bilge area I could find. My theory was that if the cupboard were full, then the items in the cupboard would not clatter around and make a noise. This is my theory and it works for me. In the meanwhile, we did get to see some of Panama City. It is an old city, the oldest from the Spanish era – 1571. It has been ransacked at times as pirates from old pillaged the gold from the surrounding areas. Parts of the city have been refurbished but unfortunately some more money needs to be spent on even basic maintenance. And then there is the modern touch with many different high-rise buildings. The climate here encourages some of the best built buildings to look like the have been neglected, even after a handful of years. There are some parts that we had been warned not to go to due to the petty crime and some that were like any modern city. We were able to fit in a movie in English in one of the very modern malls and see some of the classic architecture around and about. We attended Carnival that was a 4-day affair of who can wear the tightest, gaudiest Lycra and then get wet. Big water trucks with fire hoses constantly pour water on the crowds. We took in the Panama Canal train trip that made the canal seem really short. What took us 2 days, took one hour on the train. It was nice but overrated for the price. We spent some time in boat maintenance and then the occasional pizza night and cocktail hours on friend’s boats. All in all it is a very social area. We spent a few nights at La Brisas but when the tide was out, we were unable to get to our dinghy so we decided to pay the very expensive sum of $60 for a week at the dinghy dock if we anchored at La Playita. All of the marinas were out of our budget, as they were for most of the boats here. It showed by the marinas being half full and the anchorages being full. For the first time in long time we had to take note of tides due to the large tidal range here. Many boats had obviously forgotten this point, as it was not uncommon to see boats dragging though the anchorage every few days. We had to be very watchful because we didn't need any of them to drag into us. A common occurrence that made us sit up and take notice.