(Above: Panama City seen from Casco Viejo, or "Old Town")
Cetacea is happy to be "on the other side" securely tied to a mooring ball at Balboa Yacht Club (BYC). From here, we can see all the ships going through the Canal about 50 yards away, the PanAmerican Bridge to the north, the mountains to the west, the causeway to the east, and the islands off the shore to the south. BYC has a small office on the long pier and a restaurant with facilities (laundry, showers, and meeting rooms). The tide on the Pacific side is 17 feet, which is why the pier had to be so long. BYC is located in Balboa, a suburb 10 minutes outside Panama City.
We got 2 taxis and went to explore Casco Viejo (Old Town), which was the old Panama City from 1673 until the early 1900s, when it was mainly abandoned. But, today it is a World Heritage Site and is undergoing a lot of restoration. There are lots of shops, restaurants, boutique hotels, and the Presidential Palace, although the president doesn't reside there anymore. We visited the Plaza de la Independencia and toured the Canal Museum, which was very interesting especially after just making the transit. We had lunch at a nice little Italian restaurant where they gave us our own small dining room and the pizza was great!
Afterwards, we shopped around with a mission of getting Chris a Panama Hat, which we did. Along the way, we found tons of shops selling molas made by the Kunas (see blogs about the San Blas Islands) and baskets made by the Embera Indians. The baskets are so exquisite, with multicolored birds and butterflies. In one of the nicest shops, we saw one that was about 2.5 feet tall, took one year to make and cost $6,500. No, I did not get that one! But I did get a picture of it! And, I could not resist buying several smaller ones. There were also masks and carvings by the Wounaan Indians. The carvings out of cocobolo (a very hard tropical wood) and ivory nut (known as tagua) were really beautiful and so intricate.
(See Photos)
It was sad to see our crew leave, but we know they'll all be back another day!
More Later - G&T