We left the heat of Miami for Panama City. After checking into our hotel we decided to wander into town and get our bearings. The roads were empty, very bizzar. Down on Balboa Avenue we found all these people dressed in red, watching the big TV screen, supporting Panama against the US in football (soccer). Amazing backdrop all the high rise buildings.

We decided to head back to one of the many sports bars we had passed and enjoy the atmosphere of the game. Just in time as the sky’s opened and let loose with large raindrops flooding the streets. Unfortunately Panama did not win so no big parties in the streets afterwards.

We jumped both the red city tour and canal tour buses for a day. The views of the city skyline are pretty spectacular. Lots to see as usual and the bus was the best way to get around to all the sights. Panama City was one busy place that’s for sure.

Even the bay was busy with ships and boats waiting to go through the canal.

We could not believe the amount of construction everywhere. Apparently there are 10 mega projects on the go at the moment, including expansion of the canal, a new subway system, infill by-pass road through Panama City central, Casco Viejo town improvements. Construction seems to be everywhere you look!

The canal, museum and Miraflores locks were very impressive. Quite the construction project of its time. There were a lot of freighters waiting in the Pacific to go through the Canal. Between 30 and 40 freighters currently go through the canal on a daily basis and will increase in 2014 with the expansion.

We also wandered along Balboa Ave to Casco Viejo for a day. In the year since Brett had been here there had been so many improvements to the waterfront including a huge park and walkway system to enjoy. We were impressed with the outdoor gym equipment to work out on.

In Casco Viejo, it was amazing wandering around and seeing all the building renovations underway on these 16-17 century colonial buildings. Would be interesting to see how different the place is in 20 years as its going to take a while to fix it up. There’s so many things being worked on in the area and for those projects completed the transformation is amazing. Tough at present though.

There’s a lot of poverty in Panama and you could see it around Avenue Central. People just hang out along the street, which is lined with vendors selling things. All sorts of interesting things to see, including the outdoor hairdressers. 

Off to David and Boquete in the mountains.