Day 7 of World Cruise

A few shots of Panama.

Today the ship docked in Panama City, Panama. We got a tender ride to the city in the morning. We were told that there  was going to be a shuttle to downtown Panama City. Unfortunately, there were no shuttles at that time. Instead, we got a cab ride downtown. The driver, Miguel, said that he would show us the true local life. He drove us through some horrible neighborhoods with large buildings that were falling apart. There were lots of people outside the buildings, and many doors were open on the various floors. There were people of every age. Some were cooking, some were cleaning, some were chatting, and some were just lounging around minding there own business.

Me and Miguel.

Miguel told us that even though it looked bad on the outside, on the inside, they lived like kings. He said that most of them made their money from drugs. Then, he drove us through an area in the town where there were lots of abandoned, identical buildings with a barbed wire fence around the outside. He told us they were a part of an abandoned US naval camp.

Next, he drove us to an area with many Catholic churches. There were also many government buildings. We passed the president's office. There were many guards outside. Miguel told us that there was no military, just national police, so they had special police posted around the outside of the building.

Inside one of the churches we found an immense and extremely intricate ornamentation made of pure gold! 

Next he parked the car and got out to give us a tour on foot. He showed us some places to buy souvenirs and told us that lots of tourists were here to see Pope Francis. Later, he showed us many statues and explained the political meaning behind them. At one point he brought up Donald Trump. It was very funny because he kept pronouncing Donald Trump as Doughnut Drum. Then we saw some college age kids with Colombian flags, guitars and bongo drums walking down the street singing in Spanish. It was a beautiful song. We followed them for a few minutes. They stopped at a small empty space at a street corner and began dancing in a circle. One girl invited us to dance with them. They taught us the steps and we danced and danced. Eventually, we left the dancers and Miguel took us into the the city.

The group of kids we got to dance with.

The city was much more colorful then Chicago. It had lots of fancily designed buildings. He showed us the apartment where the president lives (yes, the president lives in an apartment). We also spotted lots of McDonald's restaurant. Next Miguel dropped us off at Albrook Mall. The mall was COLOSSAL. We wandered around for a few minutes. We bought a new pair of goggles, some dark chocolate Kit Kats, a small whiteboard calendar and some dry erase markers, and a thermos for our friend.

An ironic flavor of Oreo, and, something that we don't have in the states.

One of the many interesting buildings in Panama City.

Next we had some local Panamanian food and got on the shuttle which had finally showed up. We sent our stuff from the store on a tender with someone else and rented a side by side, two person bike. We rode the bike through some parks, up some hills and around a splash-zone. It was quite fun. We returned the bike and got a tender back to the ship. It was a superb day.

Me on the bike

Our Panamanian lunch

Bye Bye!