Aug 5 - Panama City - Take 2

We arrived back in Panama City but this time to a backpackers Inn in Balboa, much closer to Casco Viejo (Old Panama City) and the train station, and this time chosen by Marnie.

By 0900 a.m we were standing in line to enter the Miraflores Docks aka: Panama Canal.  By 10 a.m. the place was packed and people were jostling for best viewing position of the freighters already in the locks. Although I was enjoying seeing the crago ship go by at a snails pace, Marnie and Gabriel had seen enough and were giving me the ‘are you done yet’ look.  Having learned a thing or two over the last few years, I decided not to push my luck on watching cargo ships go by and decided it was time to jump into a taxi and head to Casco Viejo.

The taxi had just pulled away and Marnie was already over at the tables full of crafts when I was overcome with that sinking…holy shit feeling in the pit of my stomach. My cell phone! Where’s my F*#@% cell phone? It had happened before, where I had left my trusted BlackBerry in a taxi in Sao Paulo, never to be seen again.  I just couldn’t believe I did it again but this time in Panama City!

I looked around and found an obvious looking young tourist couple, borrowed their phone and managed to call my phone twice, but no one picked up!  Shit…Sao Paulo all over again.  I decided to wait for a few minutes to see if the driver (having heard the phone but not knowing how to answer it) would turn around and deliver it. No such luck.  Not wanting to give up, we all jumped into another taxi and headed back to Miraflores Locks.  At this point the one BIG thing going for me was that the taxi car was a Nissan Pathfinder, not a common taxi.  None of us were thrilled about the prospect of wasting time looking for a phone but doing nothing didn’t seem right either. 

Sure enough, with a huge stroke of luck, just before we reached the Canal, we spotted the Nissan heading in the opposite direction with a new fare!  Our driver turned around and gave chase with the boys in the back seat egging him on to go faster and faster.  It ended with me jumping out of the taxi at a red light and running towards the Nissan, scaring the crap out of the passenger.  After a few seconds of searching while the taxi driver was yelling at me for scaring his fare, the phone barely visible, was found nudged between the seat and the centre console. Lucky!   

We spent the next few hours exploring Casco Viejo on foot.  This edgy part of old Panama is going through some major restorations.  There’s a mixture of new trendy restaurants but you can still see that this area was neglected for many years. There was a strong police presence and we had been warned not to walk around at night, but we felt completely safe during the day, besides we always have ever so vigilant Mateo with his pocket Swiss army knife ready jump into action.

We had ceviche at the fish market and it smelled like a fish market, along with tasty thin crust Italian pizza from a well known casual Italian café.  It ended being a great afternoon after a rocky start.  We enjoyed it so much, that we decided to head back down for dinner and try out a cool looking Tapas restaurant/ boutique Hotel who offered smor’s as a desert which made Marnie very happy!