Friday, April 14- Exploring Panama City

I woke up this morning to insistent tapping on a door.  I hoped it was someone else’s, but after a couple of unanswered attempts, my door was unlocked and pushed partly opened.  I yelled at them In English not to come in.  The door closed.  Indignant, I checked the time.  It was 10 AM.  Oops.  I’d just missed breakfast/  Oh, well.  I guess I needed sleep more than food.

I made coffee in the room, had a protein bar and headed out.  Good Friday is not the day to explore Panama City.   They told me all the museums were closed. I went out anyway, taking the well-strolled and well-patrolled Costa Cintura along the water, enjoying the beautiful flowers and people-watching.  

The old section of Panama, which was about an hour’s walk, was a really mixed bag.  The only open restaurants I could find were in a central plaza, populated by locals, with mostly fish on the menu.  That’s probably the freshest fish you can get but I was still a little paranoid that fish might be a great place to harbor unfamiliar bacteria if it weren’t carefully prepared, so I kept going.   There was a lot of beautiful old architecture, much of it in disrepair (but some being rebuilt) and a lot of poverty if you looked down the side streets. 

The new Panama City, seen from the old section.

That, of course, contrasted with the eclectic architecture of the new office buildings and luxury apartments.

I finally ended up having lunch at a restaurant with an outside porch`- shrimp in tomato sauce, a nice salad, Perrier but not the beer I requested because it was Good Friday and sale of alcohol was prohibited.   They spoke very little English but I was surprised at how much rudimentary Spanish I remembered and I had a good meal.  On the way home I stopped at a convenience store and, still ravenously thirsty, bought Diet Coke (“Sin Calorias”), a couple of bottles of Pellegrino water and a fruit pop.

Entrance to my hotel, the Bristol.