Brian and I spent a few days in Panama so Brian could attend the board meeting for the workers comp insurance company that his company is a part of. The board meeting was pretty dull, but it was fun to go to Panama. We got there a couple days early so we could spend some time checking out Panama City. It was interesting to get a little glimpse of Costa Rica's neighbor to the south.
Panama City is loaded with sky scrapers. Everyone in the city lives in high rise buildings- some looked pretty nice, others looked not very nice at all. Panama really tries to sell itself as a good, stable place to do business. They like to say that they don't have tornadoes and earthquakes like other countries in the region, so you don't have to worry about things getting interrupted by natural disasters.
Brian and I walked a lot around the city. One day we walked over to the fish market in search of some ceviche. Fish markets are fun place to take pictures, especially if you like taking pictures of dead fish and such.
When you buy ceviche from one of these casual little places, they serve it to you in a styrofoam cup like this with a packet of saltine crackers. That was some good stuff. Later we had ceviche in a couple different restaurants. I am a big fan of ceviche.
We walked over to the old town. They have a lot of buildings there that have been renovated and repainted.
Then not that far away from the nice buildings, you see building that look like they should be condemned and buildings that are just rubble. I wonder how far the renovating project will go.
In one of the plazas we walked through, I saw this lady selling her wares. I asked her if she made all of this stuff. She said that her 7 year old son and her 15 year old daughter also help out making stuff for her to sell. I bought a bracelet for each of our girls from her.
I'm wondering where all the stores in Panama City get their mannequins from. We saw a lot of female mannequins with very large breasts.
I also saw these boy mannequins with pouty faces. Pretty funny.
We passed by a movie theater at a mall and were surprised that movie tickets weren't much cheaper than home, but popcorn was pretty reasonable. A large only cost $2.90.
The insurance company arranged for our group to go on the "super mega combo" tour. This consisted of a visit to the Miraflores locks of the Panama canal and a trip to the Gamboa Rain Forest Resort. Seeing the big cargo ships going through the locks was pretty cool. The canal a huge money maker for the country. They make around 5 million dollars a day.
After leaving the locks our bus crossed over this bridge. It used to be a rail road bridge, but they covered over the metal tracks so tires could drive on it.
We had lunch at the rain forest resort. I had a guy take a picture of us.
At the resort we saw all of the orchids growing in this nursery.
This is what a vanilla flower looks like, in case you were wondering. Vanilla is a type of orchid.
The resort also had a small butterfly farm. They seemed pretty proud of it. I think maybe it would have been more amazing if we had not been to any of the butterfly farms in Costa Rica. Brian put his butterfly whisperer skills to work. They don't teach you this in Panama; you have to learn in Costa Rica. =)
The last part of our "super mega combo" tour was a boat ride on Lake Gatun. This is the lake that is the highest part of the canal. All of the water for the locks flows down from this lake. The purpose of the boat ride was to go to an island on the lake and tempt the monkeys to come down so the tourists could take pictures. The monkeys are a big hit.
Who doesn't love seeing monkeys?
This is the place we stayed at for the board meetings. Brian and I were on the 5th floor facing the forest in the back. Brian didn't want to waste his company's money on the ocean views.
I think Maia would have loved picking up sea shells on this beach.
This guy looked pretty cool.
It was fun to see the little bit of Panama that we saw. I think it would be fun to see the rest of Panama that doesn't revolve around Panama City or the canal.
