Panamania!!!!

So today we explored the city of Panama, pretty busy place. We wanted to get up really early to make our way to the Canal but ended up sleeping in because of an all night punch party... oooopps! We met my hero last night though, rode up to the hostel on his BMW oldschool bike and inspired David and I to get some leathers and try out Route 40. He's been riding for two years now and had some pretty incredible stories. We're hoping we can line something up because I think it would be pretty nuts! Anyways, back to our day... we woke up a tad late and made our way down the street to catch the local bus to the canal. The buses are unreal, wish we had taken photos but we were pretty scared of taking the camera out today on the streets... anyways, the buses are just old yellow cheesewagons that aren't so yellow anymore. Pretty sure they have pimp out competitions! I honestly don't know how the drivers see out of the windows because there all painted up! So we took the bus to a HUGE terminal where we had to find another random bus that took us to the canal. The bus ride was great fun, aside from the fact that I thought it was going to fall apart as we hit any pump on the road and there sure were tons of those! We finally got to our stop when the Panamanian clouds decided to roll in and soak us from head to toe! It was a good thing we took our shampoo and were able to have our first warm shower though! We went to the canal with an Italian couple we met last night and we were lucky they came along because they were able to translate a whole lot better than either of us! We lost them somewhere in the canal and now that I think of it, we haven't seen them since we've been back... Sure hope we didn't pull another Dave move and left them waiting for 8hrs... So the Canal was pretty neat, really happy we checked that out. It's incredible how they built such a monstrosity in the early 1900's and they still use the same gates as the original transport in 1914!

After abandoning our friends we went to Casco Viejo which is the original Panama town center. The panamanians abandoned the city when pirates took over back in the day and they have recently went back in and tried restoring it. It's a really beautiful place. There's neighboring buildings where one is falling apart and the other is absolutly incredible! We ate dinner at one of the restaurants there out on the street and then decided to walk back to our hostel... if only we had a decent map or any sense at all of where we were it probably wouldn't have taken us 3hrs... The hostel had told us it was a 20min walk! We found the central street which was a big market type place, it was wicked, we were tempted to buy a few new pairs of shoes but decided we would hold off on adding an additional 10 pounds to our bags till at least we arrived in South America! We were told that Panamanians were incredible pick pocketers as well and I'm proud to say that even in the crowded ghetto streets we weren't stupid tourist and didn't lose a thing! Or at least that either of us are aware of! So we finally sucked it up and waved down a cab to take us back to our hostel. I'd have to say that it's a good thing we did because I don't think there was any hope at all that we could have navigated our way back.

 

 Tomorrow we are off to Puerto Lindo to a hostel called Wunderbar where we will get ready to go on our sailing trip to the San Blas islands for some snorkling and spear fishing. From there we head to Cartagena Columbia!