Going out and exploring!

View of Panama City from Casco  Viejo

It’s day 3 and we are having a blast! We got off the bus and hitched a ride to the hostel using a taxi service. Once there, we were pretty tired so we called a few people and went right to bed. The next day was interesting though. We needed to get a ticket to Bocas Del Toro, so Ashley and I went down to the local bus station and picked up two night bus tickets leaving today (10-17-12) at 8:30pm. After that we had a very interesting dilemma… trying to get a ticket to see the Panama Canal the cheap way proved difficult. However, Ashley’s ‘superb’ language skills prevailed… and they let us on without a ticket. It might have been the blank stares we were giving the bus attendant, or the slight quiver of a cry coming to my lips, but in the end I guess they felt it was easier to let us on than turn us away. Once at the canal it was a blast, we watched large container ships go up and down through the locks as if they were feathers in the breeze… well more like a rock in water, still interesting none the less. After that adventure we got a taxi into the old city of Panama. I tried to go there many years ago with my sister and we were “escorted” out by a taxi driver who asked if we knew where we were. The book said it had changed for the better and that surely was the case. It was very beautiful, with old large cathedrals and a very good museum about the Panama Canal. The most interesting things on display were old American trinkets from the 60’s behind glass, most of which had some importance to the Panama Canal.   Seeing all of those simple objects being put on display and tagged as old artifacts will make me look at Goodwill completely different the next time I’m shopping there. Does goodwill even know how much money they could make by charging people to see old American stuff!?! Well, that’s it for now. We are sitting in the hostel today, waiting for our bus to leave, (hopefully to Bocas) and we will post more as soon as we have a coconut in hand!