Countries 9 Hotels 33 Cars 44
Flights 20:flying time 59.34 hours
Rickshaws 4 Buses 8 Elephant 1 Boat 12
Cog-wheel train 2 Cable cars 6 Subway 6 Ferry 2
Minibus 34 Coach 2 Catamaran 1 Funicular 3
Pick up truck 5 Land Cruiser 8 Hydrofoil 4
Llama 1 Cycle Taxi 1 Train 3 Motorised Canoe 9
Canoe 2 Sightseeing truck 1
After breakfast today I went to get the metro, the ticket booth was closed and I couldn’t work out how to use the machines as they wouldn’t take my money. A group of older chaps came up and used the machines so I asked them to show me how to use it. I spoke in English and they Spanish and I worked out that you need to buy a card for five dollars then put money on it to use the card, and yes you can only get the cards at the ticket office. So one of the chaps sold me his card for $5 so I could use it, and it had money on so I didn’t have to put anything else on it. The kindness of strangers, I would’ve had to have got a cab if he hadn’t done that. The metro here is quite new, there are only a couple of lines but it is easy to work out and very quick.
I went to Casco Viejo, ( Spanish for Old Quarter), also known as Casco Antiguo or San Felipe. It is the historic district of Panama City. Completed and settled in 1673, it was built following the near-total destruction of the original city of Panama, Panamá Viejo, in 1671, when the latter was attacked by pirates. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
It has narrow cobbled streets and good examples of 16th & 17th Century Spanish Colonial Architecture, although because the streets are so narrow it was quite difficult to get good photos of the buildings.
I spent the morning here then walked back along the coast promenade. Locals were out riding bikes, jogging or using the open air gyms. There were a lot of police/army around, some of them riding around in these little things.
I took some photos of other areas of the city too.
