The night before we left Mexico we had a great Valentines party hosted by the owners of our hotel complete with Mariachi band and the timing was absolutely perfect…it was a great way for us to say farewell to the country. Monday morning we were in the air and on our way to Panama.
Panama City has been quite a surprise. It’s not at all what I though it would be like although I’m not sure what I was expecting…if anything I thought it would be more like Mexico or Guatemala, but it’s not…not at all!
Me in Pan-hatten!
It’s a modern and becoming-more-prosperous-by-the-hour kind of city. We’ve been told that although the world recession has slowed the country’s incredible economic growth somewhat, it is still growing. Retirees from North America and Europe are moving here to take advantage of the low cost of living and great tax enticements offered by the government. Medical tourism is also booming since John Hopkins University entered into a joint project with Punta Pacifica Hospital in Panama City. Surgery can be done here for an average of 50 to 70 percent less than what’s charged in the US.
In the city itself there are skyscrapers popping up everywhere (including a Trump Tower) and in contrast, there’s the beautiful old area called Casco Viejo with it’s traditional colonial Spanish architecture, which has been declared a World Heritage Site. This area is under restoration and currently being redeveloped into high end apartments, restaurants and hotels. The canal is in the process of being expanded to bring twice as much traffic through and that alone brings a lot of wealth to the country. It was only returned to Panama by the US in 1999.
We’ve been having fun since we arrived…and not just in the city. Yesterday we traveled by dug out canoe up the Chagres river to an Embera village to learn about their history and culture.
They shared a meal with us and tattooed Bob’s arm…a temporary one done with the dye of the Jagua fruit.
We learned all about the beautiful woven baskets that the women make; they bleach the shredded palm leaves, dye them with natural vegetable dyes and then bury those that they want to be black, in the river mud…but only on a full moon. It can take up to three months to make one of the smaller, finer baskets.
It was a great day, traveling up the river and and then hiking up to a waterfall in the jungle.
And of course there was the Canal…we couldn’t miss that!
Today we had lunch at a beautiful resort on Gaton Lake which is actually a part of the Panama Canal and saw lots of wildlife…crocodiles, monkeys and even a sloth who was just “hanging around”.
(Pierce Bronson danced on this deck (where we lunched) in the movie The Tailor of Panama!
Tomorrow we rest and then we’re off to visit friends who winter at a beach resort about an hour west of Panama city. The fun continues!
Blessings to you dear friends…thanks for joining me on my travels!
