With the destruction of Old Panama, its inhabitants moved to the skirts of Cerro Ancon where, in 1673, the new city of Panama was founded. The old quarter of town is a pleasant place to stroll around.
Today, Panama City is booming, overtaking Miami as Latin America’s business centre. The world’s tallest residential buildings (over 100 floors) are currently under construction. Spanish is the language and US dollars is the currency. Most parts of the city are safe but there are two suburbs where theft and violence are routine. Mal had to go to this area to locate some parts and was told not to let the taxi go but have it wait for him.
It was hot and humid in Panama City. Each day the city skyline built into a mass of storm clouds resulting in electrical storms which eventually moved over our anchorage. We heard that two boats, a yacht and a cruiser, anchored in the Panama City anchorages had been struck by lightening while we were there.
Nicholas and Lynn on “Girl” were not at the Las Brisas anchorage where we were located. They had an Australian visitor, Mike, and were going to sail to the islands of Las Perlas off the Panama Coast so we assumed that they had already left. The plan was that they would return so that Mike could connect with his flight to Australia, and then we would both set sail for the Galapagos Islands.
We kept calling “Girl” on the VHF hoping to contact them. On Tuesday morning 4 May, we received a response to our call and discovered that they were moored of the Balboa Yacht Club which we had motored past on our way to Las Brisas but didn’t see them. They had transited the canal midweek the previous week and moored there on leaving the canal. Early in the evening of their first night on the mooring, a huge electrical storm hit the area. Nicholas and Lynn had just put their dingy and outboard in, secured it, then went below. They woke up the next morning to find their dingy and outboard gone. A fisherman fishing close by the previous evening, is the suspected culprit. So, their plans of sailing to Las Perlas with Mike were delayed while they sourced a new dingy and outboard. This took them approximately one week after which they then continued with their plans. As a result, it was decided that we would sail to Las Perlas when we were ready and Nicholas and Lynn, after sailing back to Panama City to enable Mike to make his way to the airport and home to Australia, would sail back to Las Perlas where we would meet them.
During the week when they were sourcing a new dingy and outboard, we had dinner together one evening and a day outing to the zoo. The zoo wasn’t as spectacular as we had read in the tourist guides but it was interesting. The main attraction were the varieties of monkeys and birds. We were finally able to see a Toucan! On leaving, we discovered that it was difficult to find a taxi and buses did not pass as frequently as we had hoped. It was raining so the five of us huddled under a bus shelter wondering what to do, when a young man approached us and through his Spanish and very little English, offered to drive us to the nearest shopping centre in his multi coloured ex-US school bus which had been hired for a school excursion to the zoo. He had quite a few hours to wait so he thought he would help us out and make a bit of money on the side. We negotiated a price which was half of the taxi fares to get us to the zoo and off we went. The bus was outrageously painted and a lot of fun but not comfortable, however, we were grateful for the ride.
Clothing items and meals in Panama are very cheap compared to Australian prices as are grocery items. The five of us enjoyed lunch at the huge shopping mall after which Lynn and I remained to shop our little hearts out while the men returned to the boats.
There were arcades with shops and restaurants at Las Brisas and a marina a little further up the road. Taxis were readily available and were US$5 or less to go into the city. We remained at the anchorage at Las Brisas from the 2 May 2010 to 13 May 2010 during which time we explored Panama City, provisioned for our trip accross the Pacific, and checked out the shops and boutiques at Las Brisas and at the Marina. Panama City is reportedly the fastest growing economy in Latin America. Mal and I counted twenty-four skyscrapers being built during a taxi tour of the city including an amazing architecturally designed building by Donald Trump.
As mentioned previously in our blog, we also met up with our Aussie friends from “Cabillito de Mar” Brian and Ann, and Steve and Sue Westwood for dinner before Steve and Sue continued on their yacht delivery to Sydney.
On 13 May 2010, we hauled anchor and set sail for Las Perlas where we would enjoy seeing the beautiful islands and wait for Lynn and Nicholas on “Girl”.
