Thursday, Jan 31 - Day 11 of holiday and Day 9 on board Island Princess

We awoke to the sounds of the chains rattling as we dropped anchor at Fuerte Amador.  That is an unmistakeable sound as it rattles the whole ship.  We were just off shore of the island that is at the west end of the causeway that leads to the main roads into Panama City and other destinations in Panama.  The tall skyscrapers in the down town area came as a bit of a surprise to me.  They were all tall, close together and light in colour.  It reminded me of New York City in the financial district.  I later learned that there are more than 65 building that are greater than 60 storeys.  That makes for an impressive skyline.

Panama City from Old Town

Our day started with a quick breakfast and a stroll to the designated dining room where we were to gather at "outliers" who did not purchase Princess tours.  The organized tours were tendered to the shore ahead of us.  Our tender was the first of the outliers and we made good progress in the choppy sea.  The distinct small of diesel and splashing of sea water make these trips memorable.

Contrasts

We disembarked the tender and walked up the ramp and spotted Paul (Swinwood) and Adele waiting for us as previously arranged.  It was good to see them and our intent was to see a bit of the old town, have a nice lunch and share some stories as we had not seen them for some time.  They had recently returned from a cruise in South America and were quite happy to relax at their rental unit about 70 km west of Panama.  They had agreed to spend the day with us and we decided to drive into the old town instead of waiting for a bus for 45 minutes.  The driving in the city is crazy and the taxis make lanes that do not exist just to get to the next fare.  Our drive was narrated by Paul as we drove through the area that had been occupied by the Americans and only recently been made accessible to the Panamanians.  There were some pretty rough structures with lots of hanging laundry on the balconies.  In the old town we saw lots of re-construction underway.  That included road repair and expansion, buildings being built/rebuilt/ renovated, new highways and in one part the new subway construction interfered with the local transportation.  Basically everywhere there was construction.  This is funded by the revenues form the canal which sum up to billions each year.  We surprisingly found a parking space were we snuggled the car into an impossible spot.  We paid some kid for the spot and he was happy.  Made me wonder....

The old before re-construction

We then walked the sea wall where there was lots of local trade selling all kinds of souvenirs.  The ladies were dressed in colourful  local wear reflecting their significant interest in bright colour and handmade clothing.  We continued our walk through the streets and check out the old buildings as we wandered towards the palace where we ran into many armed guards who made sure we did not trespass.  We found a nice little cafe in the shade that offered some relief from the heat where we enjoyed a cold beer and some lunch. WE sat there chatting for a couple of hours and enjoyed the time immensely.   The food was good and it took some time to be prepared.  We chatted about their life style in Panama and their plans for the rest of the winter before they return to Ottawa. Some time in Florida with their friends was the next big thing after a month in Panama.  Both of them seemed to be very happy in their retirement and they looked very well and healthy.

We then continued to walk for a while and found the car completely blocked by other cars.  After a few minutes the same young lad found a way for us to get out.  The owner of one car moved his car and Paul got us on the road again.  WE drove the Allbrook mall as there was a "Mac Store" and we thought I might be able to get my iPad looked at and maybe fixed.  Well with the combination of some English, Spanish and lots of hand waving we found out that the other huge mall is where their technicians are located.  WE all agreed that the drive through the city was not worth it and we wandered the "huge" mall just looking around.  This mall is about a km long, and has five major bays of stores.  There are over 350 stores in this single mall.  Anything you need - you could find it there.  We forgot that I was looking for a tripod for the canal event.   We had Hagen das instead of waking too far and that was a delight.

Re-constructed area

We returned to the car and Paul suggested that we should head toward the causeway and the dock as traffic the other way would be very congested.  We drove there in slow traffic and got there around 3 PM or so.  WE said our goodbyes after a tour of the duty free and caught the tender back to the ship.  The water was much rougher and the return was a lot quieter that the ride to the city. 

Once back in our stateroom we crashed for a while and had a cocktail before dinner.  At around 7 PM we went to the dining room and settled for a table by ourselves but beside another couple.  We chatted intermittently with the folks at the next table only to discover that he was a part time Pastor and she was a volunteer coordinator in a hospice.  Our dinner was simple and we enjoyed a nice white wine with it.  Freddi had a great chilled celery and apple soup followed by a small serving of Fettuccine Alfredo and prime rib.  I had a 4 mushroom tart, the pasta and a fine orange roughy dinner.  All was delicious and just enough.  Note the exclusion of dessert.  The day ended shortly after dinner.....