Hasta Luego Panama City

So after a pleasant introduction to life in Central America it's time to move on and start the trip properly. Panama City is a perfect way to get accustomed to the hustle and bustle, noise and heat of Central America. It seems to be a real melting pot of Latino cultures and during my short stay I met folk from Venezuela, from Columbia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. The economic meltdown in Venezuela has caused huge numbers of people to travel to Panama in search of work, many of them seem to be doing very well in the hospitality industries. Very friendly people and they seem the fluent in English too.

The canal was an amazing site to behold, especially when a huge ship squeezes it's way through the locks en route either to the Pacific or Caribbean. There are barely 3 feet spare on either side!

These huge ships are pulled along by small trains on either side at a walking pace. From what I can remember, I think that the canal can allow around 30 ships a day. Things get a bit tricky in the dry season as a huge amount of fresh water is required for the locks so when the lakes are low, they battle.

2016 is a big year for Panama as a 3rd set of locks have been completed which can handle ships almost twice the current limit. The grand opening happens tomorrow (Sunday) with huge celebrations taking place in the city and at the locks. I think that the country is heavily reliant on the canal income so the extra revenues from the larger ships will be a great boost for their economy. I think that there is also a huge amount of national pride involved as they need to prove that they don't need the USA to own and run the canal for them, they are capable of doing it themselves. I wish them well!

I would definitely recommend Panama City for a couple of days, no more than that unless you do day trips out from the city although you are then better off staying somewhere out of the city anyway. Rainy season does however make for some spectacular storms with torrential downpours, be prepared to get drenched! I made the well informed decision to leave my waterproof at home to save space, ho-hum, at least the rain is warm.....

Bocas Del Toro, here we come.

Hasta Pronto!