Panama City, The Old Town

February 12, 2024 Monday
After a morning shopping spree for new batteries and lunch in the cockpit, we decided that it was time for some fun!  We took Whitson’s suggestion to check out the Old Town, and we were not disappointed.

The area is most definitely a tourist destination.  Narrow streets were lined with restaurants small shops, and street vendors.  We walked into a Catholic church that was built in 1675 and is still active today.  It was adorned with a beautiful gold altar, a reminder of why the Spanish came here in the first place.

We continued our walk, passing the ruins of two other churches.  The second one was built with a flat arch that still survives. When surveyors were looking for the best place to construct a canal, the arch was used as “evidence” that Panama didn’t have earthquakes and would therefore be a great place to build a canal. 

We bought two handbags decorated with beautiful molas (intricately stitched designs on dyed pieces of cloth) from a Kuna couple from the San Blas Islands.  The husband told us a great story about when he was a young man.  He wanted to leave the island to travel aboard a visiting schooner, but he needed permission from his chief to do so.  The chief told him that he could go, but only if he brought back two things: eyeballs and fingernails.  Perplexed, the young man said that he did not understand.  The chief touched his eyes and moved his arms in a broad sweep around him.  This meant that the young man would be the chief’s eyes through which the chief could see everything.  And the fingernails?  The chief raised his hand and moved his forefinger against his thumb as if scratching it.  This meant that the young man must write down everything that he saw.  The young man asked if there was anything else.  The wise chief replied, “Yes.  Don’t bring back anything bad.”

We saw a monument to the French engineers who had envisioned and began construction on the first canal, including a bust of Fernando Maria De Lesseps.  He was the engineer who had built the Suez Canal and was certain “a man of genius” would eventually figure out how to overcome the technical obstacles of constructing his vision of a lock-less canal.

We enjoyed final stroll along an elevated seawall canopied with ancient azalea vines before heading back…stunning!  A surprise encounter with a dance troupe was the perfect way to end the day.  They wore striking costumes of primitive and fiendish-looking animals, and seemed to really enjoy startling the onlookers.  We followed them to a piazza where there was a band playing lively Panamanian music, as well as other groups of performers waiting for their turns on the stage.  Carnival for the tourists!