Panama City

Our afternoon city tour of Panama City took about four hours.  The ship's tenders take passengers to Fuerte Amador  - a small man-made harbour hosting a yacht marina and a pier for visiting cruise ship passengers, complete with police and customs facilities.  The complex is set on a small island, which is now connected to the mainland via a long causeway, some of which is lined with shops and restaurants.

The objectives of the city tour were to explore the colonial city, the new city, and the ruins of the original old town (Panama Viejo) in which some of the first Spanish conquistadors settled during the 16th century.

The journey along the causeway to the city took about 15 minutes, and on the way our tour guide pointed out some of the party retreats of the former dictator president, Manuel Noriega. We also passed through some very questionable looking suburbs, which our guide warned against wandering alone, especially  if one wasn't of Hispanic ethnicity...  

The first stop on the tour was the colonial city, or old quarter, which featured many buildings of architectural styles dating from the Spanish colonial era.  Sadly, a lot of the buildings were in a state of disrepair, although much regeneration is now taking place to breathe new life into the area.  Some of the ruined buildings are stark reminders of the US invasion of Panama in 1988, in which many Panamanian civilians lost their lives. Nowadays, the old quarter is one of the most frequented areas of Panama City by tourists, second only to the nearby Canal itself.

Next on the itinerary was a drive along the main arteries of the new city. This part of the city is home to an impressive array of modern sky scrapers, which wouldn't look out of place in the downtown areas of most American, European or Far Eastern capitals. Consisting of a dense mixture of office blocks, condominiums and hotels, it's fairly obvious that there is no shortage of cash in this very affluent part of the city.

By now, it was late afternoon and traffic jams were starting to develop. In the congested city streets, tempers began to fray and it soon became apparent that Panamanian drivers were not renowned for their patience or careful driving - we witnessed at least two fairly serious accidents during this short time.

We eventually reached the few remaining ruins of the old town, Panama Viejo, which was formed by the first Spanish explorers who landed there in 1519.  The old town is located a few miles east from the current downtown area, but little remains of the original settlement as most was destroyed in a siege during 1671.  The history is best learned from visiting the nearby museum, which we quickly hurried round as time was starting to run out.

We arrived back at the ship about 1700hrs local time, and shortly after, the anchor was lifted and we manoeuvred further out into the Gulf of Panama, to the anchorage points for vessels transiting the canal. Here we will remain until early tomorrow morning - pilots will board Coral Princess at 0400hrs to guide us into the first set of canal locks at Miraflores, which we expect to reach about 0600hrs.

The canal transit tomorrow will see us transition from the Pacific west coast of the American continent, to the eastern side in the Carribean, and ultimately mark the start of the final leg of the voyage north to Florida via Colombia and Aruba.