In which Layla and Roz go through the Panama Canal, climb a hill, and aspire to trendiness

By Layla 

Despite the storm, our plane took off and deposited us promptly back in Panama city. Flagging a taxi, we embarked on an overly complicated rush hour quest to a random apartment in Amador to pick up our bags, before home to our old apartment building, though a little studio instead of our spacious apartment which had been booked for these dates already. We batted our eyelids and offered a couple of dollars to the taxi driver to carry our bags up the stairs. Ah, the memories of 10 years ago when I’d lug a massive backpack up a thousand stairs without complaint…

We dropped off our stuff and headed off to Divino which was much busier than last time we sampled it – we almost didn’t get a seat! But eventually squeezed in, we drank prosecco, ate delicious cheese-covered polenta and Spanish tortilla. Excellent.

The next day we grudgingly hauled ourselves out of bed at an early hour and fell into a taxi, bound for the Amador port – our destination: the Panama Canal. It’s all very well to watch it from the visitors’ centre, but very much cooler to go through it in a little boat! The boat in question was cool in itself – built in 1912, originally used by Al Capone to transport rum, in the intervening hundred years it has been enjoyed by Hollywood stars such as Cary Grant. Despite our bitterness at having been told to arrive over an hour earlier than necessary, we settled down, sipped their free drinks, and prepared for adventure.

And indeed, adventure was forthcoming. It is exceptionally cool to go through the Panama Canal. First the scenery – it starts with the skyscrapers of Panama City, and quickly gives way to jungle. And it’s not all a canal as you might imagine it – large portions are linked by pretty man-made lakes through which we sailed. And we enjoyed kissing for luck under the Bridge of the Americas which unites North and South America across the canal. But of course the coolest thing was going through the locks, and watching as we rose several meters up, while the canal workers made sure we went through straight. On one occasion, we got to share our lock with some bigger boats, which were guided through the locks by little trains called ‘mules’, and passed many massive container ships who were only just wide enough to squeeze through. Quite exciting to watch them – it’s hard to imagine the scale of these beasts.

After a busride back to Casco Viejo, we bought excellent ice cream and went home to get ready for the evening (and tried to make plans for our last two days in Panama… only moderately successfully!). And then headed out for our least decisive dining experience ever. We started off in a cool bar, drinking mohitos and trying to look trendy, then tried one restaurant which felt too empty, walked to another which we felt ashamed of as we’d already eaten there more than once, another whose menu didn’t sound good, another who was non-specific with their vegetarian plate offerings, hunted unsuccessfully for some time for another… and eventually, rather inexplicably, ended up in a cool art gallery/café where we had guacamole and salad, while Roz watched the testimony of a victim of war crimes as an arty video in her line of vision, while I watched some annoying children cavorting, the only other signs of life in this otherwise deserted destination…

After dinner, we returned to the cool bar and went onto the roof terrace which had a really excellent view of the Panama City skyline, all lit up for the night. Alas we didn’t manage to get seats – we tried to sit down but a waitress ejected us from the seating area – Roz is of the view that it was because we had to buy a bottle of wine to get a table; as hot young things took up our perches, my conclusion was insufficient coolness… We drank our mohitos at the bar, and resisted a chance to be seated once more when Roz caught the amorous eye of a seated gentlemen…

The next day we slept in, savouring our last chance to do so for some time. And then we went out for crepes in a nearby café and puzzled over what to do with the day. After much humming and hawing, we did quite well – we walked up Amacor Hill, which was very pretty and had a fantastic 360 degree view of Panama City, from the shiny skyscrapers to Casco Viejo’s crumbling grandeur, to the canal’s locks. Also we saw a very brightly coloured toucan, which we both found quite cool. Alas there was no water up there, but just as we thought we might die from dehydration, a sweet man who was selling warm hats of all things gave us some of his water and told us about his tribe (Kuna Yala).

Having walked down the hill, and then sunk gloriously into the back seat of an air conditioned taxi, we decided to venture outside of Casco Viejo for a late lunch. Destination: Beirut. Or at least, the restaurant! We had very tasty Lebanese food, read our books a little and then returned to Casco Viejo for more of that excellent ice cream and a lovely walk to Plaza Francia, a pretty square by the water, with a great walkway sporting views across the city. We sat down on a bench in the middle of the bustle and spent a cheery time with our books, before heading home to get ready for our last Panama evening…