The Peace Corps Logo: Painted and all over San José

I've been lucky to have been fairly busy this month, so I'll finish up the blogs about Panama, a bike trip, the beach, and a basketball camp I'm about to leave for after I return...sorry again to be such an inconsistent blogger. But, during the wait, you can enjoy some pictures of me with various doves scattered about San José...Costa Rica's take on CowParade. In case it hasn't been made clear in previous posts, Costa Rica (or at least some Costa Ricans) are really proud of not having an army and having the laid back, 'pura vida' lifestyle, and thus identify themselves as a peaceful nation. I generally agree, with the caveat that gaping holes in sidewalks and motorcycles without mufflers can kill any 'peaceful' vibe quite quickly. By the way, I love CowParade-esque exhibits.

Panama Day 3

The three of us started off this day with a jog down to the hotel where we were to pick up the information and gear for the marathon. Oh yeah, the reason I went down to Panama was to participate in the Panama City Marathon. San José had one around the same weekend, but of course, it's more fun to run marathons in interesting places, like where the world's most important canal is (sorry Suez and Erie). It was a gorgeous jog along the promenade that looks to have been recently constructed, which runs from Casco Viejo to the other edge of the bay, which is just minutes from downtown. Running past the fish market first offers delightful seafood odors, but then degrades into a more rendering plant type odor, but fades away quickly. I think what we most noticed during this run (at maybe nine in the morning) was that it was hot. I mean hot. The sun's pretty strong when you're only 8 degrees above the equator-but more on that later. When we got to the hotel we were kindly informed that the packet pick up wasn't that day, but only the next. We had checked the website the previous afternoon, which still said it was both days, but hey, what the heck. We headed back. 

As we were already sweaty and in active wear, I suggested we climb Cerro Ancon (Ancon Hill) which is the highest point in Panama City. We headed that way, getting directions from a friendly old porch sitter that I think wanted to sit us down for a conversation, but we escaped. We had passed somewhat awkwardly through the entire Panamanian department of health and then some very nice houses, including the restored and relocated home of the original Panama Canal director/commissioner/executive. We were about to turn around when we saw a guard booth, and I decided to ask how to get to the trail. There was a bus of people that had been dropped off next to the guard tower, which should have clued me in, but I still asked, as I finished my question, I noticed in my peripheral vision a sign saying "trail for Cerro Ancon" and as the guard lazily pointed to the sign, I realized the stupidity of my question. On the other hand, we weren't lost, and apparently just took the long way up the hill. We enjoyed the rest of the climb, great conversation,  and occasional glimpses of the city and the bay. At the top we were privileged to great views of the city and the bay, and way more exciting for me: the Panama Canal. There were great views of the parking lots lots and more parking lots full of intermodal containers, the Bridge of the Americas (literally, it connects North and South America-legit), and the Western entrance/exit to the canal. 

We stopped for a little snack at a fonda (small, local restaurant) initially just to get something to drink, but they had great prices, and the food looked good so we enjoyed some de-lic-ious meatballs and patacones, along with more than a few fresh juices. I'm sure the lady's thought I was some kind of goofball, ordering three juices, but the climb up the hill had me thirsty. This restaurant also had some sweet posters on the wall ceilings, an eclectic mix of communist revolutionary heroes, baseball players, and 1960s musicians. If you ever thought that Fidel Castro, Ichiro Suzuki, and Jimi Hendrix don't belong on the same wall, you were wrong. 

After showers and some consulting with other people at the hostel, we headed out to see the Granddaddy of Them All: The Panama Canal. It was awesome. Amazing. The ships were so big. That may seem obvious, but, I'm serious, they were enormous. Very impressive. We went to the Miraflores locks, which is where all the tourists go-there is a museum, gift shop, and decks where you can watch the boats go through. Yes, there are actually bleachers where you can watch, just like a football game, boats crawl through the canal. We saw a fishing boat and a cargo ship go through the locks. I think it's one of those things that is just hard to describe. Screw the bleachers, I was leaning over the railing. Infrastructure, industry, and engineering are quite exciting for me (even with my neanderthal like understanding of physics), so I was pretty stoked the whole time. I was so excited I even took videos, of course, watching water rise against a boat for eight minutes isn't probably going to get lots of hits on youtube, but it was so impressive at the time I thought it might. All I can say is, I'd go again. For the fourth or fifth time in two days, we ran into Eric and Liz, who we had ridden down with and who were also running with us.  Additionally, the canal district is very interesting, as the neighborhoods (astonishingly!) look almost exactly like older neighborhoods in small American towns. 

I had dinner at Ciao Pescao, a pricey but delicious ceviche restaurant. Had the Mexican ceviche, super tender and tasty fish with jalapeños and other Mexican treats mixed in. Their beer list also included Paulaner Heffenweizen, one of my favorite beers, so I was very happy. Henley (another volunteer in for the race) and Jake (accompanying Henley-but not on the run) met up with us, and we then walked around the streets and ended up eating at an impromptu restaurant. By impromptu I mean that the lady brought the gas tank, grill, and cooler of food in the taxi and borrowed a table and chairs from a resident. Low on capital cost, but high on flavor, the fried fish was excellent. as was her ability to get some guy to ride his bike and come back with a box of beers. So, after the double dinner, I was in good shape. Not as good shape, though, as Katherine and Elena, who decided to splurge (in retrospect, I should've too) and ate at Manolo Caracol, a restaurant recommended by Angelo (a volunteer who did the marathon the year before and provided some great recommendations). I should've splurged too, because the restaurant serves 11 or 12 courses, the chef's choice. Katherine and Elena both like to cook/are into food and were both just gushing with praise after the meal. 

Panama Day 2

My second day in Panama started out at Luna's Castle, a very cool, fun, and well organized (considering the number of people there) hostel. It had very nice common areas, clean rooms, ample bathrooms (often the make or break issue for me at a hostel), and amazing views of downtown Panama City and the bay-full of sailboats and fishing boats-in between downtown and Casco Viejo.

Most of this day was spent walking around Casco Viejo. It was an amazing place to walk around, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it has beautiful colonial architecture. After Panama Viejo, the original city (which we'll get to later) was sacked by privateers in 1671, the main part of the city was moved to what is now Casco Viejo. So, old buildings from the 1700s and 1800s line almost all of the streets, and there are three or four beautiful plazas. During the 1900s, for a variety of reasons, but perhaps property value and a need for expansion, most of the government agencies, big businesses, and foreign embassies moved out of Casco Viejo. It gradually fell into disrepair and was taken over by squatters. The French Embassy is now a landmark, as it was (according to the brochures) the only institution that never left the area. This has created the second reason why Casco Viejo was so interesting: gentrification and revitalization in process. I have never before seen an entire sector of a city in the process of revitalization. It's quite interesting. On one side of the street will be a trendy restaurant, a boutique clothing shop, and a high end hotel. On the other side of the street would be a gutted out building, with wires going every which way, rusted out corrugated tin sheets serving as the roof, and clothes drying off the crumbling balconies-these squatters hadn't given up yet. On the weekend, huge numbers of fancy cars would come crawling into this part of town, with Panama City's elite coming to enjoy the fancy restaurants and trendy bars. During the day a similar dichotomy was found, with tourists cruising the streets and stopping in the shops, and the squatters kids playing pick-up soccer on the street and their mothers screaming from one balcony to another. Needless to say, Elena, Katherine, and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves taking pictures of and gazing at the multitude of pretty facades.

Taking a taxi in a foreign country is always an adventure. To be fair, I've heard of random taxi zone rules in certain American cities also throwing passengers for a loop. When one really thinks about it, there's a lot of trust involved in taking a taxi to any location for the first time. Although highly unlikely, one has to assume the taxi is legitimate and not going to kidnap you and demand exorbitant payment to be taken back to safety. More reasonably, one has to trust that the driver knows where the desired location is and will take a generally direct route. Furthermore, one has to trust the meter is working correctly (yes, meter tampering is common in certain places, and the button is always pressed if a white tourist gets in the car) or if one has to negotiate the rate, one has to trust the taxi driver isn't scamming him (generally best to assume the driver is doing so, and go from there).

In Panama City, taxi rates are negotiated for every ride. For the locals, there is a base fare, and then depending on the zone of the destination a charge is added, as well as a charge for each additional passenger. Of course, even after having read what these charges were, Katherine, Elena, and I had absolutely no idea, no idea, what zone we were in, what zone we were going to, etc. So, we wanted to go to Panama Viejo, and stopped a taxi, asked him how much, he told us, it seemed high, so we tried to negotiate, he was unwilling, so he left. He seemed perturbed. So, the next taxi told us the exact same rate, so we hopped in. Turns out Panama Viejo was actually across about half the main part of the city.

(earning her project points)

It was well worth it. Panama Viejo was a blast. Founded in 1519, it was the site of the original city, the oldest Spanish colonial city on the Pacific, yes, a specific record, but one nonetheless. In 1671 it was sacked by the privateer Henry Morgan (yes, the same Captain Morgan that is now mixed with Mountain Dew (or Coke if you're lame) and inspiring all sorts of hijinks and bad decisions by young co-eds all across the U.S). The reasons are still a bit fishy, but the mayor of the town burned much of the outlying areas to either block Morgan's advance or eliminate the desire to pillage the ashy city. Furthermore, most of the gold and other valuables had already been pillaged by other pirates, so Morgan and his troops fought a battle, ruining what the fire hadn't. Then he left. Most of the town was moved to Casco Viejo, and the burned out ruins were used as building materials. Yet, ruins still exist, and, at least for me, walking among buildings and up stairs that were built in the 1500s is always a mystifying experience. What made the visit about 10 times better was a group of high school juniors who, for their English/Tourism class, had to videotape themselves giving information about the site to foreign visitors. They really lucked out with us, in my opinion, as we helped them with pronunciation and translation-not every day the tourists also have rockin' Spanish. They were a lot of fun, had pretty darn good English for their level (I found out later they went to a magnet school) and we were able to ask them about their hobbies, favorite foods, the best Panamanian food, and various other things. It was lots of fun. I was super glad they approached us and we said yes.

We had lunch this day at Cafe Coca-Cola, a popular and historic Panama City eatery, which had a great vibe, good, simple food and was very reasonably priced. A definite recommendation. I'd also highly recommend Los del Patio, where we had dinner. It had a really cool atmosphere, a limited menu (which I love!) and very, very good food. The portions were small, but it the prices were reasonable and the service was great considering they were understaffed. A very relaxing place to slowly enjoy a nice meal and beer Panama or two to top it off.