Most of the morning today was spent learning where a church within walking distance might be. If we don’t get plugged-in soon, we could find ourselves lazy in ever getting engaged with a local church. That has happened before. For us, getting involved with a church now is important. There are a couple of English-speaking churches in close proximity. We plan do a dry-run to check them out in the next few days before Sunday. We are hoping one church might have a volunteer opportunity for us. We also did a little online research on tours and other interesting things to do. There is a nice selection of hiking tours, trips to nearby beaches and boat rides to Monkey Island. Stan found a private Panama tropical birding trip where we might see toucans, humming birds, parrots, tanagers, and more—I love beaches but oh, I sure want to do the birding trip!
Tomorrow we are taking a 4-hour bike tour around the city. That should be great fun. Just walking, we have learned some parts of the city are relatively flat; some are quite hilly. I hope we stay in the flat parts! And I hope we stay off the main roads . . . Traffic in the city is atrocious. There are few traffic lights here and pedestrian crosswalks are an invitation to die. Never, ever trust an oncoming car to stop. Cars, particularly taxis, beep their horns constantly and today as we walked along on the sidewalk a guy on a motorcycle made his bike backfire. Pow!! We nearly jumped out of our skins. Stan thinks they do it for fun. Heh! Heh!
We walked to the former Trump Tower, now owned by Marriott. The building has great iconic architecture but actually, it is no big deal. Farther along we hoped to walk out to the point on the eastern most part of the Bay of Panama. We thought it might be a good place to see a sunrise someday, that is if we ever wake up that early. But we found that it’s a private, gated community so we must find another place. A more plausible plan might be to take in a sunset and dinner on the Casco Viejo, the historic district of Panama City. We were within a mile or so of this ancient area yesterday.
I am sure all will notice that many of our photos are of modern high-rise buildings. Over 59 of them here are taller than 500 feet tall, that’s about 35 floors. Twenty have more than fifty floors with the tallest structure topping out at 78 floors. Tall buildings make up most of our panoramic view. In their day of the vast construction, there must have been grand competition among architects for the most unique designs. Some are quite artistic, some gather light in a way that changes the color of the building momentarily and some have designs so intricate it makes one wonder how on earth was it built.
We tasted our first bit of authentic Panamanian food today . . . empanadas. They were made of far too much bready-dough for me and no salsa – dry as day-old toast! We are looking forward to some fresh ceviche at the Mercado del Marisco Cinta Costera after our bike ride tomorrow!
We downloaded scooter rental apps today . . . we might take scooters home tomorrow night. Can’t you just see it! Stay tuned!
