Following our incredible 5 day sailing trip from Colombia it was back to travelling reality and Panama and that began with protests and a closed road.

Fortunately we were only waiting a few hours before the shuttle bus made it to Puerto Lindo and carried us the 2 hours or so to the country’s capital. Mini bus was a tight squeeze with all the big bags but we pulled it off!

Our bed for two nights in Panama City (or just panama to the locals), was in hostel Carolina Princess Marbella:

Abi’s Rating: 9/10 – Comfy bed after the boat was delicious. Aircon gave me pneumonia but that was your fault. Humongous cockroach in bathroom and also reckon the bathroom was in full view of a million skyscrapers.

Mike’s Rating: 7/10 – Nice little place…looked like a house from the outside but was huge inside. Shared bathroom but it was massive…air con good but walls were thin so it was quite noisy. El Salvadorian embassy was 2 doors down.

We weren’t really too sure what to expect in Panama City but it was a concrete jungle. Some remarkable modern architecture and a terrific sunset to boot. We were tired after the ship so we had Papa Johns Pizza and a wonderful giant cookie before crashing!

A lazy morning followed before we went to Petit Paris bakery for a pain au chocolate and a cake. One thing to note here is that the Dollar currency means we are not in Kansas anymore (what an oxymoron that is!) Not cheap at all – although this could well have something to do with us frequenting French patisseries.

We decides to escape the concrete jungle and explore a real one. A 10 minute uber ride took us to the protected national park that overlooks the city.

We walked for a few hours around the beautiful trails and managed to spot a sloth as well as a few coatis and the odd lizard.

The views from the top were pretty epic and we greedily tucked into our homemade cheese and tomato baguettes. The return to the hostel was a long one as we got caught up in rush hour traffic!

The evening entertainment involved a walk through the eerily deserted business distract. It was worth the discomfort though as we arrived at “The Wallace”. A scottish pub in the middle of Panama that served excellent fish and chips. Abi plumped for Bangers ‘n’ Mash and she thoroughly enjoyed the live music (one bloke singing).

I wasn’t all that impressed until his final number when he brought out Piano Man. Safe to say I sang along and clearly outperformed the lad.

Our final day brought and early start as we took a 15 minute uber to the Miraflores locks and the world famous Panama Canal.

I was extremely excited at the prospect of visiting and I was pleased that we were among the fist visitors of the day.

We got to see an enormous cargo ship pass through and it was fascinating to see the little locomotive trucks steering the humungous vessel.

The original two waterways have been supplemented by a third (opened 2016 – you can see it in the background of the photograph below) lane which has the capability to allow the transit of much bigger (deeper and heavier) ships.

Having said this I overheard a guide saying that they will inevitably have to expand again in the next 20 years as larger ships are constructed.

The newer structure is much more efficient as 60% of the water is recycled meaning that overall 7% less water is used.

We had a little walk around the museum and found out some interesting facts as well as playing with some of the toys!

We skipped the IMAX film and instead headed for the exit.

On the way back we stopped off at Casco Viejo…the old town. Here we went to a vegan café (we didn’t know until we were inside but it wasn’t that bad and the brownie was delicious).

We had a little wander around the streets and I purchased my first cap (as panama as my first new country of the trip!)

As it was a public holiday quite a few places around our hostel were closed so the pursuit of a laundry facility ended in failure and we only managed to venture out for a quick bite to eat after an afternoon nap and catch up with home.

Originally we had planned another night in Panama but we were instructed to book a bus out for immigration purposes (in the end the chap on the island didn’t ask). As a result we took the 11.55pm bus out of Panama City.

Destination…Costa Rica.

#WhatOddsPaddy

A couple of weeks in to 2020 and all is well on the marital front. The close quarters of the boat offered some differences in opinion but nothing major, while The Panama City experience was a pretty relaxed one. We have a couple of weeks to hold out until our 6 month anniversary so fingers crossed!

Divorce Odds: More chance of Liz II hopping over the pond for an instalment of Jezza Springer with Prince Enrique.