Lots of these visible near the airport… Older neighbourhoods have lush trees.
Another passenger said it reminded him of England’s row houses.
Tip: prevailing winds are from the east, so for best views on arrival, pick the left side of the plane
Category: Panama
Panama: Spiral building
building, from my 7am taxi to airport. Traffic was good, but the other direction was gridlocked for many km. Rush hour starts at 6am here.
Panama: which way is up?
It’s easy to forget that Panama City is on the pacific coast even though the sun rises over the water.
There aren’t many non-island places on the pacific coast of the Americas that can say that.
So the canal goes roughly east to west from the Pacific to the Atlantic, very counter-intuitive.
Misc notes
– the US$ is used here, though they also have B1 coins (balboas) equivalent to $1.
– you do sometimes see the B currency symbol on price lists (eg entry fees)
– lots of US fast food chains and other companies here (Subway billboard promoted a $2 sub – the 15cm (6″) kind though)
– cabs are all yellow now (as of 2-3 years ago), don’t use meters but are cheap compared to home, and there are lots of them (like NYC)
Panama: Copa lounge at PTY
Safely ensconced in the lounge after breezing through a painless immigration (no more cash departure tax) and negligible security line.
It’s equivalent to a renovated United Club, with the addition of free Bailey’s to make the coffee drinkable.
Flying to Georgetown, Guyana today, also upgraded.
One of my 2 return flights on Friday is also upgraded, I’m surprised the last one hasn’t yet 
Panama pun bar
I didn’t get it the first time I walked by…
“Black ice” car freshener
What is that supposed to smell like, exactly? (seen in a cab in Panama)
They probably don’t even know what that is up north…
Panama: Casco Viejo
Trying again, lost my text the first time too.
Oldest part of town, reminds me of colonial zone in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Interesting restored colonial buildings, dilapidated ones, empty shells (just walls) and ruins.
When the canal was started 100 years ago, i thus was the entire city.
Panama skyscrapers
Lots of them, pretty tall too (some are 70 stories, panama I’d guess)
This green spiral one is cool
Panama Canal – Miraflores locks
It’s hard to capture the scale, and with the hazy weather you can barely see the new bigger lock being constructed next door (where the lock will be the size of 4 football fields)
That tanker coming in paid $100K to transit the canal once.
Visitor center (US$15) itself is so so, but I don’t think you can see the lock without going through it (they have several raised viewing decks)
US$8-10 each way for a taxi to get there.
I like these HSBC posters you see in a lot of jetways
I don’t recall seeing this one before
