Meet the Parents
Friday, February 1st, 2008Day 88
I woke up this morning, used the far off shared bathroom and than returned to our 4 bed dorm room. I did this without losing any money and without being mugged. It was going to be a good day. Both Jordana and I elected to use her parents bathroom to shower in instead of the shared facilities. After washing up I headed up to the rooftop to meet the others for breakfast. “That’s my daughter. Daughter, DAUGHTER.” That’s all I heard from the kitchen, I knew I’d found Norm. The kitchen staff was surly to begin with, I interjected and told Norm she just doesn’t understand english, no matter how loud you say it. It Jordana and her mom were already up on the rooftop patio, where we all had a quick breakfast. Norm commented, “Its not as bad in the day light. When we got here last night I wasn’t sure.” Little did he know what happened yesterday in the daylight just down the street. Anyway, after breakfast we walked out to Avenida Balboa to catch a taxi to Panama Veijo, the old restored part of Panama. It felt strange to drive right by the spot I had been mugged just a day earlier.
We arrived at a main square in the old town which was surrounded beautifully restored buildings. The real attraction here is to just wander the cobbled streets and pop into a few colonial churches. It felt quite different to be walking around with two others travellers. Wait not just two travellers but my in laws, it was actually pretty cool to be showing them the way we travel instead of trying to describe things to them. So far I think they were enjoying it. We checked out a beautiful church, a grand colonial theatre and the Panama Canal museum. The museum was in a grand old building and looked excellent except it was completely in spanish. Hence all of us got little out of it. The U.S.A. Controlled the canal up until 1999, it made me think maybe they did the museum all in Spanish to get back at the English speaking gringos.
After a few hours of wandering the streets we stopped in a restaurant for lunch. Tasty fried fish for Norm, Jordana and I and chicken for the non fish eating Vikki. It was a beautiful patio and almost made me feel like we were in Havana. The old town has the odd street that looks like Havana but really it doesn’t come close to the Cuban capital’s beauty and grandeur. Norm and Vikki seemed to be enjoying themselves as Norm bought a baseball cap with a Panamaian flag on it. They also commented how it was nice to be doing all this without being on a tour. So far so good, and nobody has even been mugged today!
After departing the old town we headed back to the hostal to cool off in the a/c of Norm and Vikki’s room. Then we had a relaxing few hours on the patio drinking beer and wine. As night fell we wandered out to find dinner. Eventually we discovered Calle Uruguay, a trendy street with several bars and restaurants. This is the sort of place you either find good food or overpay for the atmosphere and get crap food. We lucked out and found a fabulous Spanish place with live entertainment, great food and great prices. I think the final bill was no more than $60 and that included a bottle of wine and a few beers. No to mention the complimentary sangria and desert. It was a great way to end Norm and Vikki’s first day here. Although its always a great end to the day when nobody gets mugged.
Michael Coroneos