This was a milestone we were looking forward to for awhile. I am using completing this goal as a reason to complete my book detailing all 50 countries and how we got there, but for now we decided to celebrate with a bottle of champagne and a look back at an amazing journey. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported and encouraged us to document our story.
We arrived in Panama and picked a hotel in the touristy historic Old Town, Casa Viejo. As excited as we were to be exploring our fiftieth country, Panama City wasn’t making a good first impression on us. The first evening we walked around looking for dinner and couldn’t believe how dirty and run down the city was. The area was not only run down but the people were anything but welcoming. Even our taxi driver refused to let us out 2 blocks from our hotel saying it was too dangerous to walk. We spent 5 days and never had a problem but it was not what the guide books advertise. The actual tourist area is only 2 or 3 blocks and the rest of the historic old town is just a rundown ghetto full of abandoned buildings with squatters. One night we decided to hire a local to give us a tour. The guide showed up with no plan, no idea where she was going and no knowledge of the city so we ended up getting out of her car and calling an Uber to take us home after only 10 minutes. We did make a video walking around Casa Viejo and ended up finding a few hidden gems and enjoying our time but it didn’t make up for the bad parts of the city.
We finally started to really enjoy Panama once we got outside the city. Our first adventure was to the Panama Canal. You can take a bus from the city center to a viewing platform where you can take pictures and watch one of the locks fill up with giant cargo ships inside but I didn’t come all the way here just to see it from a platform. We planned in advance to take a boat ride along the canal and pass through 3 locks raising us to the highest point on the lake. The crowd on the boat was pretty annoying but the captain was full of great info on each step of our crossing and the buffet was delicious. Our boat was paired with a giant oil tanker as we passed through the canal. We entered 3 chambers and got a really amazing perspective of how they work to raise the giant ships and pass them from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.
The next morning we found a ride outside the city again, to the Soberania National Park. It was a walking trail mainly used for birdwatching. We had the place to ourselves and actually spotted a lot of different animals from monkeys to giant rodents. There was more to the park than we got to see but just doing the one trail was enough for us to start enjoying the real Panama compared to the vibe in Panama City that we weren’t in love with.
Our last day in Panama was again spent outside the city. This time we wanted to get way out there and meet the indigenous people from the area, The Embera tribe. Two years ago when we were in Costa Rica we met the Bribri tribe who were another one of the original 7 indigenous people. We got dropped off by a river where locals were waiting in canoes to take us down the river past their village. We went as far as we could by boat then hiked into the rainforest to go swimming in a waterfall. When we were done they took us back to their village where we met the tribe, got a history lesson then ate a traditional lunch. The tribe put on a small dance ceremony for us and then gave us a big riverside send off. This is the type of travel we enjoy and it was just what we needed to redeem Panama in our minds. We may never call it our favorite country or rush back but we ended up enjoying our time outside Panama city. Plus we got to celebrate country #50 with everyone who joined the livestream.
