Tourists

We hired the guy that drives John to and from work, Ricardo, to take us on a tour yesterday.  I thought maybe he'd take us to the canal, maybe Panama Viejo.  We ended up going to six different sights:

• Panama Viejo and the Panama History museum



• The Baha'i Temple



• Panama Canal



• The Golden Altar at the San Jose Church



• Casco Viejo



• Amador Causeway

By the end of the evening, we were practically begging Ricardo to take us back to the hotel.  All three of us were hungry and tired.  I saw more of Panama yesterday than I thought I'd see the entire month we're here!

Ricardo clearly loves his country and was very excited to show us all of the sights that were beautiful or meaningful to him.  The highlights of the tour for me were Panama Viejo and the Baha'i temple. 

Panama Viejo is what I really wanted to see.  Panama Viejo was the first city founded on the Pacific Coast of the Americas.  It was the gateway for the Spanish conquest of Latin America.  Ricardo told us that it was destroyed by pirates three times, the final time by English pirate Henry Morgan in 1671.  The ruins are spectacular, and I could have spent the entire day taking pictures of old bricks.

From there we went to the Baha'i temple.  The House of Worship is situated on Cerro Sonsonate (a tall hill, elevation 730 feet) and I understand the location is known as Ojo de Agua.  Of course John thought it looked like a big white boob and made reference to the boobie shape many, many times while we were there.  The building is actually in the shape of a nine pointed star crowned by a white parabolic dome covered with Japanese tiles.  The interior is simple and elegant.  Rows of benches face a small podium.  There are nine entrances (the number nine is the highest digit that includes all the others, it is used as a symbol of unity and the culmination of an era) that allow a nice breeze to flow through the entire structure.  It was quiet and serene, the only sound was the breeze blowing through the palms.  I could have stayed there all day long. I've never felt so peaceful.

We were soon on to the Panama Canal and we got there just in time to see two ships go through the Miraflores locks.  I felt like I'd walked right into a history video I saw in Junior High School.  I walked out onto the terrace and suddenly remembered the entire history and workings of the canal.  We bought some agua de pipa (coconut water) and watched one of the big cargo ships go through the locks. 

After we got bored with the canal (there's really only so much entertainment a big cargo ship can offer), we drove through one of the poorest looking slum areas I've ever seen.  The buildings were horribly run down.  In fact for a while I thought that they must have been abandoned they were in such poor shape, until I realized that people were indeed living in these apartments and shops.  We drove through the more "modern" slums (big square apartment buildings) into what looked more like French slums.  In only got to snap one photo from the cab we were in and it really isn't a good representation of what it looked like.  Despite it's dilapidated appearance, the architecture was beautiful and I felt like all this place needed was a good cleaning and some exterior paint and it would have been just lovely. 

What I found particularly interesting was that even though the buildings and shops these people lived in were rather shabby the people themselves were not what I expected.  They were all dressed nicely.  So nicely in fact, that is why I thought the buildings must have been abandoned because I couldn't imagine these well dressed people living in these places.

Eventually we stopped at "El Altar de Oro de la Iglesia de San Jose", The Golden Altar of the San Jose Church.  It was heavily guarded by police and the entrances were covered in bullet proof glass.  We went in and sat down in a pew in the back.  The church was very dark, lit mostly by candles so the pictures I got were terrible quality.  (I was afraid to use my flash.)  The altar was breathtaking.  The booklet we were given is mostly in Spanish, so from what I could gather, the altar itself has been in Panama since 1612 and in 1671 Fray Juan succeeded in saving the golden altar from the pirate Henry Morgan by painting the gold to look like wood so it wouldn't be stolen.  There were many effigies and altars along the walls of the church of various saints etc.  We paid our respects and gave a donation to the church and left. 

As I understand it, the golden altar is actually in Casco Viejo.  If we have another opportunity to go out there, I'd like to take a proper tour and learn more about the history of Panama.  There is much more to see than just the altar and the views from the boardwalk.  We basically just took in the sights and had snow cones.

From Casco Viejo we went out to the Amador Causeway which is mostly just shops, restaurants and views.  By the time we got there, Alex had blown out a diaper and soaked through his shorts.  We were all hungry and tired, so we just looked around and then went back to the hotel. 

All in all it was an amazing day.  There were many places I could have easily spent the entire evening exploring.