The three-day, three-flight homeward bound extravaganza included 12 hours in Panama, so we took the opportunity to book a 5-6 hour private tour to check out Panama City.

This first batch includes airports and some highlights, including the Frank Gehry Biomuseo, the bridge of the Americas (connecting the continents), a monument about the canal and the people of Panama, etc…

 

Once Gonzo our guide picked us up at the airport, our first stop was the Panama Canal and the Visitor’s Center at the Miraflores Locks. (We did it up, including the IMAX movie narrated by Morgan Freeman.) Amazingly, rather than a huge cargo ship, we watched a US nuclear submarine go through the original locks. (A huge cargo ship did go through the expanded system above – see videos below.) We also went through the four-level museum and exhibits, thus some of the pix of ships…

 

Timelapses of the submarine and cargo ship going through the old and new locks respectively…

 

 

 

Unfortunately the Biomuseo and the Nature Center were closed on a Monday, but Gonzo insisted on looking for sloths in the trees adjacent to a parking lot. And sure enough he found a couple (and an iguana). Some pix of the harbor, the skyline, and the old town…

 

 

More than one church, including the cathedral which Pope Francisco visited, so we had to go in to cool off. (Crazy huge nativity scene in one of ’em.)

 

 

Some of the old colonial buildings were burned or otherwise destroyed, but as the area is now preserved as a UNESCO site, the walls remain…

 

 

For lunch we went to Diablitos, and here are some of the festive masks they had up on the walls. Part of a syncretic tradition in Panama, at least according to Gonzo (who recommended the soup, but ML had the ceviche in a coconut)…

 

Last batch of our 2019 summer vacation: the PC skyline, map of old town, frolicksome architecture, and Copa Airlines (who did not lose our luggage on the way home.

 

 

Special thanks to Bob Meehan who dropped us off and picked us up, way past his bed time! And thanks to anyone who has read this far and looked at all my posts! You rock!