PANAMA CITY, PANAMA THINGS TO DO! (Panama Canal & Casco Viejo)

 Hola bienvenidos welcome to beautiful panama city, buenos dias, good morning, country collectors and welcome back to panama's capital city, panama city. If you tuned in last week, you joined us as we explored the ruins of panama, viejo strolled, the cinta costera and sampled, some delicious local dishes. Well, this week we are going to be taking a deep dive into casco viejo, one of the most beautiful and popular neighborhoods here in the city, as well as take you down the amadero causeway and see the world famous panama canal, it's so cool you're going to Want to see it, you really do, but before we get started, please hit that subscribe button and ring the bell, so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures all right.

Let's do this. If you remember, we are staying here near the cangrejo and bella vista neighborhoods and to get to casco viejo by walking. It would take about an hour. But luckily, here in panama city, they have an amazing bus and metro which we talked about in our last video.

So we are going to head down to iglesia del carmen station and take it to cinco de mayo so come with us, we made it and, as you can see, the city is bustling. We did want to share a quick, traveler tip with you, though, if you're traveling, with more than one person, you can actually share your rapicard just pass it back to your friend behind you. They cost two bucks each.

So if you share it, you can save a couple bucks and where the metro drops you off is not in the center of costco viejo, you are going to have to walk a few blocks, but it's been really nice. You know we're getting to experience that city life as it's unfolding. I can see the resemblance, and I knew I smelled something.

Fishy and familiar right here is the mercado de mariscos. It's a great place to come down, buy some fresh fish, they'll actually cook it. For you in there on the top floor, or you can come right over here and sit at a restaurant and have some delicious local delights, and I love that right next to the market, you can actually see where the boats are coming in. You can even see the men over here just working along the dock.

Like you know, it's fresh seafood because it came in right there and, of course, when you have a fish market and where the fishermen come in, there's going to be birds, they're all just down here poised waiting for something to grab on the side and then look Over here the skyline, oh wow, I almost didn't even notice that got ta keep those peepers peepin'. Yes, you do and just beside it there's a nice little park here, it's a great place to see the skyline yet again and behind me here you can see the beautiful panama flag waving in the wind and, as you approach, casco viejo you're bound to notice. This large circular structure running out into the sea.

This is actually a part of the cinta costera. The coastal beltway, and this edition here was built in 2014 and spans 34 kilometers. There's bike lanes walking, lanes and a roadway through it. So you can, you know, go out here and enjoy yourselves enjoy the view it could be really fun and just across the water.

Here is your first glimpse of casco viejo. You can already appreciate the historical charm, beautiful buildings and terracotta rooftops. Now.

Why don't we take a walk over and get a closer look, but before we head in? Why don't we learn a bit of the backstory here, so panama, viejo, located in north old, panama, was the first spanish settlement. It was actually ransacked and burnt to the ground in 1671 by captain henry morgan. Three years later, the spanish decided to move the city here to casco viejo because of its peninsular, defensive location. They actually ended up building a wall around it, which is why it's called casco, viejo or old compound and, if you're looking for that wall right now, it's going to be tough to find because it's actually been deconstructed over the years.

There are still a few remnants of it in the city, though, and we're hoping to see a few of them today, after construction of the panama canal began in 1904, there was a large urban expansion which kind of left casco viejo in the dust per se. It was in quite a crumbling state that was until it gained unesco world heritage status and that's when its transformation began nowadays, casco viejo is one of the most trendy neighborhoods in the city and filled with historic value. Let's see why, together, we are starting our tour here in plaza de la independence or independent square, aptly name, because this is where panama declared its independence from colombia on november 3rd 1903. I love squares like this.

It really reminds me of mexico. You know how the spanish always created these central meeting points with the government buildings on one side and the grand cathedral on the other. It's a great place for people to come down and just relax enjoy the area and each other.

Like adam mentioned, the showstopper of this plaza is definitely the metropolitan cathedral. It was finished in 1796, after 108 years of construction, and over the years it has had some damage, but it's been beautifully restored and if you'd like you can take a step in and appreciate it even further. Just next to the church is the municipal palace, which was actually built on top of the original town hall, where panama signed for their independence from spain in 1821.

Now you can go inside and they have a small free museum that gives you the history of the city and its people just next door to the municipal palace. You will find the panama canal museum, it's open, tuesday, through sunday, from 9 until 6. We didn't step in, but it could be a wonderful place to learn some history of the engineering, wonder that changed the world and I absolutely love how walkable this area is here.

There's so many cute boutique shops, restaurants and cafes speaking of cafes. We just went into makea coffee and I picked up this salted caramel iced coffee, and let me tell you on a hot day like this: it is absolutely perfection, they even served it in a little floating blow up. Flamingo, I'm loving it something else that is really cool and unique about this place is it is conjoined with a tattoo studio, so you can come down here. Get a tattoo and a cup of coffee seems like a great way to expresso yourself, just south of the coffee shop.

We found museo de la mola and we stepped in and we're absolutely amazed by what we saw. We learned that molas are handstitched textiles that form a part of the traditional woman's clothing of the indigenous guna people. The front and the back panels come together to form a blouse and in this free museum they have over 200 on exhibit, and while we're here, we hope to visit these san blas archipelago. Supposedly, 97 % of the guna population lives there they're autonomous.

Actually so they govern themselves, that is their territory, which is pretty neat, so we hope to do that and do more of a deep dive into their culture, but we definitely definitely recommend popping in this museum wow check out what we just stumbled on. This is plaza. Herrera - and it is possibly nicer than the independence square we were in earlier.

Yes, it is it's way nicer, it is, it is it's so quiet and relaxing this beautiful statue in the middle, it's surrounded by restored colonial buildings as well. Some fancy looking restaurants and some beautiful rooftops you can sit on enjoy a drink. I mean I am really liking this place.

There is even a blue moon tap house over there. Oh, we should go and get a blue moon, blue moon and out here, in the plaza there are a bunch of tables and chairs set up, which leads me to believe that later in the evening, you know when it cools down a bit. This area gets a little busy people just enjoying drinks and dinner, and oh my gosh.

We were just looking this way and we saw this wall here or this structure and we're like that looks like it could be. A part of you know that original wall that surrounded the city - and we saw a sign over here that just confirmed that so here's that little piece of history for you and as we were walking around - we just saw this sign here that says no gentrification. This is something that's happening across the world: the us mexico everywhere and, unfortunately, the people that it affects the most are the poorest ones here in casco viejo. This was actually where the government put people that were low income to no income families, so they could live here for free when it got its unesco world heritage status.

They started to displace those people, as the buildings are being restored and starting to become much more expensive, so it really falls on that local government to protect these people to protect this heritage. That's here, and we hope that you feel the same way. You know you need to strike a balance between building something you know restoring things but keeping that cultural heritage keeping the locals here, because that's why people travel right, you want to see locals in these areas. You don't want it just to be starbucks mcdonald's.

You know become americanized and really lose that sort of value that you know that heart of panama and something else you'll notice, while you're walking around, is that for all of the restored buildings, there's just as many that have not been restored. So you can really get that feeling of old and new together and just down from the plaza you will find iglesia de san jose. Something special housed inside here is the golden altar.

This is said to be the soul relic from the ransacking of panama, viejo by henry morgan and, while you're inside make sure to walk to the back, because there is a huge nativity scene that can't be missed and just down here we passed this restaurant. It's called a to z, chef's table and I remember seeing it had five star reviews. All the reviews were incredible.

It's a 10 course tasting menu and some said it should be michelin stars and that it's the best restaurant in panama, it's pretty pricey. I believe 130 dollars each, but if you're a foodie and you're looking for that sort of experience, definitely check it out, and you know that food talk got us hungry. I mean I'm always hungry, that's true! So let's go get some lunch and get in that ac. Oh man, I could definitely use a cool down right now, me too, so, unfortunately, the restaurant.

I wanted to take you guys to is closed. The name is, I believe, kaandela they're having a private party where's, our invitation, people yeah come on, but luckily this wonderful, lady, rounded the corner, with a cart with a cooler with some chicha in it. I believe this is just like a fruit drink like fruit, water mine is a sugar cane with lemon or lime.

It's perfection and I tried this one and it tastes like like red fruit with beet. I don't even know, but they are super refreshing. So if you see that lady stop her grab one of these they're $ 125 and they are delicious all right - let's go find another restaurant.

Yes, please! We are heading to the southern tip to our next restaurant, which better be open. I'm watching you - and we saw this really cool little lock, bridge right down at the end here. So when you come definitely bring a rock bring a lotck put your name and a little cc, underneath it lock it here and we'll be together forever and already this area down here seems to be a bit more fancy. Everything looks a lot more restored.

Just first impression and really really clean, looks like we found the place let's head in. We have found ourselves here at lula casco and it seems like it's israeli forward, but with panamanian influence, we started off with a empanada stuffed with chicken shawarma that came with this tahini sauce. That will blow your mind just incredible.

The flavor was awesome and then we just got our main dishes adam. Why don't you show them what you got? I got a hummus chipotle, it's chipotle steak with hummus avocado and a fresh tomato salad, that's just a little bit spicy and because it's so hot out, I was like I'm just going to get a light, salad and look at this. I'm not sure we consider that light, but it is definitely a salad. It looks the ingredients, look so fresh.

It's a chicken, breast and then half an eggplant here with some olive oil on top, looks amazing yeah. I don't know if I have the appetite for this, but I am going to jump in it and I'm sure it's going to be so good. I'll, probably finish it.

Let's taste it out. This food is amazing and while we've been eating, we have been chatting with our lovely waiter, rafael and we actually learned that his family emigrated from israel. His parents were born in colombia and panama.

He was born in colombia and then moved here and, as we mentioned, you know, panama is multicultural. It's this beautiful melting pot. The people are all so friendly and it's just it's making us very happy. You know seeing all these people living together appreciating one another sharing cultures and just yeah in harmony here and sharing food.

Most importantly, sharing their food with us, so definitely check out. You know the different restaurants around dive into the food culture that they have here, because it it's delicious it'll make you happy. I could definitely use a nap after that.

I'm sure you can too, but they also have vegan vegetarian and kosher items on the menu, which is great, absolutely a little something for everyone. We just saw this really cool walkway right in front of us here, so why don't we go check it out together? Walk off some of that meal, I think I might have to come along and we just read that this beautiful walkway here was built on the wall of the city. You know that old fortification and all along it there are lots of vendors selling. Some really cool.

Artisanal goods, like those those mola outfits that we showed you before and you can see pelicans out here, diving down in the water and the skyline from here - is just gorgeous and there's just these flowers running along the whole top above us to give us some shade. I love that we definitely need that today. This little walkway here is so neat. You know behind us here you can get a better view of that.

Cinta costera out in the bay are a bunch of ships that I believe are waiting to go through the panama canal. Even further is the amador causeway and then you can even see the bridge of the americas. It connects the land that was separated during the construction of the canal, we'll get more into that later in this video.

But for now, let's head down, it looks like there is a beautiful plaza just in front of us down here on the plaza. You will find the memorial to the panama canal as well as some very chatty birds and somebody singing their heart out over here. This memorial is dedicated to the french contribution to building the panama canal in the nine years that they participated over 22000 frenchmen lost their lives primarily due to yellow fever and malaria. This monument reminds us that they may be gone, but they are not forgotten and there are a bunch of other attractions in the area that you might want to check out, but just a few more notable buildings.

This one right here. This is the church and convent of santo domingo and in the center here is arco chato. This is the flat arc arch arch there you go it spans 50 feet, and what's really interesting is that this was the deciding factor of where to build the panama canal.

It was either going to be nicaragua or here, but when they saw this and saw that you know, there's no central support, so it made them think there's no seismic activity, no earthquakes in the area. That was the deciding factor which is pretty neat right. I mean panama, it could have been completely different, the history of this place without the canal.

You know, as well as the national theater, the church of san francisco de assisi and where we are right now in plaza bolivar. Well, I think, actually, I know we have covered quite a bit today. Halfway through the day, I was like. There is no way we're getting through this list of things like the causeway and telling you about the panama canal, but we will have to do that tomorrow, but right now I think that we all deserve a nice little break.

So why don't we head up to a rooftop and watch a beautiful sunset together? That seems like the most logical thing to do. I think it is. We will see you over there welcome to probably the best view you can get in the city, the old lighthouse or el faro del casco antigua.

It is so cool up here we had to get in an elevator, come up to the 28th floor and you just walk out into the most amazing view. It is quite windy, but after the day, the hot day we had today, this is very much welcome. They have a couple of different floors, we're up on the top here and you have a 360 degree view of the city we can see everywhere. We went today, it's so so beautiful up here.

You can even see ships coming out of the canal. The cars are cruising by just watching city life unfolding down below. It is pretty neat and the drinks. How are the drinks? Oh, this is delicious.

It's a corojito, it's rum, lime, some sugar cane and corona. Yes, corona beer, like you were thinking and let me tell you it's rumarkable and then I went with a mocktail I feel like if I had a drink right now. I would just like fall down the steps.

Please don't fall down the steps or off the side right, but this has berries. It has some orange in it and some mint and it is so so good, delicious salud salud. Oh sorry, I almost put mine down salud.

But yes, we are just going to hang out up here. Enjoy the views enjoy the sunset with you and then tomorrow we got another big day. Don't we so get some rest tonight, because you're going to need that energy yeah we'll see you in the morning good morning and welcome to the amador causeway, it's so beautiful here already. But I read that this actually spans six kilometers from the mainland connecting them to three or four islands in the south here and it was actually built from using the rocks that were dug out of the panama canal, which is pretty neat.

It's a great place to come and you know, take a walk, a run or rent some bikes, which is exactly what we did. We rented these bikes for four dollars an hour from moses bike rental. They had a lot of other offerings, but we went with the classico.

So why don't we hop on and start cruising down the causeway? Oh, and we almost forgot to tell you how we got here from the albrook station. We actually took a bus, it's c850. Don't forget it, it runs albrook down here and back wow and check this building out right here. We could actually see it from the city.

As we've been wandering around. We were wondering what is that it turns out it's panama's biomuseum, which celebrates the biodiversity of the country. I just love that, and it was designed by frank gehry, the same guy that made the guggenheim museum.

That is pretty cool. Unfortunately, it's not open today, but it is open from thursday to sunday. So if you want to come down, you should plan accordingly.

This is so much fun already and what a beautiful day. I also see something very special just in front of me here. So let's go check it out. I know it's a little bit far away, but this is the bridge of the americas.

It actually spans the pacific entrance to the panama canal. It was built in 1962 as part of the panamerican highway, and symbolically connects the continents of north and south america that were separated during the construction of the canal. If you're not familiar with the panama canal, it is a large canal that spans 80 kilometers, 50 milesit was finished in 1904 after 10 years of construction, and it allows ships across from the atlantic to the pacific without going around the tip of south america saving them Weeks in time on their journeys, we ended up taking the c810 metro bus from the albrook station, the other day to the miraflores locks visitor center, where we were able to view a couple of ships passing through the locks the queen esther and the virgo leader, the Virgo leader was built in japan and measures 655 feet long and 106 feet wide and was transporting 7000 vehicles from europe. It was so neat to see the mechanics of the locks and hear some of the history and facts.

Approximately 40 ships pass through the locks per day and the transit takes around 8 to 10 hours. We loved watching the locomotives guide, the ships through nowadays, most ships are built with the canals dimensions in mind, but some still only have a few feet of clearance on each side. We ended up going on a sunday and let me just tell you it was a mad house. We were so overwhelmed when we arrived.

I mean honestly, I was like, let's just get out of here, but we held our ground. Some of the people started to leave and we wiggled our way up to the front. So we could see some real canal workings and just a tip boats don't pass between 10 am and 2 pm. So if you want to see a ship come through the locks, we recommend going between 8 and 10 and two and six hey everybody's got ta eat.

You know, that's true, and then the ticket costs $ 17 and included is a imax movie, absolutely fantastic. Narrated by morgan freeman, so you know it's good. He gave so much fun information and it kind of tied everything together, which made it that much more enriching to be able to experience what we experience yeah. You got to learn all about the build and the history of it so yeah.

We definitely recommend checking it out and look what's going through right now, guys there is a huge ship just cruising into the canal right now heading towards the bridge. I love that we got just see that and show you that I know you can actually see the tugboats are coming in to help guide him into the canal because it gets kind of tight in there and you know, while we're appreciating the sights here, we have To give a shout out to our newest patrons danielle, jaden, christopher and claire, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts today is dedicated to you this ship. What a special experience this ship, all those containers they're for you yeah! Thank you so much again for all of your support and if you would like to join our patreon community, we'll put a link in the description below well all right.

We still got quite a bit more to do of this causeway, so let's keep going and something really neat we've noticed along the way, are all these informational little plaques? If you want to stop, you know and take a second to read about the history and about this area, how it was developed, it'll tell you all of that here and it's in spanish and english, spanish and english. Thank you very much for that riding along and just enjoying the views of the skyline has been so nice and I'm not even mad at these clouds today, because they're keeping it a lot more cool, and I just wanted to point out, they do have public restrooms. All along the way - so that's very nice check it out. There's a croc right here.

It's actually a croc shoe, not a real crocodile, but we did meet some people when we first got on the causeway. That said, they saw crocodile slowly swimming up the side here. So keep those peepers peepin', because you might see some cool stuff. It looks like we found some action we are on isla perico across the street.

Here is a mall. On the other side, I believe it is the cruise ship terminal, so this place probably gets a little crazy on those cruise ship days across the street over here. There's a really nice marina as well, but we are going to keep on heading down here and see what else we can find. We made it down to the last island, isla flamenco and I believe behind us there's like another little shopping center.

We've got some restaurants right on the water here, there's a beautiful, marina in front of us with some amazing looking catamarans, that's the kind of boat I would want. Definitely, let's go live on one of those we were just saying we want to pop in and have some food and we realized that they didn't give us locks for the bike, which I mean you can sit right out here on the water and watch your bikes, But there's this one down here: I really want to check out so let's go see if we can put them in if it's possible and if not we're just getting some ice cream. Oh maybe it's not possible.

We can't get down there to have lunch, we're just getting ice cream, that's adam for you and I'm pretty sure this is where the ferry leaves from to go to isla taboga, it's one of the best day trips here from the city, we plan on doing that. Next week so stay tuned for that video, but yeah let's go head and get something to eat and any guesses. Why he's grinning from ear to ear? We couldn't get lunch, so we had to get ice cream. Well, I'm sure we could have like left our bikes outside the place, but you know you just worry about stuff and I didn't want to eat and then have that constantly on my mind.

So we got some gelato. Actually adam went with the snickers and I got limon lime. You know on a hot day.

It's just so refreshing, so we're going to jump into these, but first we got ta say our goodbyes. It was so much fun. The last couple of days. I really have been so impressed by panama city.

You know especially going down and really focusing on the casco viejo, it's so beautiful and there's so much to do in such a small space and then right around the corner. You have this incredible bike ride. You can take and the canal just is mindblowing. I know you could literally just base yourself in panama city and then do like day trips from here.

You know exploring the city and beyond I think it's great for singles families like whoever and again the culture here. It's super multicultural and the people are just so nice, like I haven't, met one person that just wasn't smiling or waving or giving us a thumbs up like adam's taking video and everyone's just like hey, you know: happy cars are driving by and they're like waving out. Their windows - you know it's just it's so refreshing to be in a city, because cities are always so busy and people are just like doing their thing.

And here people take the time to be like hey, sorry, they're putting a window in here. Omebody wanted their ice cream so bad they broke the window, but thank you so much again for joining us. It would have been nowhere near as much fun if you hadn't been here to share it with.

So if you enjoyed this video, please give us a big thumbs up comment subscribe and don't forget to dling dling dling dling, the gelato we'll see you next time. Adios.

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