The Canal

For today I booked a ticket to the famous Panama Canal. It is pretty much the reason that the whole country exists. Panama was formerly part of Colombia. When the United States wanted to build the canal they backed a local independence movement and with the force of their army enabled the separation of this tiny piece of land from Colombia.

There are tons of figures and stories about the construction of the canal (and all the deaths it cost). But I will save to the tourist bullshit since you can easily look it up on Wikipedia yourself. They only thing that I will remember is that the canal is actually not free passage between both oceans but something like a huge artificial lake above sea level that is connected to both oceans by several gigantic locks. The Canal is something like an infinite money machine for the state. The whole water gate system is only driven by gravity of the lake water. There are no pumps. So they don't even need energy for its maintenance (apart from managing the gates). So they just need to charge fees for the transfer of boats without any costs. Sneaky Panamanians, since they neither build nor paid anything for it (That was the US with with non-Panamanian workers, which actually operated the Canal for free).

After the Canal I chose a drop off near a local mountain to get an overview across the city. From there you can see Casco Viejo (Old Town), Downtown and the Canal.

Some more impressions of Casco Viejo

Tonight I went again for some street food. Close to Old Town there is the Seafood Market. I actually thought is would be an upscale tourist destination. But visitors here were predominantly locals and the facilities were clearly not according to western standards (and beautiful neon light illumination further underlined that impression).

Anyways, I never got sick from any street food that I tried on my trip. So I am not planning to turn more cautious now. Most dishes are some sort of deep fried fish with fries so I decided for stuff that I didn't´t know: “Cervices”.

It turned out to be something like sea food salad. However, they were quite different from anything I have tried so far. Different kinds of seafood are cooked and then put into a very sour sauce consisting mainly of raw onion, garlic and vinegar. Cold and with the strong fishy smell it tastes quite revolting. The fact that they sold the stuff out of open dodgy looking plastic containers didn't make the meal more appealing (good that I was hungry).

I had to eat something else to get that weird taste out of my mouth. I remembered that  I had passed a busy corner on the border to Casco Viejo with a little street vender (the area around Casco Viejo is actually quite empty at night and supposedly not too safe). Indeed I found the store. Their main dish was a mix of all all types of meat that I have encountered in Central America, overcooked and dried out from being kept warm all day. After reheating it again in a microwave for far too long, the leathery meet/sausage mix was topped with mayonnaise, ketchup, and god knows what else. (again, I was happy about my hunger to get it down!). Quite a contrast to yesterdays dinner.

. While ordering I realized that all the girls around the booth were dressed comparably nicely (and lightly). In contrast to that, all the guys around looked either dodgy or old. A closer look to the signs around that corner confirmed my assumption. Not sure if there is an English word for that but in German I would say I found the local “Nutten-Imbiss”.

(PS: no mum, I don't think I was in danger at any time. The people around were clearly business orientated)  

views from my new hostel (Luna Castle):

Tomorrow is going to be a long day again. I booked a tour to the Guna Yala Islands. From all I heard: a true and unspoiled tropical paradise still inhabited by the local indigenous people without any western facilities. No Wi-Fi, no electricity, food directly from the sea (whatever the Kuna people catch that day). I am really excited :D