It is our weekend in Panama City and we are going sight seeing today. Our first thing to do was to go out for a drive to the east and explore Panama Viejo, the archæological site of the first settlement of Panama City settled by the Spanish in 1519 and served as the key point through which the gold of the new world flowed to Spain during the sixteenth century.
It was insanely hot today and we seriously considered just driving past Panama Viejo and not stopping because it was just too hot to stop. But we ended up right at the parking lot and took the opportunity to check it out. We were drenched in sweat in no time. The heat was oppressive. It was easily in the high nineties and the humidity was so thick that the water was pretty much running down everything.
Seeing the Panama Viejo site was very cool and while the family waited down on the ground I climbed the old tower there which was really awesome. They had a neat setup showing what the shoreline would have been like in each direction back when the tower was built and the views were really great too sitting right between Panama City proper and Costa Este.
We had a good time in Panama Viejo but had to cut it short from the heat. We just could not stand it any longer. Had it been cooler and not so humid we would have spent a lot more time there.
From Panama Viejo we drove up to the Miraflores Lock on the Panama Canal. Driving up there was quite a challenge. The highway going up to the Miraflores was extremely complicated to follow and we had some real struggles. But we finally managed to get up there and we had a good time. Parking was pretty confusing. Once we got parked and got up to the lock museum we spent some time watching ships going through the locks, which was neat. It was too hot to do that for long, though.
Luciana was really hungry so we hit the cafe and got some snacks and coffee and watched some more ships go through. Then we went in and spent a lot of time in the museum exhibit inside which the girls both really liked. It was a nice museum with exhibits on water, the locks, the country, the wildlife there and more. It was well done and we all were quite happy with it.
After the museum we watched the 3D movie about the Panama Canal which the girls also really liked. It was a nice day.
After visiting the locks we went back to the hotel and ordered room service and just hung out in the hotel relaxing and watching shows on the laptop all evening.