Vagabond and Beyond: Captain Morgan, successful pirate and a delicious spiced rum!

We had arrived in by far the most cosmopolitan of all the Central American capitals by way of the Bridge of the Americas and we had booked 6 nights in Magnolia Inn, a new hostel in the UNESCO site of Casco Viejo (Old Compound) area of Panama City. We had reserved a 4 bed dorm, a rarity for us as private rooms are so cheap for the most part on our travels. It was cheap for Panama City standards but the hostel itself is a luxury hostel so we can’t recommend it more to anyone who comes for a visit. The Casco Viejo area is where the majority of backpackers stay and is where the second city of Panama was built after Captain Morgan plundered the first city (probably had a bottle too many of his own brew). The colonial district is half derelict half restored to former glory. While we were there it appeared the derelict half was all under restoration so I would guess that in 10 years the whole district will be completely restored and to buy/stay here will cost a small fortune as even now the prices must be crazy to buy as the area is beautiful and views amazing.

Casco Viejo

On a little side note; doing our online research on Panama City, the majority of the top Google search results would give Panama City, Florida. Why a beach town with a population of about 40, 000 people ranked nearly always higher than the capital city of the richest Central American country with a population of about a million baffles me. Google, sort it out!

Our first night there we went out to the sea wall guarding Casco Viejo to view the line of ships awaiting entry to Panama Canal from the Pacific side. Walking along the promenade you could then see the view of new Panama City (the modern skyline). Apparently the city’s skyscrapers are known as the Cocaine Towers (built by drug money) and the international banks are called Laundrettes (due to the laundering of this drug money). Maybe it’s true, maybe not but to the casual traveller or resident you would never know.

View of modern Panama City from Casco Viejo

The number one attraction in Panama is of course ‘The Big Ditch’ or ‘The Panama Canal’, one of greatest engineering feats of the 20^th Century. We caught one of the famous but soon to be retired Diablos Rojos (‘Red Devils’ – a chicken bus) buses out to the Miraflores Lock to see what the big fuss was all about.
Panama City can afford to rid itself of the dangers of chicken buses but we for two will miss them.

Famous and soon to be gone Diablos Rojos, we saw one with Osama and Obama on it!

We arrived at the lock just in time to catch the slow process of the last large ship of the day passing through the lock. Slow to look at but a lot faster than sailing around the tip of South America to get to the Pacific.

Ship passing through the Miraflores lock, Panama Canal

An exciting video of a ship passing through the lock

Although half the museum was closed it was still a very interesting place and to see the locks in action was great but it was still not on as epic a scale as we imagined. At the moment they are currently expanding the canal to take much larger ships so in the background you can hear the explosions to clear the pathway for the new canal.

Panoramic view of the Panama Canal from the Miraflores Lock

The next day was March 17^th, Paddy’s Day, and we chose to head out to Paddy Micks pub near the Miraflores lock. Although plenty of alternatives in the city nearby this was when we wanted to ensure we had a Guinness or two in the company of a few pale Irish faces. We got what we wanted with a bowl of Irish stew and a few cans of Guinness!! There was some Irish dancing (oddly mostly from the Panamanians there who were in the minority) and a lot of Irish music and singing with a good few songs by Sarah Kenny herself. After singing the Ferryman with a woman from Kilkenny she was ushered up a few more times to sing such classics as ‘Galway Girl’, ‘Gypsy Rover’, a few Christy Moore songs (being a true Lilly White) and believe or not ‘Ireland’s Call’. A perfect Paddy’s night, spent with about 50 expats and a Guinness or two. All you could hope for in Panama.

Night skyline of Panama City from Casco Viejo

Sharing our dorm were two guys from America, Tye from Tennessee and Andrew from Kentucky. Our roommates for Panama City and soon to be ship mates for the trip to Colombia as they booked the same boat we had that week. Andrew at 6 and half foot and a former college football offensive tackle liked to party a lot and would get into a taxi in Panama City and would ask to be taken to the most dangerous area of the city or as he called it the danger zone. Enough said; a dangerous guy to party with but constant entertainment all the same.


George Bush voting loving Americans on the Causeway, we wouldn't want it any other way

With the gun loving Americans we headed to Panama Viejo (Old Panama), the first city to be built that was the gateway for all the gold bullion coming from Peru and making its way to Spain. All this gold bullion didn’t miss the attention of pirates and led by Captain Henry Morgan (Previously known to me and many others by the famous spiced rum of Captain Morgan’s) they plundered the city of all its wealth leaving nothing but rubble.

Panama Viejo (Old Panama) with the watchtower in the background

The only thing he did miss was the golden altar with a newfound home in a church in Casco Viejo. As the story goes, a local priest painted the Golden Altar black to disguise it and told Morgan another pirate had stolen it and even convinced the Captain to donate money for its replacement. Captain Morgan apparently said “I don’t know why, but I think you are more of a pirate than I am”.

The famous Gold Altar that Captain Morgan was tricked with

The guide books undersells Panama Viejo but the watchtower, museum and grounds are well worth the short trip out.

View from the watchtower of Panama Viejo (the 1st settlement)

Many of our lunches and dinners were had in the cheap and famous Coca Cola Café, who can claim Che Guevara as one of their former clientele. I can only assume it wasn’t called Coca Cola Café when revolutionaries used to stop by and discuss Marxism and the likes!

The CocaCola Cafe Che Guevara used to eat at

It serves the usual ‘typico’ food at rock bottom prices for Casco Viejo standards. One night after leaving we noticed a group of police with a couple of guys on the ground in handcuffs. We started the short 5 min walk back to the hostel when a taxi driver pulled over and told us to get off the streets as there were men running around shooting guns. Thanks for the advice but why not offer to drive us back to our hostel! The guy from Boston with us started to freak out a little but we walked on passing a police station that had a SWAT team outside getting a briefing. As we continued on we noticed that no one was on the streets except for police and SWAT teams on all the corners and that all doors and windows were closed. It was like a scene from a western when a shootout was about to begin and everyone ducks into a barrel or closes a window. We made it back no problem and found out no more information of what was going on that night but could only think what crazy person would run around Casco Viejo with a gun. The place is crawling with police 24/7 and has a police station every few blocks.

The streets of Casco Viejo

Another attraction was to cycle the Causeway which runs parallel to the entrance of the canal. Deciding to walk rather than fork out more money we bumped into Tye and Andrew cycling around in circles drinking a few cans. Later we went to the ‘Nacional Teatro’ the well restored theatre and after paying $1 had the place to ourselves.

View from the stage at the theatre in Casco Viejo

We could go anywhere including onstage and backstage so we messed about taking advantage of the lack of security.

Sarah conducting at the theatre in Casco Viejo

Other than a couple of cinema visits we had pretty much done most of the touristy stuff to do in City and it was time to get to the Atlantic side for our boat trip. Our mode of transport was to be for the first time a train that runs once a day to the horrible town of Colon. A bit of a tourist trap, you can ride in the glass roofed carriage parallel along the entire canal and enjoy the views and passing ships. I would say it was worth the price and definitely makes a nice change from the Diablos Rojos (although we still love them). On Panama City, we both said that we could see ourselves living there for a couple of years so no higher praise could be said for the City.

All abord the Panama Canal Railway with Tye and Andrew

Our journey to the Panama Canal Railway station was more adventurous though thanks to our idiotic taxi driver. Now I will begin to bore you with the details… We asked for the train station and he said no problem but started to drive towards the skyscraper part of the city. I thought he was heading for the highway that runs through but to be sure I took out the map and pointed to the train station and again said we wanted to go there. He said yes but continued on passing the highway out of the city. At this stage we were heading in the completely opposite direction towards the fancy hotels in the centre. A couple more times I said train station, we are going to Colon etc. etc. He finally said ah yes sory, my mistake but for some reason still drove us to the place he originally thought we wanted to go, the Trump Tower hotel, probably the nicest most expensive places to stay in Panama City. Why he thought this after we just left a cheap hostel I have no idea, he must have thought I said Trump instead of “la estación de tren”!! We already agreed on the fare so made no sense. With 5 minutes to spare and a few traffic violations we made it onto the train and after an hour or so of scenic canal views we made it to city of Colon.

Sarah and a Diablo Rojo (Red Devil) our ride to the town of Portobelo

From Colon we would get a bus to the port town of Portobelo, our final destination in Central America and our boats departure port. If you are ever in Colon just get out as quick as you can. On the 2 minute walk to the bus terminal from the train two police pulled us over and told us not to wander off to the right and to only stay on a straight path to the bus station as we would pretty much be robbed of everything and maybe be killed within a few minutes. We didn’t stray : )

We arrived at Captain Jack’s hostel in the nice port town of Portbelo and stocked up on supplies for our four nights at sea. In our next post we will write about Portobelo, the beautiful San Blas Islands and the joys of sailing to Colombia on the catamaran Fritz The Cat. Its goodbye to Central America for now, you will be missed! I hope anyone that reads this blog will decide to travel to this part of the world as the people, activities and the natural beauty should not be missed.

Unfortunately I chose to do this blog on Google Blogger which sucks for many things but mainly because it limits the number of photos we can put up to 1GB. This might seem a lot but we have hit the limit (in fact some old photos have been deleted by Google to make space for newer posts) and I am not paying Google for more space. This means we will probably move to a new blogging site for South America but I will send out the links to everyone when we have moved it over.