We started off at the visitor’s
center to see if we could look at the exhibition as well as pick
up some sort of map. Old artifacts? Explanations of what was to
come ahead? Maybe even a tour guide? All of the above in Panama
Viejo sounded nice.
Unluckily, once we arrived all the doors were locked and we were
getting odd glances from the workers there. We ended up finding
out later through our taxi driver on the way home that they are
closed on Mondays. Nonetheless, Justin and I made the most of
it. There ended up being 17 points on this rock-strewn,
bilingual signed pathway.
The best part of our aged-city trek was due to the signs that
were posted in front of every significant sight, in English!
Keep in mind when visiting Panama, not much is displayed in
English, so this was a treat for us gringos. On each sign they
had a description of what you were seeing in Spanish, English, a
picture of it up close, and if it was a building or structure
(versus animal life or an artifact) it drew a hypothetical
version of what it would have looked like back in that time.
The trail starts you off on a trashy, sandy shore with a highway
in the distance. The sign points out that there are crabs and
other sorts of small animal life on the dirty, wet shores in
front of us. I wasn’t too intrigued in stopping for this, so I
decided to keep walking. About six or eight signs into it you
can start to see ruins of what the community would have looked
like back in 1600’s as well as some noteworthy buildings. The
trail lead us across the street where construction workers were
trying to restore some of what was lost.
The most significant part of Panama Viejo, aside from the leaf
cutter ants that build their own pathways through the grass, was
the cathedral. It is a thin, tall, structure that unfortunately
to tourists is currently being restored. Once again, Justin and
I were disappointed, in that they made everyone leave the
cathedral because of restoration and we were not allowed to walk
up the stairs which displayed somewhat of a birds eye view of
all that we had seen prior. But standing in front of it looking
up, along with the rest of Panama Viejo, it was quite
impressive.
We then headed back walking past traditional, over priced,
handcrafted Panamanian goods stores as Kuna Indians were sitting
weaving molas. Oh yeah, as a side note, if you have sweet skin,
bring some bug spray, they take no prisoners.
# # #
Articles reprinted with permission
from
www.ThePanamaReport.com
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