Knowing what lay ahead, the apprehension grew thick in my mind. Although we had slept in to avoid the morning rush of traffic, we still needed to navigate across the entire city through the labyrinth of streets that had foiled us just the day before. Our goal was simple, and appeared straightforward on the map. We just needed to get on to Avenida Central, and take it all the way through its three name changes, to the intersection with Calle Brasil to find Exedra Books. I had long ago exhausted our supply of reading materials, and have since been unable to locate even one English language book, so the mission needed to be a success lest my brain rot for the entire trip home.
Our extensive walking tour through Casco Viejo the previous day had us familiar with most of the main routes, so getting onto Avenida Central should have been a piece of cake, as it was only three blocks from our hotel. We emerged onto the street to find our car intact, having survived the night unfettered, so we opened the doors and realised our first complication of the day’s journey. The surfboard bag was occupying the entire right side of the car. Denielle squeezed herself into the back driver’s side seat, along with the camera bag and other supplies for the day. Navigating the city streets would be slightly more complicated when the person with the map was in the back and unable to see. How hard could it be though? We just needed to find one street, an avenue actually, and follow it all the way up to the book store. My high hopes were quickly quashed as we found that Avenida Central was a one way street in the opposite direction. Flashbacks of endless circles, hopelessly lost in the old city flooded my mind and tensions within the car soared. I needed an alternate route and quick. I had analyzed the map the night before quite thoroughly and suggested that Denielle guide me to Balboa Avenue, as we could take it along the shore for most of the way and then connect up to the bookstore on Brasil Street. So a couple of quick turns, a brief volley down a one way street in the wrong direction, and we were cruising along the promenade, well on our way.
Once emerging from the old city, the streets of Panama City proper became quite manageable. It’s the drivers that you have to watch out for. Ample signage had us quickly progressing towards our first goal of the day, but when we arrived at Calle Brasil, we became faced with a no left turn sign. Drats. While the light was red, we weighed our options and decided to continue straight and hope for a place to make a u-turn. The light soon turned green, but for some reason, traffic running perpendicular to us continued through the intersection at a high rate of speed. None of the cars in the lanes beside me even budged as the onslaught of cars proceeded through for a full five seconds through their red light. I guess the signals are just a suggestion that you should maybe think about stopping if you feel like it, and the green light indicates that if you’re feeling lucky that you can give it a go across. Maybe close your eyes for good measure. I waited until my neighbouring motorists entered the intersection before following suit, and soon came across a u-turn sign. Excellent. We made the turn and joined up with Calle Brasil, and entered the parking lot of the book store quite a few blocks later.
After stocking up on a number of books from the limited English Language section, we were back in the car and on our way to Panama Viejo, the original city ruins that were torched and plundered by the infamous Captain Morgan in 1671. On our way over to the ruins we passed an impressively large mall that we would venture to in the afternoon to escape the 38 degree heat. We parked the car next to the visitor’s center and walked along the remnants of history that have not since been pilfered or built on top of. All of the accompanying signs had English translations, which was very helpful, and we learned a lot about the early Spanish settlement, predominantly the construction of churches and conversion of the indigenous heathens. We had to pay to get into the main ruins site, but the four dollars per person seemed reasonable as the ruins were fairly impressive. After desecrating the remnants of the Bishop’s house with my previously full bladder, we decided to go back to the car and into the refuge of the air conditioned mall.
The mall we entered was the most upscale shopping center that I have ever been to. Feeling quite underdressed in my tank top and shorts, we walked around from chilly shop to chilly shop as the well-dressed elite of Panama City strolled casually alongside. Outfits costing more than our trip could be found inside the stores of Dolce and Gabana, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Loren, jewels from Tiffany’s, and just about every big name store that one could find lining the streets of Milan. There was a machine that measure your height and weight, and I was a little shocked to find out that I have dropped down to 170 pounds, with all my clothes on. This is quite a change from the 190 pounds I began with on the trip. Thankfully my height doesn’t appear to have changed. Perhaps the most impressive site for me was an Audi R8 supercar, the 10 cylinder model, in the main courtyard of the mall. I had Denielle take my picture next to it in all its carbon fibre and aluminum glory. Having exhausted our tolerance for shopping, we moved on to the attached grocery store to pick up some supplies for the next few days. Tomorrow we may rent bikes or just walk along the causeway and hopefully see some of the big ships entering into the canal, and then Saturday we will become passengers ourselves.
Tyler.
No comments:
Post a Comment