Activities!

We really enjoyed our first trip in Mexico and were all really excited to travel to Panama! On the first day we arrived we were all pretty exhausted from our trip but decided to go take a look around anyway. We just walked around the beach and the shops, but decided to save the real destinations for when we weren’t so tired.

Day two of our trip we went to visit Casco Viejo, this is a main part of Panama’s history and a very big tourist destination. Casco Viejo also hosts the Presidential Palace, the San Jose Cathedral, many museums and the French Park. We didn’t have time to see everything but Will really wanted to make it to the Panama Canal to have a look around so we made sure to make time for that. That experience was pretty amazing. It definitely made all of us feel really small in comparison. Mirjam brought her camera again and got some really cool pictures while we were there. We wanted the flexibility to go wherever so we rented a car for $29 dollars a day; we had reserved it from Kayak to get when we arrived.

Day three we decided to go on a tour of the city, this tour cost $53 dollars per person and took us all around Panama City. We visited the ruins as well as a craft market. Brittany got some really cool things from the market to take back to her family. After the tour we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach. While we were on the beach Britney and Cooper went swimming while Mirjam, Will, and I stayed on the shore working on our tans. We had a really nice relaxing afternoon by the water.

Day four Cooper really wanted to go fishing, we decided we would give it a shot since the Panama Canal fishing seemed to be pretty popular and everyone had good things to say about it. We rented two boats and went out on the canal with a guide; this cost us about $200. It was worth it though; I mean how often do you get to go fishing on the Panama Canal! We only caught a few fish, but we all had a really good time. Later that day we went on a guided tour of the Metropolitan national park for $3 per person. We went on this tour because Mirjam really enjoys hiking and this was one of the main attractions of this tour. We also got to see a lot of really cool birds in the park.

Day five we took the trip to Bridge of the Americas, this bridge spans the entire distance of the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. The 5,007-foot bridge connects North and South America. We went to this bridge because we had heard from a native at Café Barko the first night that this bridge was really worth seeing. Plus it was free! We really liked the view, Will took some pictures on his phone and sent them back to him family. After we left from seeing the bridge we decided to go to the Iglesia de San Francisco de Asis. We went to this cathedral because Mirjam is engaged and really interested in looking at wedding venues. The visit to the church was also free so it was a really cool place to go, Cooper wasn’t too happy about it but he went along with it since we let him go fishing.