A Trip To Panama City :: essays research papers

A Trip To Panama CityDay 1We arrived at Omar Torrijos airport via American Airlines early in theafternoon. We purchased our required phaeton cards (3 balboas, as US dollars arecal guide in Panama) at the airport, past caught a taxi for the 18 mile rally to ourbusiness district hotel. The ride in the battered, un-airconditi integrityd car was ratherexpensive (30 balboas), but the driver radius English and was actually friendly. Wearrived at the hotel and checked in. mend my dad was checking in I bought aguidebook in the hotel lobby and read up on the history of Panama City. Theoriginal metropolis was founded in 1519 by Pedro Arias Davila, known as Pedrarias theCruel, because of his eradication of all but three of the local anesthetic Indian tribesduring his tenure in Panama. Davila used the city as a place to store Incangold before it was shipped to Spain. The original city was sacked and burnedin 1671 by a group of buccaneers led by Henry Morgan. The city was rebuiltwithin a yea r, this time on a peninsula 18 miles away and surrounded by a secure wall. This old Spanish city is now the in the middle down townsfolk PanamaCity.Panama City is an international melting pot and its ingest choices rangefrom American fast food to excellent internationall cuisine. Eager to perplex oursightseeing, we grabbed lunch at a nearby McDonalds after checking in becausecaught a bus. The buses in Panama are a tourist attractive force in themselves. Theyare brightly painted, hung with fringe, and have constantly blaring Salsa andcapital of Venezuela music playing. They are cheap (50 cents a ride). but are very crowded.After asking several drivers Donde va este autobus? we finally found mavin goingto the Plaza Independencia. This plaza is the main square of the colonial townand is bordered on one side by a duomo with twin m other of pearl towers thattook 108 years to complete. On two other sides it is bordered by theArchbishops Palace, now a university and the Central Post O ffice. While in theold part of Panama City we also visited the Iglesia de San Jose and saw theGolden Aaltar. This altar was in the original Panama City and was salvage fromHenry Morgans pirates by a monk who painted it black to hide it. When wefinished touring we returned to our hotel and then ate dinner at El Pez de Ora,one of the city famous seafood restaurants.Day 2We woke early and headed out for a sunup of shopping at the Mercado