Panama Trip

Christmas Eve we woke up and went down to breakfast, which was good, but not great—really not Panamanian enough, though I did eat a lot more pineapple and Marcus, of course, had several bowls of oatmeal.

At 9:00 we took a cab to the Mercado de Mariscos ($10) and walked around there ogling the fish. It was very hot, much warmer than on the island, and we got another mixed ceviche and a shrimp “cocktail” (in a creamy curried mayo, as far as I could tell), so we ate at a table in the shade and then walked down to watch the boats coming in and out of the harbor there.

We got a freshly shaved ice from a giant block, topped with an unidentified dark purple syrup that Robert thought was hibiscus “or something,” the kids called blueberry, and I was pretty sure was grape, all topped with sweetened condensed milk. Marcus loved this, and Samantha too, and both ate and drank it as we walked along. We also got a jugo de naranja con raspadura (orange juice with sugar cane juice), which was a wonderful mix of sweet and tart, and we sipped as we walked along.

We made our way to Avenida Central and turned left, heading toward Casco Viejo, or the old city. This was a great street to walk down—very diverse and unpretentious, very much like Queens in a lot of ways. It was closed to cars and just was full, end to end, of fruit stands, more shaved ice carts, and stalls with people selling Christmas bread, incense, toys, and more. There was a tamale stand, with a long line of people, and my one regret of the trip (maybe of the whole year) is that I didn’t stand in the line and get my Christmas tamales to eat on the plane the next day. When we came back, later on that afternoon, they had sold out, and I remained tamaless.

The atmosphere on this street was great—very happy and festive, and we felt very safe and comfortable. Everyone loved my sling, and many people commented on it.

At one point we stopped at a random Chinese steam table place for their bathroom for Marcus (I was having to switch back to Spanish now to ask for things, banos and others, and after the past few days of French I was not doing too well. Luckily a little boy in need of a bathroom is fairly clear across language barriers), and Robert and I bought a Coke in a glass bottle—real sugar, no corn syrup. It was extremely hot, and we were thirsty, and I haven’t had Coke in years, quite literally, so it was an exciting treat.

“What’s that?” Marcus asked, pointing at the Coke.

“Soda,” I said, “but as a special treat, would you like a sip?”

He recoiled in horror. Robert said it was as though we’d suggested he kill someone as a special treat. “No!” he shouted. “Soda is bad for your body!”

He watched us drink it. He drank water. Samantha leaned in for a sip of the Coke. I handed her water instead. That was one delicious Coke.

We walked around the old city a bit, investigating a church that had a connection to the English pirate Henry Morgan (although this was right before we went urgently looking for a bathroom, so I didn’t quite get to read everything on the extremely long Spanish placard). Many restaurants were closed since it was Christmas Eve, so we just walked all the way to the water and looked at the skyline and walked a bit of the seawall, admiring the Christmas decorations.

We stopped in at Granclement ice creams, near the water, for a strawberry cone (Marcus) and a cup of coconut and passionfruit (Robert, Samantha, and me). That passionfruit ice cream was possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever had—amazing flavor and texture.

Outside the ice cream place, the kids used some of their Christmas “poppers” which were being sold all over town for 2-3 packs to a dollar.

From there we took a cab to Lung Fung, which was supposed to have the best dim sum in Panama City, but sadly they stopped serving dim sum strictly at noon—the only thing in the whole country which is precise about time—and with heavy traffic and a $10 ride, we got there fifteen minutes too late. Instead of dim sum, we ordered a whole fish sweet-and-sour style and some deep-fried rolls of langostinos wrapped in bacon. It was a nice place, and good enough food, but it was a long way out of our way to go for no dim sum, unfortunately. We hailed another cab back to the hotel ($7) and Marcus and Robert spent a solid two hours in the pool while Samantha napped up in the room.

Robert chatted with a friendly Panamanian family at the pool who had fled their house because of the noise—their neighbors who set off fireworks all night long on Christmas Eve. “Well, not all night long,” the mother clarified to Robert. “They stop around two or three in the morning.” At any rate, they wanted the quiet of a hotel for the evening, and they were camped around the pool with three generations.

When Samantha woke up and Robert and Marcus had changed, we went back out in another cab ($6) to Avenida Central again and walked around some more. We had a passionfruit shaved ice this time and three different orders of meat on sticks. Samantha loved the meat and ate lots of it. Marcus was on Robert’s back this time, pretty much the first time this entire trip, and he was getting very sleepy but was staying awake for the sugar cane juice and shaved ice. We saw a lot of Kuna women in their traditional dress, and the street was still generally packed with people in a festive, pre-Christmas way.

When dark fell it started to get a bit crazy for me, though, as people were indeed setting off firecrackers—some of them crossing the line into fireworks, making big sparks as well as huge bangs—right in the busy streets, right in front of the colorful neon-lit buses, even. We ate our last skewered meat and took another cab ($5) back to the causeway to Mi Ranchito, which seemed like one of the only actual restaurants (vs. fast food/steam table places) which was open.

They actually had a big sign saying they were closing at 7:00, and we got there at five minutes before. They did let another few parties in after seven, but not that many. We ordered tostones and empanadas and then got the same fish as we did yesterday, since Marcus had been crazy for it, and a shrimp a la creole. Everyone ate very well, with Marcus again making most of the snapper fillet disappear. We recommended his snapper to a Seattle man at the table next to us who was helping a friend sail his boat through the canal, and we had a nice chat with him. Samantha made friends with a little boy at the table next to us who was a month younger.

After a nice dinner we went outside and set off more of the poppers on the wide sidewalk of the causeway, chatting with another Panamanian family who had also fled their house because of Christmas Eve noise and was also staying in our hotel. They gave us a ride back to the hotel with them, and Marcus tried to get their three-year-old to use some of the poppers, but she just kept covering her ears and hiding.

The hotel lobby had some snacks and Christmas bread set up for people, probably because most of the restaurants had closed, so we talked there with a Mennonite family returning to the states from a few years of missions work in Honduras. The kids were getting tired, though, so eventually we went upstairs and got ready for bed. Marcus used the last of the poppers on the balcony and everyone went to bed.

I woke up at 1:00 in the morning, under the impression that Robert was going to stay up until midnight to see the big fireworks display and wake me up for it, but no, everyone was soundly asleep. There were clearly still fireworks happening outside, though, so I went out onto the balcony and you could just see the sky lighting up randomly in different places, as everyone celebrated Christmas. I tried to wake up Robert, but he was soundly asleep, and truly (the Panamanian families had the right idea, I guess) you couldn’t really hear the booms in the hotel room over the air conditioning. It was a fabulous Christmas Eve, and a great last night of our trip.

On Christmas Day we got up and collected the boxed breakfasts/snacks the hotel had packed for us and took a cab to the main airport. The planes were very empty, and we had full rows to ourselves; in fact we were the only people in Economy Comfort at all, so we actually had three full rows on both sides just for us. The flight attendants were relaxed and chatty, and when we got to Atlanta we giggled and went into a P.F. Changs for a non-traditional Christmas dinner in between our flights. We got back to Boston around 6:30 and after a nice bath and some cocoa, Marcus went to bed and Samantha stayed up watching Christmas specials on TV (live TV—what a holiday treat!) with Robert and me. It was a fabulous trip!

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Created: 12/27/13. Last Modified: 12/27/13.