After spending a few days in Miami, I flew to Panama City where I planned to rendez vous with my friend Noreen from Regina- who was at a resort two hours away by bus. She came in on Friday morning and i met her where her bus drops passengers off, which is Allbrook Mall (used to be an US Air force base). We spent the day in the air conned Mall which is new with all the international stores and a Casino (bonus). There really wasn´t enough time to go anywhere as she had to catch the bus at 4 to return to the resort.
,I spent about 8 days in Panama about 4 in Panama City which was so hot .... not many trees on the streets for shade...,i bought a 48 hour Hop on Hop Off (a tourism initiative just started Feb 1, 2012 I found out, after witnessing so many people on the streets and in cars, pointing and taking pictures of this bright,red shiny bus and its tourists) bus ticket which was my salvation as it had air con and bonus was the day before i was planning to ride it, i found their garage which was only a block away from my hotel so i got on it first thing the next morning and rode it to their first stop, which was the downtown mall, and got on the last bus of the day so i could get a ride back to my hotel as they were done for the night. I did have a 1/2 day boat tour of the Panama Canal, including going through two lockis which was interesting. Thetour boats are located at the end of the Amador Causeway.