Sunset on the way to LAX.
Art installation above the security check area.
Pretty.
Prettier.
Tocumen International Airport, Panama City, Panama.
Panama City skyline from the Pan American Highway.
First glimpse of the Canal.
Heading to the monkey island.
Our guide said that one is lucky to see one ship during a tour. We saw SEVEN.
See the monkey??
This is a Panamanian White-faced Capuchin.
Our guide bought a banana and four large grapes on a stem. The monkey got everyone's attention on the adjacent boat and then jumped into our boat and stole ALL of the fruit.
He sat in this tree and popped the grapes into his mouth one by one and spit the seeds out into the canal.
This is a Geoffroy's tamarin, or Panamanian tamarin. Different island, different simian.
Our guide.
I felt bad. This boat, adjacent to us, had, like 25 people on it. No one could get good shots. Our boat had Rafa, me, our guide and a driver.
The F&F tower (Revolution Tower), also known as “Tornillo”, (the screw in Spanish) is one of the most iconic buildings in Panama City. Located on Calle 50, in the heart of Panama City's bustling financial district, its 47 floors spiral 243 meters into the air.
Nearby is the Torre Banistmo, owned by the largest bank in Panama and Central America.
The upper 39 floors of the F&F Tower rotate around a central axis, creating a helix. Each floor is rotated nine degrees from the floor below, creating four small balconies for each office floor. The first 13 floors are parking garages.
And . . . arriving at our container hotel. "Nomada."
The living space is an entire container.
And the bathroom is half of an attached container.
On the road again.
Biomuseo. Designed by Frank Gehry.
Opened in 2014, the museum focuses on the natural history of Panama.
It's located in Amador, also known as Causeway, at the south entrance of the Panama Canal.
Empanadas.
A BIG cargo ship.
Guavas.
Proof.
Daniel Ammen, "'Surveys and Reconnaissances from 1870 to 1875 for a Ship Canal across the American lsthmus,' Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, Vol. 8 (1876).
A canal across the isthmus was proposed as early as the 1500s. By the mid-1800s the idea began to be taken more seriously, and explorers searched for the best route. The lowest passage proved to be across the central part of the isthmus.
Armand Reclus, Panama et Darien: Voyages d'exploration (1881).
Armand Reclus explored Darién between 1876 and 1878 as part of the French effort to build a canal.
Excavation at Culebra (Gaillard) Cut in 1913.
The steamship Ancon, first ship to transit the Panama Canal through the Culebra Cut, 1914.
Culebra Cut today.
A great bug and plant exhibition.
I laid on the floor for this photo.
For scale, so you can see how big the aquarium is.
Quetzal!
Big ass shark.
The giant shark Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon) was the largest shark that ever existed, and may have reached a length of more than 16 meters (53 FEET!). It probably preyed on a variety of ocean life, but especially on marine mammals including large whales.
Panama - Bridge of Life!
Tapir.
She was giving a biodiversity lecture to a big group of kids.
National bird of Guatemala.
"Silty Sandstone with Mollusk Fossils"
Gatun Formation
8 to 12 million years ago
Sabanitas, Colón Province, Panama
"Sandstone with Mollusk and Coral Fossils"
Cayo Agua Formation
3 to 5 million years ago
Cayo Agua, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
Carapace Fragment of Florida Glyptodon.
So, this crazy (in a good way) Uber driver picked us up in this HOT PINK decorated car.
We saw him the next day on the same boulevard and he remembered us and greeted us with honks and waves, as if we were old friends.
Pilares de la Patria.
The Pillars of the Nation is a tribute to the contributions all Panamanians made towards building and shaping the country. The Pilares de la Patria monument was sponsored by BLADEX Bank and erected in 2003 along the Amador Causeway near the Biomuseo.
Tons of Blue Morpho butterflies for sale.
A masked native?
An unclothed mannequin that seems to have had some rough fittings.
Beautiful door.
Architectural focus.
Psycho bunny. Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Equestrian Statue of Tomás de Herrera in Casco Viejo, Panama City.
In November of 1840, present day Panama declared its independence from Columbia. General Tomás de Herrera, portrayed in this equestrian monument, was elected as the first president of the Free State of the Isthmus. The separation was short lived. The two countries reunited on December 31, 1841. Fourteen years later, the general was killed during a battle in Bogotá, Colombia.
That banana leaf is a little misplaced.
"Yeah, you're looking good!"
Iglesia San Jose, in Casco Viejo and dating to 1673, is most famous for its massive Golden Altar (Altar de Oro) that survived pirate raids in 1671.
El Altar de Oro - The Golden Altar
This wooden altarpiece covered with low-grade gold leaf has inspired many legends. The most famous one tells that it was saved from Henry Morgan's pirate attack that destroyed the first city of Panama in 1671. The story claims that a friar took the altar's gold columns and other valuable elements and plunged them in the nearby Pacific Ocean. When Morgan arrived at the temple to take it over the friar told him that the altar was under construction, and had the gall to ask him for 1000 ducats to complete it. Morgan was amused by the request, and reportedly exclaimed that "this friar is even more of a pirate than I am!" Morgan then ordered that the friar be given the money he had asked for.
However, as quaint as the story is, it is no more than a legend: the altarpiece's style corresponds to a
later period in the 18th century. Historical records show that the altar was covered with gold leaf in 1915. Structurally, the altarpiece has two tiers and three vertical divisions adorned with Solomonic columns. Its central tabernacle, or "Custodia" in Spanish, where the consecrated hosts for communion are kept, has a convex shape when closed, and concave when open.
1. Saint Joseph
2. Saint Thomas of Villanueva
3. Saint Clare of the Cross of Montefalco
4. Our Lady of Consolation
5. Saint Augustine.
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