Author: marionvermazen

A few days ago I finished reading David McCullough’s book The Path Between the Seas. The book is about the building of the Panama Canal. It’s a fascinating book and I was left with an enormous appreciation for the amazing accomplishment that was the building of the canal. So actually getting to see the Canal today was so cool!

We decided to do the Hop on Hop off bus tour of Panama City. We saw some of the houses that were used to house canal workers during the building of the canal and drove by the canal headquarters building.

Then we arrived at the Canal visitors center. As we walked out on the observation platform a big ship was just entering the Mira Flores lock in front of us. We watched for a long time. Before the ship exited the lock a thunderstorm came in and a there was thunder, lightening and a tropical downpour.

We toured the museum, had coffee on the deck of the restaurant and watched the movie.

When we left the visitor center the bus took us by the Biomuseo which is the only building in Central America designed by the architect Frank Gerry.

We got off the bus in the Casco Antigua or Old Town where we explored a bit and then had beers overlooking the Bay and the city. Then we took a cab back to our hotel.

For dinner we walked from our hotel a ways to a wonderful Italian Restaurant called La Vespa. We had a delicious pizza and cheesecake for desert.

Today we got up early to catch an 8:30am flight from Bogotá to Panama City. It is kind of nice to be down at sea level where there is a lot of air!! It also much more hot and humid here.

Panama City has a lot more high rises than I expected. This is the view from our hotel.

We ate a good dinner at an outside cafe not far from the hotel.

Today we visited the Columbia National Museum. The museum is located in a former prison.

They had many interesting exhibits including about the history of Columbia and the recent peace process.

After touring the museum we had coffee in the courtyard.

For our last dinner in South America we had a wonderful meal on the top floor of a nearby hotel. The restaurant is called Carpaccio. First we shared a fried mozzarella appetizer then we had squash soup with blue cheese. For the main course we had pasta and for desert chocolate. It was all wonderful.

It is Saturday night and there were two big parties at nearby tables. One was a Birthday. We assumed it was for this princess

The other party was bigger and more formal. It was an elegant quincenera. In the picture below you can see the family getting ready to make their entrance.

There was also live music. The people watching was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we fly to Panama.

Today we took a cab into central Bogotá and visited El Museo de Oro ( the museum of Gold). The museum presents the history of metallurgy throughout the world and has exhibits of metal work from all the different regions of Columbia. The descriptions are in English and Spanish and we also had an English audio guide. It was fascinating and there were some beautiful pieces.

Next we walked around the streets a bit.

And then finally went to the Emerald Museum. They mine a lot of emeralds in Columbia. Although we couldn’t take pictures the young guide was very good. The museum is on the 23rd floor of a bank building.

This morning we were on the bus from Neiva to Bogotá by 7:30. It was a double decker very comfortable bus and we were in Bogotá at 1:00.

In Bogotá in the cab to the hotel the first thing the driver asked us was about Trump. Then for the whole drive he talked non stop about how wonderful and smart Trump is. He said among lots of other things how immigrants are the problem. Just look at the Venezuelans!! It was surreal!

We are staying at a great hotel in a very upscale part of Bogotá. The altitude here is 8,440 feet so the temperature is much cooler than Neiva. It all feels very European. We walked to dinner at a great restaurant nearby. Both of us had steak.

And a warm brownie and ice cream for desert.