Thewesternprovinceblog

Exploring Panama city – Antiguo y Nuevo!

Hola a todos. So these last few days we’ve been recuperating in Panama city. This place has been quite the oasis actually and been good to unwind from that nightmare couple of days and still have time and energy to do things. The first thing was, as per the usual routine was look for a walking tour.

I see one online that’s all in Spanish and on the other side of the city in el casco antiguo – the historic centre of old well rather new Panama. You see the true old city was destroyed by our very own Henry Morgan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 but we’ll get to that.

This old town is quite a ways away on the metro and getting off it’s a 20 minute walk to the meeting place through a pretty grotty hood that looks like it’s not a nice place to be at night. Getting into the old town it’s quite pretty. I have a cup of coffee and wait for our guide to turn up. She turns up but nobody else does but is still happy to go ahead. 

To keep this short we see a few churches, the old wall and a museum that shows us about the Guna peoples. The natives to this region when the Spanish arrived. A very similar lot to the Mayans but no great pyramids in Panama like Mexico or Guatemala. This goes on to show their artworks then we see a harbour where there’s is a memorial to those who built the Panama Canal, many of which died of malaria and yellow fever. Interesting stuff. We wrapped up at this hotel which is the most expensive in Panama – $1000 USD per night if your feeling rich!

I like the area however and as I was only booked for 2 nights in my hotel back in town I briefly look at it but nothing for 2 nights below £100. Too much. There is one place just outside for £40 but on the edge of a dodgy hood. We’ve been there before so bail on this.

The next day I did a boat tour of the canal and a nature bike but will cover that on a seperate blog. The day after I went to Panama Viejo, the original Panamá city.

This place is quite an interesting ruin being the original old town that was founded in the early 1500s and was expanded quite a lot and it had an interesting history once the Brits discovered it. Twice it got attacked by Francis drake, the 2nd of which leading to Francis Drake’s death from dystentry in 1596. It thrived for a while but that soon would change.

In 1671 Panama Viejo was razed to the ground in a brutal sack by our Very own Henry Morgan from Monmouthshire 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿! Inside there is a museum part explaining the battle and basically it wasn’t an easy place for pirates to sack as there was no cancel in those days – they would have to sail up river and even had to disembark their main ships to get to Panama Viejo. 

From the perspective of the Spanish their governor general had everything to have beaten off this attack quite easily but he used a retreat tactic and then chose to fight the pirates at the worse location possible. Essentially getting half his army including the cavalry slaughtered in the first half hour of fighting with the rest being a chaotic story of the Spanish setting the town on fire while fighting in the streets up to about midnight when Morgan’s pirates have complete control of the town. They try to fight the fire while looting it at the same time.

In the aftermath of this the Spanish founded new Panama which is the casco antiguo today 8 km from Panama viejo. No effort is made to repair it and what is left of it falls into the ruins today though the Belfry tower of the old cathedral has been restored and you can walk up it today. Outside of that there are ruins of various buildings.

I think I may in due time do some sort of video on this place to show more and to into more detail but no idea when.

Today was my last day in Panama, tomorrow I fly to Cartagena Colombia 🇨🇴. There will be one more blog on the Panama Canal and a general post mortem on Centroamérica when I am settled on the other side. Hasta luego por ahora!

What wonders await us in Colombia? I Don’t know and don’t think I’m ready really but not messing with flight changes again.