Panama City and Its Waterways

First stop was the Panama sign on the Cinta Costera, the big multicolored letters along the waterfront park — apparently there's another one out on the Amador Causeway, but this is the one we walked to, so this is the one we stood in front of. The bay behind it was flat and gray under cloud cover that never quite broke.

From there we walked into Casco Viejo, where the streets are brick and half the walls have murals on them. We stopped at one behind glass on a yellow wall, a woman with white flowers for hair, and stayed in the old town until evening, sitting on the seawall under the bougainvillea. From there the whole modern skyline sits across the water, a wall of towers you can see from the beach below the old district.

Then out of the city entirely, to a landing where long wooden boats waited at the edge of a lake. Life jackets on, hats on, and into the boats with everyone else. The waterline sat well below the grass, mud and driftwood showing where the lake used to reach.