Taboga Island & The Ruins

If only we got these prices in Canada!

We spent a day in the open air market shopping for souvenirs. It runs a few city blocks and is pedestrian traffic only, and you can buy sunglasses for $4 and clothing for $5. I bought sandals for $3 and other than the liquour I had to pick up at the duty free I got most of my shopping done here.

Next we took off for Taboga Island to spend a day of swimming in tropical waters while boozing on the beach. Except we did neither.

We took off from the Amodor Causeway for a 3 hour tour that ended in an unfortunate storm that left us stranded for several years on an uncharted island. No wait. That was Gilligan.

This is only a one hour tour.

We did take off from the Amodor Causeway on a little ferry that grunted its way through the open ocean until we reached Taboga Island. The locals take great pride in their little tourist haven, especially its cleanliness.

Taboga as seen from the ferry.

 We parked our ass on the beach and I headed down to the water, because even though it was mid-morning it was still hot.

"Holy shit!" I said, dipping a toe. "I've swum in water warmers in the North Atlantic!"

"Don't be silly," said my Dad, who wandered off for a bit before testing the waters himself.

I don't know who this woman is but it's a nice beach anyway.

He admitted later the water was cold but couldn't figure out why, since it was usually much warmer. The cloud covered rolled in and I curled up under a hut with a book, having decided against any ice cold bath in the Pacific.

After a while the incessant bird calls got on my nerves and I strolled across the beach to see a shit load of pelicans feasting on a school of sardines. I know a shit load is not the usual term for a large gathering of birds, but flock doesn't seem so appropriate in this case.

Not just a mere flock, but a shit-load of pelicans.

Close up.

I watched them dive bomb into the ocean and come up with a mouthful of fish, which they'd swallow by snapping their huge beaks together so hard it sounded like they'd break. I have never seen wild pelicans before and this simply fascinated me.

I wandered around the little town, taking a lot of pics of the flora and fauna. Taboga is also known as the Island of Flowers and it's easy to see why. Colourful plants bloom wild everywhere, tended carefully by the town's caretakers.

We hopped the ferry home and I called it a successful day because I hadn't suffered another bout of heat stroke.

The next day we took off to see Old Panama City, where the Spanish had first constructed a settlement which was subsequently destroyed by pirates.

There's not a whole lot to see here other than ruined walls, but if you have a bit of an imagination (as I do), you can get a feel for the history of the place which I enjoyed.

At 22 meters, the tower had a 360 degree view of the skyline, and while the topography of the land has changed (the water is further away), you can see still pretty much everything from the church tower. There were no cannon in place, but they damned well knew plenty of time in advance when the pirates were going to attack, which was apparently quite often.

The church itself used to plead poor but the truth is that the clergy were raiding lots of gold from the locals. The Bishop's House shown here was not constructed for the clergy to stay in, but as a rental income for the church for repairs and to pay its choir. The Bishops would move in and stay there free of charge, causing quite a problem for the church, until a wealthy neighbour bought the property and turned it into a rental unit after all.

There was an 8 meter wide street initially and the closer people lived to the church and the town square the more wealthy they were. Black slave trade was not uncommon either, and the merchants would live a few streets beyond the wealthy that lived near the square.

The church also constructed a huge convent at one point, which is roughly the size of the Canada Post plant in Halifax by modern standards, meaning about the size of a city block. Even today, wandering around inside the ruined walls one can appreciate how huge the building must have been, which would have been no small feat to construct in 1571.

Panama is trying to rebuild the entire site, much like the city of Halifax has done with the Citadel. As they are still literally digging up bones in new excavation areas (including a prehistoric camel without any humps), I expect this will take at least another couple of decades.

Meanwhile they are using modern brick to shore up the interior of crumbling walls and replacing the original stones over top of it. It is a spectacularly massive undertaking, trying to reconstruct a town that has been gone and forgotten for a couple of centuries.

I hope they get it done before I die so I can go back and see it.

Speaking of going back, it was finally time to return to Canada and my usual cool northern weather. We survived another one of Oscar's mad car chases into the city and despite all my fears of fiery plane crash death, I arrived safely home in Halifax.

I did have to go to the ER yesterday because I had so many insect bites that my feet and ankles swelled up like balloons, which freaked me out. Apparently I'm suffering an allergic reaction due to the sheer number of bites I've gotten (well over 50) and my body is not used to the Panamanian mosquitos, only ordinary Canadian ones.

I really don't like either.

All of my photos are finally uploaded in the album, so this will be the last vacation blog I bore you with.