From Germany to Panamá in about 20 hours, with a layover in Paris CDG, sounds like a lot. But somehow it was less daunting than we expected. Even my backpack arriving 1 day late did not lower our enthusiasm. Nevertheless, because we arrived in the dark and were quite tired, we waited for the next day to start exploring the city.

Our first impression was a bit of a — quite usual and expectable — culture shock. Especially the noise and the traffic did impact us. The heat and the chaotic streets were something we needed to get used to as well. We left the hostel around 9:30 am and everything seemed deserted, except for a lot of traffic, surprisingly rather consisting of big limousines, SUVs, and 4×4 than motorbicycles and small cars.

First, we went meandering the district of Obarrio (where we stayed at Zebulo Hostel) and El Congrejo which we found rather unimpressive. So we continued towards the waterfront. Here we had our first Empanadas (cheese and cream cheese & spinach) in a ghostly empty shopping mall and went all the way along the waterfront towards the old city center Casco Viejo. On our way we encountered the fish market where we had to try ceviche, a cubed raw fish (cod) marinated in lemon, onions, and culantro (not cilantro, but it tastes similar). It was okay to quite good, the more you ate.

Casco Viejo looks very different than the rest of the city. More the way you would probably romanticize and expect Panamá to look. Even being one of the main tourist spots, there were still not many people around. What also positively surprised us was that the locals offering goods and services were very unobtrusive. Except for the taxi drivers who honked at us on every occasion. Simon had a very different experience during his trip to Africa. Avoiding the “bad” districts, we always felt very in the city.

On the way back to our hostel we took the metro and discovered a rural shopping area like Zeil or la Rambla where there were lots of locals. A nice sight after the deserted areas we’ve been in before (probably also related to the time of the day). We enjoyed some tasty local coffee and a fresh dinner before calling it a day.

On day two we already adjusted our perspective and were able to see and appreciate the delightful parts of the city. We also found more of those lively rural areas and a nice street with shops, cafes, and restaurants close by in El Cangrejo, which we apparently missed before.

We also went to a hairdresser where I got a new haircut. With hands, feet, and some bits of Spanish we managed to achieve a relatively good result. Afterward, we left the traffic behind and walked to the Metropolitano Nature Parc, which is basically located inside the city. Here we had an excellent hike and spotted some animals, including a sloth and coatis. The view from the peak was amazing. The contrast between the jungle and the big city skyline was something unique and summarized quite nicely the mixed feelings we had so far.

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