I had a little bit of time free after attending Replicated's 2025 All Hands in Los Angeles, and I thought Panama City would be fun, close, and much warmer than Michigan in March.
Panama City is in the wrong direction. In all seriousness, it feels really odd to have the Pacific Ocean to the east while in the Americas.
The city skyline is neat, with some quite interesting buildings, but overall it just felt like an American city that spoke Spanish and had terrible sidewalks.
There were a few things to do as a tourist within the city, primarily centered around the ruins of Panama Viejo.
The Biomuseo and Smithsonian Nature Center were both interesting, and likely to be must-visit locations too.
The food was in my experience quite similar to what I tried in Colombia. However, it's always worth looking at non-American interpertations of Pancakes!
I spent a day on a boat trip to Taboga Island, which is a small island just off the coast of Panama City. Honestly not a bad boat, but Taboga itself was... not really worth visiting. Nice beach though.
The Panama Canal is the one thing you really should see in Panama. I was able to do a full transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic on a small tourist boat, and it was fun!
The day started before sunrise, and soon we were passing under the Bridge of the Americas.
The first set of locks was the Miraflores locks, which we transited with a tugboat and a mid-sized container ship. (Panamax, but that's not huge in modern standards)
The next set of locks was the Pedro Miguel locks.
After the Pedro Miguel locks, we were into Gatun Lake, and soon to pass under the Centennial Bridge and the cut through the mountains.
The Gatun locks were next, and with it some good views of the mules that guide ships through the locks.
Of course, we weren't making this transit alone - once again we were joined by a much larger ship, this time the CL Guangzhou. Certainly not small when parked that close to us!
After the Gatun locks, we passed by the remains of the French route, which was intended to be a sea-level route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was never completed, and the American route was built instead using locks to avoid needing to excavate quite as much - and incidentally avoiding what would have likely been an ecological catastrophe.
After passing under the Atlantic Bridge, our journey was complete.
