Panama City was the first and only city in central america which had a proper skyline. But we preferred the old part, Casco Viejo. Although it started to be really developed and most of the bars and restaurants where quite pricy. The old town was nice with its crumbling colonial buildings and the bust of the french developer/madmen Ferdinand de Lesseps who started the Canal adventure.
Melanie's main attraction were of course the malls, I had to endure all of them ^^ They where huge, one was where an airport is on my old Lonley Planet ;) We stumbled past these temples of consumerism! Of course we had to visit the cinema, no crying babies this time though.
In my opinion the canal was the best part in Panama City. I just finished my book about how first the french and then the americans endured the hardship of this endeavour. Next year the canal will celebrate this 100th year anniversary. But you have to keep in mind that the french started digging already in 1881 with a lot of spirit but crude technics and a plan for a canal at sea level which was never feasible and bound to fail from the beginning.
So we visited the Miraflores locks to see how tanker and container ships where lowered to the pacific. To steady the ships they are connected to four to eight "electric mules". The maximum size for a ship to pass the locks is 13 containers width, with not much space left and right.
