Friday/Saturday – March 27th and 28th, 2009

Today, we went to the Panama Canal. We each paid $5 with a student ID; it’s $8 without the ID.

	The museum had four floors. There was a walk-in model of a ship deck with a typical ship’s control room passing through the canal, with buttons that lit up (pictured left). The separate movie exhibit glossed over the construction of the canal, and how it worked, in favor of advertising the expansion of the canal, which is currently under way.
We tracked back to the Naos, Flamenco, and Perico islands. These are small islands that are connected via man-made bridges to the mainland.
	We ate lunch at a restaurant called Casa Blanca, an upper scale restaurant in the old French Quarter. The buildings here reminded me of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. The buildings are colorful, the streets very narrow. Again, there is much renovation being done, so many of the buildings have construction going on.
Intricate architecture in Panama City.
We decided to visit "Panama Viejo", the original Panama City before Captain Morgan burned it down in 1671. We went to the ruins. It was an old style colonial town, or at least was at one time. Whoever is managing the site has recently restored the four story church belfry/lookout tower. The site had a $2 entrance fee w/ student ID.

After we have meandered through the ruins, we found a cab to take us back. Our taxi driver was very friendly. He only spoke Spanish, so Fred and I talked with him in our broken Spanish, telling him we’re leaving tomorrow, were here for a week, went to the Darien province, go to school in Chicago, and Panama is beautiful but hot.
	We were treated to dinner by GBB at an upscale restaurant in the club district. All three GBB brigades in Panama were there: Northwestern, Berkeley, and University of Washington. Inside, there was a gorgeous night view of the area. Our food included lentil soup, chicken and rice, and flan. During dinner, a band played with two bongo drums, and a wooden instrument that resembled a fish. The guy played it by scraping a stick against ridges on the "fish". There was also a drum that the musician played with drum sticks.
There were also three to five male and female dancers who gave the illusion of floating around on stage.
	Being a drummer, my favorite part was the bongo drummers solo. It’s amazing to see how much variety can be had on a bongo, with only two striking locations (middle and side).
Overall, it was fantastic trip. We got a lot of work accomplished, and had an opportunity to experience a culture different than ours!