Panama City, Panama (Day Three)
Free breakfast at the hostel of toast with peanut butter. Not many better starts to the day than that.
In the morning we made our way out to Parque Metropolitano. Well-maintained paths wound their way through the forest, which would have been nice if we couldn't hear traffic from the main road the entire time. Birds were singing but we rarely saw any. The only other wildlife was a pond full of turtles sitting on top of each other and plenty of Jesus Christ lizards, so-called because they could run across the water's surface (it was a neat party trick). The city panorama at the top was fantastic; it was a pity there were no canal views.
Next up was the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, which was a very small, two floor exhibit of modern paintings. The second floor consisted entirely of black and white decor as well as paintings, which I was sure supposed to be emotive or significant in some way that was lost on us. In another room a pianist and percussionist were playing live music, making us feel sophisticated and cultured. We could have been on the set of a movie. All that was missing was the glass of champagne and designer outfits.
Yesterday we had spotted a massive wine and liquor store in the old quarter but didn't have time to pop in. Today we were not going to pass up the opportunity to see what they had on offer. Do you think either of us remembered where it was? Nope. We wandered up and down every single street, believing that the shop must have closed down in the last 24 hours. On the last possible street we could try, there it was, hiding in plain sight. It was heaven. Every style of wine from all corners of the globe was calling our name, many at a reasonable price. We showed considerabe restraint, only purchasing a French Bordeaux and two piccolos of Argentinian sparkling wine. The piccolos were demolished as soon as they were cold, and were a welcome change from the cheap plastic cups wine of the previous nights. It didn't pair well with Danny's amazing ginger curry creation for dinner, but that didn't bother us in the slightest.
There was a bit of everything in the old quarter.
