The day after visting the Gatun Locks and Portobelo, we took an organized tour into Panama City. This tour was offered by Aventuras 2000 from the hotel tour desk and included transportation, a 6-hour tour of Panama City and a forgettable lunch for $50. It’s a good value and saved us the headache of having to find everything by ourselves (which would have been a lost cause). Our tour group of about a dozen was slanted slightly toward English speakers. The tour guide was bilingual, and he explained everything in both languages.
The tour took us from the Bridge of the Americas, through old Panama (Casco Viejo, founded 1674), and ended at the original Panama (Panama Viejo, founded 1519). Just as Portobelo’s history was greatly affected by pirates, so was Panama City’s. Casco Viejo was actually the second site for Panama City, moved after Pirate Henry Morgan sacked Panama Viejo in 1671. All that remains of Panama Viejo now are ruins.
One of the highlights of the tour was the Golden Altar at the Church of San Jose. This towering altar, made in the baroque style of the 17th century, is an impressive work of art. According to legend, when Morgan sacked the original Panama City, the priests at the church painted the altar black, fooled Morgan into believing it was made of wood, and actually convinced the pirate to donate money for its completion.
The tour also included admission to a couple of museums—the Panama Canal museum, which does a good job of telling the story of the Panama Canal, and a second museum near Panama Viejo, which has a scale model of the original Panama City, at which our tour guide explained the strategy used during the attack of Henry Morgan.
The tour concluded at the Panama Viejo, which has a nice artisan’s market next door. We didn’t get enough time to look around, so we made it a point to go shopping a few days later.
Overall, most people seemed pretty satisfied with the tour, though there were a couple common complaints:
1) Not enough walking and too much bus time
2) Very little shopping time