But central American hospitality proved to exist and I still got breakfast.
A Wrapa - a pancake with scrambled egg and bacon - way to much for a person who needs to wait at least two hours after getting up to eat half a bowl of cereals.
Anyway I fought most of it down as I felt bad and poured down another cup of coffee.
I was ready to go.
The buses are suppose to be extremely cheap here but so were the taxis, and I decided to take the comfort way and invest 4 $ for a Cab into the old town where I was going to look for a hostel.
Especially since I didn't want to embark on this first exploration of a central American Bus system with all my luggage and no place to stay.
The official currency here is the USD for bank notes but Panama has some coins on their own, which are equal in seize and weight to us coins of the same denotion. They also have 1 dollar and half dollar coins.
So paying the taxi was no problem with the few USD I had left.
I got dropped of in front of a hostel I had read about. A good and popular backpacker place - Luna Castle.
But they had no beds left. I tried one more hostel (Magnolia Inn) and they also had nothing for the next couple of days.
This was due to the Carneval that was on in Panama... I knew nothing about it.
So the only choice I had was to stay at the "White Lion Hostel".
This was a veeeeeeery basic hostel. Basically it was an old storage building with some provisional floor and paper walls pulled in (all of them painted white with plenty of stains, scratches and holes on and in them by now). No atmosphere at all - the only upside was the aircon that did work well.
But that was very much negated with the fact that the hostel did not have any running water - apparently because of the carneval (somehow!?).
The toilets were Literally "full of shit" the showers and sinks didn't work.
And indeed this was the worst hostel I had ever stayed at. - Had I mentioned the common area that is so very important for single travellers? A Bench near a wall with a power socket... Oh yeah!
But I had no choice.
I thought I would try to get out as soon as I found another opportunity. In the meantime I would explore the the City.
First I turned left and ended up in an area that looked initially very dodgy, very dirty, stank like piss and had loads of rubbish lying around.
I didn't feel as excited anymore about Panama as I did 3 hours ago but I wouldn't give up ... there must be good places in this city. So I walked down to the waterfront and stood in front of the bay and far away I saw a gigantic skyline rise into the sky with uncountable white and glass skyscrapers along a wide street lined with palm trees curving along the rounded bay. The views of this were more impressive than I would imagine Miami beach, bigger, taller, sunnier. This is where the money is ... but what makes the place where all the hostels are gathered so desirable. So far it was pretty shit. I soon should find out.
I turned the other way and walked towards some old buildings and there it was - Casco Viejo - the Old Quarter of Panama City.
A really nice area with loads of colonial style buildings and many many restaurants and bars. Some buildings still in ruins, some with restoration equipment all over the place and some restored to condition. Actually loads of them were over-restored and had not much of the charme of an old colonial building but the form left in them.
I just walked around this area, which is maybe 8 by 8 blocks for a while and soaked up the atmosphere.
It got really hot now around lunchtime and walking a little further away from Casco Viejo, where it was surprisingly quite I found the place where the Carnival was on. It was not busy yet but the fences and tons of litter in the corner suggested that it was not going to stay this way for long.
Although there as already some stuff going on I really didn't fell like joining in now and went back to the hostel. It was sooo hot now and I started to understand why people did siestas down here.
So I escaped back into my air conditioned, crappy hostel room and had a nap.
My siesta really did help and I had gathered some more energy for the rest of the day that lay ahead of me. So did loads of other people who had also come back to the hostel for a rest.
I asked two guys from the room what they had planned for the rest of the day and they said they were gonna go and check out the carnival later.
Perfect... I just needed to get some food and then we could head over there together.
They suggested the Coca-Cola Cafe (which I have heard of before). It was a cool old style cafe with good down to earth food and sandwiches.
Back at the hostel I joined John and Devn and we went to the Carnival.
We had to get into this sealed of area which was part of the 4 lane road along the coast but has been pedestrianized for the festival.
The street was lined with food and beer stands and in between these stands were people with coolers and grills selling beer and food.
It was really cool and felt like I had imagined Rio at carnival times.
We walked up the road and got beers for 1$. Then we watched the parade... I really don't enjoy parades but this was cool because it was Carnival in Central America...
We got some food and chatted away with more beers. Soon it turned out the two guys were a couple.
In fairness there were some indications and I was pretty sure there was something going on but just needed the confirmation.
John had been living in Cuba for a while and was fluent in spanish and very familiar with the lifestyle and culture of south america, so we had plenty to talk about and he could give me some tips for Cuba.
On the way back to Casco Viejo we passed by a huge stage where some performance was going on and John said this was some famous Panamanian Music Star...
Well anyway we could only bare this for a while and then went out of the Carnival area and to a Cuban Bar in the old quarter.
Without checking the price we ordered a caipirinha (I know it's not Cuban) which was a mistake... it cost the same as 10 cans of beer at the carnival.
So after this nice but expensive cocktail we moved on to the next bar which was cheaper and had bigger glasses.
We had good stories to talk and I learned a good few things about Latin America and could tell them some stories from my trip so far.
Back at the hostel there were still some people awake, the rotten state of the hostel did not bother anyone anymore at this stage and the party continued into the night. Carnival in Panama!
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