Panama City

This morning I went on a tour of the city. We went to this place of worship - Baha'i - is the religion. They believe that 7 religions all based on the same theories can worship / meditate together. It originated in Iran. It was a cool building with amazing views and we were given jelly and ice-cream at the end. No fee or donations are permitted.

We then went onto Casco Viejo which is the prettier part of town. I was really amazed by all the sky-scrappers too and the enormous shopping malls they have here.

The most fascinating part was the canal. The ships that pass are truely enormous and the gates that are used in the locks are the original gates from 100 years ago. It really was an incredible feat.

The old ruin church is in the Old Panama City, which is a few kms away and now just ruins.

The gold altar is in the Casco Viejo of Panama City and the Panamanians managed to keep this gold away from the pirates (Capitan Morgan etc) by hiding it in low tide water and what remained they painted black and fooled the pirates.

The other amusing thing I learnt is that in the water near the canal (but the wrong side) there is a sunken German submarine. You can just see the top of it at high tide. It was sent there in WWII to destroy the canal, but it got stuck when the tide went out. Brilliant.

I also learnt who Nunez de Balboa was on this tour. After this trip when I go on the Madrid metro I'll be so much better informed.