A quick taxi ride from the marina is the hidden gem of Panama. The Old Quarter retains the history and tradition of the Panama of yesterday. There has been a push to restore the buildings and district to what it was. Now housing chic and colorful restaurants, apartments and boutiques, the area has a wonderful vibe and is great to spend the day and evening walking through the narrow streets admiring the architecture.
Next it was off to the Mercado del Marisco to eat some local seafood. For a dollar (or Balboa, the local currency) you can buy a small cup of ceviche. They had about five different kinds, but we opted for one octopus (pulpo) and one squid (calamari). It was so fresh and full of flavor, we picked up some to share with some of our buddies on Ensemble and Glamourous Gallah.
Our next mission was to attempt to locate some suede to sew up chafe gear for the boat. We tried a fabric store we had stumbled upon, but no luck there, then we crossed a shoe maker who didn't have any but suggested we find Todo Cuero (All Things Leather) that was in town near Pizza Napoli. We thanked him first for telling us how to say leather in Spanish, so Karson would no longer need to point to her watchband and then realized we needed to figure out where Pizza Napoli was before trying to find Todo Cuero. We looked up Pizza Napoli and realized the city had a couple to choose from. We went for the one closest to us and asked our cabbie to take us to the Instituto Nacional which the website said was across the street from the pizza place. When we got to the location, we saw the pizza place, then asked the driver if he knew where the leather store was (in really bad Spanish) he looked at us funny and thought we wanted to make shoes. We admitted defeat, thanked him for our ride and decided to walk the block to see if the store was around. Luckily we came across a police officer with great English and told us where to go. We got our leather and headed back to the Old Quarter for a well deserved octopus snack. (Later we realized we had eaten octopus on four separate occasions that day!)
It is zany adventures like this that make this trip so fun and hopefully memorable. Now to fix a few small issues with the boat, find a new barbecue grill, and get ready for the SuperBowl. Green Bay and San Francisco both loosing to the Giants, we are hoping for a Pats victory.
The Wind Dancer Crew