There aren’t too many people who have traversed an entire continent in 1 hour, but that is exactly what I did today.
I woke up nice and early and caught one of the $0.25 buses to the main bus terminal which is very close to the Panama Canal Railway station. From there, I took a $3 cab ride to the station and arrived just in time to buy a $25 ticket on the train from Panama City to Colon.
The Panama Canal Railway traverses the continent from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side in about 1 hour and follows the Panama Canal almost the entire way. Along the route, you can see jungle, a lot of water, a few towns and many lagoons. I was lucky enough to also spot a blue morpho butterfly at one point.
Colon was dirty and yucky, so I didn’t spend any time there. I just caught a bus back to Panama City. Since the day was still young, I went to Casca Viejo again to check out the store with all the paintings. I looked through them all, but in the end, I didn’t buy any.
From Casca Viejo, you can see this really interesting colorful building that my map said was the Biodiversity Museum, so I headed over there in a cab. I discovered that it was still under construction, but there were several other things to do in the area.
I rented a bike for an hour and rode down the Amador causeway as far as I could and checked out how the other side lives. This bike, by the way, had nice pedals. On the islas at the end of the causeway are a few hotels, some restaurants, many boats in several marinas, Smithsonian research facilities, and who knows what else. It is probably a nice place to stay with some distant views of the city across the water. When I got back to the bike rental place, I still had 15 minutes left, so I rode in the other direction and discovered a few more interesting things including a company that lets you spend a day on a catamaran for $79. I think I’ll pass though.
After asking the bike rental lady if there was a metro bus stop around, she pointed to one very close by, so I was able to get all the way back to my hotel for another $0.25.