And again: Panama City

And now Panama again! What the hell I was doing here? For me, Panama was one of the least beautiful countries on the whole trip. Now I got the opportunity to stay again for two days in Panama City. My connecting flight to the Caribbean was gone and COPA Airlines paid me two nights at the ‘Hard Rock Hotel’ directly in downtown. For me, a new world and totally unfamiliar. The clientèle was not mine. Many Americans and rich Panamanians were on a shopping tour in the city. It had nothing to do with ‘Hard Rock’. But the food at the buffet was amazing! What a gourmet tour! All over the hotel objects from famous rock stars where pinned to the wall. So I dined under the underwear of Madonna and strolled through the lobby passing by several guitars from famous rock stars. My room on the 21st floor was luxurious than ever, offering a brilliant view over a very ugly city. Since I did not had much time on the first visit by bike, I took the opportunity and walked around in the city. What kind of a stupid idea. As a pedestrian you were completely lost. The city was built only for cars. Only the ‘underclass’ was walking. Sidewalks were scarce, quite often you had to cheat on the side strips along the main road. The city was a mess. In no other country that I had visited so far rich and poor were so close together as in Panama. On the Caribbean side people were living in the simplest corrugated iron huts directly on the banana plantations in the dirt. Here, in the capital the chance to get hit by a ‘Cayenne’ car become extremely large. In addition, the Panamanians car drivers were rigorous. Nevertheless Panama belonged to the country with the highest economic growth in Latin America. However, the social equilibrium lies far from realized. Not unhappy to leave this place again, I was looking forward to my connecting flight to the West Indies! The crew of the 52 foot sailing yacht ‘Kreole’ was already waiting. Together we wanted to sail to the Azores – crossing the Atlantic.