After enjoying our day until 3:30 pm at Isla del Encanto, we had a series of trips until we made it to our next destination: Casco Viejo, in Panama City. We took the boat until Cartagena, one plane until Bogotá, another plane until Panamá City, and then a fairly quit shuttle until the best hotel of our honeymoon: American Trade Hotel.
American Trade Hotel was all we could ask for in a hotel in Casco Viejo, Panamá City's colonial old town. The building was colonial, majestic and beautiful; the decor was just right; it was super central; the rooms were beautiful and ours was on the last floor and had a view; the bed was the most comfortable ever; the food was yummy; the coffee was the most famous in town; the service was great; and the wifi worked much better than in any other hotel we stayed in.
We slept quite well, and woke up to a glorious breakfast in the glorious restaurant. After letting all the food calming down in our stomach, we did a killing workout. By midday, we were ready to explore Casco Viejo.
We followed really good tips from Lonely Planet about what to do in Casco Viejo, and we fell in love with the neighborhood.
We started by walking all the way through Casco Viejo's three main streets, stopping in every highlight. We checked every colorful street, we saw the natives selling molas in the seafront, we entered in every church (our favorite was the one we could see from our hotel room: Iglesia La Merced), and we checked a few hip stores. We then walked all the way to Mercado de Mariscos to have the best Ceviche ever. Mercado de Mariscos is a bunch of stalls selling fresh seafood and all types of ceviches. We had 2 kinds of Ceviche and Patacones filled with spicy shrimps. I happily entered the state of food coma, but gorda still had room to try the best ice cream in town at Granclement.
At 5 pm, we were supposed to go on a walking tour to discover Casco Viejo's gangland past, but it started pouring rain, and it got cancelled. Instead, we decided to do rum tasting at famous Pedro Mandinga - not really my type of thing but, you know, marriage is all about making concessions and I knew gorda would be crazily happy doing so.
And because we like really busy days, and we had recharged our batteries way too much in Isla del Encanto, we decided to quickly dress up and head to have a cocktail in a famous rooftop before having dinner. Unfortunately, Casa Casco was closed due to the recent rain, so we ended up just having a glass of wine in another cool rooftop (Barlovento) very close to the hotel and to the restaurant where we had a reservation.
Dinner at Caliope was absolutely awesome, and full of treats to the honeymooners (us!). We had marvelous cocktails, a few little appetizers offered by the restaurant and a very good tuna tartare, ordered by us. As main dishes, I had the best octopus ever (crispy on the outside, tender inside), and gorda corvina with the best lemon risotto ever. Because I was already tipsy, we shared a dessert. I always want desserts after one or two drinks... Both the bartender and the waiter kept joining our table and talked to us. Super nice service! To close the meal in style, again because we were honeymooners, Caliope offered us two chocolate truffles and two glasses of champagne with berries. Also, Caliope is located above one of the best clubs in town - Teatro Amador -, so we got free entrance and special escorting from our cool waiter at the restaurant.
At 6:30 am on the following day, we were having breakfast at American Trade Hotel, in order to catch an early flight to another paradise: Bocas del Toro.
Thank you Casco Viejo for treating us so well!
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