Our tour bus headed from Casco Viejo to Panama Antiguo, the original settlement, founded in 1519 and the first European city on the “Pacific coast of the New World.” It did quite well in international transportation until 1671 when pirate Henry Morgan sacked the city and a subsequent fire destroyed what was left. Today there are only ruins as evidence of what it once was. .
First we stopped at the new museum located on the edge of the grounds and our guide gave us a great tour of it, which was a good thing, since almost all of the signage explaining the exhibits was in Spanish! Near the entrance is a monument to Pedro Arias de Avila, founder of Panama City. I managed to get a few good pictures inside the museum in spite of the low lighting.
Monument 6905. 
Close-up of plaque 6806 
Museum sign with “robot” standing near 6807
Reproduction of an old photograph of many people in front of the tallest ruin 6808
The museum had some great displays and interesting ways of presenting information. I photographed some of those most interesting to me.
This painting represents, I think, a pirate attack on the cit while the clergy and gentry “eat, drink and are merry” 6809 
Probably my favorite picture – the pirates! 6810 
Representation of a pirate ship 6812 
Henry Morgan, the bad guy; pirate who sacked Ancient Panama City 6814 
Reproduction of the famous bridge whose ruins still stand but which I did not see, alas! 6815 
The road winds right through some of the ruins. I took pictures as the bus passed by them and a few came out well. The larger ruins of the main part of the city are set off like a park with barricades that keep out cars but not people. We stopped there, allegedly for a pit stop and quick look at the adjacent Mercado Nacional de Artisanias (national artisan’s market). We obediently got out of the van and some headed for the toilets while the rest of us went to the barricades and started taking pictures.
Smaller ruins seen from the road 6816, 6820 
Nice view 6825 
The next thing the tour guide knew, we were all inside the grounds taking pictures of the ruins like crazy tourists. He eventually caved in and walked with us to the highest ruin, the Cathedral Tower (15 meters high), led us inside and up at least a dozen flights of stairs, or so it seemed, to the highest level where we could look out over the surrounding ruins and the marsh caused by low tide. It was spectacular view which I know because I made the climb in spite of my intention to never climb more than two flights of stairs again.
Overview of ruins from ground level 6828 
Closer-up of ruins with beautiful window arch 6832 
Imprint on stepping stones leading to the Cathedral Tower 6833 
Cathedral Tower, which I climbed; there at least two flights of steps between each level 6826
View out of tower window at low tide, taken while I was gasping for breath from the climb 6834
View of nearest ruins from tower window 6836
Great view of modern Panama City at low tide, from tower window 6837
Window in wall next to tower, taken from inside 6842
The guide didn’t tell us much about the ruins and led us directly from the tower to the artisan’s market and gave us twenty minutes for shopping before the bus headed back to the pier to drop off those on the “morning only” tour. I now wonder if seeing the ruins up close was to have been part of the tour. The trip to the pier took at least half an hour, and then we had travel time back, to get to our next destination. We ended up eating lunch at a restaurant right on the pier instead. All of this was a waste of time because those of us on the all day tour were to have had lunch elsewhere and then spent more time at our next destination.
Restaurant Barko 6844
The meal at Restaurant Barko was a delicious three course meal, however, which somewhat made up for the change in itinerary. Thus ended our first morning in Panama City.
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