Panama City and Cayman Islands

The last two stops by ship were Panama City and Georgetown, Grand Cayman Islands.

With Panama's development into a financial center, a growth of the small metropolis unprecedented in Central America has taken place. The city is home to eight of the ten largest skyscrapers in Latin America. Panama has a skyline with 22 skyscrapers over 200 meters high that glisten across the canal. The skyline was created about 15 years ago, hard to believe when you see the buildings.

In addition to modern architecture, there are also historic buildings. The old town area (Panamá la Vieja) is preserved as a ruins site and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. We only visited this part of the city, as well as the entire new part, from the bus. And then there is the new old Panama. Confusing, I know. That's the remaining old town. It feels more like a small village, very pretty and cozy with many restaurants and pubs. In addition to the central plaza with the cathedral, city hall, and bishop's palace, several monasteries, the hospital, and a few upper-class residential buildings have been preserved. We visited all of this as part of a tour. Our ship anchored off four smaller islands in Fuerte Amador, but we had a beautiful view of the skyline.

The journey through the Panama Canal deserves its own chapter.

The final stop was in the Caribbean. White sandy beaches, blue sky, beautiful sun - just as one imagines the Caribbean, it is. Georgetown, the capital of the Cayman Islands, is the center of the banking industry in the Cayman Islands. The city is considered the fifth largest financial center in the world. Most internationally active banks, including the largest German banks, have branches here. We didn't see any of that, probably all sharing a floor in one of the apartment buildings and otherwise only having safe deposit boxes. 😂

What did we do as enthusiastic beachgoers and sun worshipers? Of course, we went shopping. Souvenirs, souvenirs. But don't worry, everything still fits in the suitcase. The rum cocktail was delicious too, what more could we want? Besides our small ship, the Celebrity Infinity and the AIDA Luna were also present. So on this one day, there were easily 5,000 tourists in the city. Quite a lot, considering that there aren't even 30,000 people living there.

Finally, a few impressions of the cruise, mainly so that we can remember it ourselves. Putu and Ketut, our two hardworking stewards, delighted us every evening with a new animal made of towels; Barry from Boston dot com (cheers 😂) entertained us wonderfully on the piano on many evenings; Conrad, Jhay-Ann, and Marc Anthony were the perfect bar staff at Mix5; a special thank you to Susan and Jack from Pennsylvania for joining us at the bar. It was a pleasure to meet you and talk to you.