Took a Taxi into the Old City Friday Afternoon...

.....as part of my observances of Panamanian Martyr's Day.  Actually, the only tours available this afternoon were the half-day canal tours, so I hailed a taxi and asked for the "Old Town."  That is usually the historical area of Central and South American cities where the central plaza is.  From there, churches and museums are usually nearby.

It was a good decision on my part.....very interesting and a good way to kill the afternoon.  As it turned out, the historical museum is in this area that is dedicated to the Martyr's Day heroes in 1964.  I looked it up last night and it wasn't one of America's finer moments:  President Kennedy agreed to a treaty with Panama that the Panamanian flag could fly in the canal zone alongside the American flag at the American school in the zone.  Kennedy was killed before the document could be signed and LBJ didn't think it important.  A group of Panamanian students marched on the Canal Zone with a silk flag and were stopped by the canal police.  American students at the school there attacked the Panamanian students and ripped their flag which caused widespread anger and caused massive protests in which the US called in paratroopers and 21 Panamanians were killed.  Thus the holiday yesterday.  It led to an eventual agreement that, in turn, led to the canal being turned over to Panama in 1977.

As it was, the museum was pretty busy and I was the only American there but I didn't feel uneasy.  It is pretty indicting evidence with lots of blown-up photographs of the victims and exhibits including the flag that started it all:

The museum was small and didn't take a lot of time, so I spent a couple of hours just walking around admiring the architecture.  There were several very old churches in the area:

If you can read it above the entrance of the third picture, the date is 1675--101 years before our Declaration of Independence.

The ruins of the Church of St. Dominic were particularly interesting because of the annex that features the religious art of the churches in the area--icons, retablos, bells, and a wealth of silver.

Built in the 1600s, the church experienced several fires and earthquakes but the ruins were a tourist attraction even in the late 1800s.

One of the features of the ruins was an old, old brick arch called the "Flat Arch" because it is not very high in the center.  Early French and American engineers visiting the ruins were particularly intrigued by this arch.

Local lore is that this arch is responsible for the Panama Canal.  The fact that this arch had withstood fires and earthquakes for so long, convinced the American engineers to construct the Canal across the Isthmus of Panama rather than in Nicaragua since this area was much less inclined to earthquake activity (which, in fact, it is).

I walked around about three hours  and took a break in a small bar and had a cold "Balboa" beer. 

I looked through the shops and bought a souvenir before catching a taxi back to the hotel.  The flight back the next morning went well and overall, Panama was a hard, but a good trip.