Day 14 - Palacio de Garzas and Cranky Cab Drivers

We woke early this morning, picked up Andres, and drove through Casco Viejo to the presidential palace, Palacio de las Garzas (Herons' Palace). A big thank you to Rafi's brother Luis for setting it all up for us! Before entering the palace we went through very tight security - he briefly peered into my purse and squeezed the bottom of it. No metal detectors or anything like we have in the states. Maybe the president wasn't there?

Here's some background for you.

• Construction of the building began in 1673, with the addition of a second floor in 1922 and the Official Presidential Residence, on the third floor, was added later.
• Previous presidents resided in the palace, but the current and previous two have not.
• The palace building has historically had many different occupants. It has been a school, a customs building and a bank before becoming the official residence of the President of the Republic of Panama.

Anyhow, we entered a marble courtyard with columns and a fountain where one of the herons was walking around. You could tell he was used to having fans. I think he was a he - just a gut feeling. Just like I have a gut feeling his name was Ernesto.

I enjoyed all the artwork, but this massive mola was my favorite. It is located in the Paz Salon, used for mediation meetings (hence its name). There were other oil paintings there, too, that supposedly were painted by students, as none of them were signed.

Up the stairs to the second floor we went. The floor is open to the courtyard below and features five statues representing the Five Virtues - Duty, Consistence, Work, Justice and Law. Also standing there was this guard. I couldn't help but think how boring his job must be standing there. Or heck, maybe he likes it. I know I couldn't do it. After thirty minutes I'd be asking for a stool to sit on. FYI, all the guards wear white shoe laces.

The next room, Salon Amarillo (Yellow Room), was... yellow. The chairs that lined the walls were all golden in color. At the end of the room was a chair covered in gold leaf. At the tops of the walls were many frescoes depicting Panama's history.

The large wooden doors of Salon Amarillo led us to a dining room. This room was ornate with carved wood. The paintings here showed the importance of the tamarind plant. It was mentioned (ahem, I won't say by whom) that this room was full of Panamanian porn. There were indeed naked women in just about every scene. I'm sure the men love this room.

That pretty much ends our tour. Wanna know what my favorite photo was? This one that proves I have a very good husband to hold my purse while I play photographer.

Oh, and nearby is Ruben Blades' house - the yellow one.

The rest of the afternoon wasn't nearly as mentionable. We cruised the mall. Mat ate treats. I got in trouble for Mateo gently putting a book on the floor in a bookstore (oh the horror). He rode various rides, and all four of us enjoyed the bumper cars (I'd forgotten they were so much fun!). Then Mateo had a meltdown. He was overtired. I think we all were. And then, Rafi tried and tried, we couldn't get a cab to take us home. They all refused. So we settled for a cab to take us to another mall where we waited for Rafi's dad to pick us up. Mateo scored a train ride, juice box, and chocolate cookie out of this deal. We all scored ice cream. His little dirt/tear stained face showed the wear of how I felt inside - done. But Rafi's dad came to our rescue, and home we went. And we took nice calming baths. And ate pizza. The end.