Old Panama City

Today I went to Old Panama City which very much reminded me of the New Orleans French Quarter. When the French pushed the Spanish out they built this city a very short distance away from where the Spanish had first settled. The present day residence of the President of Panama is in the Old City as well as some of the government buildings. I have a lot more pictures than I can up load from here but I put a few on the picture site, so be sure to check them out. Also, my guide took me to Noriega's house. There are a couple of pictures of that also. There are a wide range of emotions among Panamanians regarding his up coming release, but my informal poll of taxi drivers, teachers and the Acosta family members tells me that most don't like him because he profited from the drug trade, had many people killed and let his men fight to the death and then when he saw the gig was up surrendered to the Americans. The American government has the best of both worlds in releasing him. We are no longer the bad guys by keeping him in prison and we sure won't have to wory about him in the future because the Panamanian government doesn't want him out and about making trouble so they are going to at least keep him under house arrest for the next 20 years (Maximum jail term in Panama -No death penalty) for the murder of several people.