El Cangrejo at Night

Panama City can be very charming at night from certain vantage points.  Some of my favorite include the mezzanine level of the Metro Mall, the Amador Causeway, Casco Viejo, and the new Costera Sur.  The above photos were taken from a rooftop in El Cangrejo close to the Veneto Casino.  One of the drawbacks of having two equally favorite places is missing whichever one you aren't in.

San Francisco Revisited

Returned stateside a week ago and have been very busy.  Not much time to write.  Just wanted to post some new photos of old familiar stomping grounds.  The Bay Bridge is getting upgraded. They are adding a new curved section with suspension cables where that one dangerous section currently exists.  (Remember the truck that crashed and caught fire several years ago?)  Anyway, I'm not up on all the details, but snapped a quick photo of the new section.  Very different! 

 

Also visited the Palace of Fine Arts a few days ago, and am ashamed to say I wasn't clear on the reason for it's cosntruction until then.  I always thought it was built for a World Fair in the early 1900's.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was actually built in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal!    It took four years to construct and was part of the 635 acre Panama-Pacific International Exhibition that ran from 2/20/1915 to 12/4/1915.  It drew 19 million visitors during that time.  It now houses the San Francisco Exploratorium.  The building and ground were being renovated when I lived in the city in the late 1960's.  It's quite nice to stroll though the grounds at this time....

 

I took this last photo as a professional photographer was setting up for wedding photos.  It was a gay marriage.  I love San Francisco!

My [Panama] Neighborhood Revisited

I posted photos of my Panamanian neighborhood on a previous blog, and really wanted to transfer that post over. But I didn't save the photos, and trying to add a copy of the photos from a copy of the post isn't working for some odd reason. One of these days I'll do another walk about and update my prior post with new photos. Some of the houses I photographed six months ago have undergone new ownership and significant changes in appearance, anyway.

I did want to mention a neighbor just 2-3 doors down, however. He's in the house next to the guitar player, and is busy sculpting away at some stones recently dumped on the roadside near the edge of his yard. Here are some of the projects he's working on...

The house itself is a virtual shack, but it's made so much more picturesque by the art pieces just sitting around for passers by to enjoy. It's been a lot of fun watching these figures evolve out of the raw stones originally placed there. I've spoken to him a few times about selling the pieces. He may eventually do so, but isn't so motivated at the present time. Their market value is out of my price range, in any event. Probably still a bargain by stateside prices... Ah well, for now, I can enjoy them for free as they just sit out there unfenced, unguarded, unprotected and unassuming.