Big city medium sized canal

Leaving the madness of las tablas and heading for Panama city we found out that traffic after a major holiday is pretty similar all around the world. However despite being stuck in traffic for a couple hours we realised that it could have been much worse when we bumped into two people at the bus station who had left over two hours before us. We decided that we had not quite got our fill of carnival so went to see the last evening of Panama city's carnival. We missed the floats but got to watch some live bands play some latin flavoured music. It was fun but not as good as Las tablas. Panama city was unlike any place we had been before with big shopping malls and even bigger sky scrappers. We however were staying in the old town which was very pretty and was in the process of a major renovation. There was building work everywhere but it seemed thst they were doing there best to keep its old world charm. Following our Lonely Planet guide book we decided to go to what they described as one of the unmissable attractions in Panama and go to the tourist centre on the Panama canal. However as soon as we paid our $5 we knew it was a mistake. We were surprised quite how unimpressive the canals lock was. Although you had to be impressed with the guide who seemedlike he was genuinely excited by the dull facts he was reading out.