From La Isleta, on Pan-American Highway where we spent a night, we headed towards Panama City. On the way the first stop was the town of Natá. We wanted to see the church claimed to be the oldest in Panama, but also one of the oldest in the American continent. Natá was originally an Indian village. After the conquest, Spaniards founded a city here in 1522. The construction of Santiago Apostol Church started the same year.

The conquered Indians were baptized and became slaves who worked on the construction which lasted almost 100 years. In the interior design, we noticed a feathered serpent protecting the monstrance, undoubtedly the influence of Native American beliefs before the introduction of Christianity by the Spaniards. Inside the church, you cannot miss the unusual wooden pulpit in the central part of the nave.

Our next stop was the nearby archaeological site of El Caño. There is not much to see there, however it is a very interesting place. The grassy site, where only the ancient stone monoliths are visible, is a cemetery that dates back over a thousand years. Burial site excavations allowed archeologists to discover many skeletons. This helped in gaining knowledge about this little-known pre-Columbian culture. The tomb of the powerful warrior contained many pieces of jewelry. Gold breastplates, bracelets, belts and the most beautiful human headed pendant. Another tomb contained an important chief and possibly his son. Both of them decorated with golden artifacts were arranged on top of a pile of many human skeletons, most likely slaves or captives.

It is believed that El Caño culture was a strong hierarchical chiefdom. The status in the hierarchy was identified by body tattoos. There was even hierarchy among slaves. Their status was visible on the faces. They had symbols tattooed on their foreheads like logos and black covering around both eyes like a small carnival mask.

There are not many places in Panama to set up a tent or just park your car or van and sleep inside. We realized this on the first day after crossing the border. Today we wanted to be in close proximity to the Panama Canal and it turned out to be an extremely difficult task. There are only a few campsites or similar places across the country that would accommodate land travelers like us. We drove up to a place called Hotel Camping Resort. The name could not be more misleading. Camping was just an empty word in their name, forcing visitors to stay in disgusting rooms in an aging motel. There is simply no camping there. Hungry, we ate dinner in their restaurant. The internet feedback was mostly positive. One person even described their pizza as the best. What a disappointment. It was the worst pizza in all of Central America. We paid $ 55 for it. Angry, we left to see if we could find something better. Two other sites recommended by other overlanders were closed. It was already 10 pm, we had no choice but to look for a hotel. Summit Rainforest & Golf Resort sounded reasonable. We rented a room in a high-rise building surrounded by tropical forest. Very low standard, much worse than a typical US roadside motel. I would probably shoot myself in the head if I came to Panama by plane to spend my vacation in this "resort". Unpleasant smell of damp in our room, neglected bathroom, balcony was rusty in an unimaginable way. This is of course my subjective opinion. At breakfast, we met several couples from the USA who were apparently spending their golf vacations here. They looked happy.