December 12, 2014
Guayaquil, Ecuador – The Graffiti and Street Art of Panama City
Sickness struck our trip today here in Guayaquil, so that’s given me some time to work on our final (??) blog posts about Panama! It’s been nice having a Chill Day to think back on the amazing street art and graffiti buses traveling throughout Panama City. The city is incredibly modern in many ways, but one of the wonderful throwbacks is that they have their own version of the “chicken buses” found throughout Asia and Latin America. These are essentially the cheapest version of mass transport where you could find yourself sitting next to someone carrying their live chickens home from or off to the market. Hence, chicken bus. Traditionally these are converted old school buses and that’s how they are in Panama City. Now, you’re not likely to find yourself sharing a seat with a chicken in the city, but you will be driving around in some of the most stylish buses I’ve ever seen! Take a look:
Pretty amazing, eh?
Keep ’em coming…
Almost all of them had someone’s name on the side – girlfriends, wives, daughters and occasionally something religious.
More side art.
Almost feels like a ‘Before and After’ shot.
Bright!
Don’t know if the stacks were functional with the muffler, but they sure looked cool!
They also looked amazing at night…
Light ’em up! Anner liked this one since the lights were red!
More lights = better, right?
Yep, there is DEFINITELY some airbrushing talent in Panama! Seeing the buses always made me smile and reach for my camera. There’s also an amazing culture of street art out there. Actually there’s an astonishing number of outdoor sculptures both in the parks and simply on the medians of random streets, but what was more interesting to me was the street art and graffiti. Love, love, loved all the color! Good stuff!
Street art on the edge of the Casco Antiguo district.
If you’re going to do cool painting, you better have a cool hat!
Love the rich colors!
Okay, this final shot isn’t of the art, but it sort of is art itself. The same designer as for the EMP in Seattle.
The brand new BioMuseo designed by Frank Gehry.
little EMP! love these pictures. I hope you get well SOON!
Thanks, Karen! I took a bunch more, but I didn’t want to overwhelm everyone – loved the art! Anner’s on the mend, but it’ll probably be another day before we continue on to Cuenca for our housesit.
oooooo, yeah!!! love EVERY pic in this post (others too but this is a fav). overwhelm with more please! :o) Get well asap and have good travels to your next destination. HUGS!!
Thanks, Brigit! I’ll see what I can do about sending you a few more. 🙂 Missing you guys!
These buses ate WONDERFUL!! Too bad the States are too up tight to do this with our buses. Maybe more ridership. Get well and take it easy til you are. Hugs.
It looks like Panama is working on getting rid of them as well! That’ll be a sad day, both for losing the art and for making it more expensive for the folks normally travelling on these cheaper options. Here’s hoping they stick around for years to come!
The buses look so amazing! And I love seeing Frank Gehry’s work, thanks!
Our pleasure! The BioMuseo was pretty amazing from the outside, but we couldn’t justify the gringo pricing for entry, so we just enjoyed the architecture.
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