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Published: October 1st 2008
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Please revisit the last entry as I've added more photos (-:
Costa Rica - Panama
Walked across a rickety old bridge into Panama….very unceremonial!
Took a taxi van to the water taxi dock, passing many banana packing factories. About an hour to Bocas Del Toro on Isla Colon …. Lovely place. Hot and sticky but seem to be fewer mossies. Took a boat trip with an indigenous guy (called Martine) to neighbouring island hotspots: Dolphin lagoon, Coral Key, Zapatilla Island and Red Frog Beach. We saw a few dolphins (no swimming as there are jellyfish and, they want to protect the 30-40 dolphins they have resident there.) Coral Key has a large jetty with a restaurant on it, just sticky out from the jungle….. The snorkelling was fantastic…. Colourful coral and many, many varieties of fish. Some surprisingly large, considering the depth of water. We could hear the groupers biting off lumps of coral. When we swam back to the jetty we found a scarily huge, mean looking Barracuda hanging out in the shade under the jetty, in just a few feet of water. He had a really nice smile…. all jagged protruding teeth! … Zapatilla beach was beautiful and
very secluded… went for a snorkel round a couple of very small islands and got sunburnt…again. ( Survivor programs have been filmed on these islands somewhere … seen photos, but the exact location is all a bit secretive) Red Frog Beach is great for sunbathing but snorkelling made me feel seasick as the swell was a bit much. A small boy greeted us with a large leaf in his hands containing a very small red (poisonous) dart frog... Roberto paid him a dollar to photograph it. On the way back to the water taxi we were lucky enough to see a small, hairy, two toed sloth. He was just hanging upside down in a tree next to the path….. A great day (-:
Inland, up in the hills to Boquete, a small town with beautiful scenery, volcano Baru (highest point in Panama), many waterfalls and coffee plantations all around. As we arrived about mid afternoon, Kev and I decided to take a short, easy (1½ -2 hour) walk, recommended to us by hotel staff. We got back over 3 hours later, in complete darkness, after 2 hours of ridiculously steep climbing and a 50 minute plummet back down… to
the unfamiliar, other side of town. Kev ‘broke’ a muscle in his bum, and limped around all the next day. So, when we were offered a hike up the volcano…. 5 or 6 hours of very hard climbing ….. in the dark (and cold n wet) to see the sunrise and both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans…. (On a clear day!)…. We declined. We didn’t actually see the volcano at all, as it’s rainy season and it was covered by cloud the whole time we were there….
Instead, we took a very interesting tour of the Ruiz coffee plantation, including the processing plant (where the beans are extracted from the ‘cherries’ and graded up to sixteen different sizes and quality) and the roasting and packaging unit. We then learnt from the owner Maria how to ‘taste’ coffee… lots of sniffing and slurping, and making expert/stupid comments like “I’m getting toasted marshmallows…..chocolate…. with a subtle hint of vanilla”….. Anyway, a great tour, very informative.
Next day we took a tour around Paradise gardens, where we saw many rescued birds and animals… I particularly liked an orange cockatoo which whistled and cooed very quietly when he came to have the feathers on
his head tickled…. I want to bring him home.
Next a visit to Lerida Coffee Farm for some free coffee’s where we tried our skills out as coffee tasters.
Then onto an ex presidents house with some very nice gardens that have been left open to the public. The ponds in it had many many Koi Carp in them.
We passed an old derelict house that a German man built for his wife, no expense spared; it must have been very grand.
Unfortunately, although his wife fell in love with the house, she passed away after a week. The house was then abandoned.
This allows anyone to make a claim on the property, but due to its history the local Indians claim it is haunted and no one has yet made a claim. Very sad.
The other two travellers on our trip went white water rafting and had a great time.
A long travel day to El Valle, a small town inside the crater of an extinct volcano. As this is the worst of the rainy season the town was very quiet. It seemed all of the posh houses (American, or second or third homes of the rich from
Panama city) were unoccupied.
Took a hike up to the ‘sleeping Indian woman’.… nice views, could see the Pacific ocean in the distance. Didn’t spot a golden frog, or much else either.
Almost frightening ride into Panama city. The bus drivers are as mad as in Nicaragua. They have no concept of fuel economy…flat out, as quickly as possible, making as much noise as they could….exhausts like dustbins. Passengers often had to jump off with the bus still moving.
Food in Panama is not very good, but much cheaper than Costa Rica.
Did a city tour including the Miraflores Locks and visitor centre on the canal.
Visited the old colonial part of the city, including the presidential house and a civic building used as a hotel in the new James Bond film.
On our final day with our tour leader we went to an Embera village out in the rain forest. The tribe has lived there since the mid 70’s after leaving the Darien jungle in search of a better place to live.
On route we had to go past the Miraflores Lock, where we saw the most enormous cruise ship passing through.
After a long bumpy
ride on unmade roads we were met on the banks of the Chagres river by 2 guys (not wearing a lot!) from the village, in a dug out canoe (with an outboard). A slightly nervy 40 minute ride upstream to the village. (I did think we were going to turn over a few time as we crossed shallow rapids)
We saw their homes and handicrafts, and after a delicious fish lunch we watched traditional dancing. (Very much reminiscent of the Navarjo experience in Monument Valley….. many looking distinctly similar) good fun just the same.
The Embera live an almost self sufficient existence (except for tourists)….. However, the phone box (despite it’s thatched roof) didn’t quite fit the situation.
So, our 64 days tour through Central America is over…. And for our last few nights here in Panama City we’ve booked into the Country Inn Amador, a nice hotel in a good location, overlooking the canal……. The bathroom basin has a working hot tap!!… the first in over 2 months.
Sometimes we’ve only had cold water, even from the showers …. Sometimes, no water at all …..and sometimes water where you don’t want it, like on the bedroom walls, or
even worse, suspicious looking puddles around the toilet pan.
Still, it’s been great experience, we’ll take many fantastic memories with us.
I just hope I can revert to putting the used toilet paper down the pan, not in the bin !! …. (… It took so long to be able to do that!)
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