When we left Shelter Bay Marina of Colon, Panama it was a warm, sunny day. We were full of emotions, sad and excited at leaving friends behind but with hope of seeing new sites ahead. The trip, all 2 ½ miles of it, was uneventful. The coastline is beautiful with its mixture of palm trees, very large hardwood trees and rocky, low coastline. The water was flat calm. At the entrance of the river is Fort San Lorenzo. It is mostly gone now, crumbled away with time and covered by vines. The river runs out at the mouth causing some wave [View Full Entry]

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the reason why I moved to Panama City was because I wanted to go to Colombia. is not really safe cross the border by land due to the presence of paramilitary guerrilla colombiana, so I had 2 options: by air, according to the seasons, the price varies from 200 to $ 400 by sea, sailing with a price that ranges from 350 to $ 420, depending from which port you leaving and type of boat, almost always include food, reservation costs, customs fees. Few captains include alcoholic beverages in the price but not all of them so you must to bring [View Full Entry]

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We were on the May 9th sailing on the Freedom (8 night Western) out of Fort Lauderdale. This sailing normally goes to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama, but our itinerary got switched to Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize because of the H1N1 virus. May 8th - Wee hours of the morning… we’re off to the local airport to catch our flight away from Florida (we have to fly west from the east coast of Canada first to a major airport before we can catch flights to other major centers) so our trip can get started… we arrive in Fort Lauderdale mid [View Full Entry]

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My last entry only talked about the adventure of getting from Vancouver to camp so I really feel like I need to write about the jungle. I've been working everyday in the jungle for the last three weeks so its hard for me to recall my first impressions and first trepidations but I'll do the best that I can. I came to Panama to do a seismic survey with explosives but there was a delay in delivering the explosives and so I worked my first day in the jungle with the resistivity crew. I didn't pick up much of the field [View Full Entry]

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Since I'm in a foreign country again I thought I'd start up my travel blog again. Pretty exciting times in Panama so far. We left Vancouver last Friday on a 8am flight to Houston and then caught a flight to Panama City. There were 5 of us from work flying in to replace other colleagues who finished their rotation. Our Russian geophysicist, Andrey, was really keen to get some duty free Scotch in Houston but there was a problem. The camp we were moving into was dry, no alcohol. This meant we would have to drink the whole bottle the one [View Full Entry]

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My first Blog! We are cruising on a Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas repositioning cruise leaving from Colon, Panama and arriving back in Ft. Lauderdale. Looking forward to visiting new ports - Cartagena, and Santa Maria, Columbia and Oranjestad, Aruba. Will also dock in Limon, Costa Rica. Have been on the ship before and we're traveling with good friends, so it's bound to be a good time. Looking forward to taking some great photos. [View Full Entry]

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This small village arose from the river after an hour and a half long bus ride and 40 minute canoe ride into the jungles of Panama. As our canoe came closer I could see children playing in the waters and hear music being played in the distance. The village consists of only 18 small huts, one for each family of this small Indian tribe. These are the indigenous people of Panama. With no modern day appliances I wonder how these people keep in contact with the outside world. I also wonder how in the world they cooked the lunch of fish [View Full Entry]

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…and then we woke up and there was this huge double rainbow in the sky. We followed it to where it ended on an island where there were no clouds, no rain, and the sun was shining bright. We hiked up the pristine mountain and along the way discovered an indigenous tribe that had never come into contact with the modern world. They served us the most amazing Christmas dinner (even though they, of course, didn’t know it was Christmas). Then they led us down to the beach where there just happened to be scuba gear waiting for us. We geared [View Full Entry]

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We are still hanging out in Santa Fe. We took a short trip to Santa Catalina to visit the beach and take a vacation from our vacation. We stayed at a great little hostal called the Blue Zone. It had hammocks overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There is a huge hype right now about this little town, but we just couldn´t see it. It has a very small beach. It is suppose to be excellent for surfers so maybe that is why we didn´t quite get into it. We did have some great food at a little restaurant called Donde Vianca. Not [View Full Entry]

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OK..not really a lot of moving around since we last blogged. We did, however, decide that we liked Santa Fe so much we wanted to stay for a while (or forever?). We managed to find a house for rent. It is a fantastic little 3 bedroom house with no hot water, but...it has an indoor flush toilet! It is very quiet and nestled back from the road. The only bad thing we have discovered is the chitras (sand fleas). They come out about 4 pm and last until around 7 pm. We are beginning to wonder what it is like to [View Full Entry]

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