Blogs from Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 2

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Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City » Casco Viejo February 22nd 2012

Monday 13th Feb - Bocas to Panama City A 5.45am alarm and we were off to the tiny little municipal airport of Bocas. It felt like a bit of a sell out taking the plane and avoiding the 11 hour bus ride but what the heck, for a mere extra 50 quid we'd travel in comfort at speed. Our inflight meal consisted of a glass of Orange Juice and a packet of cheesy crackers which had a fluorescent orange filling and looked like they'd been dipped in Uranium but were actually quite tasty. We got fleeced by the taxi to the hotel who charged us more than double than if you walk out of the airport to pick up one. Panama City was indeed very different to every other city in Central America with it's towering, ... read more
Panama City
San Blas
San Blas Islands

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City » Casco Viejo December 18th 2011

Geo: 8.95163, -79.5318A bit dazed this morning, not having had the best sleep - given the lack of sleep the night before flying out, I'm working on something like six or seven hours in the past two days. Hoping to take a stroll around the neighbourhood to get my bearings, the sleep deprivation and confusing layout made for a disorienting experience. Streets aren't well-labeled here, and the ones that actually are labeled don't provide much help - many street signs aren't oriented such that they line up with any street, so they don't tell you much. A number of streets also have two names, so the one you see on the map doesn't necessarily correspond to the signs you read. Making things even more confusing is when you come across something bizarre like an intersection with ... read more
The Latin American Miami ...
Casco Viejo ...
Gringo Pitstop for a Watermelon Juice ...


MONTEVERDE We left San Jose, leaving behind two hot Panamanians we met at our second night of partying, destination: Monteverde, a beautiful little village up in a cloud forest. After long bus rides, in a normal bus and the fabled chickenbus,a cheap converted american schoolbus used by police and bus companies here in Middle America we arrived in the cloud covered Monteverde. This is where we took on the Extremo ziplines, cables suspended through rainforest and between mountains, the tarzan swing: jump off a ledge freefalling for a few seconds after soaring on a rope through the jungle, and of course the superman: a 1km zipline, suspended between two mountains hundreds of metres in the air, you go flying while a harnass on your back lets you fly (like in a dream) through the air. A ... read more


So I ventured to Panama. And I absolutely loved it. Everything went wonderfully except for Wednesday.. a day of travel hell. Adele and I decided to take a trip just the two of us to Panama to see both Bocas Del Toro, and Panama City. We left on Wednesday at 9:00am from Heredia to catch a 10:00am bus in San Jose. Well, there was so much traffic on our way to the bus station that we didn't get there until 3 minutes to 10:00. Adele ran to buy tickets and I ran to the bus to try to delay it, but there was only one seat left and they wouldn't let one of us stand. So our bus left without us. I explained to one of the men working that we had to cross the Panama/Costa ... read more
This really doesn't capture how funky it was
"please no smoken here" haha
Sixaola


The final country I was to visit in Central America was Panama and even before I arrived there I had a feeling that I would really like it. As the Panama Canal is the only way to cross from the East coast to West coast without going right round the contintent there is a huge investment in the country. Panama City is an exceptionally safe and modern Capital city, it´s almost a tiny piece of America right at the bottom of Central America. The border crossing from Costa Rica into Panama can only be described as a unique experience. We had been told it was pretty relaxed but I don´t think that we were prepared for how relaxed it would be. When the bus dropped us off at the border the first thing that we saw ... read more
Trump Tower for Lunch
The Island
Island Iguana


'...A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.' Duke Leto Ateides, 'Dune' (David Lynch, 1984) TJ, Anja and I made our preparations to leave our friends at The Naked Tiger hostel in San Juan del Sur. I gently kissed long-term travelling companion Ben's passed-out forehead by way of good bye and then toyed with the idea of smothering him with a pillow. Such is the effect that Ben has on people, the cocky little twat. Genuinely though, I was worried that I wouldn't see the lad because, like some kind of twisted sadist, his plan was to head back to the Posta Rojo tree house for a couple of weeks. Presumably he liked being dirty and enjoyed ... read more
Probs the nicest vista of Puerto Limon you'll see
A shop. Puerto Limon
Arriving at Puerto Viejo


As we arrived in Panama city I thought landed in the states. There were drive through ATMs and skyscrapers everywhere. After six days on a boat we ended up staying at the first place we could find, but we soon realised it wasn't in the best neighbourhood and moved ourself to casco vieja, the old town. None of us were really ready to deal with the developed world just yet. The old town use to be the place where all the rich people lived but do to crime a lot of people moved out. In the last few years it's become a UNESCO world heritage site and money is starting to be spent to restore it. It is very run down, but it's definitely getting better and in years to come I'm sure it will look ... read more
The old town
Photo 3
Such a shame


Oioi, I'll start by telling what I will be doing in the coming week. I will be travelling to Colombia by pampampam ;p boat, a sailboat to be precise. The trip will start somewhere in the area of Colon, Panama. After setting sail we will be island hopping the San Blas islands for 3days(google San Blas if U want to see some really nice pictures ;) ) after which we will travel trough open sea to northern Colombia where we will sack the city of Cartagena ye-arrrr(this still needs to be discussed with the captain though, alternatively we might just dock instead in a peaceful manner..). And then from there I will make my way down to Ecuador etc... Kay, Panama City. Obviously when visiting this area one has to check out … aye, the canal. ... read more
Big boat
60cm...


Hi, the four day trip from Guate to Panama City turned out to be just a two day trip with us travelling the last 24hrs of that trip, making it pretty tiresome. Luckily I sat next to a really nice girl from panama city who offered me a ride to a cheap-ish hotel where I spend the first night. So the first day I found my way to the hostel where I am planning to spend the nights during my stay in Panama City. Its located in Casco viejo, the place where Panama city was moved to after the first settlement got sacked by arrrr, aye pirates!(not sure wetter it were pirates though, might have been some navy, but pirates sound better...) So ye, it was sacked by pirates arrr!! Casco viejo is a nice little ... read more
Panama skyline
Some important building
A room in a hostal


Travel day. Woohoo (said with very little enthusiasm). I guess I shouldn't complain. There aren't very many of these days left for us. We'll be home before we know it. The countdown is on, 22 days to go. Yikes. We packed up & made a quick breakfast sandwich to start us off right. We caught our first bus in Santa Catalina at 7:15 am. My favorite passenger today was the guy who got on the bus with a chainsaw & gas. They just set the chainsaw down in the aisle & we smelled the gas until he got off the bus. Gotta love it. We arrived in Sona at 9:30 & were placed on a direct bus to Panama City. Perfect! We thought we'd have to go through Santiago. We had about 1.5 hours to wait ... read more
Kassandra and the best gelatto EVER!
Enjoying the view of dowtown Panama.
Our first shaved ice.




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