Blogs from Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean

A combination of a cheap flight and a lifelong desire to see the Panama Canal resulted in us heading down to Panama City for our spring break. As Shauna wanted to relax at the beginning of the trip, we booked the first three days in at Coconut Lodge, which was just outside of the city. I was worried about the location, as it wasn't close to really anything. At least this way, I would have to relax… In all my years of travelling, I have never had quite the experience as I did here. While it bills itself as a B&B, it was really a B&B and resort combined. Right from the pickup at the airport to the free room upgrade and complimentary drink everything exceeded our expectations. We were the only guests there for our ... read more

Hola amigos para la ultima vez de este viaje! Panama City is full of juxtapositions! Old, ruined buildings standing next to modern glass fronted high-rises, millionaires in mansions surrounded by slums and shacks. Wealthy businessmen working along side the poverty-striken lower-class, fancy new highways that merge into pot-holed and litter-strewn tracks... It's an amazing place! The skyline of mighty skyscrapers and the ocean is a startling view, they nickname the city "Mini Manhattan" or "Miami of the South", both names are fitting but we still called it Panama City. When we arrived in the Casco Viejo district of the city we wandered for quite a while, hauling our backpacks from hostel to hostel and hotel to hotel. Many places were full because of the Easter holiday. Because of our style of just rocking up to a ... read more

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

Just a short blog update today. Well after making the bus ride which wasn't too bad. I had 2 seats to myself for a while until some German girl appeared from nowhere 2 hours in and said she needed to sit next to me. Okay, where have you been the last 2 hours? Anyways all good, still enough room to get comfy and try and sleep. Spent most time listening to MP3 player on random. Jeez I have some random shit on there that I never listen to. Nothing exciting about a bus ride really is there. Made a pit stop and I took a few photos of an empty Costan Rican village that obviously serves as a stopping point for long distance drivers. Few hours later we make the border. All good getting out of ... read more