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Published: December 20th 2009
Photo 1
A Familiar Storm Rolling Over the Panama City Skyline............Panama, doot doo di doo. Panama doot doo di doo doo, di doo doo, di doo doo, di doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.
Hola again Amigos and Amigas,
After 3 and a half months, our South American tour has finished. All countries had matched or bettered our wildest expectations. There is lot to deal with when you travel through such diverse countries, countries that are so inexplicably different to our home nations. You are always outside of your comfort zone. You have to roll with the punches as nothing, NOTHING, is like it is back home. But it’s fun. Great fun in fact. The myriad of discussions we have had about how each country could and should improve, would bore you to tears. Politicians could do a lot worse than asking travellers about what they should do to improve their country...many if not most are super-duper hyper-critical and more than willing to voice their opinion. We just have fun with the “what ifs”...if we didn’t, we would only be satisfied if everything was as it is back at home. Why would you bother travelling it that was the case? Many travellers just don’t get it.
Photo 2
Rain Drops the Size of Golf Balls. At the airport prior to our flight from Cartagena, Colombia to Panama City, Panama we were faced with yet another bizarre set of airport events. We knew that we had to pay an exit fee for departing Colombia. Lonely Planet had advised a $25 tax, we guessed it might now be around $30-35. We find the tax window and are told the princely sum of USD$64 each! A bit rich hey! Nevertheless, we ask if we can pay by credit card. Yes was the answer, but the officer said that we pay at the check-in counter. Why bother having a tax window we thought? So we arrive at the check-in counter after a 30 minute or so wait and they say that we need to pay the exit tax. Naturally, we said that we were told to pay at check-in. “No, you have to pay at the tax window”. Keep in mind that this is all happening in Spanish so we were becoming increasingly confused. We head back to the tax window. The same guy at the tax window then requests our passports and provides us with docket which he tells us we must hand in at the check-in
Photo 3
"Palacio de las Grazas" - Presidential Palace. counter when we pay the exit tax. Why didn’t the loser give that to us the first time round? So we head back (again, with all of our bags too don’t forget) to the check-in counter where we are again told that we have to pay the tax at the tax window (which seemed fair but we were getting nowhere). Finally the check in girl takes USD$5 each from us and signs some form and we are told that we are all checked in. We still didn’t know where or when we would have to pay the exit tax but at least we had gotten rid of our heavy bags. In the end, we never ended up paying another dollar.
During all of the above, we had a complete luggage search (as all passengers did) whilst checking in. If you saw the complex nature of how we both meticulously pack our back-packs to ensure that we can fit everything in, you would easily realise that pulling everything out and then just throwing it all back in won’t work. Well the less-than-friendly Colombian officers thought it would be easy. Especially if they just use brute force. Having finished emptying the
Photo 4
Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. entire contents of the top half of my back-pack (the bottom section wasn’t searched, so why bother searching at all?) they then proceeded to push prod and force zippers to try to get my bag to close. When they started punching my gear, I was infuriated and couldn’t stand by quietly any longer. I stepped in and stopped them from attempting to destroy my gear and ruin the zippers on my bag. The stupid clowns just smirked and suggested that I do it then. No problems, give me 20 minutes. I unpacked the bag and went into my meticulous packing routine right there, stalling their useless searching process. The bags that were being searched weren’t even going onboard with us. They need to discover sniffer dogs....they would be much more affective that the half-arsed efforts we encountered with these geese.
So to Panama City. An easy 80 minute flight. We checked into a big hostel in Casco Viejo, the old part of the city. In parts Casco Viejo is a dilapidated ugly unsafe squabble of a place. In others there is an obvious concerted effort of renovation and beautification taking place. Some of the buildings are gorgeous grand old
Photo 5
Large Ship Entering the Canal. structures that are screaming out for some TLC. We walked the town for our first morning until a rain storm of massive proportions hit. Rain drops the size of golf balls, in the quantity of millions drenched the town. Wet weather apparel was useless, bunkering down and waiting was not possible. We later discovered that this is usual for Panama City. And it was. Every day it rained cats and dogs, interrupting our daily plans.
The highlight of Panama City was a trip to see the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks. The Canal is an engineering feat second to none that I have ever seen. We marvelled as a giant ship passed through, we toured a really informative and well organised 3 level museum and watched a video that outlined the USD$5 billion plan to widen the locks. We were there for more than 3 hours and it only cost us $8. Money reeeeeally well spent.
Interestingly, we are told that with the passing of EVERY ship, 200 million litres (52 million gallons) of fresh water is released (lost) into the oceans. Amazingly the only way that the water is replenished is by rainfall and the country’s
Photo 6
View from the Airport Dock in the San Blas Islands. vast river network. Now we clearly understood why those damned rain storms had to happen for many months of the year! The new locks will include water saving and replenishing systems. Phew!
We next flew to the Archipelago de San Blas, located in the Caribbean Sea about 100km (25 minutes) north of Panama City. If I asked you to draw an idyllic island of paradise, you would draw many of the San Blas Islands. Palm trees, white sand, aqua water etc. We stayed on a small island that would only be 150m long by 50m wide I suppose. The 3 days there were just bliss. The first day we had absolutely perfect weather so sunbaking, reading, eating, drinking and a fast rotation of all four of these was our only agenda. Unfortunately the weather for the other 2 days was a bit dull but there were phenomenal rain storms. It didn’t stop us from swimming though. If you are content to leave EVERY luxury at home and just do nothing for a few days, San Blas awaits you. At $20 each per night including 3 meals (including lobster), it’s a cheap way to relax!
What we had hoped
Photo 7
One of the Many Small Islands Scattered Throughout San Blas. would be our last long bus ride took us from Panama City to the mountain town of Boquete in 7 hours. Panama sure knows how to air condition buses. The temperature must have been about 10 degrees on the bus! Visiting Boquete is like visiting a small town in the USA. There is very little Panamanian culture on display. Everyone speaks English or should I say, American. The town is cute but there is just too much of an American feel to it in my opinion and that is not why I travelled to Panama.
We attempted to hike the ‘Quetzal Trail’ which is supposedly revered for its beauty but again the rain storms came and spoiled the day. Every day it rained and given that Boquete is all about the great outdoors, we couldn’t really get into it. We did get really wet though.
We pushed on to Bocas del Toro, another Panamanian island group frequented by many locals and foreigners alike. We were quite excited as we were meeting up with one of our best friends Carrie, who had been travelling down through Central America from Mexico. We eagerly awaited her arrival on the balcony of
Photo 8
The First View of our Island... Robinson Island. our hostel, armed with 30 or so water balloons! Carrie’s first 10 or so words when greeting us were very naughty ones but we quickly forgave her and headed for the bar!
At Bocas del Toro the Panamanian weather again let us down. We stayed on the main island, Colon, for 2 nights and on a nearby island called Bastimentos for another 2 and it pretty much rained the majority of the time. Our biggest night included plenty of drinks at a hostel that has of all things, a diving board into the sea through the decking. Late that night one of the funniest things happened. A rather chubby young lady probably in her late 20’s was talking to a very slim man who was no doubt on the worst side of 70 years old but nonetheless revelling with the best of us. That was funny enough given their very different ages and appearances. What happened next had us in stitches. The girl lifts up her shirt to show the old codger her salmon coloured (very full and overflowing) bra. The words exchanged between them could not be heard but she then went one step further and flopped out
Photo 9
Our Cabin for the Next Three Nights. her very large right breast. We were pretty sure her next two words were “lick it”. The old bloke obliged with glee! We’re not sure if he took his teeth out or not but it really was funny stuff.
Other highlights of Bocas del Toro were finding a great Chinese restaurant, watching the festivities of Bastimentos Day, our hostel Gran Kahuna (great vibe) and spotting tiny red frogs on Red Frog Beach.
A few weeks in Costa Rica awaits us. For now though, I’ll tell you about these Panamanian thingies:
• The red, white and blue is seriously advertised - possibly more so than the USA. The people are very, very patriotic indeed.
• If a Panamanian can speak English, they will invariably do so with an American accent.
• Don’t negotiate a cab fare! Just get in, get driven and then pay what you think is fair at the end. You are guaranteed a cheaper ride and amazingly no arguments!
• Panama loves its canal. They just love, love, love it!
• Like at home, Chinese immigrants run all the small convenience stores.
• They use US dollars but call them
Photo 10
Relaxing in a Hammock is Tough Work! “Balboas” - yep as in Rocky Balboa. Strong name hey!
• Watch where you walk.... the footpaths are missing utility covers and water grates everywhere!
Scrap metal trade-in seems the most likely reasons for their disappearance.
• The indigenous people, the ‘Kuna’ have no comprehension of waste disposal. Just like most other indigenous people throughout Latin America.
Adios
Ryan
P.S. Here’s some vital ongoing travel statistics to enlighten you further:
• No. of countries visited since leaving Aus: 11
• Cheapest beer to date (calculated on 100mL conversion): $0.80
• No. of hours spent on public transport (inc. taxis): 138
• Cheapest room (double room shared bathroom, breakfast included): $8.33 each per night
• Distance travelled in SA: 11,055kms
• No. modes on transport used: 24 (foot, jet plane, bicycle, boat, motorcycle taxi, taxi, taxi-bus, coach, ute back, car, 4wd, mini-bus, crawling, ferry, truck, motorised rickshaw, dune buggy, sand board, propeller plane, speed boat, swimming, raft, zip line, SCUBA)
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Karolina (Mrs V) and Mark Romesh Gooma
non-member comment
Another great episode of Cliffy and Chris' adventures!
Hello Cliffy! Wow.. the last 3 and a half months or so of travel have kept me entertained and have made the last few months of my pregnancy all the more pleasant with some big belly laughs:) Your Global Map will be inheriting a whole heap of new pins as you add all the new destinations to it! He he... made me laugh about the tax.. how freaking frustrating, but then with the strange outcome of you not paying it in the end:) Also the licking of the boobies made me nearly wet my pants:) The San Blas island you stayed on looks so reclusive but amazingly serene and beautiful. Just fascinating that places like this exist in the world while we busy ourselves at our computers, at work or in trafffic. Absolutely love the photo with you and the palm tree! what a shot! Im guessing yur next episode will be after spending Christmas together in Germany with Chris and her family.. Wishing you guys an awesome Christmas with lots of laughs and German beers:) Love heaps Mrs V (karolina) Mr V (Gooma) and Baby V (due in 10 weeks!!!!!! oh sh**T!:)