Panama City: Stinking Hot and Just Plain Stinking

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Scientific Fact: It´s actually mathematically possible to measure your exact distance from the Caribbean sea by counting the number of times you hear Shaggy being played.

For this and other reasons I´m throwing my lot in with the Pacific, if you force me to choose. There´s less rain, better surf, and everyone isn´t so stinking grumpy! The Caribbean has perfect white sand, azure blue sea, boiling sunshine, yet everyone walks round with a face like a London Bus driver when you´ve asked him for change from a tenner. Maybe it´s over exposure to Shaggy?

Anyway, I digress. We´ve left the Caribbean now... Perhaps for the last time on this trip. Fittingly we escaped from Bocas Town (officially grubbier than the street outside ChickKing on Tulse Hill) in a boat that was about 2 trips from splitting in two. The front half of the boat had a massive boat-long crack in it which seemed to be the result of the captain enthusiastically smacking into every wave as quickly as possible. Mercifully we not only survived, but so did my bottle of Flor de Caña!

Next stop was Boquette for some hiking, but on arrival there we bumped into a very nice chap called Andrew from Canada, who´d just opened a hostel / retreat in the nearby Cloud forest. We spent a relaxing three days there going for hikes, hanging out with other western types, getting tips on South America, and butchering the Spanish language in conversations with the locals.

The Lost and Found hostel also gave us the opportunity of having two near death experiences! The first one, walking perilously close to a dangerous Coral snake wearing flip flops. The second, perhaps more deadly: being forced (I do not exaggerate) to try (and buy!) the local "organic" fruit wine. Ladies and gentlemen, there´s a reason why Baron Philippe de Rothschild doesn´t use Maracuya in his vintage claret, and it´s not the price of an imported Passion Fruit. It´s because he doesn´t want his booze to taste like paint-stripper.

We´re currently experiencing culture shock of the 3rd degree in Panama City. Culture shock indeed. This place is very reminiscent of Singapore, with shiny tower blocks, food that´s not rice and beans, and working internet cafes (hence the sudden publication of retrospective blogs!). It has shops with things you might actually want to buy in. There are hot showers which aren´t just powered by a live wire hanging out of the wall. Some of the cars even have suspension.

That aside, it retains certain Latin American features. For one thing, the taxi drivers are all clinically insane, and determined to take you anywhere but where you want to go. That´s if they can be bothered to pick you up at all (they´re strangely reluctant to go more than 2 streets). Buses here are also distinctly Latin - Pimped within an inch of their bussly lives with flashing lights and graffiti jobs, they play ear deafening Raggaeton and bump around the town in an amusing fashion. There are also a number of open sewers which add to the character of the place. Yum!

Today we´re off to see some canal or other, and a few parks, and maybe try to find the so called Carnivale (which is supposed to be big, but we´ve seen no sign of so far) but we´re not staying long. What´s next for us? Well, since I asked, we´re heading to Cordoba in Argentina. Hopefully tomorrow if we can get on the flight. Then Buenos Aires, followed by traversing down through Patagonia to the very cold places on the bottom of the continent, where hopefully we will see Penguins, Killer Whales, and the ubiquitous Kimodo Dragon!

¡Hasta Luego, Muchachos!
Si xx

p.s. If you´re subscribing and get the emails, ignore the one you got about two minutes before this one! Twas a mistake...

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Photos

Margaritas!
what better way to celebrate the day before our 17 week wedding anniversary than simultaneously downing two cocktails?

Pssssssssst
Mr Coral Snake won´t kill you, but a bite from him still wouldn´t be very pleasant. You´ve never seen me move so quick as when he started doing that scary standing up coily thing that snakes do.

Panama city banking district
the pacific ocean, and me

Casco Viejo, Panama City
the old town is a mix of beautifully restored colonial buildings, and falling down ruins