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Published: April 14th 2010
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Ben in Panama City
A big contrast to Havana! After a slightly traumatic exit from Cuba (which involved many people having to look at my emergency passport, the first woman I showed it to holding her hands up and making a "what the hell is this" noise, and us having to be rushed through customs by an aeroplane lady because we were in danger of missing the flight due to the aforementioned passport issues), we landed in Panama rather apprehensively, considering the problems we had in Cuba. Surely, if we had problems LEAVING a country, entering would be even worse!
But fate had decided we had had enough problems, and every person we had to speak to in Panama airport was charming, friendly and welcoming: "bienvenidos a Panama!" Hooray!! We decided to make use of the duty free and buy a new camera to replace the one we had lost, and Ben did the natural thing to do after you have just been robbed, and bought a laptop! After seeing so many travellers with laptops and thinking "what kind of travellers are they with a laptop...posers" we decided to jump on the bandwagon, and very useful it has been too! With a spring in our step we hopped straight
Americanisation
in it's many forms - McDonalds and chicken buses into a taxi for the British Embassy, which turned out to be in a huge tower in an area of lots of huge towers! It looked to us like a cross between New York and Perth (cos it's by water and sunny!). But Panama was HOT so we were very glad to get into the heavily airconditioned building! As we had our backpacks on we were waved straight through to the Embassy as it was clear we weren't headed for a business meeting! We managed to sort out the required forms and watch a bit of BBC News (of course there was also the obligatory photo of the Queen, I felt like maybe we should have saluted or something..), and then headed to a hostel. We thought this place was pricey but we then discovered Panama is just expensive full stop...
The hostel (Casa del Carmen in El Cangrejo, the banking district) was lovely and just what we needed after our recent ordeals. Free tea, coffee, breakfast, internet, hammocks, hummingbirds and a heavily air conditioned room! We soon realised that with our special new passport we could only visit 5 countries which would have made our flights home very
Casco Viejo
The old town very expensive (as non-expensive flights entailed a changeover, which would be a 6th stop, not allowed with our emergency passports). After a lot of panicking, cursing and phonecalls to the Embassy we found a solution (to apply for a full passport on our travels) and decided to go ahead and book flights home. Seeing flights for $2000 and upwards had got us worried!! That afternoon we found 2 for 1 ice creams and a vegetarian Taiwanese buffet at 60 cents a portion, Panama City was coming up trumps!! The only problem was the intense heat and humidity that made walking any longer than 10 minutes a rather unpleasant experience!
In between sorting out flights and passports, we did manage to do a bit of touristy stuff in Panama City. One day we went to Casco Viejo, the old part of the city, which was full of very old crumbling buildings, some of which had been restored. It was very nice but a little underwhelming for us after the grandeur of Havana! Unfortunately the areas that link Casco Viejo to the rest of the city are some of the city's most dangerous slums, so a taxi ride is required to
get to and fro. After this we got a taxi up to the Parque Natural Metropolitana, a National Park within the city limits. It was much cooler than the city so we managed to do a fair bit of walking, and saw loads of species of birds, lizards and even a snake! It seemed crazy being so close to the city. There was a point you could walk to to get a view of the canal (just about) and the city, it was good to get a different perspective. On our way out of the park we came across a pond that after closer inspection was full of tiny turtles that seemed to find us very interesting! There were also many of what we came to learn are affectionately called 'Jesus Lizards', as they run across the water. They were really incredible to watch.
On another day we took a boat out to Isla Taboga, an island 45 minutes away from the city. During the boat ride we went past the entrance to the Panama Canal and saw a lot of very very big boats. There were a lot of rather excited people with big cameras taking a lot
Snake
Slithering right across the path in Parque Natural Metropolitana of photos of the boats, but even us non boat enthusiasts could appreciate they were pretty massive! (Ben - I was so distracted by the boats that I walked into the propeller of another boat and cut my leg open! Only joking, that wasn't me...) Once we arrived on Taboga we headed straight for the nearest beach and jumped in the sea, which was such a relief after a few days of relentless heat! We spent the day lazing in the shade and in the sea, and on the way back saw a great sunset over the bay. The boat to Taboga departs and returns to the Causeway, a 2km long causeway connecting 3 small islands to the city. It is lined with palm trees and benches, and on certain parts has lots of bars and restaurants. We splashed out and had some pizza for dinner on the way back from Taboga, and enjoyed feeling a little bit chilly as it was very windy!
We started serious budgeting while we were in Panama City as we realised we were spending all our money on food and snacks! So $6 a day each on food and drinks was our target,
Turtle
In the parque and very soon we were getting back into self catering in a big way. Our first hostel had a great kitchen but unfortunately had to kick us out after two nights as they were full. We found another hostel after a great deal of searching, it seemed that, like when we first arrived in Darwin in Australia, Panama City was full. The hostel was nice enough but we had to stay in separate dorms, Ben's was full of smelly boys and mine was right next to the all night party area, so not much sleep was had! The kitchen was also tiny so there was our motivation for dinner on the Causeway. Nevermind, we were back in our original hostel, Casa de Carmen, for our final night when Ben thanked them by accidently nicking the key. We've only just sent it back to them, 2 weeks later!
On our final day in Panama City, we decided to visit the Panama Canal, after all, one can't go to Panama and not see the Canal! We were a little apprehensive as we had spoken to some English guys who weren't impressed and told us "well... it's a canal, we've got loads
Boat trip to Taboga
We went right across the shipping lane into the Panama canal - some very big boats! of them at home". They were very correct but it wasn't just any canal, it was huge, in fact the pictures don't really show how big the ships were. We caught a bus to the Miraflores Locks, which, if you had never seen a lock before (many of the people there were in that category), were pretty incredible! We had a look round the museum which was very interesting (or maybe we are just geeks, on the way to joining the boat snapping enthusiasts on the Taboga boat!), and learnt about the many years and lives that were spent building the canal. The only problem with our afternoon at the Canal was a "friend" we had picked up on the way, who we had previously spoken to at our hostel (another Canadian, we have met an awful lot of rather odd Canadians on this trip!). He spent the whole time talking about women in a very degrading way and desperately trying to get Ben to go to a strip club with him. However this situation did add a different dimension to our Canal trip, as much of the time involved us creeping about James Bond style trying to hide from
Sunset
On the way back from Taboga him!! But of course, as we came out of the building, there he was waiting for us, our stealth efforts were all in vain!
After 5 nights we were glad to finally leave the city, it was a welcome relief for us after the stress of Cuba, but it was just far too hot! So we headed to the mountains...
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Leg injuries
Love the leg reference - really got me chuckling although I'm sure the one involved probably was less amused!!