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Published: April 14th 2012
Sleeping Indian
Overlooking the Valle!Dear Blog Readers,
Welcome to our new set of travel blogs! We hope you can join us on our adventure through Central America for the next three months. For those of you who are new to the blogs - it´s basically a slightly longer than acceptable piece of toilet reading which may eventually boil down to a chronicalisation of our bowel movements. However, I will try and keep it on topic and informative to provide you with sufficient entertainment for the next few minutes (hours).
The long flight from Heathrow via Amsterdam to Panama City was notable for the number of meal and drinks rounds that were made. Laura was hammered after two Heinekens. We had our fingers crossed that we weren´t going to be placed anywhere near the screaming baby that drowned out the announcements in the departure lounge. Of course, we park our seats at 37G and 37H and find that said baby was in 37F. Brilliant. One of the stewardesses even said they were going through ear plugs like never before. After landing, the airport wasn´t as chaotic as we expected. Instead of paying the $25 for the taxi, we opted for the $0.25 bus. It
theFALLEN
Definitely not plugging theFALLEN with our Finnish friend, Laura. was air conditioned and took us through both the good and bad parts of the city. A kind gentleman even paid for our trip because we didn´t have the necessary card and made sure we got off at the right stop. Superb. The hostel that we´d booked took a little finding but the Villa Vento Surf was great.
We must have been tired. I had a monotonous air conditioner to my left and a worryingly high pictched snoring gentleman to my right but still slept mostly through them both. We cooked some pancakes for breakfast and I found a Twinings Earl Grey teabag in the cupboard. Result. Ironically, as my little brother´s band, theFALLEN, were just finishing off their Finland tour, the first girl tha we got chatting to was from Finland and her name was Laura. I obviously didn´t plug the band that much and failed to inform her that their debut album, ´Bury Your Demons´is out on May 1st and available from all good (and bad) online media outlets. Oh and I forgot to mention that their Facebook page is www.facebook.com/theFALLENonline and I most definitely did not wear a Bury Your Demons promotional t-shirt for the duration
Panama Canal
Chinese cargo ship coming into Miraflores Locks. of my stay in Panama City.
Anyway, that aside, we decided we´d have a go at going to the infamous Panama Canal. We hopped on a few buses and finally got to Miraflores Locks which is the final of the three locks that lower the boats to sea level. Panama Canal is famous in that it is the only route from the Pacific to the Atlantic without having to go around South America and thus brings a huge amount of revenue to the country. We were lucky enough to see a huge Chinese cargo ship come into the lock. They´d paid over $300,000 for the privilige!
The following day we got on a few buses which took us down to El Valle De Anton, a beautifully scenic town carved out into the valley. The journey there was spectacular and a wonderful display of the reliance of the ships on the infrastructure of the country. We looked around for a while and ended up finding La Casa De Juan. Senor Juan has created a ramshackle place filled with ornaments and belongings of a hoarder. I swear some of the pieces from our garage clearout have found their way here.
Pitching up
In the ramshackle Casa de Juan. It has everything we could ask for and we were allowed to set up our tent in the garden and use their facilities.
The torrential rain was non-stop and we trudged towards a hot spring in a brief window of opportunity. We put on some mud face masks and then dipped ourselves into the "38 degrees" hot spring. More like 18. It was bloody freezing! The tent held up well in the night and we got a reasonable nights sleep. In the morning we hiked into town, checked out the Sunday market which was superb. We then continued out of town towards some rocks with petroglifs on them. They looked good and we were able to carry on trekking into the jungle and eventually reached the top of ´The Sleeping Indian´which was a peak overlooking the town. It was worth the tougher than expected climb up! On the way back down, we went into a waterfall and plungepool which was pretty cold but refreshing! We also hiked to another "waterfall" which ended up being a little natural swimming pool and cost twice as much to get in! Gutted!
On the way home in the evening, an electricity pylon
Market
Sunday market in the town centre of Valle De Anton. exploded like it does in those horror movies right next to where we were standing! It was terrifying! The night was really windy, but bizarrely, it only seemed to be localized to our tent as our washing outside and our bags were undeterred! Creepy! Another terrifying moment was when one of the puppies in the Casa came up and licked Laura´s face. She said after her ordeal, "I´d rather have been vommed on by a chav".
We packed up our things and waited for a bus to take us back the way we came to get a bus south to Playa Venao. It was rush hour and the minibuses were rammed. Amazingly, as we waited, a man in a huge Ferrari turned up and offered us a lift. We duly took him up on his offer as he sped ridiculously fast through the winding roads and saved us about 2 hours off our trip! Whats more, he lived in Penrith for 4 years!! We then got a bus down to the idyllic beach in Venao where there is very little except the beautiful surf. We camped at a wonderful resort called Eco Venao which was environmentally focussed. We drifted
Eco Venao
On the beach front at Playa Venao. off to sleep with the sea breeze through the tent, opened up so we could see the stars. Bliss.
The morning after, we´d planned to hit the surf but as we turned up on the beach, we noticed how good the surfers seemed to be...and worryingly young for such talent. We then found out that the World Junior Surf competition was going to be held there in a couple of days. Damn! The place was heaving and there was no way we would be able to get into the water without seriously hurting our ego or potential professional surfers. We decided it would be best to leave since everywhere was booked out for the surfers and we coul surf elsewhere. We got the first bus out and managed to get to Chitre before nightfall and get a hot dog outside the beautiful cathedral that the town is centred on.
Chitre is really just a stopping point for venures further towards Costa Rica. After a horrific breakfast of a slab of cake with wine gums in it and a croissant with ham and cheese in it (vile), we got on a bus to Santiago where we stopped for lunch.
Relaxing
Relaxing in Eco Venao in a hammock listening to the waves. I even saw a humming bird! We ended up in probably one of the worst bars in Panama. The only thing worse was its toilet - a wooden trelless soaked in piss that took your feet inches above a tiled floor that was a luke warm lake of piss. It was nearly as vile as that croissant. From Santiago, we got a bus to David and then straight onto Boquete!
Tink and Laura
PS - it´s 50p a litre of petrol here.
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Tink's mum
non-member comment
Concern re tent!
Dad's bothered that it doesn't look like you've put the tent up right! Anyhow at least it kept you dry. Just goes to show that we're not the only ones to hoard loads of useless rubbish! Glad you're having a good time - the blog made me laugh lots!