Blogs from Panama City, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 13

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MONTEVERDE We left San Jose, leaving behind two hot Panamanians we met at our second night of partying, destination: Monteverde, a beautiful little village up in a cloud forest. After long bus rides, in a normal bus and the fabled chickenbus,a cheap converted american schoolbus used by police and bus companies here in Middle America we arrived in the cloud covered Monteverde. This is where we took on the Extremo ziplines, cables suspended through rainforest and between mountains, the tarzan swing: jump off a ledge freefalling for a few seconds after soaring on a rope through the jungle, and of course the superman: a 1km zipline, suspended between two mountains hundreds of metres in the air, you go flying while a harnass on your back lets you fly (like in a dream) through the air. A ... read more


So I ventured to Panama. And I absolutely loved it. Everything went wonderfully except for Wednesday.. a day of travel hell. Adele and I decided to take a trip just the two of us to Panama to see both Bocas Del Toro, and Panama City. We left on Wednesday at 9:00am from Heredia to catch a 10:00am bus in San Jose. Well, there was so much traffic on our way to the bus station that we didn't get there until 3 minutes to 10:00. Adele ran to buy tickets and I ran to the bus to try to delay it, but there was only one seat left and they wouldn't let one of us stand. So our bus left without us. I explained to one of the men working that we had to cross the Panama/Costa ... read more
This really doesn't capture how funky it was
"please no smoken here" haha
Sixaola


The final country I was to visit in Central America was Panama and even before I arrived there I had a feeling that I would really like it. As the Panama Canal is the only way to cross from the East coast to West coast without going right round the contintent there is a huge investment in the country. Panama City is an exceptionally safe and modern Capital city, it´s almost a tiny piece of America right at the bottom of Central America. The border crossing from Costa Rica into Panama can only be described as a unique experience. We had been told it was pretty relaxed but I don´t think that we were prepared for how relaxed it would be. When the bus dropped us off at the border the first thing that we saw ... read more
Trump Tower for Lunch
The Island
Island Iguana

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City October 20th 2011

Panama – a nice unexpected stopover After not finding our perfect island setting on the Caribbean coast of Colombia we planned 10 days on an island off the Pacific coast of Panama. Before heading towards the island we spent two nights outside of Panama City at Monkey Lodge – yes, there were real monkeys there! We had a days adventure on the Gatun river passing the container ships on the Panama Canal in our tiny little boat. We also fed the monkeys on Monkey Island, walked to an old WWII American radio station, had lunch on our own private island and had an awkward moment hanging around an Embera Indian tribe. Contadora Island Contadora is part of the Pearl Islands, it has 6 beaches and 4 restaurants and not a lot else... perfect! To Will’s delight ... read more
Monkey on the outside and humans in the cage!
"I think it's okay I can't see any of them"
"What are you finding in there?"

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City October 20th 2011

A few boring photos of the Panama Canal and a few slightly less boring ones of the old town and a Dolly Parton lookalike.... read more
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Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City October 19th 2011

Panama City, for me, was a huge surprise - it was far better than I expected. The city is rather large, but we stayed central and were able to walk everywhere from Casco Viejo (old town) to Bella Vista (newer part of town) and beyond. In addition, the canal is a quick cab ride from town and there was an excellent boardwalk where the exercisers in the city really came alive at night. However, possibly the best part of the city was the grocery store...however weird it sounds. Those that have traveled some in Central America can probably relate to the constant din just about wherever you are. Whether, it is an old U.S. diesel engine school bus without a muffler screaming by the streets, someone yelling TAXI to you, or someone trying to sell you ... read more
Panama City 2
Panama City 3
Panama City 4

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City October 17th 2011

Coffee in Boquete and Bocas del Toro beaches.... read more
Coffee in Boquete
Boquete
Boquete

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City October 17th 2011

I left the last Blog saying that we had a stupidly long bus journey ahead of us to our final country Panama. This wasn’t a lie, and has been our longest journey to date on this trip. It consisted of a bus from Manuel Antonio, to Quepos, then another bus change to get from Quepos back to San Jose. In San Jose, we jumped in a cab back to the Tica bus station, and then proceeded to wait (our bus to Panama wasn’t for another 3 and half hours). Once we finally boarded the bus bound to Panama it was 11.30 in the evening, and we already felt that we had done a fair stint of travelling! We finally got going at around 12pm, an hour later than scheduled, and we were due to arrive at ... read more
Panamas modern skyline1
Our favourite builing in Panama
Panamas modern skyline2

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City October 16th 2011

Hello Friends! Since my last post in Granada we have had nearly non-stop rain - which means it has been raining for about 7 days straight. It is rainy season, and at first we attributed it to rainy season but about three days into the constant rain we were informed that we were hit by a perfect storm down here in Central America. First Hurricane Jova hit southern Mexico, the bands of rain pretty much covered all of Central America, causing multiple landslides and deaths. Then, Tropical Storm Irwin hit Central America, followed by Tropical Depression 12-E. I believe we are at the end of Tropical Depression 12-E and that the weather will go back to what it was - nice during the day and some sort of rain at night (or a few hours of ... read more
Volcan Concepcion
San Juan De Sur

Central America Caribbean » Panama » Panamá » Panama City September 18th 2011

Exploring Panama City When we woke up on Saturday we did a little bit of research about where to go then set off to roam the city. Our afternoon pretty much consisted of walking around for 3 hours. We started off heading down a street called Avenue Central which is a super crowded street filled with stands of people selling things, everything but food that is! We were starving when we left the hostel and it took us FOREVER to find a place to eat. We finally settled on a traditional Panamanian cafeteria type place where we had our first authentic meal: beans, rice, plantains, and roasted chicken (all for about $2.50 a plate!). After lunch we turned away from the busy street and started heading towards the beach. We made it to a walkway that ... read more
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