Blogs from Panama City, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 22

From Playa Hermosa we head to Volcan Arenal. The route plan is to take in the Cloud Forest (it is what it sounds like) but this is a gravel road and the recent heavy rains mean it is a no no. Only five people have done it in previous tours and two of them blew their rear shock absorbers. So we climb into the volcano range and the clouds close in and the humidity drops. We ride with Kevin and Julia and stop for lunch at a German owned café / gallery. It looks OK from the road but when we walk through it surrounds a stunning football pitch size lagoon. Howler monkeys are heard in the trees and the variety of brightly coloured birds is huge. Humming birds are feeding on the flowers and are ... read more

Booking of a uncommon tour I had see a small paragraph on a backpacker website about an indigenous Wounaan community, close to Panama City, that encourages tours within their village. Our friends were actually staying at that particular backpacker hostel and so we made enquiries about the tour and were able to organise our time in the village for today. Apparently, no one from the hostel had been out to the community in a while and so the receptionist wasn't really sure on what was involved. She confirmed our tour with a member of the community and let us know that we had to catch a bus from the Albrook bus terminal in Panama City out to a town called Gamboa and we would be met there for the tour. Transportation difficulties It all sounded easy ... read more

After getting up ridiculously early and being tugged by a small speed boat to the island where immigration was (the engine failed the previous evening), we eventually had our passports stamped and were legitimately in Panama after 6 days of officially being nowhere. We jumped into a small boat and head for the mainland, a little sad to be leaving paradise. The mainland wasn't quite what we expected. A small building with a few men sitting around outside, a plane wreck, and a ''toilet'' - nothing more than a few planks of wood over the water surrounded by corrogated iron - greeted us as we stepped ashore. Luckily the boatman who had taken us there helped us find a driver to take us to Panama City, and soon we were rolling through the jungle, across rivers ... read more

Yiipiee...wir haben es bis nach Panama City geschafft. Nachdem wir in Santa Catalina noch tauchen waren...ja, Luzia taucht nun auch mit Haien...sind wir direkt zur Hauptstadt gefahren. Hier sind wir nun schon seit 1 Woche und machen die Stadt unsicher. Bilder folgen sobald es wieder einmal ein anstaendiges Internet gibt. ... read more

No sooner had we stepped ashore on the Caribbean then we realized just how much money was in the country. There, waiting to take travelers to Panama City, were 4 Toyota SUV/ pickups that could not have been more than two years old. One had a snorkel on it. This helped explain why it cost $25 pp. Well, almost. It turned out that they were a place short, so Jorin was stuck riding in the back of a pickup (it did have a canopy). However, with the humidity and heat, Justin ended up switching with him half way through. We had great A/C in the cab. As we neared Panama City, it was very impressive. The skyline honestly looks like it belongs to Miami. Very similar feel. Especially when the weather report has a 'feels like' ... read more