Blogs from Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Leaving for Panama Friday October 26. Have to get up very early to get to the airport by 4:30 am. Haven’t gotten up that early since I retired almost 2 years ago. It will be painful. It’s a 9-day land tour + 3-day canal cruise. I will be travelling with my hubby and family and friends (9 of us this time). Bags are packed and ready to go. Whenever I mention that I’m going to Panama the first reaction I get from people who have been there is “oh it’s really hot there”. I will be adding blogs along the trip. If you don’t want to receive them just let me know and I will delete your name from the distribution list.... read more

20 octobre 2018 : Nous nous levons à 6H30. Le temps est plus clément ce matin. Nous prenons un petit déjeuner très copieux. Nous allons à l'arrêt de bus (il est situé en face de l'hôtel juste de l'autre côté de la rue) mais nous le loupons de 5 minutes. Le gars qui s'occupe des bus, pour que nous ne perdions pas de temps, nous emmène avec sa voiture jusqu'au canal. Merci monsieur, c'est super sympa. Nous arrivons donc au canal à 9H30 et assistons à une projection expliquant toute la construction du canal. Très intéressant. L'après-midi, nous retournons d'abord à l'hôtel, puis nous découvrons le vieux centre-ville, grâce au système de bus touristique que l'on trouve maintenant dans toutes les villes importantes.... read more

The only thing we want to do in Panama is see the canal and fortunately that’s pretty easy to do from Panama City as it’s only 5km from the main bus station to the Miraflores lock visitor centre. In order to see something interesting we need to hang around for a couple of hours, but are then rewarded by the bulk carrier “Pretty Sight” and the car transporter “Courageous Ace” heading south through the locks towards the Pacific. The viewing platform is next to the original locks built in 1913, but there are now a new and larger set about 1km west of where we are built to take longer and wider vessels. Panama City is quite unlike anywhere else we have been in Central America with an impressive skyline of modern tower blocks. There is ... read more

On Friday, May 18th, Ingrid, Patrick and I were picked up at our hostel at 3PM by a shuttle that took us to the port. It was about 2 hours to get there and we briefly stopped after 1 hour at a supermarket to buy last supplies. The others convinced me that it would be better to have some travel sickness medication and, since this is pretty cheap in Panama, I bought 10 pills, just in case. Our driver was really nice and allowed us to have a beer in the shuttle, so we had pretty good time getting to the port. The captain of our boat, Fabian, was already waiting for us and arranged for us to get to the boat, the Sailing Koala. After a short briefing where he told us everything important about ... read more

Donnerstag, den 10. Mai, kamen Rebecka und ich nach einer langen und ermüdenden 10-stündigen Busfahrt um 4h morgens in Panama City an. Zum Glück hatte Rebecka darauf bestanden ein Bett im Hostel für die Nacht vorher zu buchen, so dass, als wir gegen 5h ankamen, wir sofort ins Bett gehen konnten und noch ein paar Stunden schlafen konnten. Am nächsten Tag bin ich gegen 8h30 aufgestanden und - zu meiner großen Überraschung - saß am Frühstückstisch Nathalie aus England, die ich in Copán, Honduras, kennengelernt hatte. Wir haben zusammen gefrühstückt und dann hat sie mich begleitet, einen Ort zu finden, an dem ich meine nächste Tollwutimpfung bekommen kann. Wir sind zu verschiedenen Apotheken und Krankenhäusern gegangen, aber die Antwort war überall die gleiche : die Tollwutimpfung bekommt man nur im Gesundheitsministerium. Frustriert sind wir dann zum ... read more