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Published: November 6th 2008
Panama Canal
A ship going through the Panama Canal.We left Puerto Viejo and headed for the Panama border; it turned out to be one of the more exciting border crossings. The bus let you off about 100 meters from this rickety looking bridge crossing a large river, on one side was Costa Rica and the other was Panama. You get your passport stamped and walk across the bridge to the Panama immigration office. It was the country that has asked the most questions about our travel plans and required us to show the most personal information. We had to show them our credit card to prove we had sufficient funds to travel, an onward ticket out of Panama and we had to buy a tourist card for $10 each. Some people didnt have a copy of an onward ticket and were forced to buy a $22 bus ticket that they will never use. To save time and sanity we decided to fly from Bocas to Panama City. In Panama City we stayed in an area that was really Vegas like with huge hotels, casinos and lots of Western restaurants. Quite a safe neighbourhood because it is so bustling all the time. One of the strangest things we have come
Panama Canal
Us at the Canal. across in a while happened while we were in the grocery store. There was a Bacardi representative making Mohitos and giving them away! They were full sized drinks, with real mint, and crushed ice. So walking around this grocery store while drinking our Mohitos and shopping for snacks. Just felt so weird.
When most people think of Panama they think of the canal. With our limited time, we were sure that we wanted to at least fit in a visit to the canal. The canal is best seen from a viewing area that allows you to watch ships of all sizes pass through the Miraflores locks. And that brought an end to our time in Central America. We flew the next day to Quito, Ecuador. We decided to stay in the Old Town of Quito because it is a lot safer than the New Town and offers a more authentic introduction to Ecuador. Quito is quite high and we had forgotten to take our altitude sickness pills the night before so the first day we took it easy and wandered up and down the cobbled stone streets. Its a very pretty city, with European influenced buildings and huge, open plazas.
Ecuador
Meg with the whole world in her hands at Mitad del Mundo... the equater line just outside of Quito Ecuador. The next day we went to Midad del Mundo, aka the equator. It was a cheap day trip just outside the city. 25 cents for the bus and $2.00 entance fee. We had fun acting goofy and jumping from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere.
A 9 hour bus ride later, we were in Guayaquil to try and organise a Galapagos tour. The hostel we stayed at, Dreamkapture, was great and answered all our questions. We found a great tour that fit our price range and after a lot of questions we booked the tour and had a day and a half to go through before heading to the islands. Unfortunatly one of those nights was a long drinking affair, which started out innocently enough with a few local pilsner beers, but went horribly wrong from there. We were chatting with a danish couple when the owner came out and decided to join us, and then decided to raid his liquor cabinet and bring back bottles of tequila, vodka, rum and some local ecuadorian drink that tasted like peach snapps. All in all it was a good night but not a good day in the morning. But after bruching that
Mitad del Mundo
The sign says it all. aside we got up today and flew to Santa Cruz, the main island in the Galapagos and tommorow we start our four day cruise of the islands, for which we are very excited, stay tuned as when we get back to Guayaquil we will do another blog and post a lot of pctures........
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