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Isla Contadora is a small island off the pacific coast of Panama. It is toughted as the Hamptons of Panama so we decided to book our last 4 days there beacuse it would be the last beach we see until Rio. Luckily rainy season had just officially started, although it had yet to rain, so the hotel was 50% off and still about twice what we were used to paying. Let me cut right to the chase, do not waste your money here. The inn we stayed at was only one of 3 on the island that were open. The closed ones had all been looted by the natives. Everything cost twice as much as it should have, including our Inn, with the discount. There was only one establishment I would call a resturant on the island, a few others claimed to be but i would beg to differ. The beach was about a mile from our Inn. We had the option to rent a golf cart for $35 a day to get us back and forth, we walked. we had expected to see some large houses, only a couple exisited, but we were told that some famous people used to
live there. On the bright side, the weather was nice and the beaches were beautiful, but there were no waves at all. Good for Julie who grew up around a lake but boring for me. The highlight of our trip was a day trip to some of the hundreds of smaller islands. The trip included snorkeling and a visit to Survivor island, where the TV show Survivor was filmed twice. On our last night we met a couple from New Orleans and proceeded to get totally slammed with them. The 4 of us were basically the only people on the island. I drove thier golf cart home using a small flashlight to find the way.
We woke up hung over and flew to Panama City where we spent the day in the Mall, bowling and waiting for our PM flight to Lima. We took a picture of Panama City´s public transportation. They use old school buses discarded from the US and painted with wacky designs. The buses have no AC but include a ´pusher that will literally shove people onto the bus when it is full. It would be similar to someone shoving you into the 6 train during
rush hour. We arrived in Lima at midnight and slept in the airport until our 5 am flight that took off at 9am. So after 24hours of travel we landed in Cusco Peru. 11,000 ft above sea level.
In my first 2 days here I ate Guinea Pig, Alpalca, and a traditional Inca breakfast ($1). The pig tasted like dark meat chicken and the lama tasted like lamb only with no fat, so it had less flavor. I think i may be the only tourist in Cusco that ate breakfast at the market. If you are a veg head then you should avoid looking at the pics of the market. If you are not, you may be after you see them. The breakfast consisted of rice, fried potatoes, fried plantains, a fried egg and a deep fried hot dog, at least i think it was a hotdog. It was topped off with chopped tomatoe, red onion and hot peppers. I really enjoyed it. Julie gagged. The next day we took a day trip to the Sacred Valley to visit multiple town´s ruins. We also explored some of the many markets where people sell mostly hand made goods, such as
Contadora Airport
just a landing stripAlpaca sweaters and blankets. We also were lucky enough to get a demonstration of how the Inca´s make the Alpaca blankets. There is a tremdous amount of culture here. The Inca´s religion was one that worshipped the earth, the sun and the stars. I can only imagine what things would be like if the Spanish hadn´t come to loot all thier gold and spread the Catholic religion. I could say more but I´l leave at that.
Tomorrow we are going to Machu Picchu. Then it´s off to Chile, where I are looking forward to eating a decent meal.
Oh, and Julie says hi! she is too shy to write on the blog, but she is actively adding to our journal. Now that i´ve called her out, she´ll want to make the next entry.
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