Panamania!

Central America Caribbean » Panama
July 13th 2008

Published: July 18th 2008

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barrygahan

Evening in Bocas del Toro

Central America

After spending 10 months in South America, we had left ourselves only two months for the final part of our trip, through Central America, from Panama to Mexico City. This is clearly very little time to see 8 different countries, and an area with so many sights, meaning we will have to be very selective. No more days lazing around in hammocks. Well, not so many, perhaps!

Our first view of Panama - and of Central America - was from the window seat of the twin propeller Aires plane on the flight from Cartagena to Panama City. Panama City from the air resembled Manhattan, with its many high rise buildings dominating the landscape. This was not what I expected of Panama, and I was even more surprised on the journey into town from the airport as we passed shopping malls, fast food chains and fancy hotels. As we were to discover over the next few days, these were just some of the many American influences evident in the country.

Casco Viejo, the oldest part of the city, provided a much needed contrast to modern Panama City. It's an interesting mix of colonial palaces, ruined churches, Spanish

Hanging around on Bocas del Toro

style squares and dilapidated houses whose balconies are about to collapse & whose stairways already have. While it's undeniably attractive, with romantic ruins, atmospheric streets, there is still much poverty amidst the faded splendour. Plaza de la Independencia sums up Casco Viejo: on two of the sides you see the restored Cathedral and an attractive colonial building containing the Canal Museum, buildings which wouldn't look out of place on any European main square, while on the other sides of the squares are the ruined, empty buildings awaiting a much needed restoration.

The Big Ditch

Of all the countries in Latin America, Panama was the one I probably knew least about before visiting. I'd heard of the Panama Canal of course, read John Le Carre's "The Tailor of Panama"...and that was it! There's no doubt the "Big Ditch", as the Panama Canal is sometimes called, has played a hugely important role in Panamanian history. Indeed, Panama may well owe its independence to the canal. At the start of the 20th century, Panama belonged to Colombia, but when the Colombian government voted against a canal treaty, much to the USAs dismay, the USA encouraged Panama's independence movement. Colombia reacted predictably

Panama Canal Crossing

We were lucky enough to see a huge ship transiting the Miraflores locks. This ship was build especially for the canal, and paid about $200,000 for the transit.

by sending in troops, but they were prevented from landing by the Americans. All in the interest of democracy of course and nothing to do with US interest in the canal!!

We visited the visitor center at the Miraflores Locks, a short bus ride from the city. Millions of dollars have clearly been spent on this museum, which had exhibits and displays in both English & Spanish covering the canal's history, operation, and future development. There were also displays about the animal and plant life in the Canal area - though what was noticeably absent was any mention of the effects that building the new set of locks will have on the environment!

Even today, 94 years after its construction, the canal is one of the world's great engineering works. Ships can cross from the Pacific to Atlantic or vice-versa by travelling through the 80km canal, a journey of (on average) 8 hours. A series of locks raises the ships from sea level to the level of Gatun lake, and then lowers them again on the opposite side. During our visit, two huge ships passed through, paying approximately 200,000 USD each for the right to transit. It was

Summit of Volcan Baru

On the top of Volcan Baru, Panama's highest peak (3475m).

quite a sight.

Nescafe--- No es cafe

Leaving Panama City behind, we moved onto Boquete, a town in the western highlands. As we gazed from the bus window admiring the mountains we couldn't help but notice all the signs in English advertising property. There seems to be a huge effort to market Panama to foreign investors, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Boquete. Ten years ago, there were only a handful of foreigners living in Boquete, but after the town was named in a US newspaper as one of the best places to live and/or retire, a deluge of foreigners moved in. According to locals, 80%!o(MISSING)f them are from North America, and many of them live in gated communities, which contain enough amenities that the expats need have little contact with the locals.

Panama produces some of the world's finest coffee, and many of the best known coffee makers are located in Boquete, and offer tours which explain the coffee production process. We took a tour of Cafe Ruiz with an excellent guide, Carlos, which wasn't cheap, but which was one of the best of these types of tours that I've been on.

Ruined buildings, Panama City

Despite drinking three cups a day for the past 12 years, it became apparent, as Carlos explained things to us, that I knew very little about coffee, in particular just how much work went into producing it. Carlos is only 29, but has been involved in coffee for 19 years, starting off as a coffee fruit picker for Cafe Ruiz at the age of 10.

Panama is like the Brazil of coffee -it usually wins the coffee world cup, including in 2001 when Cafe Ruiz took the top prize. Ruiz produces Arabica coffee and theirbest brand is called Geisha, which sells for a whopping $1000 a kilo. The most expensive coffee I've ever had is Jamaican Blue Mountain ($8 a kilo) so I can't wait to try Geisha someday. By the end of the tour I could tell Italian roast from French Roast, could recite the 16 steps involved in the coffee production process, and could understand why Panamanians refer to Nescafe as No-es-cafe (it's not coffee!).

Volcan Baru - the volcano with our name on it

After spending so much time on the beaches in Colombia, we needed to start hiking again, and no better place

Modern Panama City

This picture was taken from the same spot as the previous one. Quite a contrast.

to do so than Panama's highest peak, Volcan Baru, whose summit is 3475m above sea level. Given that the volcano is named with first parts of Ruth and my name, it seemed a particularly appropriate one for us to climb.

Guides in Boquete offer the hike as a tour for about 70 dollars per person, but with a little planning you can do it independently. We arranged with Oscar, a local taxi driver, to pick us up from our hotel at 4am and drive us to the trail head. From here it was 15km to the summit, but the entire hike was along a dirt road, making it supposedly easy to find the way.

We were outside our hostel at 4am but there was no sign of Oscar! Just when I was sure we'd have to abandon it, he showed up, looking, understandably, still half asleep. I must admit to having second thoughts when he dropped us at the entrance to Volcan Baru National Park in the middle of nowhere at 4.30 am, pitch dark, with no one around and daylight still 1.5 hours away. We set off into the darkness a little apprehensively, especially as the batteries

Panama city bus

While they're not very comfortable and probably not too safe, the buses in Panama City look great.

in our head torches seemed to be fading too, but thankfully they lasted until sunrise at 6.15am. We had just arrived at a viewing point as the first light was appearing in the sky, giving us fantastic views over David and beyond to the Pacific Ocean.

The summit of Baru is one of the few places in the world from where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at once, and we were keen to get there early before the clouds rolled in - hence the early start. At 8am, still 7km from the summit, we met a couple coming down - they had started the hike at midnight - and told us the clouds were already obscuring the views.

We continued onward anyway, in the hope that the weather gods might be on our side. After all our hard work to reach it (6hrs hiking, 15km distance, almost 1700 metres vertical ascent), we reached the top enveloped in a blanket of mist. Nevertheless, 3475 metres is a good height to reach and more importantly, we'd reached Panama's highest point.

So this is where all the gringos are hiding

After all that exercise we

Ruth snorkelling

deserved a few days of rest, so we went to Bocas del Toro, an archipelago on Panama's Caribbean coast. This is one of the most popular places in Panama, but huge numbers of backpackers on Isla Colon, the main island, don't diminish the charm of Bocas. We reached the islands by water taxi from the gritty Caribbean port of Almirante, and quickly found our accommodation and settled into the relaxed way of life on the islands.

On the first evening the town lost all power for about two hours in the middle of a huge tropical downpour. But the locals didn't seem to let this dampen their spirits so neither did we! We spent the next day at Boca del Drago, a beautiful beach area at the quiet northern end of the island. We didn't do much than sunbathe, swim and read - a great day really!

The next day found us a bit more active, on a 20 dollar tour with J and J which included snorkeling at two spots, a visit to the famous red frog beach, and even a bit of dolphin watching. The dolphin watching reminded me of when we went to see whales

Shipwreck

in Pensinsula Valdes in Argentina. You catch a quick glimpse of something in the distance, but by the time you've zoomed in and focused the camera, the dolphin has already disappeared under water!

Snorkeling was a new experience for both Ruth and me, and it proved more difficult than I had imagined. I don't think our gear was too good, as every so often I'd get water in my goggles or in the mouthpiece. Though I might have been to blame as I found it difficult to constantly breathe through my mouth and never through my nose. It was great fun though once I got the hang of it, and despite the restricted visibility after the morning rains, I spotted some beautiful coral and many small fish.

The best part of the tour was Red Frog Beach, on the beautiful Isla Bastamiento. The boat landed at a small cove where we all paid $2 to some guy (I'm still not clear why!), then hiked through stunning rain forest to a stunning beach (ok, I'm running out of adjectives here). It's difficult to spot the tiny red poison dart frogs, after which the beach is named, but it's still

Starfish

The beach at Bocas del Drago, on Isla Colon, was full of starfish.

worth a visit just for the beach.

Bocas del Toro is an easy place to like and a difficult place to leave. There is a relaxed atmosphere - you are on the Caribbean coast after all - and only our looming deadline in Mexico city kept us from staying a week or more in this idyllic spot.

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