While Panama is known mostly for its famous canal, the country's natural attractions offer an irresistible lure to far-sighted travellers.
This overlooked country offers some of the finest birding, snorkeling and deep-sea fishing in the Americas.
Wednesday evening the 3rd of May we arrived in Panama city. Since we had already booked a hostel for 2 nights, we just took a taxi into town to Anita's Inn.
It was situated in the hart of Panama city with lots of bars and restaurants.
The next day we used to explore the surrounding areas in the city of Panama. It is quite a modern city which was quite nice to experience after such a long time without seeing any modern facilities, like big supermarkets and 'normal' stores.
That day we also changed the date of our outgoing ticket to Quito from the 10th of May to the 15th. Namely after talking to people in the hostel and browsing through information on Panama, the intended stay would have been too short.
We also managed to find an affordable rental car that day (although in retrospective taking buses would have been much more economical!)
Friday we left our hostel and drove a bit through Panama. One thing we learnt almost straight away is that the interesting locations (like temples and stuff) are impossible to find, even with a map, since they never heard of street signs!.
In the city they also drive as lunatics to make it easier for us of course!
Finally we gave up on our attempt to find the temples and we went to Panama Viejo - old Panama. Here we saw the ruins of the first Spanish city on the pacific cost and was built in the 16th century. After its destruction by Pirates in the 18th century, they rebuild the city at a different location.
Thereafter we went to the Mariflores Locks to check out the Panama Canal. We got there just in time to see a very big (custom made to be able to cross the canal) ship go through the locks. The cost for this commercial vessel for getting through amounted to US$130.000 - to be paid in cash 48 hrs in advance!
So the canal is big business for Panama.
Thereafter we continued our drive in the direction of Colon (other end of the Canal). However unlike Panama City this part of the country wasn't the best one. It looked a lot poorer and somehow also the people appeared to be less friendly. Beforehand we had also read in the Lonely Planet that in Colon there was not only a chance that you would be robbed, but it was likely to be robbed!
We decided to drive to Portobello at the coast instead, where there would be nice beaches and diving possibilities.
Arrived in Portobello, we saw a lot of beautiful ruins of what ones was a Spanish settlement. However finding a tourist information center or a hotel was a completely different matter. We asked a few people but they didnīt appear to know anything useful. They also looked at us as we had just landed from Mars.
By driving around the tiny town, we finally found the īinformation centerī ourselves. The guy gave us the name and directions to the only accommodation nearby. We stayed at a really nice looking hotel 'Coco Plum'.
Since the rooms didnīt have kitchen facilities we enjoyed a nice dinner in the restaurant of the hotel.
Saturday morning after taking another look at the ruins in Portobello, we decided to drive back to Panama city and from there take the Pan American highway and drive west. (we had also seen the 'dive school' in nearby Portobello, but since the buildings were under construction, we didnīt even go in to check the possibilities).
In the afternoon we arrived in Aquadulce, which was the first city where we could find any form of accommodation. Positive side to it however that everything is extremely cheap in Panama, the hotel f.i. only cost us US$18, and we had a three course Chinese dinner for only 6,60US$.
Since it was pretty hot, we relaxed by the pool that afternoon.
Sunday we drove further in the direction of David, where there would be some nice tours we could do. Unfortunately just after leaving Aquadulce, we were pulled over by a police officer. Evidently we had missed the sign to drive 60 km per hr! He had measured us at 96 km, so it was clear that the savings we had made the previous days, would disappear due to this fine. It cost us US$60, which we could either pay to the officer or in Panama city.
That day we made someone very happy, but we do hope that he didnīt sent the ticket to Panama city to be paid a second time!
Our first encounter with the police in Panama was a costly one but not a completely unpleasant one since he was really friendly and helpful. He drew us a map indicating the speed limits and the locations of his colleagues along that same route.
In short it meant that we had to drive 60 km/hr on the four lane road and 80 km/hr on the two lane road?!?
But it must be said that way up to David from Aquadulce was really beautiful. Panama has beautiful green hills, green meadows and beautiful trees and plants.
We arrived in David in the afternoon and checked in in the Purple House Hostel. And yes, the house and everything in it is purple. It was a really nice hostel, with a living area with cable TV, book exchange, free internet and a nice garden.
Monday we visited David city center which was really stuffed with all kinds of stores. When we returned to our car, we found a ticket on our windscreen, now one for parking without having a ticket! We told it to our hostess in the hostel, and she couldnīt even believe it. So that afternoon, we visited City Hall where we could pay our fine of 1US$. You wished that these were the fines for wrongful parking in Amsterdam! Rolf also got a haircut that afternoon for 5$ and we both agree that it was the best one ever! That evening we went to the cinema and watched Mission Impossible III, which was a great movie.
Tuesday we left our hostel and drove to Boquete since that would be the best place to start tours from to visit the Vulcan and the Quetzal Trail. Again the scenery during the (hour) drive to the city was beautiful with green mountains, meadows and rivers.
The city itself lies in between the mountains and really reminded us of Tirol. The temperature here lies a few degrees above the level of the rest of Panama, and also the cool breeze is really quite refreshing.
A lot of Americans have settled here in secured residential areas for their retirement.
Again looking for a tourist information center is an accomplishment in itself! Also our lack of knowledge of the Spanish language doesnīt really help when you donīt know your way around a country.
Since the lonely planet of 1997! (which we had borrowed) didnīt give us accurate information anymore, we asked a nice Panamese signor the way. He brought us to the center, which we of course had passed several times before!
But in our own defence, the information center didn't have a sign placed on the door, window or where-ever for that matter. Of course the center was closed for its siesta, so we decided to do something different for a change and went to the Internet cafe to update our site with all this interesting information.....
That same afternoon however we returned to the information center. The girl at the counter, Maria, was really helpful and also gave us some really useful information on the area.
Apparently the center had just recently opened and we were here first customers!
Wednesday the 10th of May we walked part of the Quetzal trail.
The Quetzal is a bird which can be found in that region. Of course we didnīt see it, because for bird-spotting you must be very patient and not running around the rain forest like we did.
The trail however was beautiful and we did see a number of other birds.
We also heard a lot of noisy monkeys, which was pretty cool.
We also did a small tour by car in that same area. We saw a lot of beautiful flowers underway.
Since you can find coffee plantations all over the area, we decided to join a coffee tour on Thursday the 11th.
The tours were held by a Dutch couple Hans and Terry. They had moved to Panama 7 years ago and now run their own little touring company and a small coffee plantation just for a hobby.
They brought us to the Kottowa Plantation (one of the biggest in the area) and explained all there is to know about growing and processing coffee.
All the picking of the beans is done by hand and all by Indian people. They can earn about 8 dollars a day with that kind of work which is more than they would get working in f.e. sugar cane. The Indian people often also live for free on the property itself with their complete family. The owner of the Kotowa plantation also provides for a school for the children.
When it is high season in the coffee picking, the Indians come from all over the country to Boquete. They then sometimes walk for three days through the mountains with their families and all of their belongings (pigs, goats etc.)
The Indian people are still the poorest in Panama, which will hopefully someday change due to sufficient education and proper jobs. They must also be accepted by the Latinoīs which form the majority in Panama.
After the coffee tour we drove back east in the direction of Panama city. We stopped for the night in the same hotel in Aquadulce as we had done on our way to David.
Friday the 12th of May (Mum & Dad Kraaijer congratulations on your 40th Wedding Anniversary!) we drove to Valle Anton. This was a beautiful valley surrounded by green mountains. We saw beautiful houses with beautiful gardens there. It was a really peaceful surrounding and probably one of the nicest areas which we had seen so far.
We found a nice little coloured house (the property was called the coloured houses), all to ourselves. When staying there we also got paid a visit by the tiniest house dog ever! And even if we couldnīt understand the hostess, she still was extremely friendly and helpful.
After doing some shopping, we went to discover the area. Unfortunately although this is area is well known in all the tourist books, it is still not very well developed. We followed a walking trail sign by car but had to stop halfway since you could only get there with a four wheel drive! Same story when we tried to visit a waterfall.
We finally did visit a nice little waterfall but since there hadnīt been any more walking trails developed we couldnīt do a longer trail.
After some time on the internet again to check for availability of cruise ships on the Galapagos, we ended up having a nice relaxing evening in the garden before our little house.
Saturday we returned to Panama city. We visited the Cause Way, which is a road they built between the mainland and an island with the dirt they dug up out of the Panama canal! They have made a beautiful walkway out of it, leading to islands with nice shops and restaurants.
Thereafter we went to visit the 'old city' of Panama which they had built after Panama Viejo was destroyed. Before we got there we had to drive through the shabbiest and poorest neighbourhoods we had ever seen.
Of course we had seen some poor neighbourhoods before, but now we a large area full of big flats in a really terrible state.
Hard to describe what you feel when you drive through such neighbourhoods and look at the people who are actually living there.
Just past this area we arrived in the old Panama. This was really an oasis in all the dirt we had seen just before. Some of the buildings and squares had been beautifully restored, creating a special colonial ambiance.
End of the day (and again after a long search, since all the roadsigns are lost), we found our hostel. This is really a youth hostel, so we are probably to old for it!. Tiny rooms, to few bathrooms, people hanging around on sofaīs or on the balcony, anyway a lot of people everywhere. Quite a change after our peaceful cottage in the mountains! But we will manage, especially since we will probably get on a cruise-ship to the Galapagos on Wednesday the 17th!
Bye for now!
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