Panamá

Hola,

How are you? Hope all is well in your world. It's been a few weeks, so thought I'd drop a note to let you know the latest deal.

Well, New Years passed without much fanfare, here at the house with the family. I thought about going out, but never got around to calling anyone in time to organise anything, so I stayed home. We ended up playing Hearts after midnight. The week after New Years, I worked, but I felt very unproductive and decided I needed a break, so I decided to go to Panama for a few days. I was going to go for a week, but Tomás rescheduled a Friday meeting to Tues, so I went from Wed till yesterday instead.

I tried to get a night bus on Tues night, but it was sold out, so I took a bus in the morning on Wed (7:30) to David, Panamá. David is just across the border. The bus was fairly luxurious, with movies, which I can no longer remember, except one was a bad western and the other was a bad action movie. It is an 8 or 9 hour trip to David and we arrived at 4:30ish. We passed through the border, which was fairly quiet and easy, although on the Panamá side, they held us up a long time because their system wasn't very clear (even the Panamanians were confused) and because they did everything by hand, no computers in site. Nicaragua is the same I suppose, but they seemed to have a better system than Panamá did...

Anyway, in David, I found a bus in the same station that would take me directly to Panama City in an hour, so I hopped on that one, after a quick bite to eat. I tried to assess my surroundings in David, to see what the differences were, but really it didn't seem to be that big of a change, except I had to use US dollars everywhere I went.

So I got a bus ride to the City, and arrived around 12 or 1am, a seven hour trip. I finished off a book I was reading on the trip, which was nice, haven't been reading enough lately, I think. Got a cab and asked him to take me to a hotel in the guidebook, but he refused. He said that it was too risky in that neighbourhood, so he took me to the youth hostel instead. There, they wanted $10US for a shared room with 6. I thought about it and left, knowing I could find a better deal. So, the taxi took me to another place, but not before giving me a 1/2 tour of the city, all the richest areas and biggest buildings.

Oh well, the next hotel, Hotel Bella Vista (Bella Vista means Nice View, in this case, meaning the nice view of the alley where I could see one person sleeping on the street) gave me a decent seeming enough room for $11. So I took it. (They were out of $10 rooms, mine was a double I think). I didn't notice the cockroaches until the morning, I was pretty wiped out.

I tried to sleep in, but they woke me at 8am for fumigation (which it certainly needed). So, I got up for breakfast and to change my last travelers cheques. I walked along my street, a fairly major one, passing three McDonald's before I found a bank that could change the cheques. (Actually, I found one earlier, but they were charging 5.5%, which seemed outrageous to me) Got back to the hotel, showered and went to the canal, "the eighth wonder of the world", an "engineering marvel", etc.

Maybe if I hadn't been awakened for fumigation at 8am, I would have been less cynical, but I was not. I took a bus to the canal and walked 15 minutes to the locks, for the free movie and tour. The history is interesting, hearing about the thousands who worked and died in building the canal, etc. Wrote a few postcards while waiting for the ship to come through the canal. I was a bit disappointed, mostly I couldn't help but think of the environmental damage the canal has caused - three artificial lakes they created! Flooded the whole area. I wish I knew more about it.

Anyway, went back to town, walked around Cuidad Vasco, an colonial part of town, wandered through a religious art museum, old churches and buildings and the public market there. The waterfront there was absolutely beautiful. I really enjoyed that. Eventually, around the public market, 6 policemen walking there pulled me aside to warn me that this was a dangerous part of town, at any time of day and that I should grab the first cab out of there. So, I walked to the entrance of Chinatown, 2 blocks away, snapped a quick photo and went back to the hotel for a nap. I love naps.

I got up later and went out on the town, so to speak, eating out and then went dancing for a bit. Being by myself, that didn't last too long, so I went back to bed.

The next day, I went to Old Panamá, built on a swamp and abandoned for the current city that now stands. The stone building are in ruins and being reconstructed in bits and pieces. The museum was interesting, but small. Next, I went to see about a ticket to Almirante, close to the spot where good old Chris Columbus first landed on some random date. I got one but not until 8pm, so I went to a movie to kill time. I picked a random movie that I knew nothing about, and chose unwisely - The Unbreakable. It wasn't that bad, but it was not very good either.

Then I killed time in the bus station, which was as big as an airport and looked a lot like the airport malls that are so common in the US. I sat in one of the food courts and wrote in my journal until 7. Then I went and waited by the bus stop and got on. This one had even better movies :) - Blade and 13th Warrior. However, as bad as they were, I could not ignore them blasting in my face as I tried to sleep through them. They played until past midnight, when finally I got a couple hours of sleep before we arrived at 5am.

A nice Caribbean grandmother adopted me at that point, and shared a cab with me to the water taxi to the island of Bocas del Toro. After waiting an hour for the taxi captain, and the grandmother getting more and more mad, we finally got over to the island. I had a cheap breakfast, and walked on the beach, collecting shells and generally enjoying the fact that there was no one at all around, even though I could hardly keep my eyes open.

After lunch, I decided to get over to the border, which is fairly close, before it closed. So, I hopped on the water taxi, two short bus rides and I was at the border. There, one has to walk across a tenous looking train bridge to get to Costa Rica again. There, I met up with some guitar playing Germans and listened to music until the bus to Cahuita came. All the tourists went to Puerto Viejo, but I went to Cahuita. I got in just after dark, completely dusty and dirty (it is summer in the Caribbean, it is very dry). Had dinner and then another nap. Got up later, awakened by loud music a block away. I went for a walk on the beach and then back to bed. I slept fairly soundly, right through the earthquake, although I don't think it would have been too strong out my way, since Panamá didn't feel it at all.

Got up fairly early, treated myself to french toast for breakfast, and walked along the beach. In the daylight, I ventured much farther. I reached the National Park. Along the way, I encountered hundreds of tourists, lizards and birds, definitely a few strange species. Also, two howler monkeys. That was fun. Caught the 11:30am bus back to San José and was back in plenty of time for my FOG board meeting at 7pm. (Got home at 5ish) Ate, as I was starving and caught up on my email. Feeling ready to tackle the world again, even if I am still a bit tired from all the bus rides and late nights. Still doing laundry tonight, getting ready for our class conference next week in Mexico - gotta have clean clothes, I suppose.

Back to work today, at least I felt productive, but I feel there is too much to do, as usual. Hopefully I can catch up in February... Hope all is well on your end, let me know how you are doing...
Rob