Traditionally dressed indigenous family in Boquete Prospero Año Nuevo! We hope you have celebrated as hard as we have (though I doubt it is possible!). We are in Ecuador now but we have a chance to catch up on posting photos so we figured that we would just post all of our Panama stuff in one update.
Panama was an interesting and nice place from what we saw. We spent almost a month in the country including a stop in Boquete, a northern mountain town, Santa Catalina, a surfing town and hub to the Coiba Island National Park, and Panama City, the home of the infamous Pacific/Atlantic Panama canal. All in all it was a good time, but I do have to admit that something has changed in our travelling mindset at this point and I believe I that my view of Panama may be slightly influenced by travellers' fatigue/ travellers' blues (if there is such a thing). More on this later, but for now, here's PANAMA!
- Chelsea
Panama was an interesting and nice place from what we saw. We spent almost a month in the country including a stop in Boquete, a northern mountain town, Santa Catalina, a surfing town and hub to the Coiba Island National Park, and Panama City, the home of the infamous Pacific/Atlantic Panama canal. All in all it was a good time, but I do have to admit that something has changed in our travelling mindset at this point and I believe I that my view of Panama may be slightly influenced by travellers' fatigue/ travellers' blues (if there is such a thing). More on this later, but for now, here's PANAMA!
- Chelsea
Boquete
looking down at Boquete Ignoring the missed bus stop and the couple useless days in Santiago, our first real week in Panama was spent in Boquete, a neat town nestled in the mountains and surrounded by coffee plantations and rainforest. Named “the best spot to retire” by some American geezer publication, about half of the people there seemed to be either retirees, backpackers, or huge families of Guaymí (one of the many tribes of indigenous Panamanians) who come to find work harvesting coffee. Although it’s a great town to explore by foot or leave for various interesting day-trips (hot springs, mountain biking, etc.), we spent the majority of our time recovering from the past couple weeks, hunkering down in our hostel or visiting the nearby gelato shop.
part of the Quetzal Trail As we’ve found with many other places in Central America, Boquete and the surrounding area attract a lot of attention from bird watchers. We spent a day hiking part of the Quetzal Trail, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the resplendent quetzal, a pretty badass bird that nests in the area. Unfortunately, we came up short and didn’t spot much more than a squirrel, although the hike was still quite nice.
beautiful coffee berries (not beans?!) We spent part of another day taking a tour of one of the smaller coffee plantations just up the hill from town. This was a pretty interesting treat for me, since the quality of my mornings (and the frequency of my bowel movements) seem to depend so much on access to a decent cup of coffee. Yeah, I like to talk about poop, don’t look so surprised.
To open photos from Boquete in a new window click here.
Santa Catalina
Apfelstrudel - the perfect xmas treat Our next Panamanian destination was Santa Catalina, a peaceful little town on the Pacific coast. Popular with surfers and tourists looking to head over to the nearby Coiba Islands for snorkeling & scuba diving trips, Santa Catalina has the feel of a town that could, over the next few years, explode into a huge hotel & resort destination. Lucky for us, though, this hasn’t happened yet and things still feel relatively untouched – the town isn’t much more than a few small hotels, restaurants, dive shops, and surf schools, and the beach was never too crowded.
this tarantula lives beside our house?! We spent two weeks in Santa Catalina volunteering and relaxing at a small hotel and restaurant called “Sol Y Mar” (sun and sea). This was our first experience in hospitality, and it was a nice change from the manual labor we often get thrown into on farms. Another nice change was that we didn’t have to pay anything – in exchange for about 20-25 hours of work per week, we had a place to stay and food to eat. Our first few days were spent making things a little more comfortable for ourselves – fixing the plumbing in the volunteer house, fixing up a couple bicycles for our trips to the beach, etc.
Karlien taking Shnoopy to the beach The rest of our volunteer hours went to manning the reception booth (waiting for guests to arrive, showing them to their cabins), babysitting the restaurant in the afternoon (sitting around and killing time, swimming in the pool, occasionally serving drinks), or waiting at the restaurant during dinner (working our charms in the quest for tips). Overall, it was a pretty sweet gig, with time every morning for heading to the beach and plenty of time throughout the day for relaxing in the company of Karlien (a dog-loving surfer-chick from Belgium) and Fred (a nomadic German chef).
heading out to Coiba for some Scuba On one of our days off we went on a scuba trip to Coiba, which now tops the list of our list of best dives ever, mainly because WE SAW A WHALE SHARK! If it had been any closer to me, I could have swum right into its gaping mouth.
To open Santa Catalina photos in a new window, click here.
Panama City
approaching downtown along Balboa Ave. In general we try to avoid big cities, but because we really wanted to check out the canal we decided to brave Panama City for a couple days. Overall, it was … meh. In the cleaner, touristy parts of the city, things were quite nice. The pedestrian walkway along Balboa Avenue is a great place to walk or run, lined with parks and playgrounds. One evening we walked along the causeway to Naos Island to enjoy the sunset over some beers and ceviche, also very nice. Other parts of the city, however, you just simply shouldn’t go as a tourist. At one point, after walking along a busy market we made to head down one of the side streets and were quickly stopped by a couple women – “no… danger”. On another occasion, as our taxi driver took a shortcut through the “El Chorrillo” area, we were instructed to lock our doors and roll up the windows. Another indication of the state of things, perhaps, is the huge number of police/military guys standing at many street corners. Now I remember why we avoid going to big cities…
Panama City's skyline
We stayed in a hostel in the Casco Viejo district, which is where the original Panama City was rebuilt after a bunch of pirates destroyed it, or something like that. It was an interesting area, with a bunch of older, broken down buildings refurbished and turned into nice shops, restaurants, and hotels. We did a little self-guided walking tour one afternoon, checking out some of the beautiful churches and art galleries. Because they’re still in the process of forcing out the poor people in order to glam things up for the tourists, though, the area was flanked by some more no-man’s land. Even the little photocopied map provided by the hostel had clear areas marked to the effect of “here be dragons”.
part of the Miraflores locks To check out the canal, we made the mandatory visit to the Miraflores locks and visitors’ centre. We shouldered our way through the crowds in the canal museum, surveyed the canal from the observation deck (where the heck were all the boats?), and watched the ridiculous fifteen-minute propaganda film (now in 3-D!!) touting the global importance of the canal and Panama’s incredible ability to keep it all running smoothly. Bah. The canal itself was pretty cool, I have to admit – we both just felt ripped-off by how hokey it all was and wished there was some more real detail. Okay, the big man-made lake in the middle provides water for operation of the locks – then what? Is it just lost to the oceans, or is it pumped back to the lake to maintain water level? Why was the lake created in the first place? What’s done to prevent cross-contamination between the oceans? How does the changing tide affect the ships as they travel the locks? Oh, but just in case you were wondering, a lock gate can weigh as much as thirty elephants.
this one's for you, momette! Overall, we enjoyed our time in Panama, though not nearly as much as our time in Costa Rica or Nicaragua (pretty stiff competition). Tomorrow, we catch a flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador to ring off the new year and start our South American adventure.
Wish us luck!
Mandrew
P.S. For whatever reason, Chelsea's mom loves taking photos of herself with policemen on the street... one of her many quirks. I'm afraid it might be hereditary.
Wish us luck!
Mandrew
P.S. For whatever reason, Chelsea's mom loves taking photos of herself with policemen on the street... one of her many quirks. I'm afraid it might be hereditary.
To open our photos from Panama City in a new window, click here.
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