It was a lovely night sleep in clean sheets and an air conditioned room – for me, not so much for Dits who gets cold with the air con on 24 degs! We ended up back at Nomada Eatery for breakfast – the food really was good – after putting our clothes in a washer at a nearby laundromat. I couldn’t believe they didn’t do a drop off so I had to dash back after 30 minutes to put the clothes in the dryer.
We then headed to the Canal Interoceanico de Panama in the old city to see the history of the Panama Canal. It was $10 each to get in but well worth it. They had a big globe which showed the movements of the continents from 380m years ago to today. Incredible. I had no idea how much the continents had moved and that the creation of the Central American Isthmus had such an impact on global weather and ocean currents. The building of the canal was a phenomenal achievement, but at a huge cost. The French first built the railway line at a cost of 12000 lives and then started on the canal. Over 20000 died before they gave up and went home – mostly of yellow fever and malaria. The Americans took over and first thing they did was improve sanitation and eradicate yellow fever. They lost few thousand lives but far less. They also used more dynamite than they had used cumulatively in their history. It was fascinating. I got a bit bored with the politics so moved quickly and in the process lost Dits. Thankfully I found her 20 minutes later wondering around the square outside. We had a wander around the old town before heading back to the sanctuary of our air conditioned room. The amount of upgrading of buildings in the old town is incredible – a function of the world heritage listing. The place is going to look incredible in 5 or so years. I spent the afternoon writing the blog and updating our expenses (South America is not that cheap!) while Deryn started planning Costa Rica.
We had an early dinner at a local bar and the headed back to the sanctuary for another average Netflix movie. We tried to sleep without the air conditioning but a rave next door meant we could not open the window. Thankfully the rave finished at 2am so we got some sleep.
We had our now favourite homemade breakfast of muesli, banana and yoghurt before grabbing an Uber to visit the Panama Canal proper. We timed it perfectly to watch a boat work it’s way through the Miraflores Locks. It was $20 entry which included entry into the museum. The whole process of the boat moving through the two locks was commentated on by a guide which made it really interesting. It took the boat 45 mins to work its way through the 2 western locks (there is a eastern lock and a western lock – the eastern one was closed due to maintenance) – it costs between $80k and $120k depending on their tonnage. The museum again was well worth a visit. We then grabbed an Uber (Uber’s are a must in Panama City as they are cheap and the cars are modern – unlike the yellow cabs) to a local Mall to grab a few supplies and for me to get a burger! The mall has every top end shop you could imagine – I grabbed some shorts and new jandals.
We were going to climb a local hill for the view but they close it at 5 so we had to make do walking into the new city along the ocean. It was a lovely walk with plenty of sights. We grabbed dinner at an authentic little Indian restaurant owned by a former bollywood star. We over ordered on the starters – who doesn’t over order Indian? We walked a bit of the way home before jumping in a dodgy yellow cab.
We had planned to climb the hill the next morning but on reflection decided to enjoy our last morning of the sanctuary before heading to the airport at 11am for our flight to San Jose. We grabbed another Uber to the airport (a long way out of town). Checking in to our Avianca flight was a breeze and so we got to spend an hour in their lounge. The flight to Costa Rica was 90 minutes, customs was a coddle and within 20 mins we grabbed our Avis guy to go pick up our car. Deryn had spent hours trying to sort out the car, insurance and not paying for an extra driver – mostly to no avail as the rentalcars.com terms were not accepted by Avis. Still, we still got a very cheap (works out $65 pd) new Nissan SUV. We were on the road by 3.30 with our first stop a local mall to try get some money (no luck) and a SIM card (sorted but no idea how to install). The traffic was a mare until we got north of the toll booths on the motorway, after which it was just busy.
It took us 75 min to reach our guesthouse in Greacia – La Terraza Guest House. It was run by an American from Washington called Charles. It was really nice with large rooms with balcony views of the lush bush below. We had some burgers delivered and went to bed with the balcony doors wide open (although with the insect screen closed) to appreciate the sounds of nature outside. A lovely welcome to Costa Rica.
And now to finish with a beautiful tabby we bumped into on our walk into the city.
