Category: Panama

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.

We were up reasonably early as we needed to be at the wharf by 8 for the start of our San Blas adventure. I avoided any food deciding to try starve this damn tummy bug.  We had to waterproof our bags – with our big bags it required putting all our clothes in a plastic bag inside the bag and then putting the bag inside another plastic bag. Double bagged so to speak.  Our day bags then had to be waterproofed as well.  What have we got ourselves into?

Our big bags went in one boat and the 17 of us plus the crew of 4 went in another boat with our day packs. The boat was of reasonable size with 2 70 HP engines. The first part of the journey involved a 30 minute bolt to Armila in Panama to get our passports stamped and all our bags sniffed by a somewhat mangy old sniffer dog. It kept on chewing on bags simply out of hunger as it turned out.  We were told is could take 4-6 hours so we were all relieved it only took 3 as the place wasn’t that pleasant. 

It was back to the boat for around 75 minutes of bouncing around and stopping every 20 minutes or so to ‘sort the engines’ before arriving at the island of Atitub – a tiny little island. Here we cooled off, had lunch snorkeled and chilled out. After a few hours we then jumped in the local ‘yala’ and paddled over to the bigger island of Caledonia and our first taste of Kuna life.  The yalas were quite hard going with steering proving a real challenge for dits and I.  There were 900 inhabitants on the island of which 450 were kids.  Their numbers were incredible – the place felt like a child care centre. They absolutely loved interacting with us and probably entertained us more than we them.  The island itself was very basic with the highest point barely a meter above the sea – reminded me of Funafuti in Tuvalu. The island tour ended with a dance performed by some of the adults – they loved performing as it is a big part of their culture with competitions and performances on any festive occasion. We then had to play a game of rabbit goose with the kids.  Loads of fun.  Dinner was delicious and then Edi (a Ecuadorian volunteering with SBA) got out his guitar and sang some Oasis, REM and even his own songs. Very impressive. The youngsters in the group (mostly everyone bar Dits and I) kicked on until the midnight curfew.  It sounded very wild. 

We got hit by a hell of a storm around 2 am. I saw it coming so managed to close our door and window shutter before it hit. The lightning and thunder were incredible as was the rain. Most of our crew got wet one way or another so Dits and I were lucky that we didn’t. Breakfast was 7am to enable us to get most of the travelling done before the wind gets up in the afternoon.  It was meant to be a 2 hour trip but turned into 3 with a few stops to sort out the engines.  Stopping out at sea was tough for those that suffered from sea sickness. Charlie and Preston both took the opportunity to dive overboard to cool off. We arrived at a lovely little island called Tuplie which had been sent up for our sole use – multiple hammocks and even with a volleyball court setup. Lunch was an amazing selection of salads. I took the opportunity to do a number 2 in the ocean – quite easy as it turned out although I was a bit horrified when our Belgium couple decided to take a swim down current half way through.  I let them swim in peace with no ill effect. 

After a vigorous game of volleyball with local rules we spent an hour playing a drinking game called Piccolo – fun. The beer chilly bin got emptied very quickly.  Around 430 we jumped in the boat for a 10 min ride to our home for the night on the island of Dubbir.  Deryn and I managed to grab our own upstairs room with windows on 3 sides – makes for a nice breezy sleep!  We had a walk around the island once again marvelling at the number of kids and how they loved interacting with us. We were told that we were not to pick them up as a few years earlier a guest had and broke the kids arm when they dropped him.  It was bedlam apparently. Dinner was amazing again after which Preston borrowed Edi’s guitar and also impressed with his playing and voice. Deryn snuck off a bit early while I stayed around drinking Preston’s rum after polishing off my small bottle of 5 year old. 

Dits and I slept through most of breakfast so it was only some fruit and cereal.  The 75 minute trip the next island was pretty tough with us all getting soaked by the chop from the boat. However it was worth it when we arrived at our own little paradise called Coco Bandera.  Everyone was allocated a hammock although again Deryn and I managed to only have to share our space with Tjeerd, our Dutch guide. The island really was paradise.  The local Kuna owners cut down some fresh coconuts for us – made a great mix for our rum – and then a tub of lobsters were caught for dinner. We had a bit of a snorkel – it was tough getting out to the deep water because of the sharp coral – and then started drinking about 3.30. Our guides made this incredible punch which you got a glass of, plus some amazing potatoe fries once you said a few words about the trip. Then it was off to dinner to gorge on lobster and hit the rum again. Ailish gave a re-enactment of her Gaelic dancing mishap only to break her toe in the process. It was a late night but loads of fun.

It was a lovely relaxing morning on our little island in paradise. It was with a little sadness we left at 130 for our 90 minute trip to Carti and the end of our adventure. It really has been special. We reached the dock with no hassle but then spent ages trying to figure out who could go in which of the 3 cars to Panama City. The locals were the only ones ‘allowed to work’ so they had to do the logistics. Not a good idea. The Magnolia hostel crew jumped in one car for a cramped 2.5 hour drive.  The road for the first 45 was really steep and windy.  Our driver was grumpy and a very aggressive driver which made it interesting when we hit the traffic in Panama City.  

The Magnolia Hostel was lovely and the hot shower, aircon, soft clean bed and laundry were a treat. We all headed out to a local burger joint for a group dinner and a received a gift of a San Blas Adventures singlet. It was sad saying goodbye to a great bunch of people.