Cartagena, Colombia

The beatiful plazas of Cartagena

A perfect flight from Panama and we'd arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, located near the northernmost tip of South America. Colombia's notorious past is over which has opened it up to huge investment and tourism and we plan to spend a couple of weeks here on the coast on the start of a new three month leg of our trip.

Strangely we were greeted with the warmest welcome ever by the immigration official which was an unusually good sign and then within an hour we'd checked into our huge hotel room and eaten a superb meal in the wonderfully named Cafe Lunatico which proved that the appalling food in Panama City wasn't just bad luck.

We woke to blue skies and 30C temperatures and spent the day strolling around the 16th century, picture potscard, walled part of the city with its plazas, churches, and colourfully painted houses with their bougainvilla strewn balconies.

A great start to a new country and a new continent.

Images of Panama

Yacht being dwarfed on The Panama Canal locks

The Panama Hat

Starfish Beach, Bocos del Toro

Casco Viejo, Panama City

Sunday in the park, Panama City

Isla Taboga, Panama City

Storm approaching Panama City

Panama.....Reflections

A milestone reached as we end our time in Central America by completing the first third of our nine month journey. The next period is a bit confusing as we fly to South America, back to Central America, up to North America before ending back in South America for Christmas.

Nine weeks spent in Central America and Guatemala was the favourite destination by far. Panama has been a little disappointing particularly as the first week was more or less washed out but Panama City has been a strange place.

Vanessa eating ceviche in Panama City

It may have fantastic shopping plazas, an ultra modern skyline, marinas full of million pound boats but bizarrely it has the most diabolical food and we’ve been searching for something edible for six days. To say it has been shite would be paying it a compliment.  Everywhere we’ve been they’ve either run out, even in fast food joints, served us undercooked food which had to be returned or its been comically bland and tasteless. We even resorted to eating glupe, sorry, I mean Chinese food and to cap it all, on our last night after looking round the recommeneded area for food, we ended up in the Chinese again! Our philosophy...... why pay $15 for crap when we could get it for $3?

The only tasty thing was ceviche at the fish market which is raw fish in lime juice with onions and spices.

The taxis in the city are cheap, comical and challenging. Normally we have to ask where they’re going, negotiate a fare, listen to them  talk to us continously in Spanish after we’ve told them we can’t speak it and the best was when I asked to go to Hostel Mamallena and he told us that it was OK because he spoke English, so I replied, ‘’Hostel Mamallena’’, and suddenly he understood.

The Panama Canal was a huge highlight of our stay but unfortunately we have to return to the city for two nights after our visit to Colombia.

DAYS SPENT:   13

TRANSPORT:  2 buses, 3 boats, 20 taxis.

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  3 (1 hotel, 1 tent, 1 hostel )

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  none

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Thanksgiving at Palmar Tent Lodge on Red Frog Beach

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  white faced monkey

TOURS TAKEN:  none

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  Thanksgiving (free party with tons of food)

Just the Canal and the Hat?

Two ships at different levels on The Panama Canal

We could tell that the islands of Bocas del Toro were beautiful but as the weather continued to deteriorate, we reluctantly decided to leave in search of drier weather and to dry out our clothes.

A swift eleven hour bus journey across the country and we arrived in Panama’s capital, Panama City where it was our intention to stay for just a few days but now we had six days to find out if there was more to it than just the canal and the hat. Most importantly it was dry with just the odd shower and about 30 C.

After the first day looking round the historic area of Casco Viejo where most of it is being rebuilt, our next stop had to be the canal where they have a fabulous visitor centre with a four storey high viewing gallery over Milaflores Locks. Like most other people, the Panama Canal has just always been there without giving it much consideration, so some interesting facts:

• It took 10 years to build and was completed in 1914
• It stretches for 50 miles linking the Caribbean to the Pacific
• 25,000 men died during its construction mainly due to malaria and yellow fever
• Each vessel is raised and then lowered by 27 metres through three sets of locks
• No hydaulic pumps are used, just gravity
• It takes 8-10 hours to navigate during which time the ships captain is relieved of his duties, much to his disgust, and a specialised Panamanian Canal captain takes the controls
• On average it costs $100,000 per vessel, $800 for a sailboat and up to $400,000 for a cruise liner

Panama city skyline from Casco Viejo

We arrived at 9am to catch the first ships pass through only to be told that the first one would be at 2pm which was odd considering on average 40 ships pass through a day. We weren’t lucky enough to witness a massive container ship or cruise liner but we saw three sizeable beasts plus a small yacht navigate the locks. It really is a spectacular sight to see vessels of this size squeeze into a lock and then get lifted in front of your eyes by nothing more than gravity.

Getting around the city is by the cheap and numerous taxis but we have learnt that our little knowledge of Spanish makes things more difficult than knowing none whatsoever so we took a break from the city by catching a boat to a lovely little island for the day. It was pretty impressive as we lay on the beach to have the Miami-like city skyline as a backdrop with the ships lining up in the foreground, ready to navigate the canal.

 

Thanksgiving....Panama Style

Our tropical home on Red Frog Beach

Somehow we managed to dodge the rain as we strolled down to the small dock to catch the boat to the neighbouring island of Bastimentos on Bocos del Toro. A very soggy walk through the jungle armed with with all our belongings including groceries for a couple of days and most importantly, a chocolate pecan pie, and we arrived at our home for the next couple of nights, Palmar's Tent Lodge.

A really basic but stunning lodge situated in the jungle and right next to Red Frog Beach, named after the poisonous strawberry dart frog that lives there. Evidently its only poisonous if you accidently eat one! We'd booked a tent which had a very comfy bed, a mosquito net, a lockable trunk, various creatures and a huge portion of dampness.

Red Frog Beach, Panama

The place is owned by a young American couple so as part of our booking we were invited, along with the other guests, staff and neighbours, to their Thanksgiving bash and all we had to bring was a small contribution.

We were a little apprehensive as we joined the other 40 or so people for the evening's celebrations as strangely enough we'd never been to a Thanksgiving before. We've no idea quite how they did it in such small and basic surroundings but this amazing spread of food gradually appeared, all beautifully laid out on the pool table, including roast turkey and ham, stuffing, macaroni cheese and tons of other trimmings. There was still plenty left over after we'd all filled our faces and all it cost us was the price of a chocolate pecan pie.

The barefoot torchlit walk back to our tent through the jungle in the pouring rain was hilarious and the evening was one of our strangest experiences but definitely one of the most memorable.

Starfish Beach

Bocas del Toro and the storm heading our way

Our clothes may have been damp but our spirits weren't as we made our final overland border crossing in Central America, from a very wet Costa Rica to Panama. We were in luck as it stayed dry as we walked across nomansland and then queued to have our passports stamped.

We'd arranged for a shuttle bus to take us to the border and collect us the other side which then took us to a small dock where we caught a boat to the islands of Bocas del Toro, just off the northwest tip of Panama.

Our home for the first couple of nights was in Bocas Town on Isla Colon, a lovely waterside town full of bars and restaurants and its where we caught the local bus to the opposite end of the island to Bocas del Drago, also known as Starfish Beach. A small, tranquil, calm and tropical paradise of a beach which for some bizarre reason is home to thousands of red and orange coloured starfish, some the size of dinner plates. They're clearly visible as you stroll along the shoreline and would have been even more visible had it not been for another deluge of rain.

Vanessa in the deluge at Starfish Beach

Undeterred, and another drenching later we headed back to town but didn't realise just how drenched we were. This time the rain had got right through our waterproof raincovers and plastic bags housing all our important documents so our room became one large fan filled drying room for the rest of the day whilst we dried out listening to a great live band at The Lemongrass.

Tomorrow we head over to the neighbouring island of Bastimentos for a spot of  'glamping' on Red Frog Beach.......for Thanksgiving!! You couldn't make it up.

Images of Costa Rica

Puerto Viejo

Cahuita National Park

Cocles Beach

Cahuita National Park

Sloth

Playa Negra, Cahuita