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Monday, January 30, 2017

Panama City (Panama) - Hot shoe, burnin' down the avenue

PANAMA CITY (PANAMA)
30 January – 01 February 2017

Looking back I think that the catalyst for our trip to Central America was actually the number of times we were required to touch down at Tocumen International Airport, Panama City, during our South American tour two years earlier. Utilising Copa Airlines, the flag carrier of Panama, to get in and out of both Colombia and Cuba, we had spent close to 15hrs in Tocumen International across four separate stops.

Now it was time to actually STOP there, for a few days perhaps.

We’d taken an overnight bus from Almirante, the coastal port from where we had ferried across to Bocas del Torro. For those that are unlearned or aren’t watching every penny like a hawk let me say than an overnight bus for those on a budget is a win. It provides travel and in-built overnight accommodation all rolled into one ride. Of course some countries do it better than others. Argentinian overnight buses provided meals, cama and semi-cama seating and the occasional game of bus bingo. Panama was mid-range in their service, comfortable seating and a movie without subtitles. A pass mark for sure but not exceling in any department.

Arriving in the capital as the sun was just breaking over the city, the morning at the Gran Terminal Nacional de Transporte was just starting to move into a state of alertness. Grand for a bus terminal, we needed to get our bearings before figuring out a strategy for commencing our stay. This however is the point in time when the one-eyed focus of the budget conscious Latvian conflicts with the Australian need for convenience. What we didn’t know for sure, but figured out by deduction, was that the bus terminal was a distance from the city. A rough guess would have put it at least at 5-8kms away – actually checking now, as I write this entry, I see that it’s 6.3km. A comfortable walk if you delete the 20kg packs that we also were obliged to carry along.


In this situation the Australian thought of the practical solution, ‘OK, lets Uber this’.

The Latvian followed up by saying, ‘C’mon, lets walk, we can’t check in until 2pm anyway, what else are we going to do?’

In my mind I thought, perhaps we could leave our bags at the accommodation and head out exploring – but no, I gave in to a bit of frustration and just said, ‘OK, stuff it, lets walk’.


Welcome to Panama City - Panama
With back packs on we proudly walked into town

Panama City - Panama


In total we walked about 1.5-2hrs, mostly due to the fact that we guessed our way to the city centre. Uninspiring and surely boring in large part, we only really encountered buildings of note when we reached the outskirts of what looked to be the CBD. It was there that we found Panama City to be quite unlike the other major capitals of Central America.  Sleek with an ultra-modern skyline, the skyscrapers of downtown glistened as the morning sunlight crossed the Panama Bay and reflected off their tinted window exteriors. Located on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, the city is uncharacteristically large by Central American standards, 1.5million strong in terms of inhabitants and un-typically cosmopolitan for a city in the region, there was a lot of Miami glitz about what we saw in our first brushes.

From what we had found out in advance, it was said that the city is a real capture of influences from both east and west, making is a liberal, dynamic and quite a vibrant city. Acting also as a regional hub for trade, immigration and finance, you automatically see on first viewing that there’s a typical first world type of buzz to the town. With traffic jams, well known restaurant chains, a flourishing night life, Panama City was an unexpected hive of activity that we didn’t expect and in all truth didn’t encounter again until we reached Mexico City.


Panama City - Panama

Drinks down at Casco Viejo - Panama City - Panama

Casco Viejo - Panama City - Panama

Walking around the city during the day it we found it to be a typical urban jungle type of place. Not that we find that problematic or immediately detrimental to the vibe we feel for a place, but it allow us to frame our observations and utilise it as a base for comparison.

Our first evening was spent in Casco Viejo, the Old Quarter of Panama City. This cool part of town is the hip, gentrified, revitalised area of town. A neighbourhood where cool restaurants, cobblestone streets, rooftop bars and music abound, providing all-comers with the foundation for a marvellous evening. It’s immediately obvious that quite a lot of restoration work had gone into both preserving and modernising this area of Panama City. Operating as the perfect foil to the burgeoning city ‘up the road’,  the old town virtually stands alone, just on 5kms from the CBD. In its own precinct, proud and representative of a bygone era but with the flair, charm and vibrancy to be its own drawcard, this area was definitely a favourite part of Panama City for me,  and this being in a city that actually had a few surprises.

The next day Inga and I shifted our accommodation to the Hard Rock Hotel Panama Megalopolis. Not really your conventional option for those on the budget but for me the Hard Rock franchise is something that I enjoy, and I enjoy it not so much for the Hard Rock element, which is cool by the way, but more for the geography. These places are located virtually on every continent and turning up to each location is like a cool little tag identifier.

The Hotel itself is impressive enough. Great facilities, really good rooms and the views out over the CBD out onto Panama Bay. Quite a few hours were spent lazing about the open pool on the 15th floor and acquiring a few cocktails in order to lubricate our mood up from smooth to ‘smooth criminal’.


Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama


Whilst Inga decided to stay at the hotel the next day I headed off in order to check out one of the greatest modern engineering achievements of our time. An artificial waterway cutting across Panama, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the canal cuts through the Isthumus of Panama, linking the Pacific to Gatun Lake and then locks on the Atlantic Coast in Colon.

Cutting 82kms from ocean to ocean, it is simply one of the longest, most difficult and finally, the most successful projects ever undertaken. So grand and so audacious, it’s mind boggling that humans actually had the capacity to accomplish something of this scale, but perhaps even more incredible was the fact that the concept of undertaking the project had actually been around for nearly 400 yrs. Of course the Spanish had the idea very early on but to me the oddball suggestion for taking on the job came from the highly unlikely source of the Kingdom of Scotland. Their suggestion of extreme audacity came via their ill-fated Darien Scheme which was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom to become a world trading state by establishing a colony on the Isthumus of Panama which they were lining up to call Caledonia. Initially to be an overland trading route, the idea was eventually develop the canal at a later point in time.

Control and ownership of this part of the world obviously had strategic, commercial and financial importance. And whilst the French gave the canal a red hot go in the late part of the 19th Century, their defeat came at the hands of yellow fever and malaria which unfortunately too out a lot of the manpower. The French also had a track record. Their work on the Suez canal was experience enough in terms of scale but it was the terrain of Panama, the tropical rain forests, the debilitating climate and the need for canal locks that made their work from 1881-1894 virtually useless. With a spend of $287,000,000, a loss of 22,000 men and a plethora of investors whose money was completely sunk, the failure was epic.

Eventually the USA took over control of the of the canal property and completed the project in 1914. Not to the applause of Chilean ports whose trading routes just got decimated in one foul swoop.


Panama Canal - Panama

Panama Canal - Panama

Panama Canal - Panama

Panama Canal - Panama

Panama Canal - Panama

Panama Canal - Panama


Still, to stand atop of the main viewing platform overlooking one of the main locks in the canal structure and view with my own eyes the scale of what was in front of me, plus consider the project in its entirety, was absolutely mind boggling. Again, since I was a child this was one of those constructs of man that I knew about. It was iconic and such a feet of engineering that it really has stood as testament to the capacity of man as a thinking being to be able to achieve something of this magnitude. It has to stand up there alongside such feats as going to the moon, the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China & Palm Island.

Viewing the canal was definitely one of my highlights of Panama and probably in the top 10 highlights of the trip.


One of the cars used for U2's ZooTV Tour back in 1991
Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama

View from our room at the Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama



View from our room at the Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis - Panama City - Panama

We finished off the day/evening having dinner at the Hard Rock Café and a view drinks at an oddball bar next to the Hard Rock that seemed to overtly masquerade as a brothel, potentially. I’m not sure what the game was there but buxom girls were providing table service for a bar/restaurant that looked perhaps like a Texas Ranch House/crossed with a sports bar. There was no discernible policy that we could see and of course Inga and I were served without issue but the amount of overt flirtation that the all male tables had and the type of interaction that was going on seemed to suggest something altogether ulterior than what was on offer. If anyone is at all interested, just look up the Red Lion Multicentro across the road from the Hard Rock Hotel Megalopolis – apparently from the reviews it’s a ‘clip joint’, a place where you get smacked across the face with prices for the sake of ‘apparently’ partying with the girls…lol…good luck guys, steer clear.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Bocas del Toro (Panama) - Into the mouth of the bull



BOCAS DEL TORO (PANAMA) 
27 January - 29 January 2017

Heading south out of Playa Negra, driving through banana plantations, thick tropical vegetation and rickety wooden building collectives called 'towns', this part of the journey started to feel very Central American to me. Not that I had any really expectations of Central America, it was never really a dream destination but if I was asked to imagine what this part of the world could possibly look and feel like, a morning drive like the one we had would have been exactly what was in my mind's eye.

We docked at the border town of Sixaola on the Rio Sixaola a few hours after our departure from Playa Negra. A typically ramshackle place, par for the course with border crossings. Places like these seem to be the nexus for shady types, petty crime and all things dodgy. Not that we felt threatened or at all concerned for our well-being but border crossings always impart a degree of apprehension and up the level of anxiety in an instant. It’s almost like these 'apparently' well drilled border guards or customs officers will somehow have the ability to delve into your past and discover a deeply hidden atrocity or crime that you’ve suppressed for year, their skills are that good. Of course that moment of having to spill the beans for a crime you never even committed doesn't eventuate. You have nothing to declare of course, no dreadful event so deeply buried that it needs to make an appearance at this moment. Mentally you urge yourself to follow their process and protocol, do that and everything will be ok.


Entry stamp to Panama - let's hear that Van Halen song!
Rio de Siaxola - Costa Rican-Panamanian border

Bocas Del Toro - Panama

Barrbra BnB Over the Sea - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Barrbra BnB Over the Sea - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Crossing into Panama via the Sixaola River entails providing a Costa Rican exit tax, then standing in another line for an exit stamp, before walking across a bridge that acts a La Frontera, a span over the Sixaola River. I often wonder in these situations, when we’ve exited a country but not entered the next, where in fact we actually are? Of course here, just like everywhere else in the world, either country will have jurisdiction over  all activities up until the actual determined border, which I assume in this case would be the middle of the Sixaola River. So I’d guess that until such time that we hit the middle of the river, or the middle of the bridge, we were in fact still in Costa Rica even though technically we had exited, I assume,  based on the understanding that we were on our way out of Costa Rica. I guess its the intention that we provide to exit the country is what acts at the determinate that we will.

Border technicalities aside, on the Panamanian side they checed our exit stamp from Costa Rica and stamped us as having entered Panama – then hey presto, we were back on another bus and burning a line to the coastal town of Almirante, which would be our final stop on the road before taking a ferry out to Bocas Town on the Bocas del Toro archipelago


Barrbra BnB Over the Sea - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Barrbra BnB Over the Sea - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Barrbra BnB Over the Sea - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Bocas del Toro - Panama
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An island chain off the Panamanian Caribbean coast, the promise that we were waiting delivery from all the online guides was a place of seductive and primitive beauty, luscious forests and warm, crystal blue Caribbean water. Bocas del Toro was  tagged as one of those tropical destinations where every one of your palm tree, cocktail infused sunsets would come true.

In all honesty Bocas del Toro did not come across as exactly all of that, but, neither did the touristic tags altogether come across as being fraudulent. 

Bocas Town itself is colourful and full of Caribbean style clapboard houses. As our ferry transfer from the mainland pulled into the terminal we encountered a line of these houses built on stilts, hanging over the water, in some places precariously, painted a bright, buoyant style that is a familiar trademark for this part of the world.

We stayed in a great place named Barrbra BnBOver the Sea.  A two story house built out over the water. The rooms were cosy, comfortable and had access to a beautiful wooden terrace which in fact was the outdoor deck of the house, built on the water. With some comfortable hammocks to swing on and catch the afternoon breezes, lazing around here of an afternoon with a glass of wine in hand was a real pleasure. Marco is the host of the BnB, an open, warm and friendly guy, if not just a touch emotional when the mood takes him. His attitude and openness just added to our stay and made it memorable. Whilst the location is literally on the other side of the island to Bocas Town wasn't overly detrimental to the place itself. A walk into town, once we got used to it, was only 15 mins. Also, I found it kind of intriguing that the airport runway was probably three palm trees away from the back door of the accommodation. Not that there were frequent flights in and out of Bocas that did us any harm and when they did arrive they were mostly afternoon jaunts. But when they were lining up for take-off and going at full throttle, well, you definitely felt part of it.


Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama


I would say the real highlight of our stay on Bocas was the day that we spent at Playa Estrella. Around a 40-50 ride out of Bocas Town to the north-west of the island, this stretch of beach was idyllic. Set amongst swaying palms & calm, tranquil, crystal clear Caribbean blue water, this I believe was one of the things we wanted to find in Central America.


Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama

Playa Estrella - Bocas del Toro - Panama


With a line of small wooden shacks strewn down the beach serving cocktails of your choice, delivering them to you with just the slightest raise of the hand, coupled with the rays of the sun beating down our Factor 50 skin, days like these are rarities.


Carnenero Los Tres Pisos - Bocas del Tora - Panama

Carnenero Los Tres Pisos - Bocas del Tora - Panama

Carnenero Los Tres Pisos - Bocas del Tora - Panama

Carnenero Los Tres Pisos - Bocas del Tora - Panama


Admittedly our discovery of Bocas del Toro didn’t go much further than Bocas Town and Playa Estrella. On the day we left we did spend a few hours at Carnenero Los Tres Pisos, a hotel (or was it a hostel), located on the seafront at Brown Point, a five minute ferry ride across from Bocas Town. This place was like a cool mini Waterworld. Another place built on the seafront, it had a diving platform, springboards and trampoline that edged a ‘seafront’ pool, which in reality was a large whole cut out in the terrace to be made to look like a pool. Still, it was an interesting place and perhaps somewhere we could stay if we ever ventured back this way again in the future.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Playa Negra / Puerto Viejo de Talamanca (Costa Rica) - Black sand


Playa Negra / Puerto Viejo de Talamanca (Costa Rica)

24 January - 27 January 2017

Located in the Limon province on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, Playa Negra and its associate town, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, is very much a laid back, sleepy type of world that attracts people of the same vibe. I often find it amusing that observations of slow moving, sleepy towns are that the people there are of the same elk. Newsflash sports fans, the ‘town’ is really a collective name for a group of people that have gathered in the same spot. If the town has a vibe it's likely to be attributable to the nature of the people that have made that corner of the world home.

A 4 hour bus ride south-east out of San Jose, and thankfully, a world away from the mundane city that masquerades as a Central American capital, the shoreline of Playa Negra lives up to its expectation. Black volcanic sand acquaints itself with the Caribbean sea, its colour all to do of course with run-off from close by volcanic areas.


Near Puerto Viejo - Costa Rica

Near Puerto Viejo - Costa Rica

Near Puerto Viejo - Costa Rica

Moving further down the coastline from Puerto Viejo there are some extremely pleasant stretches of sand and accompanying beaches that bask brilliantly in the Caribbean sunshine. Surrounded by rich, tropical, jungle vegetation and palm trees swaying the breeze. There's a distinct sense of ownership that you encounter in that there's no crowds, meaning no designated flag areas where 500 people swim in a space of 50mtrs2, and also meaning you can carve out a piece of paradise for the afternoon ever so freely – this is just an easy lifestyle.There's no real infrastructure either, no big marinas, no burgeoning waterside developments and no ‘high streets’.Here you just have beach shacks, basic accommodation and a cool breeze that's ever supportive of whatever it is that you want to do.

Of course, like anywhere, the more people discover a place and the more popular it becomes then the more people find out, inhabit and commercialise. South of Puerto Viejo there are 'secluded' spa retreats, wellness centres, yoga sanctuaries, pottery classes for vegans & kimchi making classes for pottery experts (I would imagine). All that boho, tripitaka stuff finds its home on shores of golden sands and the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. For the moment the mix is nice enough to allow this place to still be away from all that is 'known', without having it overwhelmed and inundated. That's for now of course, 10 years time it will be a very different story.


Near Puerto Viejo - Costa Rica

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca - Costa Rica

Australia Day 'Sangas - Puerto Viejo de Talamanca - Costa Rica

Playa Negra - Costa Rica

Waiting for the van to take us into Panama


Formerly a fishing village, Puerto Viejo is morphing somewhat to cater for a cashed up clientele who are making their way down to new found surfing breaks. Bars, restaurants and discos fill most of the streets of this small town, and in fact, Inga and I celebrated Australia Day in place called Outback Jack’s. An Australian owned jointed that gave away free sausage sandwiches on Oz Day but couldn’t cobble together any form of cocktail if they tried. It was almost as if they had taken an anti-cocktail making course, or at the very least, spent too much time in the bars of Uyuni, Bolivia.

Our time in Puerto Viejo was nice, and when I say that, I mean in that calm and relaxed way. There was nothing extravagant down here but I guess that was exactly the point. If you’re looking for a tropical hideaway that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a typical beach resort town, then this is your flavour of biscuit. You could unfurl your hammock, light yourself a beach side camp fire and live on the breeze for weeks quite easily, and what's more, there wouldn't be a soul that would hassle you.