Panamania

Sunday, January 6.

Today we decided we'd go out and see what some of the other Bocas islands had to offer.  We ate a quick breakfast, and headed to the center of town to the boat taxis.  After having coffee at a waterfront café, we took a $1.00 boat taxi to the nearest island.  We wandered around, and at first it looked pretty rundown, but soon we realized there were a few nice restaraunts, and hotels.  We picked a restaurant that looked like a straw hut on the beach, and shared a nice lunch which took close to an hour to arrive. Unfortunately it was the only hour that the sun was out that day. But we still enjoyed our the peaceful scenery around us.

After lunch we took another boat taxi to the popular "Red Frog Beach" on an island called Bastimentos, or "Pass the Mentos", as we called it.  The Beach was really nice, (as it should be, seeing as we were charged an admission fee) unfortunately the weather would not co-operate.  We read our books, and fake tanned, for a few hours, and headed back to Isla de Cologne.  We had another home cooked meal, in the interest of both saving money, and being healthy.  There was a large crew at the hostel that night, so we spent the rest of it drinking bloody caesers, chatting with our new friends, and starring in a documentary film about travellers, being produced by one of our fellow hostellers.

Monday, January 7.

We decided to check out a different beach on Monday, one called "Bluff beach" that was on the island where we were staying.  We were told the beach was in walking distance, and should only take 45 min or so.  After walking for nearly 2 hours, in the blazing heat, we finally made it to Bluff beach.  It was worth the walk, though, as the beach was post-card-esque, and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We shared an expensive but delicious salad at the only restaurant within a 4 km radius, and decided that we should probably call a cab to get a ride back.  The cab driver, Clan, was astonished to hear that we'd walked all the way there..

That night was "cheat night".  Once a week, Dalice likes to go out and eat really greasy, starchy food, to alleviate the stress of trying to eat healthy for the rest of the week.  As such, we ate Pizza, Pasta and calamari, and finished it off with some cookie dough ice cream cones!  Thanks again to Jo and Jerry ;).  We said goodbye to our hostel mates, as we knew we'd be moving on the next day.

Tuesday, January 8 (and Wednesday, January 9.. happy birthday Esther!).

We got an early start, as today we'd have to go boattaxi-taxi-bus-bus to get to our destination; Boquete. It is a coffee plantation town, in the central mountains of Panama. The whole ordeal to get there took about 7 and a half hours, and when we arrived we really wished we had booked a hostel, instead of just winging it.  We ended up in a very small, but private, room with no other hostellers in the building.  That was okay, though, as we knew we'd enjoy the peace and quiet.

We had a lunch of fresh mahi mahi, beans, and salad, and we ran into a few fellow travellers whom we'd met in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.  We caught up with them, and they told us that the night before, they had done a midnight climbing of "Volcano Baru", the highest peak in Panama at 3,400 m, and had watched the sunrise from there.  They said "Oh it wasn't that bad, and it was only $5 for the shuttle to the trailhead".  So we thought, "hey why not, it sounds nice, we'll get some good excersize, and it's cheap".  So we decided we'd do it.

We went to our appointed meeting place (a hostel called Mammallena's) at 11:30, even though we were already pretty tired from a day of traveling.  We had tried to take a nap before, but failed due to a late afternoon coffee.  The shuttle driver asked if everyone had warm clothes, which most people did, and water, also which most people did, and food, again, which most people did.  We realized then, unfortunately,  that we were terribly underprepared, as we had only brought two apples, and big bag of almonds while everyone else said they brought 3 sandwiches each! David also deciced he didn't really need to dress warm.  We were pretty nervous at that point, especially since we aren't.. how shall we say.. in "peak" physical condition these days.

Anyhow we were committed at this point, and went for it.  We got to the trail just before midnight, and started hiking.  The first hour was very difficult.  It was a very steep incline, and being pitch black outside (we did bring a headlamp), there wasn't much to take your mind off the pain in our legs (and lungs).  After a while, we got into a bit of a groove, having received our second, third, and fourth winds.  We started talking to other hikers, (there was a group of 10 doing it that night), and that helped as well.  Next thing you know, its 5:00 a.m., freezing, wet, and we're told by someone who'd done the hike before "We're almost there guys!".  Apparently "almost there" is a term he used pretty loosely, as we didn't reach the top until 6:15 or so.  We were completely exhausted and freezing cold (borderline hypothermic in Dave's case) but we were happy with our accomplishment, and excited to watch the sunrise.  One problem though.  We were stuck in a mist cloud.  We were a little too tired to be too disappointed to care too much though.  We rested for about a half hour at the top, and then started to head back down.

One would think that going down would be a lot easier than going up.  One would be wrong.  The incline and amount of rocks/mini boulders on the path made it really tough to get down, not to mention that the energy level was pretty low at this point.  It took us ANOTHER 6 hours to get back down to the bottom!  At the time, we were saying "worst idea ever"!, but in retrospect, we are happy that we made it to the top, sunrise or not.

We decided to give ourselves a special cheat meal for lunch that day, and had another pizza, this time accompanied with a huge burger and fries.  We slept like babies for the next 5 hours.  We woke up around 8:00, bought a few instant soups, and went directly back to sleep for the night.

Thursday, January 10.

If there was ever a day that you had to spend 10 hours on busses, Wednesday was that day.  The last thing we wanted to do was walk anywhere (other than the bus stop), and we actually enjoyed relaxing on the bus to Panama City.  We arrived around 4:00, and practiced a little Spanish by asking the first taxi we saw "Quanto para Casco Viejo", or "how much for (a ride) to Old Casco" which was where we were staying.  He originally said $12, but we've learned never to take the first price, so we worked him down to $10.  When we arrived at our hostel, we asked the lady at the desk how much it should have actually cost, and she said no more than $5.  Oh well, that's the price you pay for being a "gringo" in Central America.

Our Hostel, Panamericana, is awesome! It's a monster, housing 29 rooms, over 3 floors, with two rooftop patios, both of which have amazing views of Panama City.  Its in the old part of Panama City, which is currently undergoing major revitalization, but it is still very nice and quaint.  There are police officers on almost every corner, at all hours, so its... safe?  We walked around the old city, stopped for a soup and a small pasta at a local café, spent some time on the roof, and went to bed.







Friday, January 10.

We were woken up around 7:00 with construction noises from all different directions.  There were also a lot of slamming doors and windows, as this hostel seems to have a vacuum like quality to it.  We made an early start, and had a complimentary breakfast of PB and J sandwiches, and bananas.  We decided to walk to the new part of Panama city, for a little slice of home.  The buildings and architecture are quite nice, but much like the old town, a lot of the city still seems to be under construction.  We met a retired traveller named Chris, who told us how to see the Panama Canal on a budget.  So we did.  We took, a chicken bus (the most packed one we'd seen yet) for 25 cents each, and got off close to the canal, and walked up to the visitors center/museum.  We walked around the museum, and finished just in time to witness a cruise ship, and cargo ship, both transitting through the locks at the same time!  It was pretty exciting, but got annoying as well, as there were hundreds of people shoving one another, trying to get a better view and that's when we made our exit.

We decided to head over to the "Multicentro" a mall in the centre of the new city. We split a taxi with a couple that was on our chicken bus earlier in the day, and then took another chicken bus (much less packed) the rest of the way. When we got to the mall, we didn't see any familiar stores, but what we did see that was familiar was a Mcdonald's in the food court! D'alice has a very big weakness for all things fast food and it was the first Mcdonald's we saw that was in reach. So.... we did it. We had yet another cheat meal. After filling our bellies with deliciousness, we explored all corners of the mall. We spent some time at an internet café and then walked around the casino and ended off the evening with our first in-theatre movie, "El Hobbit" (The Hobbit).

Saturday, January 11.

We had another wake up call to construction and slamming doors at around 8am. We went down for another complimentary breakfast of PB and J sandwiches and bananas, but this time all the PB was gone and the bread was left out and a little bit stale, so we ended up having jam sandwiches with bananas, yum? We were supposed to have a beach day, as we had payed for a tour that would take us out to the pacific ocean with an all inclusive bbq, and a fun filled day on the beach.  Unfortunately, that tour was cancelled last minute, so we spent the day walking down the boardwalk, around the mall (no McDonalds this time though) and hanging around the hostel.

And that is where we are now, chilling at the mega Panamericana hostel, hoping this blog provides you all with some level of enjoyment.  Thank you again for your interest, and please note that we have now fixed the "comment problem", and now anyone can comment with ease, if you'd like.  Also, if you decide to "subscribe" to the blog, you will be sent a email whenever we make a new post.  And we like followers :)

With love from the big city,
Dalice