Panama City - The Canal, bush walks and movies!

Monday 10th September – Miami – Panama

We sadly checked out around 7.30am as we needed to get to the airport for 9am. We had planned to catch the bus but after missing the one we needed and unsure on what time the next one was arriving we waved down a cab and headed to the airport. We arrived in good time, Jo posted off her gifts to her parents and we headed through security to again get the once over. To our surprise the flight left on time. It was our first experience of on time travel with American Airlines! We arrived in Panama City airport, which is about 35kms out of the city around 1pm.

We basically had 2 options of getting to our hostel – 1) pay $25 to go with a taxi which was around a 25mins journey or 2) walk out of the airport across the road and catching the Diablo Roja local bus for 25c and taking 1 ½ hours. Well there was no choice in our minds for which would be more fun! We headed off to locate the bus stop in again scorching hot weather. After being pointed in the right direction by a few locals we jumped on the best local bus in the world! The Diablo Roja buses are all ex US school buses that have been totally “pimped out” with the most awesome paint jobs - usually some very impressive and unique spray painting. Most have rather extravagant mag wheels to add to their character. However the buses have 2 problems - they are very loud with their 2 chrome exhaust pipes letting fly the sound of a V8 engine and not great for the environment, with streets usually clogged from the exhaust fumes. And, there is no room between each seat for your legs, because they are made for small school children! We enjoyed the very slow, stop-start ride into the city and got dropped off at Plaza Cinco de Mayo.

Our hostel was suppose to be a $1 taxi fare, but being a little tired and weary Leigh let his guard down and agreed a price of $3, no big loss really. The problem was the hostel was no further than 10 minutes walk which made the rip off seem a little worse. Welcome to Central America, Leigh and Jo! We checked in and both of us immediately began to feel a little home sick. 1) it was hard to re-adjust from the ease of the states – not having to battle with language barriers and 2) to go from the luxury we had just left in Miami into a tiny box room which was street side. Literally if we opened our shutters we were on the sidewalk and only had an overhead fan to cool us from the immense heat.

We headed out to a recommended “old school diner” called the Coca Cola Cafe. It was a great little place full of locals gossiping, some gathered around a small TV on the wall, discussing news events. It was good to look at a menu and not faint at the prices of food. As it was around 4pm, we decided to make it a lunch/dinner before exploring the streets and alleys in the Old Town where we were staying. With our moral low we just ambled around for a few hours through some markets and stalls before heading around the point to great views of Panama City and the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It was more like a taxi rank for ships and when the sun went down the lights of the boats took over to almost resembled a distant city. We splashed out and bought gourmet icecreams for $2.50 each! However, Leigh's eyes where then drawn to a little old man with a stall scrapping ice into a cup then topping it with flavour like a slushy. The taste was very unique - it had a honey, orange syrup with an almost condensed milk flavour on it.

We wandered around enjoying the Colonial architecture and the very fascinating old town with the biggest mix match of buildings we have ever seen! Some were derelict to the point that trees where growing from them, others totally luxurious that only the super wealthy could afford and also up the road were Embassies. We were very careful not to go further than 8 blocks east of our hostel as that is where it is extremely dangerous, not only at night but during the day. On average 3 people are shot in a week. We then headed home and enjoyed a DVD, while trying to keep cool in the very hot conditions.

Tuesday 11th September – Panama City (Dad's Birthday)

We were woken early at around 7am by the locals on the side walk (aka our headboard) so got on the move at 9ish. We decided to visit the Panama Canal today and were told the busiest times for the Miraflores Lock was between 8 – 12pm and 3 - 6pm. We grabbed some breakfast from a local supermarket which was Jo's favourite cereal and fruit. Again, the cheapest and most fun mode of transportation was catching the Diablo Roja bus at a fraction of the cost of a taxi. We smiled at each other as we had once again returned to battle the Latin American bus stops - not much in the way of help for gringo travellers using local buses. No worries though as we located the correct bus and headed off for the canal - Jo sitting next to two very big Jamaican ladies, with only half her bottom on the edge of the seat and Leigh squashed in the middle of two very big Jamaican men.

We were lucky enough to get the helpful advice from the locals on when to get off, so made a quick dash to the bus shelter on the other side of the road to take cover from the pouring rain. It began to slow up so we began the walk to the Canal which was around 15 minutes away. But to our surprise we got offered a free taxi ride by a local driver (never in Latin America would you expect such things!) and got to the Miraflores Lock much quicker. Thankfully out student ID's were on hand after taking a break in the States and we got a good discount of $5 off each ticket! The visitors centre at the Miraflores lock contains an excellent interactive museum, a theatre and several viewing platforms over 4 stories.

As we arrived there was a freight liner heading through the Lock westward to the pacific ocean. What can you say, except it was amazing! Jo had always really wanted to see it in action after watching a program on Discovery. Firstly the view you get from the top viewing platform is an amazing spot to admire the engineering works. How it works? Well basically from the West a ship approaches the highest level of the docks navigated in by a Panama Canal captain and guided by 2 trains on either side of the ship. Once inside, the gates close off and the ship lowers, not by pumps but from gravity. It then enters the next chamber and lowers again to the sea level, while the other chamber fills up before the final gates are opened. We enjoyed the last moments before the liner headed out to sea and shortly after it had left an announcement was made that the next ship would be through around 3pm. So we headed inside to watch the video, which detailed how the Panama Canal would be expanding to keep up with modern needs.

We then spent a couple of hours walking around the museum, learning the history of the Canal and how so many people from different countries dedicated their life to it. As 3pm came so did another storm. It was so disappointing as just as the ship was entering the first chamber an electrical storm so massive meant we had to move to lower ground. We watched awe inspired for hours, with a few ships going through. It was amazing. Finally the storm slowed down so we jumped on the bus pumping reggae music and jumped off at the Plaza. We wandered around the shops before going back to the Coca Cola cafe. It wasn't as good this time around, partially because we didn't get what we ordered but you get use to these things! We chilled out in the evening back at the hostel.

Wednesday 12th September – Panama City

We arose to yet another racket on the sidewalk behind our bed at around 7am. This morning school kids seemed to want to use the wall as a soccer goal, so we waited a few minutes and they carried on their way luckily before Jo got the opportunity to tell them to be quiet. We enjoyed another day with a health helping of Cereal and fruit before investigating the best way to buy our bus tickets to get to Bocas del Toro for the tomorrow and how to get to the Metropolitan Park as that is were we intended to visit.

We were told a strick maximum by our Hostel Manager on how much a taxi would cost to get to the bus station. So with that in mind our bargaining power was much greater. We arrived not before too long at the Allbrook station and to our delight it was attached to a massive American style mall in which we could locate all the things we had come to love in the USA. We found the ticket booth at the very modern bus terminal and with no fuss booked on the 9pm trip to Boco´s for tomorrow night. We crossed the road and briefly explored the mall before getting a picnic lunch from subway to take to the park. As usual we haggled for a cab - the ride was only 5 minutes around the corner, but walking on the sidewalk is pretty dangerous... cars and buses just fly, some totally out of control. As we have come to expect we got some ludicrous replies like $5! After finally agreeing a suitable fair we headed off to the park.

At the park we were greeted by a very polite ranger and managed to use our student ID´s to enter at the bargin price of 50 cents each. We were told to expect to see Tica´s (small monkeys) sloths and red frogs. Apparently the snakes didn't come on the tracks during the day, but there was a possibility we could see one. We made our way into the very dense but lush rain forest on a well maintained track. The entire round trip was around 1 hour but with rain, thunder and lightning brewing we made off at a rather quick pace. With eyes like a hawk Jo spotted a beautiful red frog hidden and well camouflaged within a fallen leaf. After a few photos of the little creature and more bursts of thunder we carried on our way. The "highlight" of the walk is suppose to be the 150m high look out at the top of the walk, but after spending much of the past 2 months well above 3000m we found it a little hard to get excited and with poor visibility it was not the best view of the city. We were beginning to wander were all the sloths and monkeys were? We had seen plenty of beautiful butterflies and frogs but really wanted to get our food pinched by a monkey.

We decided to sit down and as it goes as soon as we started eating it began to pour, and not just a small shower but a torrential downfall. Thankfully the canopy of the forest and Jo´s pink umbrella kept us from getting soaked. We carried on our way still not seeing any of the wildlife expected down the hill. On the path heading back to the rangers station there was a large pond that was full of small turtles that seemed to be playing up to the camera, they were very cute. We got back to the station a little wet but had enjoyed the walk in the rain forest and decided not to waste more money on a cab and walk back to the mall. Further more to make us like the mall even more we located a movie theater with all films in English and for a whopping price of $2.50 each (student discount again!)

We went and saw “Fracture” starring Anthony Hopkins. It was a great movie and decided we would return the following day to see another movie before leaving (probably our last opportunity for a while). We flagged down a cab and had decided that we would cook dinner at the hostel although they have rather limited resources. With fresh corn on the cob and pitas and dip it made for a nice change from the old school diner.

Over dinner we started talking to a couple of chaps who were planning on retiring in Panama. One guy was a very interesting ex pilot/air traffic controller (we were not to sure on his authenticity) and a very defensive Frenchman who seemed rather angry with the world. The funniest part of the night was when the two gents almost came to blows about fois grais. The Englishman was telling us how in-human it is and that only geese were used in the manufacturing of it. This wound the French "cook" up and he lectured him about his friend who has an organic duck fois grais producing farm. He also mentioned how he had been a cook for 15 years and not to doubt him. After the dust settled we enjoyed a few drinks, with the Englishman pouring Jo very strong Cuba Libras. We chatted late into the night before getting to bed around 1am.

Thursday 13th September – Panama City – Bocas del Toro

With the evening bus trip planned we decided to sleep through the morning racket and have a few extra winks as we were not expecting to get much sleep. We had breakfast with our 2 friends and headed off to the Panama Canal museum just a few blocks away. We were greeted by a rather snooty women who insisted on seeing our student ID´s so Leigh ran back and grabbed them from the Hostel and happily showed them to her, who made it her business to examine every detail of them. Letting us through we were reminded no photos! It seemed as though we were entering the Louvre. The exhibition was really good except it was all in Spanish apart from one English speaking film. The most fascinating part was the exhibit of hundreds of postcards that were sent to family members during the construction and in the early years of the canals operation.

We left the museum and had a brief chat with the English and Frenchman before heading off. For some reason, taxi drivers did not take any interest in us walking up the street with our backpacks on. Usually you get honked at every few paces to jump on in. So after walking further than usual we finally got in a taxi and almost fainted when he quoted us the correct price straight away. How unusual and actually worth a tip! We returned to the Allbrook bus station and checked our bags into the left luggage department before heading to the mall. We spent the afternoon shopping before heading to another very cheap movie. Today we saw Rush Hour 3. It was a very good movie to burn some time and we had our pick of seats as there were only 10 other people in the very large theatre!

After the movie it was time for dinner in the 20+ restaurant food court. We enjoyed some Mexican and Chinese with an Ice Cream treat for Jo to finish and listened to the storm taking place outside. Perfect timing we headed over to collect our bags and check onto the bus. As we were waiting to board the bus we saw our first incident in weeks. The doors to the waiting room burst open and 2 men were having a right old punch up. To our surprise it was a security guard and a rather rough looking local. Leigh made the comment that usually security guards are suppose to restrain not fight. With teeth and blood flying we were extremely anxious as from the stories we have heard no one is to scared to use guns and the look on the face of the locals was not to reassuring either. They were finally broken up and stood around waiting for the Police. A single policeman came over, put cuffs on the guy then the entourage of about 20 people all left the area, which ended the excitment.

After making conversation with a local family we gave them some of our food that Jo could not finish and they were so happy. The 6 month old boy was fascinated with Jo and they played until the bus arrived. It took ages to get our bags on board and everyone one, but eventually we left in what was quiet honestly the worst bus trip of our travels!