The Panamá Connection

We entered Panamá with a question: what to visit in only 2 weeks so we could get to Colombia by mid September. We had to be really selective with the destinations, so this was our plan: Bocas del Toro, visit our mexican friend Jorge in Panamá City and embark on a sailing trip that would take us to the San Blas Islands and an open ocean crossing to Cartagena, Colombia.

Bocas del Toro is an archipielago of islands at the north-east part of the country. Sal had visited them with Banksy 9 years ago and had memories of this fishermen village with dirt roads, few backpackers and great atmosphere. However, appearing on lonely planet as the top destination in Central America doesn’t help to keep the authenticity of a place, so we were surprised by concrete roads, fast food chains, overpriced hostels and lots of tourist agents selling tours. While the prospect wasn’t that good, we were lucky to meet again with Pete & Lina, an Aussie/Lithuanian couple that we had met in Guatemala a few months back.

Arriving to Bocas del Toro with a ferry from Almirante

The guys travelling on this bus gave a free concert for everyone that day. We were missing live music!

We spent 3 great days with them exploring the different highlighted beaches like Bocas del Drago (aka Playa de las Estrellas) on the main island (Isla Colón) and Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimientos, where we had to negotiate hard for a fair panga ride in order to get there.

Bocas del drago

Red frog beach

While we were a bit disappointed by the beach standards…living in Australia doesn’t help…we had lots of fun with Sal’s favourite sports: collecting and opening drinking coconuts and spotting wildlife. The latter came in the form of the name of the last beach, a tiny, bright red frog that brought us back to the Costa Rican jungle for a few minutes. The red frog is almost extinct, so it was great to still manage to find one of them.

An overnight bus took us all the way to Panamá City, our first city after almost 6 months travelling! We were welcomed there by a huge thunderstorm, whose thunderstrikes set off nearby car alarms, and Jorge! We met Jorge 9 years ago in Vancouver and he was a great host during our 3 days in the city. His apartment had awesome views to the bay where we could see the huge cargo ships lining to enter the Panamá Canal but what we really enjoyed was his knowledge of the city, exploring it with him and remembering the good times at UBC (University of British Columbia), where Sal & I met.

Panamá city skyline

We also had our dose of city luxuries, like mall shopping (don’t try to find shoes over size 10 in Central or South America!), cinema… somehow Sal & Jorge convinced me to go and see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles… and enjoyed some beautiful sushi for dinner!

Thanks Jorge! We will be waiting for you in Spain & Australia

Apart from that, Panamá’s old town is very pretty and you can breath its history through many statues and monuments to Bolívar, the military and political leader that played a key role in the freedom of Latin American countries from the Spanish empire; but also to the Panamá Canal and its promoters, which has changed the quality of life of this country over its 100 years of history.

Can't leave Panamá without trying their ceviche mixto!

The visit to one of the canal locks was a must and well deserves half a day to check the museum, 3D movie and watching the massive cargo ships go through the 3 stages that form the Miraflores Lock.

Happy 100th anniversary Panamá Canal!

Out of curiosity, an average of 40 ships cross the canal every day. The cheapest vessels pay around $800 to cross, while a cargoship with 5,000 containers can pay up to $400,000! We heard that the average is around $100K, so you can figure out how much money they make every day!

I'm not ready to go back to work

Sal with our new friends Pete&Lina

Finally, we headed to Puerto Lindo, an isolated fishermen town where we met the Loic, the French captain that took us on his sailing boat from Panamá to Colombia, and the rest of our fellow sailors.

Alternatives to boating were similarly expensive flights or crossing the Darien National Park on foot, which is apparently ruled by the Colombian Guerrilla (FARC) and druglords.

Moreover, the sailing boat stopped for 3 days at the San Blas Islands, this time a really unspoilt, paradisiacal group of islands inhabited by the Kuna Indians. The Kunas are an old indigineous tribe and it’s said they are the only one that has managed to remain the rulers of their own land.

As visitors, we only had to respect some rules… like paying $1 for coconuts (their main source of income), not marrying a Kuna and not scuba diving (at $5/lobster, we imagine its their 2nd source of income).

Every morning the locals would arrive alongside our boat in their dugout canoes, with big grins showing off their lobsters, artesanal weavings or carvings. Photos of the Kuna are a contentious issue there since they saw themselves on postcards being sold in the city, so we resisted,  but if you check them out on this link. The costumes and jewellery are pretty cool.

The Kunas prepared us red snapper with coconut rice, yum!

The sailing trip was a great experience, although we recommend doing it in the other direction to make the most of the currents and winds to get the sails out.

Shark bait

Most importantly, we made it to Colombia in time to meet with our friends, but this will be part of our next posts.

Big hugs!