Panama City Revisited

Maybe I was here a year ago and didn`t know it!!!!







San Felipe is the old part of town. Bits of San Felipe and of course the poorest parts of the city were bombed by the Americans in Bush the first´s invasion

San Felipe has been restored but the locals have been kicked out along with any atmosphere. This is the only block left with real locals

The herons live in the Presidential Palace. When Clinton visited his security people sprayed the palace with a disenfectant that killed all the herons, they had to be hurridly replaced during the night





The original city destroyed by Pirate Henry Morgan

I didn´t know this --

The man who was to found the Bank of England persuaded the Scottish people to make a massive investment to set up a trading post in Panama. The idea was to make Scotland a major trading nation to rival the Engish and the Dutch. It was a disaster, due to bad luck, disease and incompetance. For example they took Scottish bonnets and bibles to trade with the natives.

Scotland lost half its wealth and England took advantage and offered to bail them out if they joined the United Kingdom.

An did you know -
Panama has a gold medal long jumper who was expected to get another in the China Olympics. Unfortuantly Panama had two olympic organisations who couldnt agree which of them should send application papers. Eventually the Governmnet got pissed and closed both of them. But this meant there wasnt an organisation left to apply. Its now too late and their guy cant go



We are still in Colombia

Panama to Colombia by boat

This was a tough, exhilarating journey but the highlight of our trip so far.

A guerrilla war, drug runners and possibilty of being shot as a spy makes overland across the Darien far too dangerous. The only options are flying or finding a boat.

After 5 days of going round the marinas and hostals in Panama City we eventually found a French Captain, David, willing to sail to Cartegena if he could get a least 5 passengers. He had 4 but we were dependent on an Irish guy signing up.
Home for 5 days
It was only at the last minute that we got confirmation (in the end there where 6 passengers, 2 Brits, 1 Irish, 2 Swiss, 1 Swedish) . We had to cross the country by bus to get to a tiny village called Puerta Lindo on the Caribean coast. There we asked around until someone pointed out David´s boat


We sailed at 7 am to the San Blas islands. This can take anything from 6 to 24 hours. It took us 14. It is tough going when you are sea sick for that long even if you have taken pills.


We spent 2 days on the San Blas islands which must be the most beautiful in the world. They are perfect, completely undeveloped and there are nearly 400 hundred of them. The only people who live on them are the indigenous Kuna people.

The snorkling was amazing, especially around a wreck close to the shore that was covered in coral and hundreds of fish, while barracudas patrolled around.

David cooking dinner on the island
At 4pm the second day we set off for Colombia. This is where it got a bit daunting. We were about to sail for 50 hours in a 34 foot boat with a group of people we had only just met. At one stage we were going to be nearly 100 miles from shore. None of us could sail, so we were totally dependent on the captain who occasionaly had to sleep. That meant for 2 nights us novices had to share the watches, steering by the stars and keeping a look out for cargo ships.

David´s answer to the question ´what do we do if you fall overboard?´ was ´nothing, dont worry the wind will eventually take you to land´



The biggest skill you had to develop is to pee and crap over the side. The alternative is to go below, operate a complicated set of levers, get wet feet as the loo slops over and spend 10 minutes pumping it all out. While you are doing this you are bounced around and bashed against the sides. A perfect recipe for being very, very sick.

None of us managed the crapping but everyone, except me, managed to pee over the side. Even Marilyn donned the safty harness, stripped off and lent her backside over the edge. I discovered that I have some sort of mental disorder that shuts off all ability to pee if the thing I am on is a sailing boat!!
The only way to wash was to get naked and hide behind the water tank
When we arrived in Cartagena, 5 days after setting off we were extactic. It was a wonderfully exciting trip, David is a great sailor, good company and surperb cook. It was a great crowd. Despite the discomfort, being at sea in a small boat is beautiful and so much more exciting than flying



Useful Contacts

Captains  -  dlel@sailmail.com,   tarona28@yahoo.se,  sailmysticwind@yahoo.com,  ZCNZ4@sailmail.com,  zaoezao@yahoo.com

Hostal in Puerta Lindo, good contacts with captains - dlel@sailmail.com

Hostal in Panama City, very helpful,   Zulys Independent Backpackers

Lost And Found in Panama

A crazy venture that might just work. Build a hostel on a tiny farm in the middle of the cloud forest with no road and 2 hours from the nearest shop. Everything to has to be carried up a very steep, slippery path. The weather changes every few seconds - rain, wind, fog and then a bit of sun.

But its a unique wonderful experience to live for a few days, actually in a cloud forest.




You can visit nature on some of the great treks that start outside your door but nature also comes visiting you.

And if the forest gets a bit too much there is table football, games, hundreds of movies and the occasional poker tournament.



A superb experience that will be up at the top of most travellers to do list if the owner Andrew can get the final permissions to open officially. The story of the hurdles he has overcome would make a great book everything seems to have conspired to stop it happening from nightmare builder problems to a kinkaju with a bad paw

Where you have to sleep if you arrive at the Boquette during their flower and coffee fiesta


This area is the only one with a temperate climate in Panama. so they get very excited about flowers we think are ordinary




Nice dry shoes



Wet shoes

Hacked our way through the forest for 9 hours on the Quetzal Trail. Hardly saw any birds let alone a Quetzal
Some signs are less than useful when you are trying to get to town

On the way to Panama City we stayed in David a great little town with no tourists and 4 casinos

Much more than a canal

Panama is like Costa Rica but without the canopy walks. Its stunning.




Crossed over on a quiet border where the river bridge has holes big enough to fall through.

On the Panamanian side I was called into the immigration office. Expecting problems I was comfused by the big smile and hand shake by a very excited official. All was explained when he showed me his name tag - Barrett. I wonder if we are related


Made our way to Finca 60. Just one of hundreds of banana plantations each with loads of workers homes complete with company stores so they can be exploited twice. But Finca 60 has a side line running taxi boats out to the Caribbean Islands.


The Bocas de Toro archipelgo is stunning and as yet largely unspoilt. it has been described by biologists as the Galapagas of the 21 C. Unfortuantly, as usual, there is massive development pressure and ex-pat Americans and Canadians everywhere. Every island has a building plot for sale


The main town is Bocas del Toro with a nice Carebein feel







Our next stop was central Panama. we are now in Panama City trying to get a lift on a boat into Columbia. We are meeting a guy in a Subway in a couple of hours



A nose ring is not always a good idea
I really do like diving