The Verdict

Thumbs up for the Panama vacation. I did most of what I wanted to do in ten days. With a little more time, I would have visited the San Blás islands in the Caribbean, maybe taken a trip into the rainforests of Darién province bordering Colombia, and have spent another day or two in Panama City to visit some nearby towns that sound interesting.

The country is easy to get to from the U.S. and has a good tourist infrastructure but is not overrun with tourists. Because of the strong American influence, Panama isn't as exotic as other Central American countries, which is good or bad depending on what you want. The diving in Bocas was a little disappointing, but I recognize that I've been spoiled by Honduras and Malaysia.

I got a little depressed today. For one, I was at work and a week ago someone was sailing me around Bocas in a catamaran. For another thing, I was reading detailed medical reports about smashed eyeballs, the complications that arise from having your eyeball smashed, and whether the treating doctors in this case acted with deliberate indifference. Sailing and snorkeling? Fun. Smashed eyeballs? Not so much.

Panama City

I spent my last full day in Panama visiting Panama La Vieja, which are the ruins of the city that date from the 1500's, and the old colonial center known as Casco Antiguo.

Cathedral tower in Panama La Vieja

View of Panama City from cathedral tower in Panama La Vieja

Cathedral in Casco Antiguo

I liked Casco Antiguo a lot and spent several hours strolling around and people watching. The run-down buildings are slowly being refurbished and the area is becoming a pleasant place to spend time. Where the inhabitants of the run down buildings go, I do not know, but now there are ice cream shops, restaurants, and artisinats.

Rain, rain, go away

Actually, I´m going away from Boquete tomorrow. So the rain can stay for all I care.

Despite the crappy weather, I managed to get some hiking in. I hiked part of a trail called Sendero los Quetzales yesterday - no quetzals, though. I turned around at the big waterfall with no obvious path continuation and was glad I did because it started raining at 11 AM and didn´t stop until sometime last night.

Sendero los Quetzales

Today was better. I was up and at ´em at 7 AM and was at the entrance to Parque Nacional de Volcán Barú by 8:15. I hiked half way up the summit of the extinct volcano - about 7.5 km and then turned around because I didn´t need to climb to the top and I knew it was going to rain. I exited the park around 12:30 and hiked back down another 8 km to Boquete. My intention was to get a taxi or a bus back, but not one passed me along the way. Maybe because I took a wrong turn and hiked along the backroads lined with coffee plantations. It started raining around 2, but it was light and I didn´t get that wet. This afternoon around 5 was another story since it poured for about an hour and has been drizzling on and off all afternoon and evening.

Clearing/farm in the Parque Nacional de Volcán Barú

Coffee plantation on the road back to Boquete

I leave Boquete tomorrow morning for David, where I will catch a flight back to Panama City. I plan to see some more sites - Panamá La Vieja (ruins) and Casco Antiguo (again). I opted to stay in a nicer hotel (yay American chains!) because I want breakfast and don´t want to put up with any crap on Monday morning right before my flight back to los Estados Unidos.

en Boquete

So I´ve gone from an annoying Spanish language keyboard in Bocas del Toro to an annoying Spanish language keyboard in Boquete that has been used so much all the characters have rubbed off. That I am able to type anything at all is amazing.

Anyway, the remainder of my stay in Bocas del Toro was great. Yesterday I went sailing and snorkeling on a catamaran around the archipelago. I had dinner (once again) at my friend´s restaurant. I had barracuda fritters with chili sauce as an appetizer and pork meatloaf with mashed potatoes as an entrée. Then I had peanut butter chocolate chip pie for dessert.

I left Bocas this morning around 9;30 by ferry to Almirante on the mainland and then by bus to a city called David. I sat next to a woman balancing a child on one knee and a take out box of fried chicken on another, and we were treated to pan-Latin American merengue music and then an old Mexican movie about a man who writes letters for other people. I read-napped most of the way. From David, I took another bus to Boquete, which is where I am now. The trip from Bocas to Boquete took about 6 hours.

Boquete is nice so far. It is in the highlands, and it is cool and cloudy. They grow a lot of coffee here, so I went to a coffee shop this afternoon and sat around. The barrista gave me a free double espresso, which was my second, so after four shots I am totally wired right now. Tomorrow I plan to do some hiking in the area´s national park along a trail called Sendero de los Quetzales. If I actually see a quetzal I´ll pee in my pants. Hopefully the weather will cooperate during the hike; it was rainy when I arrived.

As for food, I´ve been eating a lot of gringo food since most of my dinners in Bocas were at my friend´s gringo-oriented restaurant. I had some Panamanian food in Bocas and also this evening. In Bocas, I had chicken and rice for a late lunch one day. Today I had rice with meat and grilled chicken with some sweet plantains on the side. The beer is pretty good - there are three national brands (Balboa, Atlas, and Panama). Panama is the best. The rum here (Abuelo) is pretty good, too. And the coffee I had this afternoon was delicious.

Bocas del Toro

Wizard Beach on Isla Bastamientos

Preparing to sea kayak around Isla Carenero

Nicole's restaurant on the main island, Isla Colón

Bocas was great. These three photos sum up what I did over the course of 5 days.

safe and sound in Bocas del Toro

Howdy all -

So far the va-cay to Panama is going great. I won´t write a whole lot since this Spanish language keyboard is a little annoying and I´ll be able to upload photos with some pre-dated entries once I´m back.

Anyway, I saw the Panama Canal on Saturday and it was really cool. My timing was fortunate in that I saw two Panamax ships pass through heading towards the Caribbean side. Panama City is really modern and I am looking forward to spending some more time there on my way out next Sunday.

I`m in Bocas del Toro right now, a gringo-infested town on the Caribbean near the Costa Rican border. The forested archipelago is beautiful, with white sand beaches and decent reefs. My friend has a great restaurant over the water with delicious food and even better drinks. We went to the beach on Sunday, diving yesterday, and sea kayaking today. I´m going sailing and snorkeling tomorrow.

Not everything has been perfect, though. The weather could be better; it has rained every afternoon. Fortunately, I´ve been able to do the chosen activity without any problem prior to any showers or sprinkles.

But for now, it is time for me to sign off and head to the restaurant.

Panama Canal

Panamax ship passing through the Miraflores Locks
heading from the Pacific to the Caribbean

View of closed locks at Miraflores

Adios, amigos

I head out tomorrow for a much needed trip away from it all. My friend who has the restaurant in Bocas del Toro emailed me to tell me that the restaurant's two toilets fell into the ocean earlier this week. Thankfully, no one was on them at the time. The toilets have since been replaced.

This trip is off to a promising start. Adios, amigos.

Nacho photo update

Spazzing in the back yard

A pile of hair from today's brushing. If you look closely, you
can see his pink pocket rocket shooting out. He's happy.

Summer movies

I saw Spider -Man 3 on Saturday. 4 stars (out of 5). The action scenes, fighting, web-slinging, and superpowers were all that I could hope for and more. A few of the dialog or "dramatic" scenes were over-the-top dorky and detracted from the film; for this I deduct a star. I also liked 1 and 2 better. But the movie was still very entertaining.

The summer movie season is promising. Of the big studio releases, I plan to see Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,* Transformers, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum, and probably some random interesting foreign or art house films.


*Yes, the first Fantastic 4 was t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e., but the previews for the sequel look much better. Besides, the pretty people are in it again.