The Last Report about Panamá

The Panama Canoe.

I guess after having been to so many tropical places, I am just spoiled. I was a bit underwhelmed with Panamá. After a week on its northern Caribbean coast, we were ready to move along to a new adventure. I traded in my Central America Lonely Planet Guide for a Panama Guide, and started looking for a new destination. There are several beautiful provinces in the country with plenty of unique scenery and cultural influences. It seemed that the more interesting options were over our budget, would take a lot of bus travel to get there, and would have been preferable to arrive with fresh immunization shots. I have no doubt that there are some fantastic getaways in Panamá, but they are mostly upscale resorts. Prices for tourists are very high in the entire country.

Prices for locals are also too high. Perhaps this has something to do with the high incidence of crime and random violence all over the country. The two worst places for violence are Colón, where Annie had her purse sliced off her in the middle of the day heading to market, and parts of Panamá City that are dangerously close to highly visited tourist areas. The gang presence is overwhelming. Even the little kids are trained to mug and rob strangers. On the road to Colón they loiter near dumpsters and wait for expats to bring their trash from the smaller ports up the coast, just for the purpose of robbing them. The day we went into Colón and took the trash with us, we had to pass several dumpsters before we found one with no street urchins.

The buses are entertaining works of art. Evidently they are all privately owned; the drivers inherit or buy into a bus and a route. Other than owning your own taxi, it may be the most lucrative of Panamanian jobs. This photo gives you an idea of the size of the AlBrook Bus Terminal. There were several giant parking areas full of buses. Each uniquely painted, air brushed, decked out and decaled. I am pretty certain that the drivers are all on suicide missions. Some of the bus rides are white knuckle experiences. E ticket rides.

This is the bus that flies up and down the north coast every day. Every time it passed we'd notice a new section of the art on its side. The bus often stopped in front of our guesthouse to pick up backpackers from the hostile hostel next door to Annie's.


Flashing lights, feathers, crystals, pom poms - this driver probably has a little religious shrine built in there too. He should, to repent for what he has painted in the back of the bus.

This was in the back of the bus inches from my face. The only seats for 'the likes of us' were always in the back of the bus, by the way. Strange art work for a public bus.

In a place where there is nothing going on day or night, we lucked out and happened to be there for the celebration Campesino Day. The school in the village of Puerto Lindo put on a show, the women prepared local food dishes and the men built palm frond stands for them before they set out to play a softball tournament. Annie is waiting for an order of octopus in achiote and coconut milk, accompanied by coconut rice, which was one of the better food options in Puerto Lindo. The food was surprisingly bland, and they don't use hot chiles there. Where do they get their vitamin C? I didn't see any fruits available or being consumed anywhere, other than bananas or coconuts. The bananas were the best I'd ever had, without doubt. Coconuts seem to be staples for all fish and rice dishes.


Beautiful little girls.

The Campesino Queen for 2009.

The Queen's Court enters while most of the village looks on.

While waiting forever for these photos to upload, it occurred to me....no one is smiling in any of these pictures. Even the adorable little queen had to force a smile, and she had agreed to let me photograph her. There was a heaviness in the air in the little village of Puerto Lindo, an oppressiveness that surrounded us. Well, that and the obvious abject poverty.....Some of the people talked with us while we drank a couple Panama beers. But there was something missing, maybe the feeling of welcomeness. I haven't pinpointed it yet. I always have to consider that people don't approve of us; so Pablo and I may have been sort of a freak show to the Puerto Lindeños. Another consideration is that Annie and her friend Sara are the only two expats who make any attempt to socialize with the local folks, so maybe all of us Caucasians are a bit of an intrusion. There are others around but they are locked up on their gorgeous yachts, or behind tall walls, down long driveways, with big signs advising everyone to stay away.

Annie is very helpful and friendly to the locals; as a nurse she even volunteers at the local medical clinic. Her friend Sara on the other hand is wasting away in Margaritaville. I found it difficult to deal with her beligerent drunken interrogations right in my face, her many large dogs scaring the shit out of me as they fought below my feet. Once I had to jump onto a church bench to avert disaster. In the early part of the day, I liked Sara. We played dominoes with her and her mom. We enjoyed her pet toucan and parrot who talked and sang all afternoon. I liked the Kuna Indian dog she was dog sitting, but the pit bulls or whatever the mean ones were, well they were just out of control. But it is hard to control a pack of wild dogs if you yourself are a wild drunk. I didn't want to badmouth anyone from this trip, but when we considered staying at Annie's house once she had to leave to meet up with a friend, the thought of dealing with a beligerent drunk every day, who made it clear from the beginning that she didn't like me or approve of us, helped to convinced me to pack my bags.

Pablo had his own set of reasons for wanting to leave. He overheard some conversation in Spanish and confirmed our unwelcome status. He's Mayan and Yucatecan, and he catches vibes pretty easily; sometimes they are just his imagination, and other times he is spot on. He also went there with an unreal vision, thinking there might be work there as a teacher or perhaps interest in seeking property around the area. He too was underwhelmed with the place. We have seen and heard howler monkeys and spider monkeys in Mexico. We can go to a real white sandy beach in an hour's drive from home. We can take boat rides throught the mangroves here; the coastline there was also comprised mostly of mangrove. So you see, someone who had never been to the tropics might find the experience magical. But for us it was more of what we are used to, but in a less amiable setting.

Althought I try not to, I find myself comparing it with other places, even my own house and comfort levels. Basically what I learned there was that I have no interest in owning property or living in Panamá. Mexico's laws might be crazy, but try a combination of US influence and the lacsidaisical Latino influence, and you get one mixed up crazy country. Everyone in search of the elusive but ever present Almighty Dollar.

Back to Puerto Lindo, the guys had fun at the softball tournament on Campesino Day.


This is Sammy, Sara's toucan. It was the first time I'd made friends with one, and the interactions were amazing.

Annie's guest house is a work in progress. She works for a few months in the States, and then spends three months in Panamá. On each trip she makes improvements to the house and property. In the third world it has sort of a three steps forward, two steps backward effect. She had the house and guest rooms all fixed up and ready to open for good on this trip. While she was gone Panamá was jolted by an earthquake and it broke the water pipe, possibly under the cement slab of the house. It isn't easy to find a plumber in the area, and of course by now Annie is planning her return trip to the US to earn the money to pay for the projects from this three month period. Panamá has strict rules about residency, you can't get it unless you are either retired with a pension or have a monthly income of an amount acceptable to the government. If I wanted to stay in Panama for a year I would have to prove I earned $10,000 US a month or something outrageous.

So, my conclusion, not necessarily of what is written above, is this: I believe Panama is beautiful country with a lot of well preserved and undeveloped areas. And I think there are some great resorts dotted around the country, but they are upscale and high priced. You have to pay a pretty penny to feel SAFE in Panama. I found Panama City to be surprisingly fun and interesting, and the north coast to be unfriendly and frankly, a little boring. The bottom line is that we all have a dream to fulfill. Annie's is to live in a tropical rainforest, near the Caribbean, where she can snorkel, fish, and kayak during her free time. And share her experiences with her guests. I imagine that she will eventually be able to outift her place with kayaks, a boat and realize her dreams, but I also think it will take the entire two years that remain before she can comfortably sit back on her porch, retired with pension, and wait for guests to flow through.

¡Panamá!

Puerto Lindo is on the Caribbean Sea between Portobelo and El Porvenir (on this map).

We left Mérida the morning of September 22nd. After a layover in México City we flew nonstop to Panamá City, landing into an awesome view of the city's skyline at sunset, offering a unique view of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at once. We'd booked a hotel in the city in advance online, The Hotel Aramo. It is comforting to arrive with a specific destination, especially a strange city at night. (I've also been known to travel on the fly...without a room or a clue.)


We opted to take the bus into town. We caught an express bus that cost $2.50US. There was another bus we found out about later that cost $.25US. The most popular option is a $30US cab ride. The taxi drivers called out to us that we needed a cab because it wasn't safe to take the bus, but we made it to our hotel on a miraculously direct route in 45 minutes without incident. The hotel was clean, the staff extremely friendly and helpful, there was internet service, and a little restaurant where we were given a continental breakfast the following morning as part of our $37US deal.


If you are heading anywhere considered "outback" in Panamá, which in my opinion would include every province outside Panamá City...the bus schedules often require that you spend a night in town and head out early the next day to make all your connections. The bus routes are plentiful, but complicated, and often services do not run after dark.


In the morning, Pablo schlepped our bags two blocks down a busy avenue to the nearest bus stop, where we boarded a city bus to AlBrook, the main bus terminal. All buses operating in Panamá depart from there. We were northbound to the Caribbean Coast vía the road to Colón. We easily found the Colón Express and within half an hour we were on our way. We had been warned to NOT take the bus all the way into Colón, but "to get off at an intersection with a grocery store called Sabanitas." I had maps, sat by the window, and I tried to see where we were going but the driver was hauling ass and there were no signs. Now and then a sign zoomed by on the other side of the highway, but I couldn't turn around fast enough to catch it. When I saw the first evidence of human habitation; it was a big town. We asked if it was called Sabanitas, our connection stop. It was. From this crucero we had to catch a different bus headed northeast up the coast. The ride hadn't taken as long as I'd anticipated and our ride didn't match the road on the map at all. Anyhow, before the driver flew off toward the danger zone of Colón, we managed to get off the bus with all our belongings. We immediately saw another colorful bus heading to Portobelo and Pablo hailed it. I didn't have time to tell him we were actually looking for a different bus, the Costa Norteña bus, but we were headed off in the right direction. We negotiated a taxi from Portobelo, which was actually a relaxing relief from the hustle of the buses. By noon we pulled into the driveway of Panama Adventures Guest House, met by Annie's smiling face, a hot cup of coffee, and her neighbor/friend.


That afternoon we walked around the fishing village of Puerto Lindo.


We visited the tiendas, the old church, and met some of the local folks.

Then we swam out across the bay for a long snorkel.


That evening we were all contentedly exhausted and just enjoyed sitting on the front porch. We finally made it to Panamá.

Why Panamá?

Sunrise in Puerto Lindo, Panamá


I am always on the lookout for ways to sustain my wanderlust. A few months back, I received an email from a lodge owner who found my ad on the ecotropical resort site, and we began to communicate. She owns a house with two guest rooms in Panamá, on the Caribbean Coast. Click for Panama Adventures. Annie bought her tropical getaway five years ago.

Her property is located in the Portobelo National EcoParque, where both rainforest and marine life are protected. Annie lives on the banks of a river and a short walk from the fishing village of Puerto Lindo, population 300. It is truly tropical rainforest with five species of monkeys, over 900 species of birds, including toucans, parrots, and quetzals. There is an interesting array of animal species due to Panamá´s unique location between North and South America. Its rich history is evidenced by the remains of forts and cannons, churches and cultural traditions. The coast from Portobelo to beyond Puerto Lindo is famous for its protected bays and inlets, used by boaters since pirate times. Some of the visible history dates to the early 1500's. Today the bays are dotted with pricey yachts flying flags of many countries. The area is a jumping off point for hitchhiking sailors bound for South America. Panamá's north coast is a beautiful and interesting little corner of the world, and although it has a long wet rainy season, it is not in hurricane alley.

Annie has been alternately working in the States and on her property every few months to reach her goal of opening a guest house and setting up snorkeling, kayaking and fishing excursions. She thought she was ready to open this year, on her autumn visit. We talked about me going to "resort sit", once she opened for business and then had to go back to her US job to earn more money for continued improvements. She would like to build palapas and acquire more water sports equipment. One of the tricks of operating a guest lodge in the tropics is that once you open those doors and take the first reservation, set up online services with tour operators, etc., those doors need to remain open. It's smart for Annie to line someone up to stay there, continue to check the bookings, and receive the guests who have made reservations for periods during her absence.

Pablo and I had an attack of wanderlust and had Panamá on the brain, since we didn't make it that far on our previous Central American excursion. It seemed like serendipity that Annie would contact me out of the blue. I wanted to go there on a scouting mission and meet Annie, see the area, and see if it would be feasible to plan for three month stays. She invited us to come as her guests and check it out. And so we did.

Panamá Hats

Before I went to Panamá, I thought this was a Panamá Hat.

Mike and I talked about them, and we thought they were made in México or Costa Rica somewhere, and sold around here. It's a very popular hat among Yucatecans. And below is what I learned in my research, from the Lonely Planet Guide to Panamá, p.141:

"A Panama hat or simply a Panama is a traditional brimmed hat made from a Panama-hat palm (Carludovica palmata). Although originally from Ecuador, the hat became popular in Panama during the construction of the canal when thousands of Panamas were imported for use by the workers. After American President Theodore Roosevelt donned a Panama during his historic visit to the canal, the hats became the height of fashion.

Unlike the better-known hats from Ecuador, which are woven from crown to brim in one piece, this kind is made by a braiding process, using a half-inch braid of palm fiber, usually of alternating or mixed white and black. The finished braid is wound around a wooden form and sewn together at the edges, producing a round-crowned, black-striped hat. It's a common site in rural parts of Panama......"

These boys are wearing Panamá hats.

Just Another Day in Puerto Lindo

Rodolfo came for us at 10am. We grabbed our gear and walked down the road to the boat waiting for us at the beach. We motored across the bay into an extensive mangrove system. Rodolfo drove us through the “tunnel of love” where we saw white-faced monkeys (capuchin?) darting through the trees.

We saw egrets and herons and birds of all kinds and colors. The Panamanian Caribbean coast is dotted with lush, hilly, mostly uninhabited tropical islands and islandettes. We circled Linton Island, home of an abandoned research station, and were greeted at the dock by spider monkeys (cacique?).

We beached the boat on a deserted islet called Sodros to do some snorkeling. Rodolfo and Annie were hunting for lobsters, and Pablo and I were just looking around at the young, reasonably healthy coral reef and numerous but small fishes. We walked halfway around Sodros Island. I found an oar. Pablo found a turtle egg. Rodolfo found another egg. The oar came in handy to dig a hole in the sand and rebury the turtle eggs. There was evidence that some had hatched.

We headed over to another little beach and dropped anchor. After investigating more reef and fish, we combed the beach. We started collecting seashells and coconuts. We discovered an almond tree full of nuts and ate them on the spot. We gathered noni fruit to take to Sara’s toucan. Rodolfo picked ripe sea grapes for us to taste. Once we were sun-crisped, we headed back to the beach and the guest house. We grilled fresh spiny lobster tails on the patio while listening to howler monkeys, and watching parrots, toucans, hummingbirds and butterflies.

The jungle atmosphere intensified when the skies clouded up and the afternoon tropical rains came. I love the sound of a tin roof in the rain. We sat on the front porch until nightfall just passing time. We were all tired and crashed early. Just a typical day in Puerto Lindo.

Wingin' It With Mexicana

The phone rang at 4am. Once we woke up and realized we were in a hotel room in Panama City and homeward bound for Mérida, we hustled down to the taxista waiting for us in the lobby. And so began October 2,2009. Three tolls, thirty minutes, and twenty dollars later we were the first customers at Mexicana Air. We were originally scheduled to fly out a week later, but we changed the program. I usually try to avoid changing the program since air travel is so complicated these days. In order to change the return reservation we spent most of the day before riding for hours in bumper to bumper traffic, to and from the airport on local buses.


At check-in, no less than eight agents tried for an hour to get our boarding passes to print out. NOTE: Mexicana is a normally a good airline. They were in the active process of changing their system and routes. The result could mean cheaper and better options for domestic travel in Mexico. With that in mind, we maintained our patience and just kept smiling.


The three and a half hour flight from Panama City was uneventful. Immigration, terminal changes in Mexico City, gate changes, the usual stuff, no problem. By 1pm we were on our way to:


GUADALAJARA!


At least it as during the day and we could look at the clouds and sky scenery. When I booked the ticket, the Guadalajara stop was unavoidable. We waited two frazzling, sizzling hours in the stuffy new terminal. Finally, at 5pm, we were on board a small sleek jet

bound for: OAXACA!

My fault for not seeing the small light-gray print on the electronic ticket. Ok, so on this flight we opted for a dinner of beer and peanuts. We got to see the ruins of Monté Albán outside of Oaxaca from the air as we landed. I learned about another feature of my camera and had fun photographing clouds and scenery.

Looking down at Monté Albán on top of the green hill in the forefront and the city of Oaxaca behind it.

The flight to Oaxaca lasted just over an hour. Then we had a "technical stopover". We didn't have to leave our seats. Passengers disembarked, the cleaning crew came in, quickly swept up around us, and new passengers boarded. Within half an hour we were off, heading directly to:

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ!

Surprise! We were not done traveling yet, we had one more technical stopover. It was stormy as we traversed the Sierra Madres over Oaxaca and Chiapas. We drank another beer and ate cookies for dessert as we watched distants clouds clash in lightnight streaks.

Finally, at 9:45pm, we arrived in Mérida. The Customs Agents took one look at us and saw we'd been through some kind of hell and let us pass through without inspection. Big deal, I smuggled in one bag of yellow split peas.

It was the perfectly bizarre ending to a perfectly bizarre adventure. Two days earlier, we cruised the northern coast of Panama on the Atlantic Ocean, crossed over the entire country, got a look at the Panama Canal, and then found ourselves staring at the Pacific Ocean. So why not see ALL OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND MOST OF MEXICO in one single day? Life is an Amazing Race and sometimes you just have to WING IT!