Isla Bastimentos - Day 1, general thoughts on trip
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2008
1
6
12
Trip End
Mar 24, 2008
Bocas del Toro,
Panama
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The photos included in this entry were actually taken at the end of our time in the Bocas area, from the plane that took us back to Panama City. We included them here to make this entry more entertaining!
Being honest, it has not been the greatest trip so far. We did not find a lot of fun things to do in Panama City, there were some OK things or even some pretty fun things, but nothing really awesome. Maybe if we had researched and planned ahead more we would have had more cool stuff to do. Also, Panama City has all the normal issues of any big city - extremely bad traffic, crowding, bad smog. There are really very few pretty, uplifting places in the city. Many people in the city are very nice, easygoing, and friendly. Especially the staff and fellow guests at La Estancia and at Casa de Carmen. But of course as travelers we were dealing frequently with cabbies, waiters, bike rental clerks, etc. Many people like that in big cities all over the world can be grouchy and gruff. When you are still learning Spanish and unsure of yourself, you want to be around almost all welcoming, relaxed, encouraging people.
In Panama City, there is little stuff to do that's very fun. Few awesome "peak" experiences. Some nice things, OK things, but if you're going to be fighting crowds, traffic, and pollution, you want to have some fun and uplifting experiences that make you say "It was SO worth it!"
Rating our enjoyment of the trip from 1-10 so far, here's where we stand:
Dave
Average: 6
Highest Point: 7?
Lowest Point: 3
Keli
Average: 4
Highest Point: 6?
Lowest Point: 2
By comparison, here's how we would rate our trip to Costa Rica from January:
Dave: Average 8, Highest 10, Lowest 6
Keli: Average 7.5, Highest 9, Lowest 5
So what mistakes did we make? What different choices can we make for future trips? What is this whole travel thing? How do we fulfill the love of traveling that we both feel?
- Destination. First and foremost we have to say maybe Panama City was just not the right choice to spend 6 of our 10 days. Maybe Panama City should have been two days? Three? I (Dave) had the idea that being in the city would mean lots of fun activities to do, and so easy to find fun stuff. Didn't really turn out that way. I also felt that spending our limited time on planes or buses traveling around Panama would not be time well spent. We talked with other travelers who spent a few days in each of several different areas of the country, which they really loved.
Hospital Point, Bocas area
- More research and planning for fun activities. I (Dave) finally understand the importance of this item, which Keli has been trying to help me understand for some time. Especially to find inspiring and uplifting cultural stuff, it's going to take some research ahead of time. Probably the best experience we had in Panama City was the salsa lesson and discussion with the wonderful instructor Gloria. Now, what if we had also found a great dance performance to attend, an Easter Week parade to watch, a fantastic local band to listen to, etc etc. Maybe those things would have proved difficult to find on the Internet from back home. But, they were impossible to find in the city in 6 days. Also, maybe we should consider a packaged tour or two along the way. An experienced, excellent guide or company that could have taken us to Gamboa or Valle de Anton. We just had trouble making stuff like that happen from on the ground in Panama City.
- Better accommodations. And also better neighborhoods. Tough to find in Panama City. This means we need to somehow research the hotels and neighborhoods more too! Even though Casa de Carmen was SO much nicer than Acapulco, Carmen is still in an unpleasant part of town. Estancia is in a GREAT part of town and it's a very nice place too, but it's quite remote and you have to taxi for any restaurants, grocery runs, activities. In future though, we will remember that our Panama trip got MUCH better when we got out of Acapulco to a better place. What the *&#$&# were we doing trying to save $11 a night at Acapulco?
- More fun activities. It seems so obvious written out like that. "Peak Experiences." I (Dave) thought that just being in Panama City would be so exciting. Just the feeling of it! And it is, but by itself that's not enough. That excitement wears off after a little while and then you want something fun to do! The feeling wears off REAL fast if you are in a bad hotel in a questionable part of town. And the cultural experiences are great too - salsa dancing, easter parades, whatever. But doing really cool, amazing things is really important, and it makes the difficulties of travel feel worthwhile. Examples would be doing the waterfall rappelling in Costa Rica, seeing the Great Wall, hiking up a volcano, etc.
Bocas islands from air I
- Making sure the trip is balanced between the travelers. Make sure each person is getting to participate in the stuff they enjoy doing most. Keep checking in with each other to see how it's going. We know this one and do pretty well with it, but we got a bit out of balance at least once on this trip, where it became too much the trip for one person, which the other one wasn't enjoying that much.
For whoever is reading this, apologies if it's too heavy or too depressing. "Keeping it real." Most people read travel stuff for fun and positive inspiration, but hopefully they don't mind our thoughts and discussions about what makes travel most rewarding. We have been discussing all these topics at great length for many months now and wanted to share our thoughts on Travelpod too.
This is the first time I (Dave) have ever felt like this on a trip, or at least the first time the feeling has lasted more than just a day or two. It's the first time Keli and I left a city with a definite "ho-hum" feeling about the place. That is very difficult for me to deal with! I want to think that I can LOVE traveling in any part of the world. I don't want to rate any place just a "6". Writing this has been therapeutic for me in figuring the whole thing out as we go.
Comments
Very insightful
Dave, I didn't think your comments were depressing at all. I found them very insightful. The great thing is you find out these things by traveling and that is just a fun experience to have.
Re: Very insightful
Thanks for the comments Paul! Good to get your feedback and know that someone finds the whole topic of travel as interesting as I do...