Panama Canal

Trip Start Jan 25, 2007

102

114

Trip End Jan 25, 2008

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Flag of Panama Panama City, Panama
Monday, November 5, 2007

Getting to Panama City was a bit more complicated than it should have been owing to the direct bus being full up. Instead I had to get a bus to the border and after hoping over the border getting on another bus to the capital. This sounded all well and good in theory but in practice even in Costa Rica the heavy rains can really slow down the traffic. On the main Pan American highway we were held up for about five hours whilst a mud slide was cleared off the road. This seems to be a faurly regular occurence in Costa Rica and we were left sitting on the bus most of the time with a brief stop at a restaurant. So when we finally got to the border town it was about 11pm. Usually border towns are not places you want to arrive into at 11pm but Paso Ca�os was the lucky exception. Whilst there were a few shady characters hanging around in general it was a pretty decent place and it was easy enough to get a room for the night, crossing over the border early the next day and getting the bus on to Panam City

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Panama city feels more like an American city than a central American one and you can really see the influence the Americans had here with the canal. It�s also a very prosperous city obviously gaining a lot from the canal. Getting to the hostel was a bit of a mission, the taxi drivers here seem absolutely clueless about directions and even though we could show him the directions on a map he still wasn�t able to find the street. Eventually after half an hour we got out and found our own way there. He only got three dollars for his troubles as we had negotiated the price up front but it�s not my problem if he can�t read a map. On arrival at the hostel we found that they had just changed address so we had to walk for another twenty minutes to get there but eventually we found our way.
Obviously the main attraction in Panama City is the canal, a day trip out to it is well worth the effort, especially if you can get thee when boats are passing through. It�s like been on the set of Discovery Channel as you see these huge ships come into the locks an slowly get lowereddown level by level.
Other attractions in Panama City include the old town which is still been restored and so is a little run down (and dangerous) but the restored bits are nice and in a few years this partt of town will be a major asset to Panama City.

Panama city is also renowned for it�s nightlife and with a good crowd staying at the hostel we had a few good nights out on the town, usually running into the early hours of the morning. On the way back from one of the nights out I was stopped by one of the cops who wanted to see my passport. By law here you need to carry a passprt or ID card at all times. We didn�t really know this and I wouldn�t carry my passport around with me anyway. I told the cop my passport was at my hotel but he said I had to go to the station. What he was really looking for was a bribe and after talking for about twenty minutes I had to just pay him $20. The other alternative was to go to the station so I figured $20 was the better choice.
From Panama city I wanted to go down to Colombia but since there�s no road through the only options are to fly or sail down. I had heard that it was possible to sail down on a sail boat for the same cost as flying with a few days sailing around the San Blas Islands so I decided to go for this option instead. So soon I would be sailing on to South America.