First of all i want to spread some tipps for fellow travelers coming from Costa Rica to Panama.
- bring 500 Dollars or a Credit Card (if you haven't either of them, they will accept a bribe if you are lucky (about 30 dollars).
. have a flightticket out of Panama or a busticket back to Costa Rica (or hope that the girls who assist you during the imigration process will mention a bribe a well :-)
- you are able to withdraw a flight reservation which you did online within 24 hours, so it might be even be possible to use a printout which has been chancelled. ;-)
It was obvious that it is a common practice to make a bit of extra money there.
We arrived at 5:30 am in the morning at Panama city and with 15 hours driving in a bus it actually was the longest ride we took so far. Sure the bus was announced to have DVD's onboard and a WC. Only one TV worked and the movies sucked! The first movie, with de Niro was without sound, the next was "The Pumkinhead" a bad horror movie at about 12pm. Nice move from the busdriver to show this to the kids in the bus, quite a few. Outside the bus it was already dark (sure at this time), it was foggy and lightnings struck as well. So actually a nice atmosphere for a horror movie. However no kid started to scream while the movie was played. So either they hided under the blanket, fainted or just enjoyed it. ;-)
The Bus terminal was spotless clean and really welcoming! We were not welcomed by beggars, touts .... but by a Police officer who asked us to help us finding the right bus.
Surprise! We found the right bus quite soon , had a hard walk to find the Hostel "Voyager" and then we found a sign that it moved. So another walk around to finally find it. Ahh i forgot to mention we travel with a mexican guy we have now met the 4th time in 3 different countrys. Nice guy, yes his spanish was helpfull!
Maria was tough, carrying her heavy backpacks around in the morning, without a coffee so far and no cigarette (ah im not sure about the last one)!
After we settled in the hostel and had a shower, explored the shops and have to tell that the electronics (ipods are 20% less) and cloth are extremly cheap.
But due to guarantee reasons we won't buy electronic stuff here and cloth are to big to carry for 3 month :-((((. And no new shoes for maria as well (i hope (small remark after another day here, sure she had to buy a pair!)).
We have been at the old town area and it looks a bit like Cuba (i never been there), old post colony houses are dominating (with the skyline of the new city over the sea) and some are quite charming with there dusty and morbid outside. Two old woman on the steet who were selling something told us not to go in this direction because of crimes and attacks in this area so we were wise and went the other way.
As we were always happy that the rainseason had somehow avoided us, we went into heavy rain when we walked back to the hostel. The rains was so intense that some steets were flooded by about 40 - 50 cm high of water. Nice to watch the cars! So we were trapped in a coffee shop.
The second day here "we" decided to have a look at some shopping malls. Guess who bought some clothes and shoes. :-)
At the 9th of August we will fly to Colombia to visit a friend of Maria and we are somehow happy to finally arrive in South America. Not because Central America was not nice but its a new challenge and we can toss away the heavy guidebook and start with a new one. ;-)
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