Final days 15-17 Panama City.
The bus trip from Boquete was uneventful. No further quakes experienced by us and no child molesters on the bus. We arrive in David at 10.15 am to find our bus leaves for Panama City at 11. Esther told us they left every 15 minutes, I am not so sure that she is a liar but either misinformed or doesn't understand what we are asking her.
The bus is a large modern coach and we have been warned to wear warm clothing as the aircon is always freezing (on this she was right). The seats are comfy and recline. There is a toilet but I refrained from drinking too much as the smell was grosse. Pity those who were sitting nearby!
We stopped after 3 and a half hours for a 30 minute break then travelled for a further 3 and a half until we reached our destination. The scenery was very nondescript, flat, dry, uninteresting. That is until the last hour when we hit a small mountain range and a few smaller pueblos along the way.
The bus terminal as usual was on the outskirts of the city and an extremely busy place, bus transport is big in these countries. The hotel where we were staying has a desk here and a courtesy bus to transfer us to the Marparaiso. This is our last hotel and Gecko have pulled out all stops on this one. The moment we walked in I wanted to turn around and leave. The walls were dirty, the lift floor had not been washed in months, the floor tiles chipped with large pieces missing, it looked like an hourly rate hotel. The area it was situated in was sleazy, noisy, piles of rubbish everywhere on the street corners and we are warned not to go out at night unless in a group! fantastic!!!!
Things do not improve when I hit my hovel of a room. Walls dirty, hair in sink and shower. I pull back the bed linen to discover a dirty pillow case with hair on it. I head back to reception and they immediately change my room to an upmarket suite? Ha Ha!!!! A similar hovel but pillow case looks less grubby! I really want to move to another hotel, I feel grossed out and for the 2 days that we are there ( the others talk me into staying) I feel like I can't touch anything. The staff are pleasant but that is not enough for me to be able to change my opinion of the place and I am joined by the others on their mortification of the hotel selection. This is not a cheap back packer holiday we are on, we have paid a lot of money and received very little. I paid almost $500 single supplement and that was a rip off as the hotels wouldnt have even cost that for the trip!!! None of us expected 5 star but we all expected clean hotels in safe areas. Not dumps located in unsafe areas. We feel like all along the way we have had the worst rooms in the worst hotels. Meryl puts this down to the local ground handlers. She has been on a continuous gecko tour which started before this and commenced in Mexico then Guatamala and she says the hotels and guides were very good and she was very comfortable but this leg of her tour has been a sharp contrast. We wonder how long it has been since Gecko has actually sent anyone out into the field to check the standards.
Linda and Sarah head off to do their own thing and follow lonely planet whilst Davidson and I go with Esther, I am feeling a little embarrassed for her as it looked like she was going to be on her own. I wish that I had gone hungry, her selection this time topped them all off, it was like eating in a bad Coles cafeteria.
I have unpacked my travel towel and wrapped that around my pillow case and eventually get to sleep dreaming of bed bugs. Somewhere in my room there has to be moth balls or camphor because it is really upsetting my breathing and I spend the night sucking on ventolin.
The morning dawns to a very hot day but we are looking forward to our city tour. We head off in a nice mini bus to Miraflores which is the first loch in the Panama Canal. A large building has been erected overlooking the loch and it houses viewing platforms, a 4 story museum and tourist centre. The ships start entering the canal at around 9.30, the first one of the day is a Panamax. This type of container ship has been built to specifications for the canal. It has 11 inches clearance either side and is almost the length of the loch and just allows for the pilot boats to fit in behind it before the gates close. The principal is an amazing feat of engineering with the principal of the water flowing from the highest level to the lowest when the manholes at the base of each gate are opened. The ships are assisted by cables to guide them and help them stop but move under their own steam. Getting through this loch takes around an hour and there is another set at the other end of the canal. It takes ships 8-10 hours to traverse the canal completely from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I could have stayed there all day but we were only given 1 and a half hours to see the ships go through, watch the 20 minute history film and get through the museum.
We hopped back onto the bus and did a whistle stop tour of the tourist area across the causeway that housed a yacht club and restaurants ( very nice spot) a couple of monuments then on to Panama Vieja, the old town. This is a Unesco Heritage site and is currently being renovated. For me it is what Havana should be and what Cartagena probably was pre rebuild. What a beautiful area, gorgeous architecture, religious buildings that only have the walls standing following a massive earthquake some years ago, lovely old streets and of course the old sea walls that protected the town from marauding invaders!!! We discovered a great cafe run by an expat Canadian and his Panamanian wife and had a quick lunch and very good coffee! Esther was getting tetchy as we were taking too much time and as we had dragged our feet at the canal, the tour time had elapsed and the driver had to leave!!! So we sent them on their way with arrangements for us to do our own thing and we all met up 2 hours later to return by taxi to the hovel. We missed out on the tour of the old town but it was wonderful just strolling around and checking out the indigenous artisans and seeing the local women in their traditional costumes. This is one area that if you had money and a desire to purchase a nice apartment with the intention of a cafe or restaurant in the future, it could be done as this spot is going to take off. The whole place is being rebuilt beautifully and sympathetically. Don't worry family, not on my agenda!!!
We return to the hotel but after 5 minutes in my room I have to escape. I check out a google map on my I phone and see that we are only 1 block from the water frontage. These are the things that we aren't told! There is very little direction of stuff that we can do in our free time. A 5 minute stroll down our very seedy street and I am on the malecon, that if I had the time, I could have walked all the way into the main city ( of which we saw nothing on this trip). Instead I walked across the bridge that crosses Avenida Balboa and found myself right by the sea wall that I stood on until 2 police men in a golf cart discovered me and told me to get down and walk on the correct path. No sense of humor! Anyway, I had a good walk along the malecon with the water to my right and parks to my left and outstanding views across the city at one end and the causeway we had crossed earlier in the day, at the other. How could we have not been told about this????? Bummer, battery in my camera dies before the end of my walk.
So I have had a lovely day in Panama City and could only wish for a night in a good hotel and another day of walking the old town and the malecon.
The girls on their previous night out had discovered Calle Uruguay where the clubs and restaurants are located and following the advise of the cafe owner in the old town, we head off to a restaurant called Market. Esther was way out of her depth and we could see that she was anxious about her bill but even though we had decided to pay for her we let her suffer a bit in case she selected the most expensive option!!! We had a great meal and even though we were experiencing the seedy side of Panama with our hotel and area, it is obvious that there is a much more sophisticated side to the city and many people there with money and style. I would have liked to have seen more of the city and its urban culture.
Back to the hovel for a last sleep and dreams of bed bugs. I wish that I had an earlier flight out as all I did was wait at the hotel until I left at midday as it was very hot and windy outside and my coughing was terrible.
Unfortunately for me I arrived at the airport with a lot of time to spare and discovered some very nice shops to "look " at. The security was the usual tough pre USA stuff and we had to go through it again before we could enter the departure lounge. The flight was late taking off but this time was made up in the air. USA immigration lines were the longest that I have seen and took over an hour to get through. Must admit that I was a bit worried about re-entering with this cough but I have never been asked so few questions particularly as I was coming from Central America. Did notice a big sign though that stated that due to budget cuts to the immigration and security services that the staff apologies for the long delays and so I wonder if the officers are not being quite so intense as a passive response.
Anyway, who cares, only 5 questions as opposed to the usual 40!
I am staying at the airport hotel tonight as I don't have a lot of faith in air timetables and immigration and thought it could be very late when I arrived. It wasn't too late but it was an easy entry and gave me time to get myself sorted out and visit American Airlines who had messed up my flights for the next leg!!
Yes I have another trip planned! I had booked my flights on American Airlines over their website. I am heading off to Puerto Rico next week. BUT instead of confirmation I received an email to call them which I couldn't do from Panama as I didn't have a phone, it transpires that because my credit card wasn't an American credit card, they couldn't process the order. They had however managed to deduct the 97c online booking fee from the card!!!! How does that work? So much for credit cards being world wide!
All sorted now and in my favor as when I booked there were extra charges for luggage etc but now none of that has been added on and I have everything that I wanted!
I am going to have 2 days in San Juan and then head off to an island called Vieques with Winter. He has a contract to teach the teachers how to teach math and is workshopping for 2 days whilst I laze on the beach. Well that's my plan. The island actually has a long history with the USA naval forces which is worth a read for those interested.
And so the Central America trip has ended. I have enjoyed the countries, made the most of all the opportunities and activities that have been offered, met some very nice people in my fellow travelers and experienced some discomfort that was unexpected. Disappointed with the tour company but not the tour. What I have discovered is that if you can find somebody to accompany you, then traveling South and Central America is not so difficult as there is transport and there is plenty of information available so if anyone is interested ..............
Adios y hasta luego!!!!!
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