Panama

3 May 2010

So I got a little bored of the buses and decided to move a little more quickly, so shelled out (paid 4 times - damned internet!) for a flight up to Panama City from Quito in Ecuador.

Panama City was really hot and humid, but also really quite beautiful. The old section of the city is called Casco Viejo and is full of run down colonial mansions, the presidential palace and my hostel. There are also the ruins of the original city, Panama Viejo which was sacked by a Welsh pirate, Henry Morgan, and the new, modern bit of the city with skyscrapers all lit up at night.

In keeping with my degree subject, and because I know Grandad wouldn't be able to bear the disappointment if I didn't go, I headed out to the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal.

Everyone except Grandad should skip to the next paragraph at this point..... I stayed to watch a massive boat being raised up 12m or so from the Pacific to the Miraflores Lake, watched a presentation on the canal, then visited the museum, only to round off the excitement watching some boats being lowered from the lake to the pacific!!

I met an Aussie girl who had met up with some English friends in the hostel, so I went off with them on a very cold overnight bus to Bocas del Toro, an island group on the caribbean side of Panama at the west end of the country. We rented a house that was built out over the caribbean, but the toilet flushed straight into the water so we didn't do any swimming from our deck! The next few days were much like Montanita, with lots of hanging out, indulging in the fact we had a TV, eating and drinking far too much. The bars were either built out over the water or were a water taxi ride away. Most had "swimming pools" which were where they'd built out some decking over the water. Evenings always ended with everyone stripping off and jumping into the sea which was a little bit mental!

I tired of the heat, humidity, and drinking after a few days so I got the bus up into the mountains to a lovely town called Boquete which is just really chilled out with good food, no nightlife, a really nice climate and stunning scenery. I took some more spanish classes, then the evil pair that are Kirsty and Pat from London talked me into hiking Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama.

The views to both the Pacific and Caribbean oceans are only clear at dawn so you either hike up during the day and camp or you hike up at night to arrive at dawn. We chose the latter and started hiking at 1130pm with headtorches. It was a relentless uphill 13.5km with at least a gain in altitute of 1,000m to reach the summit of 3,475m at dawn. We could see to both the caribbean and pacific oceans so it was pretty amazing. It took us another 5 hours to hike back down in daylight, and it made me so glad we hiked up at night as there's no way I would have forced myself to climb the damn thing had I seen the incline! I think I'm on course to lose a toenail after all that fun!

A few days of recovery and I bussed through Costa Rica up to Granada in Nicaragua......