Panama City and Boquete

We have now left our adventures in Latin America behind us and are in Samoa, our first destination in the Pacific. Considering that we are dreadfully behind on our blog, we've decided to take up my dad's suggestion and write a more recent story first. As a consequence, we'll skip Colombia for now (though it was much loved), in the hope that we'll catch up on it as we sit on a beach of white sand. Fast-forwarding should enable us to maintain a more up to date blog (maybe...). Perhaps this will help people who have been telling us they never know where we are (despite our best efforts to create a journey map with dates). We also try to write shorter posts again (another recurrent critique to our recent stories is that they take too much time to read).

Panama City skyline

We arrived in the small port of Portobelo (Panama) by sailing boat which left from Cartagena (Colombia). This trip took us five days with a stop in the picture-perfect San Blas archipelago for two nights. We were meeting my father in Panama City on 3rd November, and his partner, Anne-Marie, was arriving on the 4th. My dad got to our meeting place, at Casa de Carmen in one of the nicer areas of Panama City, about an hour before us. We had many travel tales to share (he had been road tripping from Boston to Florida with a friend before catching a flight to join us), so we soon headed to a wine bar for aperitif.

The following day we rented a car and drove to the Caribbean side of the isthmus to visit the Gatun Locks. This conveniently allowed for a detour back to Portobelo where I had forgotten a mobile phone on the boat. The Gatun Locks are the biggest of the three sets of locks on the Panama Canal. They lower or rise boats by 29.5 metres in three stages between the Caribbean Sea and the artificial Lake Gatun. We just made it in time before the visitor centre closed and were able to witness a big ship go through two stages of the locks. The vessel was followed by a comparatively rather small-looking catamaran which entered the Canal at the same time. This made Dave and I dream about the day we would go through the Canal on a yacht ourselves... perhaps when we sail around the world during our next sabbatical. On our way back to Panama City, we picked up Anne-Marie from the airport.

Boat passes the Gatun lock house

Since we still had the car, we drove to the Miraflores Locks the next morning. These are the most visited locks of the Canal as they are the closest to Panama City. Apart from the viewing platform to see the ships pass, it has an informative visitor centre where you can learn more about the construction of the Canal. We observed a Chinese ship go through this set of locks. It was even bigger than the one we saw on the previous day and, according to the official speaker who loudly comments on the passing boats, there were only 60 cm to spare on each side between the ship and the lock walls. It was truly impressive to watch the giant vessel being lowered into the first chamber of the locks and, once the water level equalised, being gently pulled through the open gates into the second chamber by six locomotives.

Each set of locks actually comes in pairs allowing traffic to enter and exit the Canal at the same time. But ships sometimes still have to wait around for days and they have to book their slot months in advance. Between 35 and 40 boats go through the channel each day. You can see them queue up for it in the ocean on both sides of the isthmus. With such demand and the boats getting bigger and bigger, the Canal is currently expanding. A third lane of larger locks is being constructed near the Miraflores and Gatun Locks and the channel itself is being deepened and enlarged in some sections. Completion of the new larger locks is planned for the Canal's 100th birthday in 2014.

Watching boats pass at Miraflores Locks

Having had our fill of Panama's engineering marvel, we drove out to the Causeway under pounding rain. Since Colombia, we had become used to the afternoon downpour common to the rainy season. But we could not see much of our surroundings so we decided it was better to just look for a lunch spot until the deluge calmed down. The Causeway is a 2km-stretch of palm-fringed road that heads out into the Pacific Ocean linking four small islands. To build the road, the land between the islands was filled with debris from the Canal construction. It is supposed to protect the sea leading to the entrance of the Canal at the Miraflores Locks. Now the Causeway is popular relaxation spot for residents and tourists alike. It offers splendid views over Panama City's skyline and a good selection of bars and restaurants as well as plenty of walking space and cycle lanes. The future Museum of Biodiversity designed by famous architect Frank Gehry will provide it with a new landmark when it's finally completed. Now it looks more like a pile of colourful rubble.

(Future) Museum of Biodiversity

On our final day in Panama City, we visited the old colonial part of town, the Casco Viejo. Whilst charming with its old crumbling buildings next to beautifully renovated ones, Dave and I weren't perhaps as blown away by it as Anne-Marie and my dad. However, matching Cartagena and the many perfectly preserved colonial villages of Columbia is a big challenge, and we still very much enjoyed our walk-around. After a quick bite to eat, we headed to the domestic airport to catch a flight for David, Panama's second largest city and the capital of the Chiriqui province. From there, we took a taxi to Boquete where we planned to spend a couple of days before crossing the border to Costa Rica.

Kuna lady selling crafts in Panama's old town

Boquete is famous for its balmy climate and nice surroundings. The area boasts several recommended scenic walks, thermal springs, coffee growing farms and plenty of extreme sport options. We thought we'd definitely find something for everyone's interest there. It turned out that the hike I most fancied, the Sendero los Quetzales (Quetzal trail) across the Volcan Baru national park, was quite difficult from Boquete. The better starting point would have been in Cerro Punta, another village lying about 1,000 metres higher than Boquete. But this required a long drive and sounded too complicated to us, so we decided to try the Sendero El Pianista (Pianist trail) instead. It turned out to be a lovely walk, although the ascent through the cloud forest to the top of El Pianista (as the mount is called) was quite steep and we got wet and muddy in the rain. My dad also managed to rip a big hole around the crotch in his only walking trousers.

Rain in the cloud forest

On our second day, my dad and Anne-Marie enjoyed an excellent visit of an organic coffee farm whilst Dave and I stayed in our comfortable round cabin to do some administrative work and put up a blog posting. In fairness, we had wanted to go river rafting but the recommended outfitter that ran the tour was full for that day and we could not find another company that offered a ride on the same day in the time we had available for search. In the afternoon, we headed to the local hot springs, Los Pozos de Caldera. These consisted of two rather simple, home-made, stone-walled pools in the forest by a river and we all thought it wasn't really worth the taxi ride. The water was just too hot (about 40 degrees) for the weather and the pools too small to really relax in. We did see a funny tame monkey on the way to the pools though, which belonged to the family owning the grounds, and the drive to the pools offered beautiful views over the Chiriqui valley.

After a last home-cooked dinner in our cabin and another tranquil night, it was time to return to David and get the bus crossing the border to San Jose, Costa Rica. For more photos of Panama and Boquete, click here.

More short stories soon, we hope...