Into Panama

One lane railroad bridge from Costa Rica to Panama

Banana Crossing

Chiquita Banana Plantation

Spiky tree

Sketchy Car Ramp to the Ocean

Jon's favorite Panama Beer

Sunset in Boca Bravo

New Beige getting an oil change

 

Saturday, April 14 2012

We left tranquillo Pacha Mama in Punta Uva, Costa Rica early after breakfast by Bill and headed the 40km to the border with Panama.  We arrived at the border and quickly took care of our exit requirements for Costa Rica without spending any money.  Then we had to wait on the Costa Rica side for the one lane railroad bridge (with boards laid across so we people can drive on it) for 2 semis to park and run and get their paperwork taken care of.  When an opening arose we quickly headed across the bridge, which was a little scary with people walking in the driving lane and boards missing, but we made it.  On the Panama side there was an officer standing by the side of the road.  This usually means stop and give them what they want or face the consequences.  So Jon rolled his window down but the guy waved us on through.  As Jon started moving again and rolling his window up he got sprayed in the face by the automatic pest control fumigation that’s kind of like an automated car wash that sprays your car with pesticide so you don’t bring bugs from one country to another.  Yuck!  Who knows what’s in that stuff? 

We moved our clocks forward to EST minus daylight savings (one hour behind east coast USA) and parked the truck.  Some official guy shooed me over to a window where I had to pay a $1 for the spray that Jon got in the face and a kid jumped up to “help” me through the process.  While I was paying Jon had to open all the doors and the back of New Beige to get an official customs check.  This is a scary process because there are lots of people walking around and looking in the truck besides the official agent and who knows what might walk away, so you have to be really vigilant at this point.  We then had to go buy some mandatory Panamanian auto insurance from a 15 year old boy in a department store that sold fans, blenders and women’s clothes.  Then back up to the other windows to go through customs and immigration.  This took a really long time because people kept cutting in front of us.  You can pay extra to be able to cut in line at most of these central American border crossings.  Eventually we got going and only spent $25 total for insurance, permits, tip to the kid and an insecticide spray to Jon’s face.

We left the border intending to go to Boca del Toro but got lost 30 miles in the wrong direction in the Chiquita Banana Plantation.  We had to stop twice for conveyer belt banana crossings.  Jon was fuming at this point because we were lost and he had gotten fumigated.  So, eventually we made our way back to the border and found the right road out of town.  However, by the next town we were lost again.  We stopped at a tienda to get directions and a propane tank truck guy gave us directions and told us to follow him to the main road.  Once we got to the highway we pulled over to thank him and he gave us some parting tips for Boca del Toro which included nice hotels, be careful around trucks on the road and watch out for guys with black skin. 

We drove on to the Puerto in the town of Almirante, Panama where we had planned to leave New Beige and take a ferry to Bocas del Toro for a few days.  When we arrived however we didn’t like the looks of the terminal as far as security went for New Beige.  As soon as we got there we were swamped by shady looking fellows wondering if we needed anything.  I also had not found anything too interesting in the Lonely Planet for the islands and I had overheard all the backpackers at the border say they were going there.  We opted to keep driving at this point to find a more interesting spot.

We drove on through the mountains to the Pacific Coast.  It was starting to get dark at this point and we needed to find a place to stay.  I found another island in the book that seemed really chill but it didn’t seem likely we would make it today.  We drove to the little town (Boca Chica) on the Pacific mainland hoping to find a hotel until we could get the taxi in the morning.  We went the wrong way again before Boca Chica because Panama doesn’t have road signs anywhere.  By the time we got turned around and did finally arrive in Boca Chica it was twilight.  As we pulled up to the water’s edge we saw a Fishing Lodge so we went in there to ask for a room.  It was a no go but the lady there said we could get a water taxi over to Boca Bravo right now and stay at the only place on the island, the Boca Bravo Hotel.  It just happened that Marvin the water taxi captain is brothers with the owner of the hotel so he called him up for us and we checked on a vacancy.  We were in luck, so we left New Beige at the fishing lodge and rode in the water taxi with Marvin the 200meters across the water to Boca Brava Island.  We landed, got a room, dropped off our bags and had to hurry up and have dinner before the kitchen closed.  There weren’t any other places to get food on the island.  We each had a nice vegetarian plate with watermelon juice for me and Jon tried all 3 of the Panamanian beers that they had (Panama, Atlas, Balboa).
~Marcie

I think Panama is the best, followed by Balboa, then Atlas.  Panama is a green bottled, German styled lager, which if nothing else is really crisp and well balanced.  It comes off really well on a hot day (all days in Panama).  Balboa and Atlas are both brown bottled poor imitations of Czech pilsners.  A lot like the diet (lite) beers by the big US brands.
~Jon

Sunday, April 15 2012

We decided to stay another night on Boca Bravo because it’s so chill and we pretty much had the island to ourselves.  We had a nice breakfast and took a hike around the island which is about 1-2km in length.  We looked for a place to snorkel but the island is in a bay and the water is a little cloudy so you don’t have the visibility necessary for a good snorkel.  We didn’t find a spot to snorkel but we came upon the car/boat ramp and we decided to just go swimming off there.  The habitat on the island is similar to the western coast of the US with dry rocky clay like soil but there is way more humidity.  On our hike we saw lots of lizards and insects and we could hear the howler monkeys every time a boat motor would go by.  They either love or hate motors because they rage every time you hear a motor.  After our hike we returned for a nice refreshing cold water (only kind available) shower, reading, drinks on the deck and a couple games of dominoes.  We had dinner and started planning for our voyage to Colombia.  We need a way for New Beige to get there, a way for us to get there and a customs broker to help grease the wheels for this process to take place.  It’s all very confusing.

Monday, April 16 2012

Marvin our water taxi guy wasn’t around so we had to get another guy to pick us up and we headed back to the mainland after our last meal on the deck at the Boca Bravo Hotel.  We had at least a 5 hour drive to Panama City and much business to take care of so we left early.  As we were driving we had to stop to at a checkpoint and they asked to see Jon’s passport.  They also informed him that he had to wear a shirt while driving.  He said, “Guy, are you kidding?”  The guy told him that no he wasn’t kidding and he would give Jon a ticket if he didn’t put his shirt on. 

~Marcie

New Beige got an oil change (cambio de acesiento) in Santiago, Panama.  I have a few filters with me and I had been doing them and hiding the used oil in the desert on the way down.  But here in the tropical jungle I could not really bring myself to leaving the used motor oil anywhere so I needed a garage to dispose of it for me.  The first mechanico I pulled up to didn’t have any oil and told me if I go to the store, buy some oil and bring it back, he would do it.  What kind of mechanic doesn’t have oil?  The next place we went to knew what they were doing and soon New Beige was all lubed up with some fresh stuff.

We drove about 3 more hours crossed the Panama Canal and after a little initial directional confusion we found our way to the Casco Viejo section of Panama City.  This is the old colonial part of town that seems like the buildings are mostly from the 1800’s (most houses) and the 1700’s (some churches and government buildings).  It looks a lot like New Orleans’ French Quarter, Granada and Leon in Nicaragua, and Antigua in Guatemala.  Except Panama City has only just started to reclaim as a tourist showpiece this old crumbling section of town.  So it’s still very crumbling, beat up and low rent.  There are really not a lot of hotels around this area and we had a little bit of a walk around this afternoon trying to find one.  Of course we did eventually.  Then we walked around a little had some pizza and headed back to our hotel.  Marcie sat in our room and Skyped with her peeps while I sat on plastic milk crates out on the street with these Haitian guys that I met and drank whiskey out of a styrofoam cup.

~Jon