Panama

Bueno, aca estamos, en el casco viejo de la ciudad de Panama. Ya sabemos que esto de escribir se hace mas que dificil, sobre todo cuando se esta viajando todo el tiempo. Hace ya mas de dos semanas que dejamos Puerto Viejo, en Costa Rica. Pareceria que pasaron anios desde que dejamos a Quique, Suzanne, Sofi y Gaby. Aquella despedida fue bastante dificil de encarar, pero sabemos que mejores momentos llegaran. Es dificil de olvidar nuestro ultimo dia alli, cuando salimos de caminata a la selva, con Ariel y su hijo Jefferson. Tambien recordaremos las muchas veces en que fuimos a bucear, a correr olas mas tarde y nuestros frustrados intentos de pesca a la noche. Puerto Viejo es increible. Justo cuando estabamos saliendo para la frontera, un mono nos vino a saludar en frente de la casa! Para llegar a la frontera con Panama, solo manejamos por una hora, pero llegamos un poco tarde y ya estaba cerrada (no sabiamos que cerraban las fronteras!). En vez de volver para atrás, decidimos quedarnos alli en el pueblo fronterizo en un hotelito, comiendo sandwiches y mirando el unico canal que habia en la tele. Al otro dia nos levantamos tempranito para cruzar un puentecito de madera que antes lo usaban para transportar bananas. En esta parte de Panama esta la compania bananera mas grande del mundo, y ver como tratan a los trabajadores, y la gran cantidad de quimicos que hechan desde el aire nos hizo pensar que no tendraimos que comer mas bananas…Despues de un rato paramos para comer en el puerto de Almirante, de donde salen los barcos para Bocas del Toro, una isla muy turistica en el Caribe, y pasamos la tarde manejando por las montanias de la provincia de Chiriqui, que es muy verde y fresquita. Paramos a baniarnos en unos pozos de agua termal en un pueblito llamado Caldera, y dormimos esa noche cerca de David, en el Waterfall Hostel, un lugar con cascadas, piscinas, juegos y hasta materiales para hacer ceramica y pintura! Salimos medio tarde al otro dia, pero sabiamos que teniamos que llegar a ciudad de Panama al otro dia para encontrarnos en el aeropuerto con Anthony, un amigo del Al, para despues ir con el a las Islas de San Blas (en la Comarca de Kuna Yala). No llegamos a Panama ese dia, pero nos quedamos en un pueblo que se llama Santiago. Alli comimos el pan mas rico que hemos comido en la panaderia Le Panee, y pasamos charlando con las mujeres alli que eran re-simpaticas. Tambien llevamos al Ari para ver a un medico que estaba al lado, porque estaba luchando con una "oreja de nadador" - el medico era muy buena onda y ha viajado por todo el mundo como medico oficial del equipo de domino de Panama!
No fue dificil distinguir a Anthony, a pesar de que no lo conociamos, y luego de saludarnos fuimos al apto de Paul, un amigo de Al. Alli tuvimos un mal entendido, ya que la gente que trabaja para Paul y sus “socios” (nosotros no conocemos a ninguno de ellos) quedaron mas que sorprendidos cuando nos vieron muy comodos y contentos dentro del condominio. Despues de explicar y aclarar la situacion “nos” dejaron quedar ahí. Salimos para San Blas bien tempranito al otro dia, a eso de las 5 nos vinieron a buscar en terrible cuatro por cuatro. Cuando llegamos nos estaba esperando Eulogio y nos llevo en lancha a una isla solitaria, llamada Anzuelo, de las 365 que tiene la comarca. Alli encontramos el paraiso… fue el 9 de Abril, y con luna llena el Ari cumplio 14 anios! Todo el tiempo pasamos buceando, pescando langostas, cangrejos, pulpos, cocinando con fuego, y por supuesto descansando en hamacas. Alli nos quedamos cuatro dias, disfrutando del Caribe, con una familia Kuna, y como no hablan espaniol, nos enseniaron como decir diferentes palabras en su idioma. La isla tiene unos cien metros de diametro, muchos cocos, y las vistas y colores son increibles. Como todo lo bueno, este tuvo su final, y nuevamente volvimos a la ciudad de Panama, al apartamento del amigo de Al. Sin entrar en muchos detalles, el mal entendido que tuvimos al llegar se complico todavia mas, y sin darnos muchas explicaciones nos terminaron echando… nuevamente estabamos en la lleca, pero con nuestra querida camioneta. Asi que salimos hacia la compania de carga para comenzar los papeles y poder enviarla a Colombia. No hay mal, que por bien no venga, y en medio de nuestra depresion ocurrio lo que tenia que ocurrir; conocimos a Claudia y Ariel. Unos amigos de Argentina que vienen viajando desde la Patagonia, ya llegaron a Alaska, y ahora estan de regreso hacia el sur. Con ellos compartimos el contenedor, los gastos y (todavia mas importante) los dolores de cabeza de papeles. Enseguida pegamos muy buena onda, y decidimos ir a dormir a la plaza (Anthony se fue a un hostal) con nuestros vehiculos. Nuevamente, nos sentimos como en casa, y en medio de la plaza pusimos la mesa, y nos mandamos una rica comidita. La gente iba y venia, y por supuesto se nos acercaba, ofreciendo agua, comida o lo que sea. En la plaza nos quedamos tres noches, mientras, durante el dia, haciamos los papeles de los autos. Ahí tambien conocimos a un grupo de indigenas (Naso) que fueron despojados de su lugar, y el gobierno le otorgo la tierra a una compania ganadera. Ellos acamparon practicamente al lado nuestro, y fue triste ver a ninios y viejos dormir en el piso. Asi que fuimos a conversar un rato con ellos y nos mostraron en fotos lo que les esta pasando. Sin pensarlo dos veces, les regalamos nuestro sobre de dormir, las sillas, un par de plasticos y algo de comer. Ellos (cuatro dias despues) todavia estan en la plaza, esperando alguna respuesta del gobierno. El jueves salimos hacia Colon, pero paramos en Puertobelo para dormir, y conocer las ruinas del lugar. Alli solo nos quedamos la noche, pero valio la pena ver el lugar y viajar en el tiempo, imaginando barquitos piratas, y batallas navales y todo eso. Despues de encontrar un lugar cerca del agua fuimos a bucear de noche con Ariel (grande) y tambien vimos mucha vida bajo el mar. Hicimos una rica pasta , tomamos unos vinitos y a dormir. Al otro dia, salimos hacia Colon, y llegamos tempranito al puerto. Alli pasamos el dia y a eso de las cinco las camionetas estaban encerradas y listas para salir.
En Colon no nos quedamos ni para tomar un café. Salimos corriendo nuevamente al casco viejo de Panama y ahora estamos quedandonos en un apto-hostal, cerca de nuestro café favorito; el café Coca Cola. Alli cenamos y almorzamos varias veces, y la comida como dicen aca es rica, bonita y barata. Hoy, a eso de las 9, salimos hacia Cartagena, y comenzaremos esta nueva etapa de America del Sur.

Well guys, we got back last Monday from an amazing few days in the Comarca de Kuna Yala, also known as the San Blas Islands, a thin stretch of 365 islands in the Caribbean between Panama and Colombia that are the territory of the Kuna tribe. We are now in the Casco Viejo (old city) of Panama, staying in a funky apart-hotel while the westy is on its way in a shipping vessel. We will be flying to Cartagena later tonight to pick it up, and we will finally be in South America! But it has been a while since we’ve updated the blog, so I guess we should start where we left off….We were really sad to leave Quique and Suzanne in Costa Rica, we had so much fun with them and really got to know the kids well. Before we left them on Sunday afternoon we went on a fascinating jungle walk close to Puerto Viejo with some friends of theirs, Ariel and his son Jefferson, where we saw all kinds of vegetation including an indigenous form of cocoa bean. We also saw lots of spiders, basilisk lizards, some neat moths and some beautiful blue Morpho butterflies and a huge and sort of spooky spectacled owl. Later on, just as we were getting in the westy to head for the border with Panama (only an hour’s drive away), Ariel spotted something in the tree just in front of the house, and it was a lone juvenile howler monkey. He was quite unafraid of us, but seemed to be a bit agitated. We imagined that he probably had been kicked out of his group or something and that is why he was all alone. It was quite exciting to get so close to him and get some good shots with Suzanne and Quique’s fancy camera, and Mateo scaled the tree and left a banana for him! We are really lucky that they generously lent us their old camera so that we can keep up the blog. They also gave us a folding bicycle to take on our journey with us, which will come in handy. Mateo cried all the way to the border (he is having a hard time with goodbyes on this trip) and it turns out that we got there just after it had closed (are borders supposed to close?) and instead of driving all the way back to Puerto Viejo we decided to sleep right there – so after asking if we could camp out at the police station (they said no because sometimes there are shots in the night and it is too dangerous!) we took a small room in a hotel and spent the night eating sandwiches in our tiny room and watching the Passion of the Christ on the one fuzzy channel that we could get on TV. The next morning we crossed the border over a rickety railroad bridge originally used for shipping bananas. The border paperwork took about half an hour maximum to do and we were on our way. On the first couple of hours of our drive through Panama we went through serious banana country (Changiunola is the home of – what else? – the Chiquita banana company). It was crazy to drive through fields and fields of blue plastic-covered bananas, and there were even points where there were “banana crossings” where bunches of bananas move along hanging on an automated conveyor belt across the road. Seriously weird. There were also regular crop dusting planes swooping overhead, dropping who knows what kinds of pesticides on the whole area. We talked to some of the Indigenous kids in the area whose parents work for nothing to harvest the bananas, and it made us think twice about consuming these factory produced bananas from now on, that is for sure. Anyway, after stopping for lunch at a restaurant literally right over the water in Almirante, a port town where the ferries leave for Bocas del Toro (a popular Caribbean island vacation spot), the drive changed into the lush green mountains of the Chiriqui province where the Ngobe-Bugle people live. It was nice to see them walking along in their colourful clothing as we swerved through the highest points of Panama which were cool and refreshing after being at the beach for so long. We noticed a huge amount of hydro-electric projects going on in this area. By late afternoon, we reached a town called Caldera with some thermal water pools to soak in after a walk through the fields. While we were relaxing in the seriously hot water there, we talked to some other travelers who mentioned a hostel between Boquete (a mountain valley where rich Americans and Europeans have build monster homes) and David where there are some small waterfalls and a couple of natural swimming pools, so we headed there to park for the night. The Waterfall Hostel was a great place to chill out for a while, owned by a couple of young American guys it has an art studio, pottery wheel, Frisbee golf course, so the kids were in heaven! There is also a full kitchen to use, so that night we made a simple pasta dinner and sat at the table chatting with another couple that was staying there from Spain and the Czech Republic. The next day we hung out by the pool and the kids created some artwork, so we got a bit of a late start on the driving. After trying to get some errands done in David, we drove toward Panama City and by nightfall we had reached a small city called Santiago and went straight into the main plaza to find an internet (to double check what time Al’s friend Anthony was flying in to Panana) and a place to stay. We lucked out, as right in front of this beautifully illuminated cathedral was an internet place and a delicious bakery called Le Panee. The women at the bakery were incredibly friendly to us, and we had a great time chatting with them – they even gave us a loaf of their delicious egg bread (the best we’ve ever had!). They suggested that we park right across the street, in front of the municipal building as there is a guard 24 hours a day. Conveniently, there was also a medical clinic right beside the bakery, so we took the opportunity to have Ari’s ear looked at (he has swimmer’s ear from being in the water for so long!) by a young doctor who has traveled all over the place as the official doctor of Panama’s domino team! To be honest, everyone that we talked to in this town was super friendly to us, offering to take us to their homes and take us sight-seeing the next day, and we were a bit sad to have to leave so early in the morning to get to the airport by 11 am to pick Anthony up. We made it to the airport just in time, and since we didn’t know what Anthony looks like, Mateo had the idea to make one of those signs people are always holding up at airports with people’s names on them. We met up with him without a problem and made our way downtown to Al’s other friend Paul’s condo, right in the banking district of El Cangrejo (which reminds us of a mix of Miami and Buenos Aires). Anthony had the keys to the condo, and so we let ourselves in to this huge and empty apartment that is used by a few guys (mostly Canadians) when they intermittently come to Panama on business. There was a bit of a misunderstanding when one “assistant” came by the apartment and was taken aback that we were there – obviously there was a breakdown in communication and no one knew we were coming. She sounded the alarm, and within an hour there were several people there grilling us about who we were and what we were doing there. Anthony spoke on the phone with one of the guys who he knew, and everything was settled – or at least it seemed….The guy at the door of the condo agreed to watch the westy for us while we were away for $25. We did some provision shopping and contacted Eulogio, the Kuna tour guide who arranges trips to San Blas Islands, and we were picked up the next morning at 5 am by a guy in a 4-wheel drive truck. We were happy that it was going to cost us much less than flying. There was another misunderstanding and the driver was not aware that there were so many of us, so Mateo, Ariel and Anthony had to squish into the back of the truck along with all of the luggage and the Kuna truck owner, while Gustavo and I pressed into the front seat beside the driver (there were three very unfriendly Israeli guys in the back seat). Sounds okay, but the trip ended up being a 4 hour drive from hell! First we headed east from the city toward the Darien jungle and watched the sun rise. After stopping at a funky local place for a greasy breakfast, we headed left into the mountains and towards the Atlantic coast and this is where it got good. Up and down, twisty turny, it was the craziest roller-coaster ride of our lives! The driver was taking those roads so fast that Anthony, Mateo and Gustavo all got carsick by the end. We even crossed a river where the water reached up to the front hood! We each had to pay a small amount in order to cross into Kuna territory, where there was a sign that said “Welcome to Nusagandi Xuna Yala” and we finally reached the airstrip from where all of the boats to the islands leave from. We were struck by the beautiful clothing and ankle/wrist bracelets that the women all wear. The Kuna are apparently among the most autonomous of all indigenous groups in Latin America, and they have a very strong political system (they don’t even recognize the Panamanian police authority on their territory). We found Eulogio and loaded ourselves and our stuff into a rickety old dugout motor boat. The first stop was the main island Carti, where we stopped to let more people on and leave our money and passports with Eulogio’s family. At first we weren’t sure why we needed to do this, but Anthony had been here before a few times and told us to trust him. The next part of the trip was -- how shall I put it -- wet! Going against the waves, we got soaking wet with salt water (it would have been drier to swim) by the time we got to our little island, Isla Anzuelo (Hook Island). It was like something out of movie when we landed on the shore of this perfectly round palm-tree covered island with white sand, blue sky, and turquoise water ringed by a coral reef – we felt like we were on Gilligan’s Island. There is no running water or electricity (not even an outhouse), and you can walk the perimeter of the island in about 5 minutes! The only structures are three rustic palm huts for slinging your hammock up and another hut where the Kuna family that takes care of the coconut harvest lives. The Kuna take turns staying on the island for a month or two at a time, but they prefer to live close together in their larger communities (which are pretty crowded and dirty, with outhouses that go right over the water. Come to think of it, it is lucky there was no outhouse on our island!). This family consisted of the grandparents, the parents and 5 kids. Some of the older kids were away at school for most of the time that we were there, and they were the only ones who spoke Spanish, but (despite the language barrier) we got to know one little guy about Mateo’s age called Guspino quite well. Again, because of our bad timing it was Semana Santa, which meant that there were quite a few other tourists there when normally we would have been the only people sleeping overnight on the island besides the family. We also suspect that tourism to these islands is fast on the rise, so it will only get more and more crowded as time goes on. As everywhere, garbage is a huge issue, and the Kuna are not accustomed to dealing with plastics especially; hopefully they will be able to figure out how to manage the influx of tourism before the islands turn into a garbage dump. On more than one occasion we witnessed the caretaker of our island row out beyond the current to dump garbage into the sea. They also use these long poles to negotiate their way around the reefs while fishing, which has the effect of breaking the coral (dropping the anchor also does the same thing). We spent a lot of time exploring the reefs, and it is still mostly alive – but might not remain that way for long. We saw all kinds of beautiful coral and amazing fish (-insert expletive about broken underwater camera here-). But if you want to imagine it for yourselves, think Finding Nemo but in real life. It turns out that Anthony is pretty good with a spear gun, so aside from the provisions that we brought with us, we had some delicious meals of smoked fish, lobster, octopus and some huge Caribbean king crab. The day we arrived was Ari’s birthday, and so he literally had a smile from ear to ear the entire day, unable to believe that we were in such a beautiful place on his birthday. That night also happened to be the full moon, so after an amazing dinner and a fire, we relaxed in our hammocks under the moon and quickly fell asleep after a full day of the best snorkeling we have ever had. We stayed there for four nights, snorkeling, fishing with the family in a dugout canoe, hanging out in the hammocks trying to avoid falling coconuts and pelican poop, scanning the horizon for the “beer boat” (we got the boats bringing tourists to bring us water, beer, kerosene, etc to replenish our supply as needed!) and cooking over the fire. Guspino’s parents would sometimes come by in the evening to bum a cigarette or a drink. On the last night, Guspino and his dad sat with Ariel and Mateo by the fire for hours, teaching them Kuna and marveling at seeing their words written phonetically in Ariel’s journal. The boat came by for us early the next morning, and we waved a sad farewell to Guspino and our little paradise island. By the time we got back to Panama City and the condo where our stuff was, we were exhausted and really needed showers (no fresh water on the island –we were pretty salty!). As it turns out, the misunderstanding that we thought had been cleared up had actually escalated into something worse while we were away, and we were swiftly booted out of the place. To make matters worse, someone had parked in front of the westy while we were away and we had to wait until later that afternoon to pick it up again; so, stranded in the city and looking for Plan B, we ended up walking the many blocks to the shipping agency to start the process of crossing over to South America (and getting around the Darien gap). It is a good thing we decided to go there when we did, because as soon as we walked into the (thankfully) air-conditioned office we met up with a couple from Argentina who were also looking to share a container to ship their van to Colombia, sharing both the cost and the headaches. Claudia and Ariel drove from Patagonia all the way to Alaska, and are now on their way back to Argentina. We quickly hit it off, and after starting the preliminary paperwork for the shipping they drove us back to the condo to pick up the westy. It turns out that the guy who charged us to park there was not supposed to, and his supervisor was very angry because he had apparently done that before. The poor guy lost his job, but we did not get our money back. After making sure that Anthony was settled in to a hostel around the corner, we followed Claudia and Ariel to the Plaza de la Independencia in the Casco Viejo, which was to become our home for the next three nights. That night we set up our table in the plaza in front of the cathedral and dined al fresco with our newfound friends. The events of that day and others reinforced for us that that, paradoxically, the people who have the most to offer are not always very generous, and that things always happen for a reason. It is too bad that we didn’t get to hang out more with Anthony, but at least we got to know the best part of Panama City. The old city is fascinating, and is quickly becoming gentrified and full of tourists, with well-to-do people living in renovated buildings right beside run-down slums. During our time there we got to know a few of the neighbors, rich and poor, and have come to appreciate the friendliness of the people here. On the corner there is a gourmet deli that has (apart from delicious foods that we had almost forgotten existed!) wireless access, so we spent a lot of time there doing our banking and booking our plane tickets to Colombia. For the last week, the centre of the plaza has been occupied with an indigenous group from the Bocas del Toro area of Panama (they are Naso people) who have set up a “dignity camp” to protest the government/police treatment of their community, and they are trying to protect their land from being exploited. Gustavo spent hours talking to them, looking at their photos (unequivocally showing the police brutality) and we gave them some of our camping equipment and food. It is a sad story but a common one – and Canada is not innocent in this regard. One young lawyer/activist who we met is getting people to sign a petition against developing the mining industry in Panama, which is destroying more than one indigenous community, and Canadian companies are in on this big time. The history of this country is fascinating, especially the history of panama as the base camp for the Spanish robbing gold from the Inca and the more recent history of the building of the canal and its repercussions. It is a very unique place, and is nothing like the rest of Central America. The next couple of days were taken up with paperwork, going from office to office getting inspections and police checks, etc. On Thursday we made our way across the isthmus to the town of Portobello, on the Caribbean coast, which is closer to Colon (the crumbling port town where the ship sails from). This place is absolutely beautiful, with a rich history: think Spanish gold and pirates of the Caribbean! It seemed like we were on a movie set! We stayed overnight beside an abandoned restaurant where Gustavo and Ariel (the Argentine one) went night snorkeling with an underwater flashlight, and then set off early the next morning for Colon. I will spare you the gory (well, maybe more like tedious) details, but suffice it to say that we were trapped in a bureaucratic vortex at the port from 9 to 4:30, and at 5 we boarded a “chicken” bus from Colon to Panama City. They say that Colon is the most dangerous city in the hemisphere, so we didn’t want to have to be there any longer than necessary. It was a hot, bumpy and long ride! For the last few days we have been staying at an apart-hotel in the old city just a few blocks from where we parked before, and have been hanging out around the streets and at our new favourite haunt, the Café Coca Cola (an institution in Panama City – check it out online, there must be information) where unbelievable characters gather. We also have wireless internet in our place, so we have finally re-discovered the joys of Skype and have been able to get back in touch with people again. We have really gotten to like it here, especially this part of the city, and it will be a bit sad to leave tomorrow when we board the plane for Cartagena. At the same time, we are very excited to finally arrive in South America, and get a little bit closer to Punta del Diablo…