Our New Office

Part I – Metropolitan Park

In case you were wondering, this is me doing the “bird watching pose” at the Parque Natural Metropolitano in Panama City. According to Frommer’s, this is the only protected tropical forest within the city limits of a major urban area in the Americas. As a side note, and just in case you were wondering this as well, my blond highlights are real.

While this was a nice hike and a nice afternoon break, our bird watching was not all that successful. I think bird watching may be one of the most difficult sports I’ve done. You hear them, but they’re darn near impossible to see — especially in the rain forest with all that foliage.

But it wasn’t entirely fruitless. We did manage to see a few birds and even the infamous “Jesus Christ Lizard” who ran over a little pond as we finished up our hike.

This is a red-headed woodpecker that Jason managed to get a shot of.

Part II – The Non-Bird Watching Part

On Saturday we went to Panama Viejo, which is a part of town where you can find the ruins of the “oldest capital city in the Americas.” I could go into the details of the history here, but Wikipedia will be much more informative and accurate. Suffice it to say that Captain Henry Morgan came here in the 1600s and destroyed the city. After that, the survivors relocated to Casco Viejo, the other “old town” in Panama City. The good news is that many of the old ruins remain.

It rained in the middle of our tour so Jason and I played an impromptu game of cherades in the old cathedral. Here he is looking for birds.

Part III – Soberania National Park

A few days after our in-town bird watching trip, we drove out of town to Gamboa where you’ll find a rain forest and Gatun Lake — the man made lake that allows all those ships to pass through Panama. We got up nice and early so we could see the much-heralded toucan, but like I mentioned before … there are no toucans in Central America.

We did, however, see a lot of amazing sights. We climbed up a 90-foot tower to look at the tip tops of trees and we hiked down several paths to find monkeys, leaf cutter ants, and other fun jungle creatures.

This is Gatun Lake – quite a sight.

I’m not sure what is in the air here, (it is the world’s largest urban jungle after all) but something makes me itch in Panama City.

I’m on day 7 of Clarityne and day 5 of benadryl and not much is helping. I’m best off wearing jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts to prevent the crazy itching I’ve got going on.

Anyway … I know you don’t care about that and neither do I really.

What I really care about is the fact that this whole “toucan” claim that Central Americans make every chance they get, is actually a big scam.

There are no toucans here. I’ve looked everywhere. I’ve officially put toucans in the same category as unicorns and leprechauns.

And don’t be leaving any comments here about how you’ve seen all kinds of toucans. I’ve heard the stories and even seen the pamphlets. I still don’t believe it.

On the other hand, Panama and Costa Rica do have an abundance of humming birds. These little guys are loud! And fast!

1 – You hear the non-stop sound of honking horns and car alarms.

2 – You can find bite-size-bananas; 18 for 50 cents. They are delicious.

3 – There are fireworks most nights right in the middle of the city. I’m talking big, exciting displays next door to the high-rise building we’re staying in.

4 – The Red Devils

5 – Coke out of the bottle. Also, delicious.

6 – Colorful handicrafts. It appears that all the random handicrafts in Panama are authentic, unlike a lot of other places we’ve visited.

7 – 49 cent beers

8 – Flowering trees and shrubs of all colors. The orange is my favorite.

We’ve gotten to see quite a bit in the last week or so. We’ve also gotten a lot of work done, so it’s been a nice mix of work and play in the remote and ever-changing Lancaster household. Here are the highlights:

We toured the Old Downtown (a/k/a Casco Viejo or Old Quarter or Casco Antiguo), but unfortunately forgot the camera (Doy). Out of 10 months of travel this is the only camera mishap so far, which is actually pretty impressive, I think.

Anyway, trust me when I say that it was an afternoon filled with:

• a delightful walking tour
• Cuban food for lunch
• Italian espresso after lunch
• nice views of the coast and city skyline
• interesting colonial architecture
• beautiful renovated theaters and churches
• impending storm clouds, and
• a museum devoted to the history of The Panama Canal, which we were told included English language descriptions, but actually only had one small sign in English out of the 100 or so other signs in Spanish.

But, there was air conditioning so we didn’t complain.

Over the weekend we rented a car and headed to Coronado, which is about an hour to the southwest of Panama City. On the way, we realized we had made a big accomplishment without even realizing it.

We’ve officially visited South America. All this while we thought we were in North America, but Panama City is in South America. This means we’ve officially visited three continents in our travels. Above is a picture of the Bridge of the Americas, which connects both North and South America. It’s also along the road you take from Panama City to Coronado.

According to the sign, “Coronado is Life,” so I’m glad we got to visit. Who knew what we were missing!

Actually, there’s not a whole lot here except a black sand beach, which was tough to get to and the water has some crazy waves and rip tides going on so we didn’t even get in.

Just to get on to the beach we had to wade through this … ick.

Besides the not-so-great beach, we did manage to find one of the best restaurants we’ve ever eaten at. Fire roasted chicken with fried yucca is my new favorite meal — but only from Restaurante Don Chacho in Coronado.

We also found our way to El Valle de Anton, the world’s second largest extinct volcano. The town of El Valle sits right in its crater.

Funny thing is that we had no idea what El Valle was all about until I started researching for this here post. I think its apparent that after so much time exploring new sights, Jason and I are starting to get lazy. First we forget the camera and now this!!!

But the good news is that without knowing the details at the time, El Valle was still a lovely place with its cloud forest, cool temperatures, and market.

We finished off the day with a mini photo shoot and some adventure travel in the car. Turns out navigating Panama City isn’t as difficult as the tour books will tell you.

It took less than a day in Panama City to notice the crazy bus system they’ve got going on here. The city buses are privately owned and operated completely independent of the city.

The “Red Devils,” as they are affectionately called, were obvious to us for a few reasons.

1 – They are recycled US school buses.

2 – The Red Devils are packed so full of passengers that people are normally spilling out of the doors.

3 – Since they are all private, each individual bus owner does their best to make each bus splashier and more eye-catching than all the others. Bright colored paint, air brushing, and graffiti-style designs decorate many of the buses.

4 – The bus’ destination is printed on the wind shield in wild and wacky colors, and there is normally a man that stands on the steps of the bus and yells out the destination.

While I really like Panama’s Red Devils, I could see why others look at them as an eye sore and a hazard. Apparently, they aren’t always that safe.

Straight out of our Fodors travel book it says: “Tourists are most comfortable in cabs here. There are no written bus routes and the “Red Devil” buses are often in the news for their unsafe conditions.”

This, to me, is a bummer. I’m a fan of mass transportation. I feel like you haven’t really explored a city until you’ve navigated the maps and routes of mass transit. But, I’m also a fan of safety. On top of that, we can walk many places and cabs are only $2 within the downtown area so I’m not complaining.

If you want to know more about the Red Devils, check out my Squidoo lens on Panama Red Devil Buses. Time magazine published an article about the buses yesterday too. There’s a link to the article on my lens.

Today was a big day in our month-long Panamanian journey. First things first, we headed to the Panama Canal to watch the ships pass through the Miraflores Locks.

It was quite a sight. To be standing there watching something we’ve been hearing about all of our lives.  I learned a lot and am wondering what will happen to the environment, the economy, and Panama once they’re done expanding the canal with another set of locks so the real big dogs can pass through. Did you know they are going to use the dirt and rock they dig up from the expansion to build an island in the Panama Bay?

From here we drove up the Cerro Ancon (a big, random hill) for a few spectacular views of the city. Again, another amazing sight. This one reminded us that there is still so much for us to see and do in Panama City. If it weren’t for the rain and lightening headed our way, we might’ve seen more. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

After our brief adventure in Bocas del Toro we made our way to Panama City where we will stay for the next month. I think it’s safe to say that Jason and I are both ecstatic to be in a city again. In fact, as the plane was landing Jason was so excited that he was bouncing in his seat.

Of course, four months of Costa Rican eco-tourism has its perks: clean air (sometimes), clean water (sometimes), wildlife, starry nights, and the just plain quiet is oh-so-nice. But if you were to ask me what I like more, I’d tell you I like the sound of honking horns, the shopping, and the crowded sidewalks of a city more.

After just a few days here, it’s obvious we are in for a big change. On our first night there were fireworks being lit off the roof of a nearby club.

The next day we went to the grocery store and I couldn’t help but notice that no one is wearing beach attire. My wardrobe of flip flops and summer dresses is no longer applicable. Why didn’t I bring my heels and black pants?

We took a walk to the waterfront and managed to see almost every American restaurant chain known to me. It’s my goal to not go to any one of these places, but if I find a Starbucks I might make an exception.

Our place in Costa Rica was nice, but our apartment in Panama City is fantastic. Its much bigger than I expected and we even have a view.

That’s about it for Panama City so far. Well, except for the $29 Jason won at a nearby casino and our shoe shopping extravaganza at the mall.

The real excitement will come later. For now, we need to recover from a couple of colds, catch up on work, and make the time for bus tours, walking tours, and ship watching.

Stay tuned…

We spent five days in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Well, three full days and two travel days. But whatever, that’s not the point.

The point is that we had a great time just hanging out. It felt good to take some time off of work and to see more of Central America.

Bocas Town is the main center there among the nine-or-so islands that compose Bocas del Toro (mouth of the bull). Many of the buildings are built on stilts and sit over the water. While most everything in Bocas Town is within walking distance, making it to the other islands and to the beaches is done by water taxi.

This is Jason in a water taxi on our way to Starfish Beach. (I hope he was wearing sunblock — look at that shine!)

One of our favorite things to do while we were in Bocas was the eating. There are so many good restaurants close by that it was hard to choose. So we decided to try several different restaurants each night and do an appetizer at each one — bocas in Bocas is what we liked to call it.

Here I am patiently waiting for my martini and yummy bocas dip.

The water here is very clear. We spent a day snorkeling at Starfish Beach, we rented a sea kayak and explored the mangroves, and we made the journey to Red Frog Beach. Guess what they have there?

Little red frogs! Well, they looked more orange, but no one asked me. So whatever … it was great no matter the color.

You might be thinking … what kind of trouble? Sara, did you have a run-in with the Colombian drug cartel? Are you stranded on a tropical island with nothing to eat but coconuts and mangoes?

Unfortunately, our trouble is nothing that exciting.  But it is exciting none the less.

For starters, when we left Costa Rica for Panama last Saturday we had to leave an entire suit case worth of belongings behind. This is partly because I might’ve overpacked for our 4-month trip to Costa Rica and didn’t want to pay the fees for the extra suitcase on our flight to Panama. I also left a lot behind because I was tired of wearing some of the same clothes over and over again, and I couldn’t really justify bringing gallon bottles of soaps and shampoos along.

Mental note: Sometimes buying in bulk is not a bargain at all.

Once I managed to part with all that crap that I don’t really need anyway, we made our way to the Liberia Airport. Our first flight was on a small plane that was knocked all over the Costa Rican skies thanks to a wind sheer from these small hills that they call mountains. Although Jason was convinced it was going to be the last flight of his life, we did manage to land in San Jose just fine.

Our connecting flight to Bocas del Toro, Panama, was a bit of an adventure too.

We were the only ones on the plane to Bocas. It might be the first and last time I am able to fly on a “private jet.” I had to snap a picture of Jason to prove it too. Pura vida, honey.

As we descended on Bocas del Toro we couldn’t help but notice the partial fence that surrounded half of the airport. It was also hard not to notice the baseball field and baseball playing men located just past the the landing strip and within the boundaries of the fence. I wonder if baseballs pose a risk to take off and landings?

Anyway, we exited the plane and then aimlessly tried to find our way into the airport. There were no clear signs and no airport staff paying close enough attention to tell us where to go. After finally figuring it out, we waited in a small room with two doors.

One door said customs and the other door said immigration. Next to the doors was a desk where a man sat with his legs up while he slept. Apparently the immigration officer was on a lunch break and the guard was on siesta, so we just sat and waited for 15 minutes.

Once that was all taken care of and we had paid for the pretty Panamanian tourist stamps to be stuck in our passports, we headed out to find a cab. Cabs cost a $1US in Bocas, but wouldn’t you know it…we spent our last dollar at the immigration office.

So off to the ATM we went where we discovered that my ATM card did not work and that Jason’s ATM card was MIA.

Bummer.

In the end, we got everything all worked out, but it was an exciting six hours. All was forgotten once we unpacked our bags and started to explore all that is Bocas Town.