Our Fishy Tales : Panama 2006

PANAMA (Panama City, the Panama Canal and Mira Flores Locks)

Panama City - Sat 13^th May
It’s a shame to say but we were so relieved to be leaving Costa Rica - under any other circumstances we would have probably said it was one of the nicest countries to visit in Central America, but an experience like that tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth L. So after a thankfully uneventful but vigilant overnight bus ride we arrived in Panama City.

The bus terminal was very modern and large which was encouraging (civilisation at last!) but miles out of town, so not wanting to risk another local bus journey we got a taxi despite the cost. Feeling a bit shaken by recent events and nearing the end of our travels we decided to treat ourselves to a ‘proper’ hotel for our last few nights. OK so it wasn’t exactly the Ritz but it had clean matching bed linen, a balcony, rooftop swimming pool and the BEST hot water power shower in a modern bathroom – we were in heaven!

Still, first things first and we still hadn’t booked onward tickets from Curacao – an essential item required by immigration to permit you entry to the island in the first place. So we headed downstairs to the tiny internet room and proceeded to make some very frustrating calls to Travelocity USA. As we were banging our heads against the glass wall at being cut off for the fourth time just as we were making headway, a really nice English chap who we unfortunately can’t remember his name offered to let us use his laptop and Skype (free calls) connection. It turned out he was an ex pat living in the Turks and Caicos islands who was just on a short holiday. It seems that even if you live in paradise you still need holidays! Despite his kind help we still kept coming to a dead end, so finally decided to be completely daring (or is that stupid?) and mock up e-tickets showing fictitious flights back home to the UK.

Next on the list was some serious shopping. Our future employers, Mark & Suzy from the Dive Bus, Curacao had advised us that clothes shopping was limited on the island, so we got another taxi to take us to the biggest shopping mall in Panama City. Unfortunately biggest didn’t necessarily mean best so we ended up in the equivalent of a retail park right on the city’s outskirts and full of DIY shops and tacky sports shops but not much else in the way of fashionable clothes. So after a horrible MacDonald’s lunch we admitted defeat and paid an extortionate amount to go back to Panama City where we happened to find a row of high street clothes shops at the end of the street our hotel was on! I think that’s what they call sods law L. That done we headed over the road to a nice Italian restaurant and a good steak meal then an early night in our luxurious hotel room.

Sun 14^th May
One last day of leisure before we headed to our final destination and that horrible concept – work L So what to do?

Well you can’t go to Panama and not visit the famous Panama Canal. So we got yet another taxi who kindly waited at the Mira Flores locks while we did our touristy bit for no extra charge (wish we had got him to take us shopping!). The Panama Canal was quite extraordinary to see, especially so for Andy who’s brother Brian had sailed through in his years with the Merchant Navy. The canal’s history is stunning also when you consider that it was hewn out of rock, jungle and mountains over a considerable number of years and at an significant cost in both financial and human terms. As many as 27,500 workers are estimated to have died during construction of the canal from both disease and landslides.