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Panama: Six Destinations to Spend the Winter Months
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First Time Reader: Why Panama? – This blog explains the rationale of the trip and this series of blogs.

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lobo/excursions/1266327384/tpod.html

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Lobo's Real Time

February 23, 2010

I am sitting here on the patio of the Jaco Inn Hostel (www.jacoinn.com) located in Jaco, Costa Rica. It is hot and humid as hell with temperatures hovering around 35 degrees centigrade. For a single, non-air conditioned room I am paying $25 so the good old prices of Panama are gone for good or at least until I get to Nicaragua .

Once I crossed the "loosey goosey" border from Panama to Costa Rica I found myself with a five hour wait (including one hour of time difference) for a bus to San Isidrio de El General, the first major city north of the border from Panama.

In the best tradition of: "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu – I struck up a conversation with a “Tico” (a colloquial term for a native of Costa Rica) who was headed for Puerto Jimenez. What - the bus leaves in 20 minutes? – great! How do we get there? Two hours on a bus to Golfito and then a 20-minute boat ride across the Golfo Dulce to Puerto Jimenez on the Osa Peninsuala where the famous Corcovado National Park is located. Puerto Jimenez exists for the park just like Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, that I visited four years ago, exists for Iguazu Falls. Both towns have that heavy feel of a nearby rain forest or jungle.

After seeking out some expats in Puerto Jimnez I took a bus north along the Pacific Coast to Palmar Norte . The same bus then continued to San Isidro de El General.

San Isidrio ( pronounced “sunny-seedro”) was a great town with lots of expats.

From there I took a bus back to the Pacific Coast and north to Quepos. While it is a nice town the crown jewel is nearby Manuel Antonio that reminded me of parts of Hawaii and the Cote d’Azur in France. This is where the heavy hitters have their winter homes.

This morning I travelled from Quepos to Jaco, a surfing town. It is now in the late afternoon and the temperature has fallen a couple of degrees making it bearable. It is a good afternoon to catch up on my blogging.

Tomorrow I will travel to Puntarenas and then across the Golfo de Nicoya to another surfing town of Montezuma.

To date it has been a great trip.

Finally, Mathieu wondered, and rightly so, why I had not included photos of the Diablos Rojos – the Red Devils I wrote about in the last blog . To correct that omission, four photos have been added to the last blog and I have included them at the bottom of this blog as well. Make sure you enlarge the photos to see the detailed paint jobs.

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Panama: Six Destinations to Spend the Winter Months
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Panama City

Destination No. 1 of 6 (in no particular order)

Panama City: Panama Canal

Part 5 of 7 on Panama City

As a kid in school, geography was my favourite subject and since about Grade 4, I have been fascinated with the Panama Canal.

Therefore it was not unusual that on my hit list of places to visit before I stop travelling right there in position number eight is the Panama Canal.

I always imagined that if I were to see it, the view would be from a cruise ship but I have gone on only one cruise in my life and who knows when the next one might be.

So frankly I was a bit surprised that on this day, Sunday, January 31, I was standing at the Miraflores Locks watching the ships go by.

The caché of the Panama Canal is inescapable . The very thought that geography would have it that Panama is an isthmus narrow enough to permit the eventual construction of the Panama Canal is an exciting idea.

If it is not on the list of the World’s Modern Wonders then it should be and indeed, it is as this website indicates:

http://library.thinkquest.org/27638/
(click on Panama Canal)

The Panama Canal also defines history for places like Ushuaia, Argentina and Punta Arenas in Chile since they have their pre and post Panama Canal periods. The opening of the Panama Canal saved a lot of lives as the treacherous waters of Cape Horn no longer had to be navigated.

Shipping history is defined by the Panama Canal. There are “Panamax” ships meaning that they are destined to pass through the Panama Canal with only inches to spare on each side.

A new term that is creeping into the language is “post-Panamax” . These are the ships that are on the drawing board and already built that presently do not fit through the Panama Canal but that will fit once the Panama Canal will have been expanded to accommodate a larger size of ship.

Fitting through the Panama Canal must be important for shipping companies as they presently pay on the average $95,000 for every passage through the canal.

That amount of money must be less than the cost of fuel to go around Cape Horn. Furthermore, the cost of fuel is not the only factor as the extra time of about three weeks around the Cape Horn must be factored in as well.

Suffice it to say that the Panama Canal is a “cash cow” for Panama ever since it was handed over from the Americans to the Panamanians in 1999 by then American President Jimmy Carter.

I visited the locks with Robert from Quebec City. He was only the second person I spoke with while walking around Panama City upon my arrival and who has become my “local expert” . He is very knowledgeable as he has been coming here for the last four years and he has also invested in the local real estate market.

On this day, we met in front of Niko’s Cafeteria in the food court at the Terminal Nacional and then took the bus that runs approximately along the Panama Canal on the Gaillard Highway to Gamboa. After being dropped off we passed through a checkpoint and walked about ten minutes to the visitor’s center in the company of tourists from Switzerland.

I must qualify this blog about the Panama Canal by saying we went to the Visitor’s Center at the Miraflores Locks. They are one of six locks along the length of the Panama Canal that spans the distance of 82 kilometers from the Caribbean City of Colon to Panama City on the Pacific Ocean. Miraflores is the main viewing point since it has shaded stands to enjoy the view of the ships passing by and it also has a museum that tells the story of the Panama Canal.

As an aside, the city of Colon at the northern end of the canal has a terrible reputation for crime . The warnings are numerous. Watch your possessions in Colon or don’t go there.

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Lobo Flash (….I have come to the realization that ….)

Before coming to Panama I was under the impression that the country generally runs north – south like Mexico but if you look at the map, its orientation is more east – west putting Colon generally north of Panama City.

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Sitting in the observation deck at the locks is a wonderful experience because the temperature is well over 30 degrees centigrade, it is shaded, there is a brisk breeze blowing and the world of ships is passing by. Among the other boats passing by were small sailboats owned by individuals wishing to move between oceans as well as the local small cruise ship which allows for a passage through the 50 miles of the Panama Canal . So if you can’t afford a regular cruise through the Panama Canal there is always the budget version.

What anyone visiting the Panama Canal at the visitor’s center at Mireflores Locks would like to see is a cruise ship going through the canal. They are not that common so it was not that surprising that we did not see one.

The most interesting ship we saw was an automobile transporter having a remote resemblance to some images I have seen of Noah’s Arc (yes I admit, it is a stretch). Considering how Japan restricts the import of foreign cars, the ship was likely going back empty. Japan is dependent on export markets so it baffles the mind how a country like the U.S. has not been able to squeeze trade concessions out of Japan to freely sell, for example, Cadillacs in that country.

The U.S. certainly did not act like a shrinking violet when it came to the soft wood lumber dispute with Canada. Having been until recently a resident of Prince George, British Columbia I am well aware of the impact which this dispute had on Northern British Columbia .

Since I have included websites and took detailed photos of information panels in the museum, I will not be telling the detailed story of the Panama Canal.

With the era of the post-Panamax carrier looming on the horizon by 2012 there is a race against time to complete the newer wider locks that will keep the traffic humming through the Panama Canal for many years to come.

Finally visiting the Panama Canal was a dream come true and as long as one has dreams live is worth living.

http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/panamacanal.htm

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Coming Soon: Panama City – The Amador