Hola todos! como están? I wasn’t going to drop a blog today but I’ve had another episode that just had to be shared since it’ll be funny to read once we were past it. Today Im in Montería for 2 nights before setting off to Medellín. So what have we been up to?
Absolutely sweet nothing just chilling by the beach going in the sea for a few hours and maybe chatting up chicas willing to entertain our nonsense. I could have done some boat trips or tours but I just wanted the R&R. Been fun and I’m not normally a beach guy so goes to say it was needed. Then again too much time in paradise isn’t good for you in my humble opinion.
Fast forward to my last day in Coveñas. After my dip in the sea I go back to the hotel clean myself up and go out for lunch. I have a res Pechuga which is a beef stake with rice and a soup served with it. Right as I pay my tab some locals order me a beer and so I go over to chat with them. Friendly middle aged couple and their friend from Medellín. I have a few with them but don’t go crazy. The friend runs a shuttle bus company and has contacts in Cali, Bogotá etc and gave me his number. Might come in clutch further down the line. After this back to siesta I go. The night is uneventful apart from a giant motorcade of bikes coming through blasting horns and waving the Barranquilla Juniors football team banner – they had just won their league so everyone was going party mad. Me I kept it sane, go back usual time and turn in.
Here is where it gets nasty. I awake at 2.30 Am really needing a 💩 so awa te the boag wit ye 🏴! Once I get sat down it’s nasty and about halfway through the stench is so bad I can taste it. This turns into dry retching which soon turns into projectile 🤮 into the toilet and sink while same time taking a 💦 that I cannot stop. Mierda! Mientras mi culo y garganta están quemando!! 🔥
After a few rounds of retching we stop at last and clean up. I swig some water and go back to bed. 4.30 am we awake and do it all again! Then 6.30 I awake and puke in the sink again. Today is spent bedridden trying to slowly hydrate myself back to health ready for the trip to Monteria.
At the time of writing (about 12:00 yesterday) we have managed 8 hours with no puking 🤮 so fingers 🤞 was a short and sharp bug. My guess is something I eaten in the last day or 2 did this.
Note I tried to post this yesterday but the side was glitching on me. As of today the fever has gone and while gut is still a little on the delicate side I think I should be able to eat after a near 48 hour fast.
Still what a fun time! It goes to show you never know what the RNG might roll us next! how many bad events we’ve had surely were due for something cool now?
Hola todos. Just a quick one I ended up bailing on Santa Marta after one night. No real reason why just simply was not feeling the vibe and didn’t want to carry on up into hippy country so out I got on an early bus back to Cartagena and then took another bus to Coveñas, which is 3 hours south of Cartagena and the place Mrs lady in the hostel I was at in Cartagena recommended. I am going to chill here a few days before starting on the road to Medellín.
Note I am going to be halting this blog for a couple of days to a week – I have hit a real mental slump on this journey and cranking these blogs out only to see my reach tank isn’t doing me any good. It is reminding me of an existential grind that awaits back home when this trip eventually ends…..Competing against rigged algorithms……seems like modern life is becoming like this in every arena if you think about it be it jobs, dating, whatever shut up and be a good slave to the system! Kind of why we go travelling to get away from that stuff ¿No?
I need to step away so pausing the blog though will still drop stories if we run across something worth sharing. Most likely will pick this up again when I head to Monteria and start on the road to Medellín proper.
That said it has just passed the 3 month point on this journey and that my friends is always a tough one. Google travelers melancholy, the TLDR is it’s a complex mix of emotions that leads to you feeling purposeless and feeling like your flunking the experience. Conclusion is I need some serious R&R before heading to Medellín. Let’s be honest haven’t stopped since Antigua and we were moving fast through much of Centroamérica. So yeah I’m staying here for a couple of days and having a bit of a holiday from my trip.
I’m writing this on my second day here and I am glad I chinned off the hippie trail to come here. Just gone for a swim in the sea and chatted to some cool locals. Been great not having to get up for some trip somewhere.
Anyways I will catch you in a few days……… peace ✌️
Hola todos. Here is the blog for Day 3, the last day in Cartagena. I started out rather late and decided to after some thinking head for Santa Marta. I’ve booked a hostel and bus for tomorrow so what now then? Well I decided to go out back into the old city and walk the walls.
During this I come across another traveller being touted by a somewhat friendly tout. He didn’t speak Spanish much so I stepped in and translated for him. We end up buying a beer off this tout and then end up walking the walls with the tout who was originally talking to him. We sort of get given a mini tour of the city walls and at the end he shows us his wares. Okay sort to feel obligated to buy something now, we both buy something off the guy, him a bobblehead thing and me my first hippy bracelet of the trip 😂. Come on now deep down you know you wanted it!!!
We then part ways with our tout friend and me and the other guy walk back to my neighbourhood and go for lunch and a few beers. This chap was a polish lad who had just landed pretty much and didn’t have the lay of the land, so I chatted to him and shared some tips from my first couple of days here. He will also be heading to Mexico so told him hit me up for any recommendations if you pass through anywhere I did.
While we’re lunching polish pal gets touted again, this time by the braid lady. She give him a freebie he didn’t really want but when in Rome and all that? It was funny to watch mind 😂 Our friend is now a true son of Skyrim!! We soon part ways as jetlag is hitting my friend and don’t see him again.
Going out later I meet a cool Honduran bloke and his friends and chat for a bit but don’t end up exchanging details. The night ends uneventful and the bus ride to Santa Marta was uneventful the next day.
To skip over mundane details I get up reasonably early, have breakfast and move my bags over to the new hostal. While I’m there I actually end up having a good chat with Mrs lady who runs the gaff and turns out she’s really into her history and there is lots here in Cartagena. She shows me a tiktok about the 1741 battle when the British Empire tried to have a crack at this place. It is all in Spanish but was highly interesting will link it in the wordpress version of this post.
After this the tour starts. This is quite fun as firstly we are loaded onto a chicken bus and off we go round the city with the tunes blasting to pick up the other guys. Once everyone is picked up all the other tourists are from other Países Latinos, so this tour was being done all in Spanish. Good stuff.
We soon arrive at Castillo de San Felipe and after a brief photoshoot in we go. This an immense 18th century cannon fortress that was built like this to protect against pirates after the many many times this place had been extorted and sacked by pirates and privateers. Over the tour we get to climb the parapets & walk it’s tunnel system. During this time we learn some of Cartagena’s history.
So Cartagena de Indias was founded in 1533 & grew to become the principal slave port for the northern half of Spanish South America, you can see it in the people here as many of the people here are black mestizo Who descend from those who were brought here years ago. About 2/3 of Cartagenas native population is black or mestizo and the other 1/3 being white or mixed from the Spanish side.
It didn’t take long for this place to be pirated with first sacking of the city happening in 1544 by French pirates when the city didn’t have walls. The next big sack came in 1586 when Francis Drake & the lads rolled into the bay past Bocagrande & stormed and occupied for city for over a month demanding a payment of 400,000 silver ducats to leave. Drake was eventually paid to leave but the men did a lot of looting while they were there too.
After Francis drake’s occupation a chain was set in Bocagrande to stop ships passing through the big mouth into the bay. Future attacks had to go through smaller bocachica which was easier to defend against incoming vessels.
In the 1600’s there were smaller attacks on the city until the next big sack in 1697 by the famous french pirate le Barón de pontis. He joined forces with other pirates and launched a joint assault and took the city, and then famously double crossed his allies sailing out with all the loot in the dead of night when the rest of the pirate allies were drunk or sleeping. Being cheated of their loot the pirates went on an even bigger pillaging spree unrestrained by the baron. After this they built fort San Felipe, making Cartagena de Indias the most fortified port in South America.
The last major attack on Cartagena came in 1741 when the war of Jenkins’ Ear breaks out the British empire launches a 30000 man strong expedition to conquer Cartagena against about 3-4000 Spaniards. This ends up being a classic lions led by donkeys affair for the British. They start the attack manage to take the smaller forts in and around Bocachica and at that point. At this point the commander of the navy, one Edward Vernon famously has a letter sent back to London saying something along the lines of “we’ve breached the port by the time this reaches you the Union Jack will by flying proudly over Cartagena”. Celebrations broke out in London over this news and Medallions were even forged back in Blighty over this supposed great victory.
Right after this letter is sent however things go south for the Brits. The expedition had a lot of logistical problems right off the bat that now were becoming apparent. The Brits manage to take the inner harbour and outlying forts but to capture the city they needed to take fort San Felipe which was dug in hard for an assault. In typical British piss poor planning it taken them a week to get themselves in shape for an assault because the commanders of the naval and land had contempt for one another and couldn’t agree on a concrete plan to attack the fort meanwhile food and water rations are now going bad and yellow fever and malaria is rampant in the rank and file now. It got that bad that about 1/3 of the land army had to stay in board ship to do the work of sailors who had become bedridden from mosquito borne diseases.
At some point here the only siege engineer on the expedition dies from yellow fever so nobody can build a battery to assault the fort. In the end they decide to launch a chaotic night attack trying to mount the fort with whatever gear they had on hand. This failed epically and the Spanish almost cut the assault off from retreat. The British retreat back to their ships and then after some more bickering by the war council an assessment is done concluding out of 30000 only maybe 1-2000 are capable of fighting; everyone else is either ill from tropical diseases or dystentry, scurvy etc from the now bad rations. The situation is untenable and the Spanish win the siege and the British retreat back to Jamaica. About 18000 British died in that siege and mostly from tropical diseases, only a few hundred in the actual fighting as sieges tend to go. The Mosquito is what truly saved Cartagena.
From there Cartagena wouldn’t face any more major sieges though it would play a major role in the independence being the first province of Colombia to break off from Spain in 1811 on November 11th – it is a huge festival and biggest party in Cartagena or so I am told.
After this tour wraps up the rest of the night goes by uneventfully without any more gringo scam nonsense I am happy to say!
below you can find the link to the tiktok on the 1741 siege. It is all in Spanish though
Hola todos de nuevo! Been a few days hasn’t it? I’m writing this one on my last night in Cartagena, Colombia 🇨🇴. It’s safe to say it has been a somewhat messy landing here without much of a plan, you see right now there is a bit of a gap in the Calendar, you see I have booked to spend Christmas & new year in Medellín in Blink Spanish school but I don’t need to be there until the 21st so this next week and a bit is an open book to do the North of Colombia.
To sum up our first night in Colombia:
So on Sunday we flew into Cartagena from Panamá, the flight was uneventful so will skip that. We touch down and after deplaning it’s a right faf getting in as immigration in the airport here is slow and after they stamp you through you then got to go through customs which is another long line. Took about 2.5 hours though go online and this airport is known for being shite with some days taking 5+ hours so could have been worse.
I get an Uber into town, I am staying in Getsemani in the old city. I booked to do an evening walking tour to get the lay of the land which I only have 10 mins to check in and get to the meetup because of the delays. My Uber driver when I get there claims the app hasn’t paid him though it clearly did, being in a rush I end up giving him £10 thinking it was £3-4 just to get him out of my way as don’t have time to argue this out. Gringo Scam #1 I fall for reading up later.
I check in, sling the bags and straight out no time to freshen up and join on the tour. I forget the guides name but he was a good bloke and showed us round the old town while explaining the history. That we will get to on another post. It was a good little tour and ended with sorting basics out. 7.30 I go back and freshen up then head out for some grub and a gentle drink. It is actually the festival of Día de las velitas 🕯️🎆🎄 here where everyone lights candles and fireworks to basically start the Christmas season here. It also means Monday next day is a bank holiday so it’s absolutely heaving out here in town.
Cartagena is a very colourful place and doesn’t really come to life until night time but it is still a very pretty place in the day. Having a wander I eventually bump into my English Pal who was with me back in Lake Atitlan so I tag along with his group for a bit and we have a few drinks catching up on what we’ve been up to since we separated after I left early for Antigua.
Turns out although he skipped el Salvador we were on Isla Ometepe at the same time but not aware of each others whereabouts, we were on opposite sides of the island to each other and by the time we knew I was already in San Jose having the heebie geebies. He had skipped Panama and flew to Cartagena but went from San Jose and funnily enough had a similar experience with the border and his bus breaking down and having to spend £50 on a taxi to catch his early morning flight, meaning he didn’t end up saving any money and could have flown from Managua. Sounds like fun! He was heading to Santa Marta next and said I might catch him in a few days time.
Now we part ways about 1am but being a travel day I was knackered and apparently they don’t light the candles here till 3am. I hang about at a bar by my gaff until about 1.30 but by 2am I’m done and I’m bed out like a light. I ended up sleeping in till midday and also miss breakfast. Ay que pena!
Oh well we’ve now landed in South America and tomorrow we will see what wonders Cartagena holds!
Hola a todos! As I am transiting through from Panamá city to Colombia I am taking the time to write a little bit of a post mortem blog on the Centroamérica leg of this adventure to sum things up much like we did Mexico.
So to begin what to way about the countries we’ve been to? Firstly compared to Mexico they are all quite basic and rather similar in their nature and geography. Everywhere we passed through there is some volcano or another to be seen.
On the history side it is quite interesting as you have a mixture of ancient ruins and the modern history of these places after the Spanish Conquest and what happened to these places after Spain’s empire collapsed. There is quite a bit to learn here.
People have been friendly enough although not as open as Mexico I’ve had decent conversations with locals and other travellers and even made a new best friend in our pal the metal man of Granada.
Compared to western Europe it has been cheaper but prices vary very much by regions here with the most expensive places being Antigua and Panama city with the cheapest being El Salvador and parts of Nicaragua.
Overall this leg ends on a mixed note as we’ve had some good highs and a huge low and as I write I’m only just about back to equilibrium I would say. Below 👇 is a more in depth summary of each of the countries and places we have visited.
Adelante a Colombia 🇨🇴!
A summary of countries and places visited:
🇬🇹 Guatemala:
Overall Guatemala was quite interesting and another place I could go back to and see more of if I am being honest since it feels I’ve not really seen much of it especially on the history side, there are ruin such as Tikal, Iximiche etc that are as amazing as the ones in México but we’re not easy to get to without diverting from this route. Also not having a great experience with fellow travellers here made me move on rather than hang round. Guatemala was probably also the most expensive of these places to live and feed yourself on this leg. That said there is plenty here I haven’t done and I could do a second trip here to tick them off. That said it has not been the easiest place to get around without your own wheels. Of the places I have done:
Lake Atitlan: Lake Atitlan was a short stay but what I did see of it it was very basic although you have a stunning natural wonder in the lake itself and the surrounding volcanoes and there are some good trails you can do if you stay a while, during my short stay I did explore some of the towns in the lake and they are basic at best with some being complete dives. Overall though every port on this lake seems a bit run down from what I’ve seen. If I was to speculate this place ran off the tourist Dollar and took a big hit when COVID came and hasn’t really recovered.
Antigua: I overall quite liked Antigua. It is a proper renaissance style city built in the style of a classical Roman city from the days of petruvio, the architect whose works inspired Da Vinci. My stay here was alright though probably didn’t do as much as I should have since again didn’t have the greatest experience when I arrived – See Bros and bully bois blog post. That said it was a chill enough place though prices were on the pricier side of the budget it was still manageable on the accomodation side, when it came to feeding yourself it massively varied with some places being very expensive while others were very reasonably cheap. One of those places you have to look around. Just maybe don’t do the Antigua bar crawl side quest on your first night here.
🇸🇻 El Salvador: El Salvador, what to say about this one, now I didn’t hate El Salvador but would I go back again? I don’t know. Overall the whole place just had a “pass through” vibe to it as it was very basic and everywhere I went there generally wasn’t a lot going on. That said it was probably the cheapest place on the trip so far by quite a bit though I don’t see it staying that way in the future. Another thing we have to remember is a few short years ago this country would have been a complete no go as it had the highest murder rate on the planet before Bukele Literally locked everyone up who had the slightest affiliation with a gang. Reading into it is somewhat controversial but regardless of whether you agree with his methods or not he is the brutal gardener – he was elected to get rid of the gang crime and he’s done it. Not been pretty but he’s did what he was elected to do. Can we say the same about our politicians back home? Right now El Salvador is trying to reinvent itself and attract foreign investment and become a tourist destination. If El Salvador doesn’t slide back into Gangland when he’s gone it probably will develop more into a tourist destination and not be as cheap in a few years time. One place that’s meant to be cool I didn’t get to was El Tunco on the coast by San Salvador so will have to check it out if I ever go back. On the places visited:
Santa Ana: Basic all round but not a complete dive, the centre I stayed in is quite pretty and you have some reasonably priced bars and restaurants. Nearby you have Tazumal, half hour on the chicken bus away in Chalchuapa – the last major ancient ruin before Colombia which is another Mayan settlement that is worth the chicken bus excursion. Overall a decent place to stop for 2/3 nights but not really much else to see here.
San Salvador: Salvador is a sprawled out capital city and as such I didn’t see much of it Escalón what I did see what small and sleepy apart from the world trade centre. It was decent and chill enough place though I think I didn’t spend enough time here to see all of it. Probably need 2/3 days to fully explore this city.
San Miguel: Many blogs I’ve read refer to this place as the “Armpit of El Salvador” San Miguel is a dive, it is very hot here and not easy to get about here. What else? There is quite little to do round here or at least where I was. It was the only place in El Salvador that I felt quite unsafe walking around at night. Also watch your step on the sidewalks especially in the dark.
La Unión: La Unión is the port town that serves the ferry between Nicaragua and El Salvador. La Unión is basic and quiet with not not much going on. There is no proper beach here either though it is a cheap place to chill for a few days but don’t stay as long as I did. If I went back here I would just do a one night here then get the ferry, if I was to hang around I would get a bus out to one or the beach towns nearby and stay there a few days.
🇳🇮 Nicaragua: Nicaragua surprised me if I am being honest and surprised me in a good way, after El Salvador expectations were rather low going into it but with it’s issues it actually was the best of these Centroamérica countries I found though that said it was not perfect. Like all the others it was pretty basic but cheap to stay and feed yourself generally. Nicaragua has an interesting modern history which can basically be summed up as 100 years of resisting the meddling of Uncle Sam’s special interests in Latin America – remember kids for one final time – It is totally NOT imperialism when Uncle Sam does it! Nicaragua also has some excellent natural beauty in its geography and while I have not seen that much of it I have generally liked and enjoyed my time here. It has grown on me quite a lot and could happily come back here for an extended holiday. To sum up places visited:
León: León was a whistle stop tour so can’t really judge it that much. It is quite a bit of a party city though being on my own and only there for one night I didn’t go to the party places. It has some good histroic places in the centre and was quite cheap to go out I found. One thing though is it felt dangerous on the periphery, where I was staying. I had an early one and people were eyeing me up walking home and on the bus to Granada next day I heard these girls talking about people from their hostel getting mugged with knifes and being pinned against a wall coming back from a nightclub. 2nd hand info but confirms the general feel.
Granada: Granada being the former capital during the colonial era is a very nice old town and colonial city I spend a long weekend here and found it to be a very chill sort of place. I met some Friendly people here as well, mostly locals or expats but still in my opinion Best place since San Cristobal, México so far. Granada has a lot of interesting things to see inside the city itself in terms of the history and outside you have the Lake Cocibolca which makes the place a bit cooler and gives you more access to nature – there are loads of little islands outside of it that you can do a cheap boat trip out to and if you feel go for a swim in the lake. Would highly recommend it Granada overall. It is also a good location to transit to other parts of the country.
Isla Ometepe: amazing natural geography and a great place to learn to ride a motorbike and cut your teeth with driving on the right. Didn’t see as much of the natural beauty as I probably should have as was too much getting into cutting round on the bike and driving on the right for the first time in my life so I sort of ended up not doing any of the major sites here. Don’t regret it just the way things panned out with this one. Ometepe is an amazing island and despite having an accident that then lead to a rabies scare long story (see A Lonely Place blog) I would happily add a return to this place to the agenda if I came back here.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica: Hard to give a proper evaluation of Costa Rica given the mental freaks I was having through most of my time here, see (Lonely place and this is the end blogs). I only properly seen San Jose, the borders I came in and left at and some beach hotel places while waiting for buses. What was good and bad:
The good:
– The healthcare system or at least in San Jose as when I visited the hospital with my rabies scare I was seen to quickly and they were very helpful. I even did not get charged anything weather that was a clerical error on their part I don’t know but it was great to get seen to quickly.
– The people there were generally friendly and upbeat if I was not back to them so that has to count for something.
The bad:
– absolutely terrible border crossing between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Being kept in the no mans land for 5 hours, although that was due to a powercut most other travellers I’ve spoken to who have done the Peñas Blancas crossing say it was bad. Also having to do the metal detectors thing both sides is something I later found out because Nicaragua and Costa Rica don’t tend to get on too well so do it to each other at the border.
– Prices – while not absolutely eye wateringly expensive my short stay in San Jose notably put a dent in my budget.- roads – another gripe with Costa Rica was the roads, I spoke to many people who have said they are bad and having experienced that first hand with a nightmare bus journey to go with it. Seriously they could do with fixing them up a bit.I’m also sure there are some lovely beaches in Costa Rica but I never got there.
To sum up San Jose: To add to the general points above I got stuck there for 3 days as was no easy onward travel route to Panamá from there and San Jose looked a bit run down and a dive. It was not as bad as it looked after doing a walking tour but still it wasn’t the place you wanted to be out late at night.
🇵🇦 Panamá: Panamá, the final country on this Centroamérica leg and one of the nicer ones I would say from what I have seen of it. You have beaches, mountains a cool modern city and a decent bit of history to explore if your so inclined. To be fair I haven’t seen enough of Panama in my opinion and would keep it on the list for a possible revisit should I come back to Central América. So to sum up places visited:
Bocas del Toro: This place is quite a cute little Carribbean island chain just off the northern coast of Panamá. I had not planned to come here but came here because it was literally my only way out of San José. The Island is a chill place with beaches and was quite reasonably priced everywhere. If you wanted there are plenty of things to do such as boat tours, snorkeling and beaches or cut around on a moped. My stay was short so didn’t do any of that but could recommend for a lazy beach holiday.
Panamá City: The final stop before Colombia. I liked Panamá city quite a lot it was a big change after going through all these basic places to end up in Latin America’s Hong Kong or Dubai something of the like. Panamá city is quite interesting though I did not have time to go deep diving into the dirty laundry of governments and hedge funds it has that look of a place where a lot of dirty money passes through, that said I quite enjoyed it as it had a pretty chill vibe to it at least where I stayed in Bellavista. A few decent places to eat and drink but not much going on. Didn’t really meet anyone here either but was nice to chill for a few days before flying to Colombia.Panama city is quite on the pricier side for accommodation but you can eat and drink cheaply enough if you go to the right places. The old city of Panamá Viejo and the casco antiguo are well worth a visit to learn the history and spend time in a proper old colonial Spanish city. The canal is a must do and would highly recommend doing it with Monkey Island Tour. Their half day trip includes a boat trip up the canal and the various monkey islands on the route. It allows you to get up close to both the wildlife and the ships and also includes a nice short nature hike too.My only disservice to Panama city was not having enough time to do the San Blas islands tour I think as that looks amazing but is also a long day and probably not best to do the day before your flight out. One I will keep on my list if I ever find myself here again.
🇭🇳Honduras & 🇧🇿Belize: While I personally didn’t visit these this paragraph is a general summary of second hand accounts from various other travellers I spoke to who had been through one of both of them. I Didn’t visit Honduras on account of them making it that Brits need a visa a few years ago and getting one proved to be a non starter – from various 2nd hand accounts of people I spoken to while travelling through places around it I am not missing much – it’s very basic in the same way as el Salvador but much more dangerous to walk around at night though it does have one good Mayan ruin to visit. Belize feels very much the same from speaking to other travellers who had passed there; Good natural beauty some ruins but basic and dangerous. The only other thing to note is they speak English in Belize. Not to knock places I haven’t been to myself but things to keep in mind if you ever plan a trip out this way.
Hola a todos! Today for my last blog on Panama I will tell you about a cool little boat tour I did on the Panama Canal. So I booked a tour online for £35 which was a 4 hour half day tour. It was a slightly early start with the bus picking us up at 0600.
Up I got and went to the meetup point and it soon tips up. There are about 8 of us on this tour plus the guide. He does it in both English and español and does it very well. Mario his name is and would highly recommend their company.
We have about a 40 minute minibus ride then we are put onto the boat. It’s a another little Lake Atitlan type boat and we soon head out. As it’s morning and foggy the ships passing through the canal are being held for better visibility we will do the monkey islands first. We had about these islands seeing different kinds of monkeys and they even briefly come aboard twice to eat grapes which our guide laid out for them. Some people held them out and the monkeys eaten out of their hand – I passed on that however as hand still had scabbed cuts and a bit soon since the last scare of that nature. Still it’s a fun little hour or 2. Each Island has different species of monkey and other wildlife and turns out they are actually trapped on these islands as these never used to be islands. It was all a swampy jungle that was cut and dredged to make the canal back in the day.
After this we go back to dock on the way back we pass several large container ships, some laden some not heading to the Atlantic ocean bound for who knows where. I have to admit I wonder what life would be like living and working on one of these ships.
We docked up then went to the rainforest on way stopping for a light snack which included coffee, empanadas and a freshly cut open pineapple. This was a nice touch. We see some more wildlife and then do a 40 minute rainforest hike that ends up at a natural pool. We all take a dip but don’t to swimming. It isn’t that warm in there.
After this we head back to Panamá, I go for lunch at the Colombian restaurant again, this time having a dish from Cali on the promo. Was a lovely bit of scran and again not for the vegans this stuff! So much meat! After this I go back for a siesta. I did briefly consider doing Panama Viejo in the afternoon but then a flash storm comes in and it proper floods the street out. If I was caught in that wouldn’t have been a good time.
The evening is uneventful. In fact every evening has been uneventful here haven’t really spoken to anyone. Panama city is another place where people are in their own circles and it’s difficult to break in. Only real conversation I had was with the Colombians in that restaurant on my last day telling them about my travel plans. They wished me luck and a good time in Colombia.
Hola a todos. So these last few days we’ve been recuperating in Panama city. This place has been quite the oasis actually and been good to unwind from that nightmare couple of days and still have time and energy to do things. The first thing was, as per the usual routine was look for a walking tour.
I see one online that’s all in Spanish and on the other side of the city in el casco antiguo – the historic centre of old well rather new Panama. You see the true old city was destroyed by our very own Henry Morgan 🏴 but we’ll get to that.
This old town is quite a ways away on the metro and getting off it’s a 20 minute walk to the meeting place through a pretty grotty hood that looks like it’s not a nice place to be at night. Getting into the old town it’s quite pretty. I have a cup of coffee and wait for our guide to turn up. She turns up but nobody else does but is still happy to go ahead.
To keep this short we see a few churches, the old wall and a museum that shows us about the Guna peoples. The natives to this region when the Spanish arrived. A very similar lot to the Mayans but no great pyramids in Panama like Mexico or Guatemala. This goes on to show their artworks then we see a harbour where there’s is a memorial to those who built the Panama Canal, many of which died of malaria and yellow fever. Interesting stuff. We wrapped up at this hotel which is the most expensive in Panama – $1000 USD per night if your feeling rich!
I like the area however and as I was only booked for 2 nights in my hotel back in town I briefly look at it but nothing for 2 nights below £100. Too much. There is one place just outside for £40 but on the edge of a dodgy hood. We’ve been there before so bail on this.
The next day I did a boat tour of the canal and a nature bike but will cover that on a seperate blog. The day after I went to Panama Viejo, the original Panamá city.
This place is quite an interesting ruin being the original old town that was founded in the early 1500s and was expanded quite a lot and it had an interesting history once the Brits discovered it. Twice it got attacked by Francis drake, the 2nd of which leading to Francis Drake’s death from dystentry in 1596. It thrived for a while but that soon would change.
In 1671 Panama Viejo was razed to the ground in a brutal sack by our Very own Henry Morgan from Monmouthshire 🏴! Inside there is a museum part explaining the battle and basically it wasn’t an easy place for pirates to sack as there was no cancel in those days – they would have to sail up river and even had to disembark their main ships to get to Panama Viejo.
From the perspective of the Spanish their governor general had everything to have beaten off this attack quite easily but he used a retreat tactic and then chose to fight the pirates at the worse location possible. Essentially getting half his army including the cavalry slaughtered in the first half hour of fighting with the rest being a chaotic story of the Spanish setting the town on fire while fighting in the streets up to about midnight when Morgan’s pirates have complete control of the town. They try to fight the fire while looting it at the same time.
In the aftermath of this the Spanish founded new Panama which is the casco antiguo today 8 km from Panama viejo. No effort is made to repair it and what is left of it falls into the ruins today though the Belfry tower of the old cathedral has been restored and you can walk up it today. Outside of that there are ruins of various buildings.
I think I may in due time do some sort of video on this place to show more and to into more detail but no idea when.
Today was my last day in Panama, tomorrow I fly to Cartagena Colombia 🇨🇴. There will be one more blog on the Panama Canal and a general post mortem on Centroamérica when I am settled on the other side. Hasta luego por ahora!
What wonders await us in Colombia? I Don’t know and don’t think I’m ready really but not messing with flight changes again.
Hola todos! I ended up staying 2 nights in Bocas del Toro but really not got much to say since that extra day was just spent sleeping with some lunchtime boozing some more sleeping and some more boozing. I was physically and mentally fried and needed a day of doing nothing productive. Had I been on a more even keel could have done a boat trip, gone to a playa or a diving or snorkeling trip but was not meant to be. After all I hadn’t even planned to come here I only came here because it was literally the only option for getting out of San Jose quickly.
Wednesday rolls round and it’s time to head to Panamá city. It’s another early start and I almost sleep through the alarm which shows I needed rest! Up I get and get down the port on time. it’s very wet with a tropical storm in as we leave port. Asses and bags get soaked on the boat ride back to the port. From there isn’t is a quick taxi ride to the bus station where quite a plushy coach is waiting for us. A nice bus like the ADO ones in Mexico. We board and are off. It’s about an 8 hour ride to Panama city from here.
The tropical storm rages on through most of the day and it is looking very Welsh tap esque with fresh mud puddle bogs at the side of every road. The ride first gets very mountainous similar to the mountains of Oaxaca and is quite entertaining. After this we drop into flatlands and it is mostly uneventful. The only gripe about this ride is how many times cops stopped the bus checking everyone’s passports but it was just a routine check where they come aboard do a quick walk round check everyone and we’re on our way. No debusing or metal detector headache. Though about 4 times we had to do this routine.
Eventually despite the weather we roll into Albrook terminal just outside Panama city and not very late actually. This is actually a very nice terminal as it connects with Albrook Airport – the smaller of the 2 airports of Panama city that serves domestic flights. It is new and modern and has all the amenities one could expect of a decent airport. One of them is the metro connection which I now concluded was the easiest way to the hotel. We cross the bridge, get a metro ticket after some faf we are on our way. Panama’s metro system is fairly new and very clean and efficient 20 mins on the train and 10 minutes walk I am at my hotel in Bellavista, a chill residential district with a few bars and restaurants, not much going on but all needs covered.
The night is uneventful but at least we are here and the trip is back on track. Tomorrow will get on a walking tour or something.
Hola todos. Today, Monday the 1st Dec we finally start our way out of San Jose! It was a 5am start and I was up in good order showered and packed and ready to go… I even celebrated by cracking open the last tinnie I had in the fridge for breakfast. Downstairs we soon went – yes I walked the bags all 7 stories down the stairs – we not chancing getting stuck in a lift today!
I’m over to the pickup point and after some waiting here comes Caribe Shuttles to pick me up and get me out of here. It is not a busy shuttle and there are a few others on this bus who I get to talking to. After about an hour we stop for breakfast and also to change buses. This goes fine and soon the new bus shows up, bigger than the first with a few more people off we go. We are then dropped at this little hotel restaurant place by the beach after 2 hours for a lunch where then a third bus will take is over the border. We have a lunch that included. A chicken wrap that is pretty nice. We chit chat a bit though in still quite quiet after the last few days.
Bus shows up and this one is taking us straight to the Panama border. Now this one was a slot quicker and easier than coming in was. You have to pay an $8 USD exit tax either in person or online and present the receipt to the official and he stamps your passport. We were all done within 30 mins. We then walk across a bridge and go queue up for Panama immigration, this again is quick and straightforward but again are asked for proof of onward travel. We are in. We have to pay. 3 dollar entrance tax and then we are put on our last bus to take us to Almirante.
2 hours later we arrive at Almirante and are quickly put on a boat to Bocas del Toro island. We arrive and it’s a quick 10 minute walk to the gaff. It’s a nice little room with AC, a fridge and even a stove to boil water for £20 a night. Lovely stuff I can develop PTSD in here quite happily!
I head out and have some dinner and a drink at a few places round town, pretty uneventful, I end the night at this one bar and get chatting to some Canadian fellas who are pretty cool. I’m starting to feel human again slowly slowly.
Overall was an easy day just made a bit tedious with all the stops and bus switching.
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