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A New Day, A New Continent

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

Day 103

Up just before sunrise we stumbled out of the hostel into the quiet and still cool early morning streets of Panama City. We hailed a taxi and for the first time on the trip we were headed to an airport. As we arrived at the airport and checked our bags it really set in that we were flying. I felt almost defeated, sort of like we failed. The toughest thing about the flight is how short it is, 488km from Panama City to Cartagena.

We walked around Tocumen Airport looking for a breakfast place, we found one. Only one restaurant in the entire airport! Are you joking me? Not only that but this one restaurant was charging $8 for eggs and toast. We opted for Nescafe lattes and a chocolate bar. Soon enough we were boarding the Aires plane. It was small, maybe 30 passengers. The flight time is 55 minutes. We definitely are not used to arriving places so quickly. As we took off to the left was a vast expanse of green, the Darien Gap stretching to Colombia. On the right we could see the waves of the Pacific crashing ashore.

Just under an hour later we started to the decent to Cartagena’s airport. The only part of the city we saw was the narrow strip of resorts that line the coast outside the historic centre of the city. On the runway were two large U.S. Airforce planes, probably part of the Americans “Plan Colombia”. As the plane landed and the door opened it almost felt like a bus, they called out “Cartagena!” 4 of us got out of our seats and exited the plane, the rest were off to Barranquilla. We walked into the neat airport customs area and it was deserted. Just the one Colombian from our flight, an Aussie named Blair and us. One custom agent was working. Where the heck was everyone? I knew Colombia wouldn’t be crawling with tourists but Cartagena is the one city that is very touristy. This was kinda eerie to be honest with you. We quickly passed through customs and then changed some U.S. dollars into Colombian Pesos. We claimed our bags, went through a search and were out sharing a taxi with Blair the Aussie to the old town of Cartagena.

This was the first time we have arrived in a country without any kind of guidebook or even a map. All I knew was we wanted to stay in the colonial old town and a hotel named Marlin sounded good online. As we entered the old city and passed through the walls I felt like we were almost in Havana. Buildings were beautifully rundown but some were beautiful restored to their former glory. The taxi deposited us in front of the Marlin and after a brief dispute over the fare we settled and checked out the Hotel Marlin. We decided to stay as the room was 30,000 Pesos (about $15). It was fan cooled but clean enough and even had cable tv.

We each took a shower and then hit the streets to explore a new city, new country and new continent. It was exciting to be in South America, even if we had to fly here. Being Sunday much of Cartagena was closed, even though its a city of over 1 million people. We were immediately struck by the beauty of the city and how clean the streets were. We found some decent chinese food for a late lunch and then sat and watched life go by in Parque Bolivar, the beautiful main square of Cartagena.

We instantly liked the city and looked forward to getting up in the morning to see more and to explore when more is open. We spent the rest of the night relaxing in the room watching a movie, it was an early night.

Jungle in the City

Saturday, February 16th, 2008

Day 103

Our last day in Panama City. Its certainly never been boring in this country, usually for the wrong reasons. Believe it or not our bad luck struck again last night. We were in a net cafe and I was uploading photos from our storage drive to the net. All of a sudden the drive shut off and stopped spinning. I tried to hit the power and nothing, I was stunned. 4GB of photos are on this drive, all of our photos other than the ones that were lost with the stolen camera. If these were lost it meant we pretty much had no pictures of the trip to date. Needless to say I freaked out a bit. I called home and talked to my dad about mailing the drive home to at least try and get the photos off it somehow. This morning we spent $48 to FedEx it home, hoping for the best.

Today in an effort to forget about all the crap that has happened to us in Panama we set out for the Parque Metropolitain. A large slice of rain forest set at the northern limits of the city. We took a taxi only 10 minutes away and reached the parks entrance. On the trails we felt like we had been transported far from the city, we were walking through dense jungle. Near the end of the hike we even spotted a group of titi monkeys in the trees. An amazing sight considering how close we were to the city.

As the sun set and the slightly cooler night air set in we enjoyed a few cold beers on a patio. We talked about our time in Panama, about our incredible string of bad luck. Surely it had to get better once we departed Panama. You know though in the end we both agreed as much bad that has happened here we still really enjoyed the country. A bit off the traditional backpacker route of Central America, Panama almost feels undiscovered at times. I leave understanding and believing the statement that for every monkey in Costa Rica you’ll see 10 in Panama, and for every 10 tourists in Costa Rica you’ll see 1 in Panama.

A Plane? No!

Friday, February 15th, 2008
Day 102 There is not much to write about today, it was a tough day. We had breakfast at the hostel and met an American who is helping his uncle sail boats to Colombia. Really? Sounded promising, until ... [Continue reading this entry]

Riot! Riot!

Thursday, February 14th, 2008
Day 101 Jordana and I slept in today till about 10am, enjoying our cool a/c room and taking advantage of the cable tv to find out what was happening in the world courtesy of CNN. Norm and Vikki departed at ... [Continue reading this entry]

Farewell, Till We Meet Again

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Day 100 We were up and had the car packed up by 9am today after a quick breakfast. It was tough to leave Santa Clara but I was excited about the prospect of figuring out the next phase of our trip. ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Beach Routine

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Day 99 When Jordana and I found out her parents were going to meet us we figured we had to reserve some places and do some more planning than usual. Finishing the 2 weeks together on a beach within 2 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Monkey Business

Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Day 96 We arrived early yesterday in Boquete, a scenic if uneventful drive. It was nice to be back in the cool, green mountain town. Even though it was the beginning of our string of bad luck which continued on ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Easy Days of Bocas

Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Day 94 Writing about time spent on a beach and island hopping around a tropical paradise is tough. Really it is, its tough to make it all very intersting to you the reader without you the reader just getting upset. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Shaking it for Happy Hour

Monday, February 4th, 2008
Day 91 We spent the night in an OK hotel on the Panamericana in Santiago, a city in the middle of Panama. The only reason to come here is to break up a journey and that's what we did. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Speeding Wet

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Day 90 After a few days in one place I get ansy to move on and discover a new town, good or bad just somewhere different. This feeling had set in here in Panama, although it may have had something ... [Continue reading this entry]