Aymi’s Adventures

View of Panama from the Causeway 

Panama City was a lot bigger and more westernised than I had origionally thought. The only country so far where you can flush your toilet paper down the toilet, and you can drink the tap water. Looks like the Americans did some pretty good stuff for the country while they were here – for once (sorry guys!)!!

The Panama Canal was pretty amazing, the only thing I knew about Panama was its canal and Panama Hats (which actually come from somewhere else – cant remember where though!) and I soon found out I actually knew nothing about the canal either.  How long it took to build, how difficult a job it was, it was actually the French who started it but had to give up and sell the contract to the Americans who managed to complete it about 10 years later.  About 22000 people died – mainly of Malaria and yellow fever.  Pretty interesting stuff all in all.  Watched 2 boats go through the locks having to take some of the cargo off in order for the boat to raise up enough to make it through the lock.  It cost the boat $150,000,000 in cash just to go through the lock, and overall that is still less than what it would cost if they had to go all around South America instead of using the canal!

       

Went to Plaza Cinco de Mayo, on the 5th May, so there were loads of celebrations going on, most of which I didnt understand and I was pretty dissapointed with the plaza, it was sooo small, not quite what I expected, so we didnt stay for very long.

Casco Antiguo full of ruins and churches made for an interesting morning walk on a Sunday morning

  

Albrook shopping mall was actually pretty cool as far as shopping centers go.  I wanted to go to the national park but as it was p*ssing it down I though the shopping mall sounded like a good idea.  After sweet and sour chicken, noodles and rice and buying a pair of shoes I though maybe it wasnt such a good idea – more stuff to lug around in my backpack and less money for the rest of the year!

 

Causeway

   

Headed up to David and went to La Amistad National Park & Cerro Punto, it was absolutely gorgeous there, I can see why all the Panamanians want to go there to retire.  The small houses and greenery, plants and streems everywhere were like something out of a Lewis Carroll Novel.  Some local guy gave us a tree tomato to try, it was sooo sour, had to try and eat it so as not to be rude, but as soon as we were out of distance it got chucked!

 

Next and final stop in Panama was Bocas de Toro, a group of Islands on the Carribean coast of North Panama.  It was amazing, the main town was really small, with one main club Shipwreck (which actually has a shipwreck in the middle of it where the floor is open and you can just look down into the sea and see the wreck and fish swimming around it – dependant on how much alcohol you´ve had of course!), and lots of bars and restaurants so there was always somewhere to go.  Went on a boat trip around some of the Islands, it really was like paradise, there was just us on them swimming and snorkelling in the clear blue carribean sea and lounging around on the hot soft white sand, either staring out into the ocean, or into the tropical palm tree filled inland.

    

So I arrived in Guyaquill fine, although very sad after saying goodbye to my Samba companions, and thought I would give the city another go as I was still in such a good mood after Galapagos, I thought nothing could be as bad as I remembered it!

After walking 2 blocks I was already annoyed at all the stares, shouts and kisses so ducked into the 1st internet cafe I saw.  3 Hours later I had only managed to upload around 50 photos and had a numb bum from sitting on the uncomfy chair for so long.  Realising I was actually pretty hungry I decided to walk down to the Malecon 2000 for some 5* cuisine (In Guyaquill Macdonalds is classed as 5*cuisine as it is the only thing that looks even remotely edible) I didnt even make it that far.  Luckily for me I spotted a Macdonalds even closer so quickly sought sanctuary in there.

Afterwards I walked a different was back to my hotel in an unsuccessful search of a better internet cafe, by the time I arrived back I was actually quite thankful that my returned ear infection had rendered me almost completely deaf in my right ear because if I had heard just one more comment of belissima or guapa it would have been highly likely that I would flip – probably resulting in me spending the night somewhere much worse than my hotel.

I was absolutely shattered and very hot and sweaty by this point so decided to call it a day and get a good nights sleep – only 7.30pm as well  (we would have just finished dinner this time yesterday).  I woke up at 9pm (which I soon remembered was actually 10pm as Ecuador is an hour ahead of Galapagos and I had forgotten to change my watch) even hotter and sweatier than when I went to bed, really wishing I had paid the $2 extra for air con instead of the almost useless ceiling fan which only succeeded to annoy me by the constant squeaking.  The guy next doors TV was blaring out and by the sound of the noises he was making he certainly wouldnt have had any problems with a foggy snorkel – nice!!!

I was quite glad that there was only cold water and felt a little better after a cold shower, I filled my ears full of ear drops and cotton wool – partly to help the infection and partly to drown out the guy next door, and went back to sleep.  The shower and ear drop process was repeated 3 times throughout the night and I still woke up at 6am.  Not wanting to reenter the city of stares, I busied myself with any un-interesting task to pass the morning until by 9.30 I was starving so decided to try a recommended eatery; el toro asado.  On arrival after many more stares and shouts, it looked dodgy as hell and was closed anyway – back to Macdonalds it was.  The closest one was also closed (why is it nowhere but England do Macdonalds open early and have a breakfast menu – not that I ever go there of course!!!) so onwards I went along the Malecon 2000 to the 2nd Macdonalds which was also closed, but looked like it was about to open so decided to sit and wait as I hadn’t seen anywhere else that looked like I could eat without getting food poisoning (how I wished I had Freddie {Samba chef} with me to russel up some fine salad sculptures!). 

As I sat down this odd looking bloke said “hey, how you doin” I was suprised and pleased at the same time – the first English speaker I had met in Guyaquill.  He was a short older guy, with a pinstripe suit and his hair all slicked back.  He had worked for the American Embassy in Guyaquill for 4 years now – I didnt care, I was just happy to have even this strange old man to talk to.  It did make more sense when he told me his parents were from Italy, and I realised thats what he looked like – someone out of one of the Italian Mafia films!!!

So a Big Mac later, another hour wasted in the Internet cafe and it was back to the hotel and a taxi to the airport – thank god, my last few hours in this god forsaken town!!  The dumb ass taxi driver obviously thought I liked walking in the heat with my 22k backpack (its gone down a kilo sinse last time – yey) and dropped me off at arrivals instead of departures – muppet!

The flight left early (thats a first – and luckily I was there in time!!) and I was not sad to leave Guyaquill behind.  The usual ham and cheese sarnie on the plane, although I was very pleased that it was also accompanied by some Lays (almost as good as Walkers) crisps.  Arrived in Panama, it was very hot and humid, the taxi to the hostel I found on the internet earlier today took about half an hour and Panama City looked a lot bigger than I expected.  Also a lot more westernised, with Hard Rock cafe´s, nice looking restaurants, Subway, Macdonalds (dont think I will be having another for a while), pretty churches etc etc.  Im looking forward to having some adventures here! 

Me and my Boobies!! 

I am so glad I decided to do this, even though it cost me well over a months budget just for a week, it was well worth it, the highlight of ... [Continue reading this entry]

View of Quito  I have fallen in love with another country - Ecuador is amazing and I have not even seen half of it.  There is so much to do here, from Volcanoes to canyons, bridge jumping ... [Continue reading this entry]

 The Inca Trail & Machu Picchu   First stop on the Inca Trail adventure was Saqsaywuaman, a bit dissapointing but good views over Cusco. Then we stopped at a Llama farm which was actually ... [Continue reading this entry]

 Eco Amazonia Jungle Lodge So we set off from La Paz for Puno on 29th April, stopped at Copacabana, on the edge of Lake Titicaca for lunch, the food was terrible, not what I needed when recovering ... [Continue reading this entry]

Vina del Mar - really wish I knew how to turn these damn photos round on here!!! So the 14 hour bus journey was as uncomfortable as ever, but the views coming into Mendoza were amazing, ... [Continue reading this entry]

The final encounter of our group Nowhere else was ever going to live up to the sights at Iguassu so the next few stops were a little tedious. First was San Ignacio and the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Kate and I at Iguassu! WOW I have never seen anything quite as amazing in my life. They are so huge and after visiting the Brazillian side, the Argentinian Side, doing a helicopter ride over ... [Continue reading this entry]

The group on boat trip in Paraty So met everyone in our group on the Tuesday night and everyone seemed okay but was too nackered to go out drinking with anyone so just had a ... [Continue reading this entry]