Feb. 2 – Panama
Sunday, February 5th, 2006Day 185 – A tiring night en route to Panama City. We got on a local bus for the border of Costa Rica and Panama, since the Tica bus was sold out for days and the Panaline bus is expensive. The ride was pleasant, with assigned seats, stops for food, bathroom breaks, and operable windows (which can be a blessing). We met three Australians that were on the same route as us and were enjoyable traveling companions. We went through immigrations at the border, which took some time because a bus arrived to cross at the same time as us. The people on board were headed to Panama City, on the Panaline bus (a more expensive bus, but the same type as the Tica). When I asked the driver if there was any room for us on the bus, he said no. After buying our $5 tourist card and our $1 tourist tax, we were stamped into Panama. We also found out that the next bus for Panama City leaves at 7.00am; it is 11.00pm right now. So, Matt (one of the Australians) went over to do some sweet talking to the bus operators. He got us on the bus for $15 each, but we had to take a cab one mile down the road, where it would pick us up – I think that had to do with customs. With both of our bus fares together it ended up being the same price as the Tica bus – not bad, and the bus operators were happy 😉 Though it wasn’t the most comfortable ride, because they were full. But a few seats opened up as people disembarked at stops before Panama City. Jason and I ended up laying down in a small compartment that I think the second bus driver uses to sleep in – it was long and narrow. A bit cramped with two people but better than standing. One of our traveling companions ended up sleeping on the floor 🙁 . We arrived in Panama City around 6.00.
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A square in San Jose, Costa Rica__________Pedestrian Street mall
Phone calls to get information about shipping our car.
We grabbed some breakfast from a Chinese fast food place at the bus station, which served pancakes. It is interesting how Chinese and Italian culture is part of Panama’s and Costa Rica’s culture. I didn’t know that they have been immigrating into these countries for a very long time. We have seen a lot of Chinese restaurants in the past few days.
We took off to Miraflores to see the Panama Canal, and ended up arriving early. We weren’t the only ones, we watched quite a few other people do the same. Just so you know, it opens at 9.00am. They have a nice museum and viewing deck, entry fee of $5-8 depending on how much you want to see. The museum explains the building of the canal, the environment and ecosystem around it, and how the canal works mechanically. Four to five floors of exhibits, and a viewing deck of the canal that is four stories up. It was interesting to see the museum and the history of such a huge project. Watching the locks wasn’t as amazing as I thought they would be. I think it is because I had already seen lock establishments before. It was at a much grander scale though, it was neat to see huge cargo ships float through, but it was more interesting to see the history and the huge scale of the mechanisms.
the enterance from the Pacific Ocean to the Panama Canal
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Fill’er up! These gates are 7 stories tall
the ship is coming through the first lock, the one with the school children watching, and the tug tanks on the side pulling it through.
Exiting the second lock and going into the Panama Canal
Next we were off to the airport to try and find last minute airfares. Alas; no luck. They don’t do last minute fares down here, so we spent a long day comparing prices, talking to reservation centers, getting prices, having them raise on us, and finally not buying any tickets. We had great help from Trent Hendrickson, http://www.velocitytours.com Tel. 877-608-3704, through email and phone and got some good prices and information on buying tickets down here. Thanks for you help Trent!! It is amazing how technology has changed traveling. It still blows me away all the time, I guess I am getting old, but to be able to keep in contact through email and IM with friends and family instead of a four week travel letter that might, or might not, make it to the states. Having a voicemail system that emails you the messages via wave file. Also, being able to call a family member and have them check online prices while talking to them on the phone at the airport – silly but useful, saved us over $200, which is almost a week on the road. Thank you Holly for helping me out over the phone! Ironically enough, we finally got our computer to pick up a WIFI signal after getting our information. I will also take this chance to say Thanks to Holly for editing the blog for us. If she wasn’t doing that, you guys would probably get fed up with my horrible grammar and the misspellings that weren’t caught by Word. 🙂
You’re Welcome April! 🙂 ~ Holly
So, after hanging out all day at the airport, we ended up going back into town. We spent last night in Hotel Marparaiso (calle34 este y avenida justo arosemena, tel. 227-7970) which offers a free ride from the airport to their hotel (saving you $20usd). The hotel was a budget hotel, $22usd for two people for one night; with free internet, AC, decently clean, and a restaurant. It was okay, worth the savings if you are on a budget.
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