Back on the road
Finally, after a very productive stint of doing little of nothing, I pulled myself together, and headed to areas unknown- atleast, to me. During my lastnight at Pension Manilos, I met a fellow traveler who had been debating the possibility of going to Panama City. When she learned that I was planning on going, she decided to join me. This turned out to be a delightful surprise, as not only was it nice to have a companion for the 8 hour journey, I also had a new nurse in case I relapsed.
Recap-
Wednesday:
Knowing very little of anything about Boquete, I felt I had to at least take one tour before I left. The tour was about coffee, and covered everything from the seeds and how their grown - to how they reoast and porcess the coffee. The tour was marvelous, and well worth the $14.
After the tour, Stefanie and I met at the Pension, grabbed our bags and headed to the David bus station.
The sights and mellowness of Boquete is perfect for one who needs rest. As you drive through the countryside, inspiration of calmness can easily consume the senses. I feel very fortunate that I expereinced my ilness in the mountain town of Boquete - where the air is cool and refreshing- instead of in Bocas, where though the evnviornment is serene, the weather is exceptionally humid.
Throughout my Central American traveles, I´ve learned that it´s wise to avoid evening arrivals. Not only can the night bring confusion, it can aslo be unsafe. Unfortunately, we were unable to avoid this when we headed to Divisa.
Neither Stefanie nor I were interested in taking an 8 hour bus straight to Panama city, so we decided to break-up the trip. The first day found us in Chitre (pronounced shit-tree). We departed David around 2:00, arrived in Divisa close to 6:00 and then awaited for a bus to bring us to Chitre. While we waited, a well worn man who´s history of beer drinking emoted from the lower depths of his chest cavity, began asking many questions, all of which, were in Spanish. Tired, uninterested in attempting to translate, and just plain uninterested, we tried to just ignore him. After sometime of nodding our heads the bus finally arrived!
As Son and Tu can attest, the Hondurans do a good job packing massive amounts of stuff and people into limited amounts of spaces... The Pamanians, on the other hand, do not. As the VW van pulled up, I slid the door open, and was greeted by a packed bus with no room to place my bags. Acting in the style of a Honduran, I got my bag and began laying it across the legs of several passengers. This didn´t quite go over as well as I had hoped. An older man started yelling at me, saying how I was out of luck. At this point it started raining, it was getting really dark, and behind us was the portly Panamanian, who would not shut up. So, I I responded complaining to the bus driver and the passanger. After about 5 minutes of total confusion, the person who intially complained, got fed up with the situation, left his seat and ran for the nearest building; never to bee seen again. I quickly took this as my que to take the free seat. And, within another minute or two we were on our way to Chitre.
The arrival into Chitre was very pleasant. And, we were given the VIP treatment by our bus driver who, diverted from his normal route and took us directly to our hotel.
Thursday:
We arrived safely into Panama City. I can´t get over how developed this city is. If one were to close their ears to the language that´s spoken, you´d think you were somewhere in the states.
We really didn´t do a huge amount today. Primarly walked around the parimater of the hotstel, getting a feel for the area.
Friday:
We met several other travlers and toured the old portion of Panama. While on our walk, we saw two guys on military style motorcycles with a machine gun raised in one hand and their finger resting on the trigger. They seemed to be in quite the hurry... Not sure where they were off to.
We watched ¨Must Love Dogs¨ lastnight. Cute movie. We paid a whopping $2 a person for the movie.
Saturday:
So far, today has been rather mellow. We´ll be going to the Canal in a couple hours. I´m looking forward to the experience.
Recap-
Wednesday:
Knowing very little of anything about Boquete, I felt I had to at least take one tour before I left. The tour was about coffee, and covered everything from the seeds and how their grown - to how they reoast and porcess the coffee. The tour was marvelous, and well worth the $14.
After the tour, Stefanie and I met at the Pension, grabbed our bags and headed to the David bus station.
The sights and mellowness of Boquete is perfect for one who needs rest. As you drive through the countryside, inspiration of calmness can easily consume the senses. I feel very fortunate that I expereinced my ilness in the mountain town of Boquete - where the air is cool and refreshing- instead of in Bocas, where though the evnviornment is serene, the weather is exceptionally humid.
Throughout my Central American traveles, I´ve learned that it´s wise to avoid evening arrivals. Not only can the night bring confusion, it can aslo be unsafe. Unfortunately, we were unable to avoid this when we headed to Divisa.
Neither Stefanie nor I were interested in taking an 8 hour bus straight to Panama city, so we decided to break-up the trip. The first day found us in Chitre (pronounced shit-tree). We departed David around 2:00, arrived in Divisa close to 6:00 and then awaited for a bus to bring us to Chitre. While we waited, a well worn man who´s history of beer drinking emoted from the lower depths of his chest cavity, began asking many questions, all of which, were in Spanish. Tired, uninterested in attempting to translate, and just plain uninterested, we tried to just ignore him. After sometime of nodding our heads the bus finally arrived!
As Son and Tu can attest, the Hondurans do a good job packing massive amounts of stuff and people into limited amounts of spaces... The Pamanians, on the other hand, do not. As the VW van pulled up, I slid the door open, and was greeted by a packed bus with no room to place my bags. Acting in the style of a Honduran, I got my bag and began laying it across the legs of several passengers. This didn´t quite go over as well as I had hoped. An older man started yelling at me, saying how I was out of luck. At this point it started raining, it was getting really dark, and behind us was the portly Panamanian, who would not shut up. So, I I responded complaining to the bus driver and the passanger. After about 5 minutes of total confusion, the person who intially complained, got fed up with the situation, left his seat and ran for the nearest building; never to bee seen again. I quickly took this as my que to take the free seat. And, within another minute or two we were on our way to Chitre.
The arrival into Chitre was very pleasant. And, we were given the VIP treatment by our bus driver who, diverted from his normal route and took us directly to our hotel.
Thursday:
We arrived safely into Panama City. I can´t get over how developed this city is. If one were to close their ears to the language that´s spoken, you´d think you were somewhere in the states.
We really didn´t do a huge amount today. Primarly walked around the parimater of the hotstel, getting a feel for the area.
Friday:
We met several other travlers and toured the old portion of Panama. While on our walk, we saw two guys on military style motorcycles with a machine gun raised in one hand and their finger resting on the trigger. They seemed to be in quite the hurry... Not sure where they were off to.
We watched ¨Must Love Dogs¨ lastnight. Cute movie. We paid a whopping $2 a person for the movie.
Saturday:
So far, today has been rather mellow. We´ll be going to the Canal in a couple hours. I´m looking forward to the experience.
posted by Arin | 11:14 AM
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