March 28–April 3, 2007, Number 140
This picture is of Jon watching his every step as he crossed the bridge from Costa Rica to Panama.
Panama Highlights
My weeklong vacation from school was filled with wonderful travel adventures. As mentioned in my last article, I spent a couple days exploring Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica before heading south to Panama. We spent about five days exploring Bocas Del Toro, Panama. In this article, I am going to tell you about some of the highlights from my trip to Panama.
My friends, Jon and Mike, and I arrived at the Costa Rica-Panama border. We handed over our passports and flight itineraries (for verification that we had plans to leave the country) to the border officials. Then, we were instructed to walk across a huge bridge in order to get to Panama and finish the remainder of the paperwork. The walk across the wooden bridge was scary because it was really high, there were random slabs of wood missing, and there were gaps big enough for a foot to fit through. After safely crossing the bridge, we continued on to Bocas Del Toro.
This picture is of a typical water taxi. These boats will take you from island to island for a small fee.
To get to Bocas Del Toro, which consists of a group of islands, we took a 45-minute boat taxi down a river. The scenery was beautiful. We even got the opportunity to see local people who lived along the river going about their daily activities. We saw a woman washing her family’s clothes in the river and men working on a tin-roofed house. We also saw men and women traveling in hand-carved, wooden canoes. I could not even imagine how much time and effort must go into carving a canoe. It is possible to fly to the islands, but I wouldn’t advise it, because by doing so, one would miss all the wonderful cultural scenes that are evident when taking a boat.
We were aware that the currency in Panama is the Balboa, which is essentially valued the same as the US dollar. We made the naive assumption that we would be able to take money out of an ATM or exchange our colones (the currency in Costa Rica) to dollars at the bank. Of course, we quickly realized that not only do the banks not exchange colones to dollars and that nobody in Panama would accept colones, but also the ATM machines were not working. Luckily, we were able to put our hotel room on our credit cards and were even able to find a restaurant that accepted credit cards, which isn’t too common here. Fortunately, the next day the ATMs were back in service. I think we all learned the valuable lesson of how important it is to always carry the correct currency with you.
Right: This picture is of a house located along a river near Bocas del Toro. Bottom, right: A local man is paddling a hand-carved, wooden canoe from one island to another in Bocas Del Toro. Bottom, left: I'm snorkeling on the island of Carenero off the dock of our hotel. I am holding a conch shell.
Shortly after our arrival, we settled into a beautiful resort that extended out over the water on the island of Carenero. This small resort, with only five rooms, was located about five minutes, by boat, away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist-oriented, main island. I spent one day snorkeling off the dock of our resort and was able to see many starfish, puffer fish, parrot fish and other random fish in every color imaginable. The surfing was really good also. From our dock, we would flag down a boat that was passing by and pay a small fee to be taken to great surf spots scattered around the islands. One morning, Jon and Mike decided to go out surfing at 6:00 am. I decided to stay in that morning. I grabbed a cup of coffee and a good book and headed out to the dock to see the sun rise. As the sun was rising, I saw two dolphins playing in the water about 20 feet from the dock. Incredible! In Panama, I spent a lot of time relaxing, reading, surfing, snorkeling, hiking, and enjoying the scenery. Panama is a beautiful place and I am very grateful that I got the opportunity to experience it.
At 7 a.m. on Friday morning we started our trek back home to Puntarenas. After a 45-minute boat ride we took a 7-hour bus ride to San Jose, Costa Rica, followed by another 2-1/2 hour bus ride back to Puntarenas. It was a truly exhausting day. I had a wonderful trip to Puerto Viejo and Bocas Del Toro. I am excited to be back in Puntarenas to continue my Spanish studies. My interaction with local people during my travels really motivates me to study hard. Spanish is a challenge, but I am learning a lot and really enjoying myself.
- Thanks for reading and take care!
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