catwood

I am rather delinquent on this, but I will do my best to remember everything. This is countries one and two of the 2003 Twelve Country Challenge with my friend Michael who came up with idea.


Friday 1/17/03, US Airways PHL-MIA

I got a ride from a co-worker who was flying to LAX the same evening, it took him 5 minutes to check in, it took me 20 minutes, because Michael and I had altered our tickets so we would no longer be flying into Nicaragua and instead splitting up the time between Costa Rica and Panama. I still got to my gate on time because of the preferred security line. The flight from PHL-MIA was oversold, but I had no interest in a bump, I had dinner and a confirmed first class seat, and it had been a busy week. I had dinner on the plane, some good pasta, and salad.

I got into Miami about 9pm and headed to get my Avis rental car, I then quickly headed to the hotel to check in, we got a priceline rate of $54 for a Summerfield Suites hotel near the airport. The reason why we were spending Friday night was because the way the flights work to Panama is that there is a morning bank and an evening bank. I was able to work the flights so that Michael would fly Providence-Pittsburgh-Miami and still make it down so we could take the morning flights to Panama City.

Saturday 1/18/03, COPA Airlines

Our flights were early! We got to the airport about 6am and used the business class check in lines at Miami to get our boarding passes. They call it Classe Ejectiva. It took some convincing but I was able to convince them to give us passes to the lounge, which turned out to be the BA Lounge. It was really nice and we had cheeses, coffee and juice and stuff before the early flight. Check in time was amusing, the flight time was 6:50am, the agent told me to be at the gate by 6:45, they told Michael 6:15. As it turns out the 6:45 was better and after snacking away in the lounge we walked right onto the plane and into our seats. We were seated in 1E and F, two comfy business class seats on a 737-700 with winglets.

We were served a full breakfast on board the plane. The breakfast consisted of eggs, sausage, coffee, and I think Michael had pancakes. It was very nice, and what first class should be like, attentive service, comfortable seats, and a large portion of food.

We got into Panama around 10am in a rather busy and hot airport. The temperature was in the 90’s. We had a bit of a hard time figuring out the tourist visa thing, you had to get a separate piece of paper to go with your passport from the airline and then get it stamped by Customs, it was odd. After that whole process we got a taxi and headed into the city, which isn’t really that close to Panama City, it was probably a good 30 minutes to get to the hotel. I don’t remember how much it cost, Michael paid for it. Worth noting, everything in Panama is using America Dollars, so it is convenient that way.

Our hotel was the Riande Granada, a 4 star hotel located in Panama City (dirt cheap, like $45 a night). After checking in and getting settled we walked around downtown and finally got dinner at a really great Italian place. That about finished up day 1.

Sunday 1/19/03

We got up late and after eating a free sit down breakfast at the hotel, and drinking really great coffee, we set off for the Panama Canal. We decided to do it the creative way and take a local bus. We took a cab to the government plaza area for $2 (all taxis are one or two dollars in Panama City). We then paid 25cents to take a school bus to the canal. It was packed full of people and an experience in itself. We kept trying to figure out where to stop, and it is worth noting that we totally stood out as tourists on the bus. Michael was a little stressed at this point. As we got nearer to the actual stop everyone on the bus that had been ignoring us all pointed out “ this is where you want to go” it was very funny.

So we headed up the hill along this road and we could see off in the distance a tower that appeared to be over the locks. As we got closer we saw a sign that said, “Warning no trespassers, baggage and cars will be searched, etc”. We decided to approach the gate to ask for directions, so when we got there, they were “Come right in, welcome, and pointed us along the road”. So much for high security.
We eventually made our way to the tourist area next to the Miraflores lock where they did actually check our bags. We actually spent a fair amount of time around the canal. We watched a movie which talked about the construction of the canal, and we also saw the large model of the canal and surrounding area. After the movie was concluded we hung around and saw two ships pass through the canal simultaneously. The first was a Panamax ship; i.e. a ship that is as wide as possible for the canal. The second was a P+O cruise ship. There were a bunch of people that had been running some sort of road race watching the ship go through, I’d assume that they were going to rejoin the ship after the passage.

We took the bus back after walking more and taking pictures, we walked around downtown for a bit to and went through a really busy market, until finally cabbing it back to our hotel. I honestly can’t remember where we went to dinner, but I know that we walked around some more after. The street labels in the city are quite difficult; streets have been renamed and renumbered over the years.

Monday, Jan 20th, 2002

The next day we took a taxi over to Casco Viejo area of Panama City. This link provides a pretty good look at the area as well.

http://www.cascoviejoinvestment.com/hcasco.html

We spent a lot of time walking around the streets here, and bought an odd tasting icee thing that neither of us held onto for very long. The area was nice to visit during the day, but there were signs that the crime rate might be high at night, heavily barred and secured buildings, etc.

When we were walking around the presidential palace one of the guards came over to talk to us. This was another example of how much the Panamanians were nice to Americans, this guard wanted to know where we were from, and why we were in Panama. We also walked around the club where Manual Noriega used to hang out. After spending time in this area, we took a cab to the end of the causeway that stretches out into the pacific side of the city. At the very end of the causeway is a Smithsonian museum, which wasn’t much but we did get to touch some sea life and take some good pictures.

We ate lunch and drank daiquiris after going to the museum, and then walked back the entire length of the causeway. The causeway would almost be like a boardwalk, fully paved, but with people out walking, skating, biking, etc. It is a pretty good walk to do this and we were both tired when we got back. We got back late in the afternoon, checked email, went swimming, and I think this was the night we actually ate dinner at KFC (it happens!). We also took some time in the afternoon to set up our travel arrangements to go to Bocas Del Toro, islands on the east coast of Panama.

Tuesday, January 21st, 2003 – My 26th Birthday.

After getting breakfast at the hotel and checking out we took a cab to the municipal airport in Panama City.
Marcos A. Gelabert airport located at former Allbrook Field is where most internal flights take place. We were flying on a small airline called Mapiex Aero. http://www.aero.com.pa/

We flew in a British Aerospace J-31, a very decent turboprop that was surprisingly quiet. I listened to some Dixie Chicks and read my Tom Clancy book. We first flew to Changuinola airport, which literally is in the middle of a banana field. This is the smallest airport I have ever flown into in my life. I think my parents driveway is longer then the runway.

The plane landed, dropped some people off, and then quickly took off again to Bocas Del Toro.

http://www.bocas.com/btisfact.htm

Pablo, who was one of the managers of Hotel Bocas Del Toro, met us at the airport. He drove us to the hotel and we got settled into the hotel. They actually set us up with two rooms the first night, which was nice. We ditched our luggage and then went for a walk, we walked for awhile down along the beach, near where all the people go out on boats, and pretty far down towards Mosquito Beach, which we learned in our tour book has a sand fly problem. We were approached by a guy that worked for Survivor and asked if we would be around in two days, because they were interested in having some people help them out as they did some test shoots. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it, as we were going to be leaving after spending two nights. We had an odd dinner in the hotel, I think mine was good, I remember having garlic shrimp I think, not sure what Michael had. We had a package deal that we had worked out in Panama City so the only thing we had to pay for was drinks. So this was my 26th birthday, in a foreign country and pretty eventful really. After dinner we went out and walked again and ended up playing pool and drinking Balboa beer until like 2am in this dive bar, it was really fun.

1/22/03 – Tuesday – Bocas Del Toro

We got up pretty early in the morning because we wanted to go snorkeling. This was my deal so Michael let me pick the company, I found a place at the end of the road which seemed nice (there is only one big road in Bocas). We paid $15 for a boat to take us out snorkeling for the entire day. Dirt cheap!

The first part of the trip included seeing dolphins, and we saw lots of them jumping around the boat, it was pretty cool. Then they took us to Caulker Caye, which basically has lots of docks running around the place, and you could hop in the water and snorkel here while they made lunch. I swam out quite far and so did Michael trying to avoid the shallow water where you could kick up the sand with your flippers to much. There was a lot of sea life, and the water was reasonably clear. It was a lot of fun. After eating a pretty good sized lunch for $6 we got back into the boat and headed to Red Frog Beach. This beautiful survivoresque beach was a great place to hang out and walk around. We got a chance to meet a few of the other people on the boat, a couple from California, a couple young germans and a swiss kid, and a very talkative kid from Winnipeg (thus starting a joke when asked where we are from when we travel we say Winnipeg now).

After spending some time on the beach, seeing jellyfish, ants, etc. We boated over to a very small beach encircled by rocks called Hospital Point. The seas were pretty stong and they couldn’t take the boat inside, but the water was much deeper and the sea life was more interesting, we probably spent another hour or so here swimming around and snorkeling. At this point I was learning how to hold my breath and still dive under the water.

After this we took the boat back to the harbor, then all of us on the boat walked looking for a bar for beers. So we found this totally dive club / bar that had like three Panamanians sitting around a poorly lit TV watching sports, and grabbed all of the chairs from inside the bar and took them outside on the road. It turned out to be pretty fun, somehow we got chips and I got Pringles to eat too, weather was really nice outside. Eventually we walked back to our rooms and took naps before dinner, pretty tired after a day of being in the water. After that we repeated our dinner and pool and beers process and went to bed decently early.

1/23/03 Wednesday – probably our most adventurous travel day.

We got up really early in the morning and in order to get from Bocas Del Toro to San Jose, Costa Rica. We ended up taking a water taxi from Bocas to Changuinola, this took about 40 minutes, poor Michael was in the back of the boat and I am sure it was more choppy. It was pretty much a speed boat that raced along the water and through an inlet to get in there.

http://www.solartours.com/Destinatio...asToro-Map.htm (Changinola is next to Alimarante)

Along the way we saw a young boy paddling ½ a log turned into a canoe and sitting way in the back so his weight kept the opening at the end from being in the water. After getting into the water taxi place we started to walk to the bus station until someone told us it was three miles away, so we got onto this pickup truck and paid 50cents to take us to the center of the town. It was here we ate some food at a totally dive breakfast place with the grossest bathroom I have ever seen in my whole life. I am surprised I lived after eating the food, but I did. We waited for the bus, which ended up being one step up from a school bus, with no air conditioning, and it was absolutely packed. This would be our home for the next 6 ½ hours. The bus stopped all the time along the way, even though it was called an express bus, it was swelteringly hot and dusty, and it was all I could do to listen to the Dixie Chicks (I was really getting my “Wide Open Spaces”) and focus on the trip being an adventure.

Near the border the bus stopped and everyone got out and piled into the customs office building for people leaving Panama. Having no problems, we proceeded to walk over a bridge, and the reason why we were walking was the bridge was too old to support the bus with the people on it. The bridge was also over a muddy river way down and you could see children bathing/swimming in it. A very National Geographic moment, and there was a sign at the end of the bridge in Spanish that said “Warning Bridge in Bad Repair”. I commented that this experience would have eliminated about 99% of my friends from traveling through Panama in this manner.

Then for about four more hours we continued north, stopping at various odd places along the way, a random roadside stand with a bathroom that only let the lower half of the door shut in the mens room, a bus station where I managed to get some food. It was hot, dry, and dusty the whole way to San Jose. I wouldn’t repeat the experience, but I was glad that I had done it.

After getting to San Jose we checked into our hotel

http://www.kekoldi.com/hotel_kekoldi.html

We settled in and went and got dinner and checked email (for the first time in 4 days, pretty good for Mr. email addiction me). It was probably the best shower I’ve had since a 16 hour train ride in Germany. While walking around we also saw the office for the Rainforest Tram and bought tickets for that. They would be getting us at 6am the next morning and be providing breakfast. It was about $75, the most expensive thing that I did for the trip really.

1/24/03 – Thursday, San Jose Costa Rica, Rainforest Tram http://www.rainforesttram.com/

So after getting up super early, it was so painful to set the alarm for 5am, we got picked up in a bus in front of our hotel to take us to the Rainforest Tram. We were met by a very enthusiastic guide who kept repeating this Costa Rican Spanish phrase “Pura Vida”. He would also say something in English and then immediately repeat it in Spanish. It was pretty funny. The rain forest park location is about an hour bus ride to the rainforest tram area and the guide gave us a lot of background. After arriving at the Rainforest Tram park, (for lack of a better way to describe it) we were served a sit down breakfast. It was eggs, sausage, and beans and rice, pretty tasty really. After eating breakfast they led us on a nature walk where we could see various trees/flowers/orchids/etc.

I became fascinated with the leaf cutter ants that were walking along the trail. I stopped to put leaves in the way and watch them figure out what to do. Good times.

After doing this for an hour or so we boarded the tram and went through the rainforest. It is pretty nifty, although we couldn’t really see that much. I was also warned not to just randomly touch things, as I guess there are some extremely poisonous ants on some of the trees. There was a naturalist on board the little tramcar that was able to answer questions. The ride lasted about an hour and it was neat to get really high above the forest.

After the tram ride was done we hung around the park for a little longer and then took the bus back. We saw an interesting river of like brown water that I think was some mine runoff or something from the mountains.

1/25/03 – Friday, San Jose, Coffee Plantation and Volcano Poas

After sleeping in, we took a half-day trip that we had arranged through the hotel to see Volcano Poas and it also stopped at a coffee plantation. The stop at the coffee plantation was actually along the way; the tour bus went up into the hills after leaving San Jose, which sort of sits low, in the valley. I didn’t realize that one of my favorite beverages comes first from a berry. It was interesting to eat the berry and see that the bean didn’t taste like coffee, only after roasting it does the coffee flavor come out. There was a cool rainbow from the mist that was hanging over the valley near the coffee fields.

The trip to the Volcano was really a bust, as we got higher into the mountains the weather got worse, and it was practically raining, and was definitely overcast around the volcano and we couldn’t see it at all. We watched a cheesy video in the visitor’s center of what we could be seeing.

We stopped at a food market on the way back and tried some berries and cheeses that they make in the local area.

January 26th, 2003, Sunday, San Jose, Costa Rica

Slept in again, nice cool day, 70 degrees. Walked around town and went shopping. Stumbled into a big market that was pretty nifty, with tons of different things being sold. I paid $2 to have my shoes shined, which was a great deal. Had Dinner in a Chinese restaurant, all and all calm and relaxing.

January 27th, 2003, Monday, Flying home

SJO-PTY (San Jose to Panama City)
We got up pretty early and had a taxi pick us about 5:30am to take us to the airport. Our actual flight was at 7:20am, and we had no issues at the airport. There is an odd $10 tourist tax which we paid outside, then got a little freaked out because signs inside said not to do that, it ended up being ok. The Copa counter wasn’t super busy, but the Grupo Taca counter next to it was packed with people. We got our boarding passes and pretty effortlessly went through security. There is no business class lounge at this airport, so we hung around the gate. We ended up being there really early. We saw a Mexicana airplane that had all the logos of all the Star Alliance airlines painted on it which was pretty neat. Boarding was prompt, and we had OJ served when we sat down. After takeoff, we were served a full breakfast of eggs, sausage, OJ, and fruit, it was very nice. The flight lasted about 45 minutes to an hour and we had a nice view of the mountains as we flew back over the Panama Canal and into Tocumen Airport in Panama. We had a layover of about an hour and a half and went and sat in the Presidents Club until out next flight. That ended up being nice because they had a computer we could look at gates on for where we were going in Miami.

PTY-MIA (Panama City to Miami)

This is a decently long flight at three and a half hours, and we sat in the same seats that we had sat in the entire trip, 1E and 1F. We had another great meal on this flight, I ordered the steak, and when I got it there was also a nice chicken breast on the plate. For dessert we had ice cream sundaes, very nice, served in glass with your choice of sauce, I had hot fudge and it was great. The movie was the Tuxedo, which was pretty bad, but I watched a lot of it before falling asleep.

MIA-PHL (Miami to Philadelphia)
We got into the Miami airport and walked to the US Airways counter, had another long layover, around an hour and a half. We then took our foodless first class flight to Philadelphia, no movie, just a snack basket. Very boring. There could definitely have been some service improvement on this flight; I will blame it on bankruptcy at the time.

We got into Philadelphia at around 6pm and said our goodbyes pretty quickly. Michael managed to catch an earlier flight to Providence, which worked out better for him, and he got home sooner. Due to a huge traffic snafu on 95 I ended up taking the train into Wilmington, which got me home about 9pm, Lindsey picked me up from the train station.

I believe that during this trip I used all methods of transportation:

Air – Flying there and back
Boat – Water Taxi to Bocas
Taxi – Panama and San Jose
Bus- Tours
Train – on the way home
Truck – back of pickup truck to Changuinola


Additional comments:

I would definitely visit Latin America again. I was consistently impressed by their welcoming attitude towards Americans while visiting both of these countries. The prices were very reasonable and there were a lot of good travel values. I used two 50k Latin Pass awards for the trip to get two business class tickets on COPA that allowed us to fly in First Class on US Airways for the domestic portion. To fly coach on this trip would have cost $700- $900 each. We ran into a guy on our coffee tour that paid $650 for his ticket from NYC, so this was nice to hear. We really didn’t have any problems getting the seats either, but did pay a $50 change fee when we changed to fly back from San Jose instead of Managua, Nicaragua.

I traded with my friend so he picked up the cost of the hotels while we were there in exchange for the ticket, it ended up being a very low cost trip for me in terms of out of pocket expenses since our hotel in Bocas included dinner. (the business class part was my treat, an additional 15k each for 8 hours of flying was well worth it). I would love to return to Costa Rica, but I think at this point I don’t see a return to Panama anytime soon.

Hope you enjoyed the report.

IndyDavid

Fascinating report, catwood! Thanks for sharing so many great details about such an off-the-beaten-path trip.

David

Viajero Joven

Hey Chris,
I'm glad you had a wonderful time!!! Panama is by far my favorite spot in Central America-- there's something for everyone. The trip on COPA makes travel to Panama just that much better. Glad to hear you enjoyed the COPA service. My experiences with food, entertainment, and customer service on the ground and in the air have been very top notch. IMHO, I don't know why so many Central Americans choose TACA over COPA-- maybe name recognition-type reasons a la AA-- but the COPA operation at Tocumen really deserves the name Hub of the Americas. I didn't realize there was COPA lounge access in MIA, but I'm the type who would rather have the extra 30 min. sleeping, then run for the flight.

I didn't know you were planning to take the local type bus into San Jose... but then again, Tica Bus is express from Panama City to San Jose. All in all, sounds like a great adventure.

Separately, I think it was wise to just focus on Panama and Costa Rica because adding the Managua portion would have made everything pretty rushed.

Thanks for the detailed report!!

asnovici

What a detailed, fascinating report! Great job! I too would love to travel to Central America one day, but Im afraid that my better half has other plans ("lets go to London, lets go to Madrid")...blah

Anyway, very interesting, living vicariously through your experiences.

flymetothemoon

your report brought back memories of my LP run, and got me thinking of using my miles for some latin american adventures. thanks.

catwood

I think if I saw the LP today, I'd do it, i should try and dig up some of those trip reports from the archives to read.