My last day in Bogotá I had a lot of time to think about my travel plans. Where to go and what to do. My original plan was going up north to the Colombian coast and from there overland into Panama. Another option is taking a boat along the San Blas islands to Panama or - if I can’t find enough people to cross the border with - take a plane from Cartagena or Bogotá to Panama City.

Taking the plane is of course the fastest way to get to Panama, but pricy. Going over land or taking the boat would take about 4 to 5 days. And pricewise is taking the boat the same as taking the plane. It would cost me about 300 to 400 US dollars by boat, and flying from Cartagena to Panama City would cost 295 US dollars.

So I was thinking of what to do, because with only 3 more months to go I have to make a decision on what to do and where to go. I would see enough beaches in Central America and also the weather will be the same as in the north of Colombia. And I just had a wonderful time in Colombia so leaving the country now would only leave me good memories of this beautiful country.

So I made up my mind and bought the plane ticket from Bogotá to Panama City for the next day. I am off to Central America!! The one and a half hour journey costs 339 US dollars only! That’s about the same price as taking the boat. Yes I will skip Cartagena and all the beautiful beach places along the Colombian Caribbean, but ah well, there will be other amazing places in Central America.

The next morning I got up early to take a taxi to the airport. Getting to gate three led me through about 5 security checks! Unbelievable! And already at the first security check they confiscated my ´expensive´ nivea sunscreen! Basdarts! Oh and I was allowed to take a bottle of water, mosquito repealed and toothpaste.. yeah strange security checks. But all other checks went fine and they didn’t find anything else they wanted to have.

I arrived at Panama’s International Airport ´Tulcan´ at 11.15, right on schedule. Once off the airplane I had to walk through another 4 security checks before I was able to take an eleven US dollar collectivo from the airport to my hostel Mamallena. Not only was the landscape totally different and new to me, also I had to get used to the weather! 30 degrees! Yes, finally in the tropics!
Anna from Germany - a girl I met in Quito - was already in the hostel and was so kind to make a reservation for me. So the only thing I had to do is drop my backpack in the room and sit down on the terrace with a nice cold drink. We talked and made some plans for the day and also for the next couple of days. After my drink it was time for some action. From the hostel I took a 25 US cents bus to the bus terminal and than another 25 US cents bus to the Miraflores viewpoint. One and a half hours after my checkin I was standing in front of Panama´s highlights - The Panama Canal!

It´s a cheap way to get there - two local buses á 25 US cents and a 10 minute walk from the bus stop to the viewpoint. The entrance to the viewpoint is 8 US dollars - and definitely worth the money. As I arrived I immediately headed up to the 4^th floor because two huge ships were about to enter the docks! Yes I was so lucky that I didn´t had to wait for ships but just go upstairs, get my camera and start wondering at the ships going down the docks.

I was up there for at least one and half hours watching the two ships passing through. In the middle of the panama canel the ships are 26 meters above sea level and so had to go down 26 meters again. And that is happening at the Miraflores docks. A ship takes about 8 to 10 hours to get through the hole Panama Canal and costs up to 240.000 US dollars.. yes! 240.000 US dollars.

The ships passing through the canal are also amazing! One ship is carrying 1200 to 1400 containers of cargo! The two docks can handle about 38 ships a day! That’s about 140.000 ships a year! But the Panamanians decided that that´s not enough. A referendum in which the Panamanians voted for an expansion of the canal resulted in a project that will build a new dock on both sides. It will be twice as big as the once now! That means the ships will be twice the size passing through now, carrying twice as much containers as now. Will the price for passing through also be twice the price? Anyway, it’s an amazing thing to see. Definitely worth a visit. The new docks will be ready in 2014, so I have to come back than.

After the two boats passed through I went down to the movie room where two movies about the Panama Canal were shown. The two 15 minute movies were really interesting and gave a lot of important information about the excising docks as well as the new docks.

Having spent about 3 hours at Miraflores I headed back to the bus terminal in Panama City. Next to it was a huge, huge shopping mall with every famous brand you can imagine! So I went shopping.. I couldn’t stop myself from buying some new shorts. They were so cheap! I mean were in Europe can you buy Reef or Billabong shorts for under 25 US dollars?

Back in the hostel I started cooking and when I opened my first Panama Cerveza I couldn’t believe my eyes.. This English guy called David where I travelled some time with in South America was here. He joined me for diner and together with him, Anna, two other German girls and another English couple we made some plans for the next day.

The Panama Railway

The next morning the seven of us got into a taxi to go to the Panama City Passenger Station just outside the city. We paid 22 US dollars each for a seat in the train from Panama City to Colón - a 54 minutes train ride along the Panama Canal. It´s a glass-domed luxury passenger train and also the only train in hole Central America. It´s a nice ride along the Canal and through some jungle parts. It´s expensive but being the only train I found it worth doing it.

Portobela

The train dropped us in rainy Colón early in the morning. Me and the three German girls took a bus from Colón to Portobela - a small village in northern Panama. It was an one and a half hour bus ride and believe it or not, it only cost us 1,30 US dollar each. We got out of the bus just 2 KM outside the village and started looking for a hostel. Most of the hostel are pretty expensive - asking up to 20 US dollars for a night - but after some negotiation we got a 4 bed room at Coca Plum Hotel for 12 US dollars a night. The hostel has some hammocks on the water front, which are all overdeckd. So I took out my book and lie down and relaxed the rest of the day. I had to because the weather was not really good - we had rain all day long!

The next day the weather wasn’t really better. So we decided to take the bus back to Panama City and skipped our trip to Ilsa Grande.

Back in Panama City is was again raining. There was not much to do other than relaxing in the hostel. Yes the life of a backpacker can be really hard sometimes.

Cerro Ancón

Today however the weather was wonderful! No cloud on the sky and the temperature is about 33 degrees!! So we took a taxi to Mi Pueblito and from there we walked up to the viewpoint Cerro Ancón which overlooks Panama City. You have a nice view on the port and the Miraflores docks, and a perfect view over downtown Panama City with all the skyscrapers. Going up there is free, the only thing you have to pay is the taxi.

Casco Viejo

This is Panama City’s old town. At the time construction began on the Panama Canal - 1904 - all of Panama City existed where Casco Viejo stand today.  It’s a wonderful small part of the city with great architecture buildings. Really great for the hobby photographer!

Unfortunately the weather in Panama City changed from clear sky to dark clouds. Rain started when we were about to go back to Bellavista - our area. So we jumped into a taxi and got back to the hostel. Again it’s time to relaxe!

More photos are here.