Day 7 - Dec 8, 2017 Isla Boca Brava

Day 2 on the Island Boca Brava.  It's a slow and relaxing day mostly due to Eric's condition.  His tummy still has not calmed down yet so we didn't join a boat tour or do sea kayaking.  In between his "business", we still managed to walk the trail again and found more howler monkeys roaming on the trees.  Several guests checked out today but several more joined.  It seemed to be a busy place.  I relaxed at the cafe lookout to watch the waves rolled in and boats moved in and out among the islands.

Although I'm not the type to enjoy sedative holiday, I think one or two days of breaks like this is good before heading back up the mountain tomorrow.

This hotel employs 6 people right now to look after the whole complex.  Although they are doing their best, I can see the hotel structure is slowly falling apart literally.  The heavy rain and the humid climate are taking a heavy toll.  The foundation of many buildings has eroded severely and some cracks are forming.  The owner told me that it's getting more difficult to hire staff due to competition from newly opened hotels.  He had to hire from far away places like David and work them in 12 days on 2 days off shifts.  Panama minimum wage now is $15.  It is hard to see how someone can live on such wage unless they live in a group like family to save on rent etc.

For foreigners, the living standard here is very affordable given the amenities and natural endowment of the country.  Renting a whole house can be had for less than $100 USD per month!  Food costs can be very cheap if you don't go to fancy restaurants.  Climate is very pleasant and the choice is yours whether to stay in the heat or escape to the eternal spring up on the mountains.  Infrastructure is getting better every year.  The main highway from Santiago to David is almost brand new!  Compared to Costa Rica, Panama should be higher on the list of retirement options.

Day 6 - Dec 7, 2017 Isla Boca Brava

The roosters didn't make too much noise last night so we were able to have a quieter sleep last night.  Unfortunately, Eric and I all started to have diarrhea, and his case is more severe than mine.  I hope it'll pass quickly.

We gave our car a quick wash off the mud and got on our way to Boca Chica.  The drive took 4h due to highway work.  In our rush, we also forgot to check out one destination (the church in San Francisco which we skipped on the way in).

Boca Chica was even smaller than I expected.  There was only one narrow main street!  We parked our car at the private lot behind the church instead of risking it on the side of the narrow main street.  We then transferred to a local water taxi to take us across the channel to reach our hotel on Isla Boca Brava.  Just when we arrived and ready to get off, I realized I had forgotten my luggage back in the car. The boat had to take us back all the way again. Although an one way trip takes less than 5 minutes, it's still a hassle.  To add injury to insult, Eric commented that now he understands that it was Mom who had been taking care of me on all these trips before!!  How else can he explains all these blunders that I have been making lately!  Ouch!

The hotel/hostel is very nice and perches high on the island.  There is a fantastic ocean view from the restaurant. The owner is an American while has not lived in USA since 1996.  We struck up a good conversation and I learnt a great deal of Panama and their society.  He offered me an upgrade to a room with private bath and better ocean view for $5 more (instead of $10 normal price) and I took it.  Tonight we can try to sleep with the sound of ocean wave crashing over the shore!

Unfortunately, it seems difficult to organize a snorkeling trip tomorrow since we're the only two people interested. We'll see if he can help us hook up with another couple to share the boat cost ($100).  He also warned that the water clarity isn't good now due to rainy season.  Otherwise, we'll go sea kayaking instead.

The hotel property is at the East end of the island and the owner had sold off various lots to raise fund to build the hotel.  We walked the trail to two beaches and saw several hummingbirds and several howler monkeys.  I also found my biggest shell on the beach so far.  Inadvertently, Eric and I crashed a family's beach party too.  When we got there, we saw this naked guy rushing back from the water to put on his pants.  I can only shake my head as he has two young children with him all that time!

On the way back from our trail walk, Eric started to complain about all the mosquito bites that were killing him.  I almost forgot that he has very sensitive skin and is a magnet to mosquitoes just like Mommy.  No wonder there were surprisingly fewer bites than I had expected these past two nights!

Day 5 - Dec 6, 2017 Santa Fe

Santa Fe is a village nestled in the valley up on the mountains that are the continental divides. Two most prominent peaks are Cerro Tutte and Cerro Mariposa.  As of yet, there is no paved road to the Caribbean side so it's a quiet and quaint little town that is so green.

We could already smell the flower fragrance in the air when we arrived in the dark yesterday. This morning, we could see why. The village is just filled with various flowering plants in bloom.  It seems every plant in town blooms.  There are also all kinds of fruit trees like oranges, mandarins, bananas, papayas.

For the first time since we arrived in Panama, we got a very decent night of sleep!  Although the roosters still got timing mixed up and croaked whole night, we still managed to sleep well.  The temperature was just right - not hot that you need AC/fan and not cold you need heating.  I were quite hungry in the morning. We ended up ordering 3 breakfasts, 2 for Eric and 1 for me. First time I tasted yucca and it's tasty similar to taro. We met another guest of the hostel there and decided to go hike together. The trail is called Salto Alto de Piedra. It's a steep 7km climb up a public road first. Then it's muddy trotting down the hill to the river and a series of waterfalls.  The weather was nice, neither sunny nor raining, with good breezes.

The waterfall is very beautiful made up of a series of 5-6 cascading falls.  Even though we're not prepared to swim, Eric was the first one (is the any surprises here?) to dive in the pool and swam. He's even crazier by climbing up the fall to get to the second fall and pool.  I joined in later thinking "what the heck?"

Coming back, we took a different longer route, a 4x4 road, and came across really nice viewpoint of the mountains and the valley. Walking steep down hill is very taxing on your knees and legs. I don't know how the locals do it. They have to hike everyday up and down the hill to go to work or schools!

Eric had lunch in town and I got lots of fruits from the central market. A big bunch of baby bananas and two oranges plus 4 mandarins only costed $1.30!  What a steal!  I enjoyed it even more when I know I was not taken advantage of because I'm a foreigner.

Right now, Eric and I are relaxing in the hammocks provided. It's a good life!

Day 4 - Dec 5, 2017 Nata, Playa El Salado, Santa Fe

We said goodbye to Panama City this morning and took a taxi to Albrook Airport to pick up our rental car.  To my dismay, my TD USD Visa card pin is still screwed up! It took us a whole hour and half to sort things out. At the end, the rental car agency had to swipe the card manually. By the time we got to the Miraflores lock of the Panama Canal, the last ship of the morning had already passed through, meaning there would be no point to pay the hefty entrance fee ($15) to go inside. We'll instead try to get back in time on our last day to see the afternoon sail through.

Our second stop is Playa El Salado, a beach community known for their shrimp dish. On our way there, we could see there are some intensive farming of something going on, either clams or oysters. Since we didn't have the chance to eat breakfast this morning, we were so hungry that we ordered 4 dishes: shrimp ceviche (no corvina, ie. sea bass), seafood soup, calamari, and garlic prawns.  Despite the recommendation from Rough Guide, the shrimps were way overcooked. 😞

Without mommy's presence and her gift in languages, both Eric and I seem to have difficulties to order stuffs even with the help of Google Translate. There are surprisingly fewer Panamanians speaking or understanding English than I thought.  I first tried to order beer with our meals but none came. The waitress didn't understand.  When Eric later attempted to order 2 beers and also asked for some hot sauce in one sentence, she came back with two beers AND two cans of Coke!  Then when I tried to get her to return the Coke, she took away my can and promptly came back with a bottle of Coke with cap opened!  At that point, both of us just gave up and drank both beer and Coke.  We haven't had Coke as a beverage for such a long long time!  We both missed you here, Mommy!

Our next stop is the town of Nata which has the oldest church in Panama.  It was a very beautiful church with all wood construction. It dates back to 1500-1600 AD. The best thing is we were the only people there taking in the sight. This sight is so off the beaten tourist path.

The main highway (the Pan-American Highway) from Panama City to Santiago is very nice to drive. It's in a better shape than I had expected.  We can drive upto 80-100km/h most of the time except near towns. Police has a strong presence here pulling speeding cars over. The secondary highway from Santiago to Santa Fe is totally different. It is dotted with pot holes the size of craters!  For unknown reasons, both of my GPS apps (Google Maps and Here We Go) went berserk at the same spot. We were guided to a gravel/dirt road when we're 30km outside Santa Fe. We knew something was wrong but I kept driving in for a hundred meters more before turning back.  That's when our tiny Kia was stuck in mud. Only with some ingenuity, Eric's muscles, and God's blessing that we were able to free up the car.  I don't even want to think about what ifs as it was close to sunset at that time!

Now I understand how some people died due to wrong guidance from GPS!  That's why I have tried not to use GPS as much as possible. We are so conditioned to trust more in GPS than our common sense!  Very scary thought!

The hostel in Santa Fe took us a bit of time to find as it's very dark when we arrived. It is a very lovely place. Turned out that the restaurants in town (only a few restaurants in this small town) were all closed by 7:30p. We ended up buying some eggs and spam and Eric cooked up our own dinner! Saved lots of $$$ tonight!  Spent a total of $6.84!

The hostel is very clean with nice yard and garden with communal kitchen for prepping meals.  Butterflies flew everywhere and flower fragrance filled the air.  Also met and talked to a bunch of travellers from around the world. Cool!

Day 3 - Dec 4, 2017 Panama City

Panama sits at the junction of North America and South America, neighboring Costa Rica and Columbia. It has the narrowest isthmus in Central America hugging both Pacific and Atlantic oceans. As a result, it has always served as a meeting place and melting pot for wild life as well as humans. Eric and I have yet to see the wild life but we had seen the tremendous mix of different races and cultures in our first 24 hours in Panama City.

There are first the Spanish descendants from colonial days, the blacks descendants from African slave trades, the indigenous peoples (at least 8-10 major tribes like Guna), the Chinese descendents from imported laborers for the canal, the East Indians...  We meet all the above during our stroll down Avenida Central today. This is a long pedestrian only commerical street jam-packed with all kinds of shops selling clothes, appliances, furniture, toys, gold jewelries, and cell phone accessories. Although the guidebooks all say Panamanians don't wear shorts except on beach (because they are conservative), what we saw is quite different. Women, especially the younger generation, all dress very provocatively. This is consistent with what I observe in other Latin American countries as well.

The whole old town seems to be a giant renovation project. Everywhere we went, we saw construction and renovation. Despite the best intention, some buildings are simply beyond restoration and only their empty shells left. However, those restored buildings are just beautiful, returning them to their former glory.  We did a complete walking tour loop this morning as suggested in the guidebook. To my surprise, we finished in less than 2 hours.  Notice the building with the white wall and blue awnings?  It's the Instituto Nacional de Cultura at the seawall. It was spruced up as a Bolivian hotel in Jame's Bond's film "Quantum of Solace"!

The restored "Flat Arch" (Arco Chato), part of the collapsed Iglesia de Santo Domingo, tells another story: the Americans were so impressed by it that they decided to proceed to build the Panama Canal thinking that the existence of this arch proved Panama is seismically stable! Ironically, it collapsed in 2003 without reason and had since been restored.

The "Gold Altar" (Altar de Oro) residing in Iglesia de San Jose next to our hotel is famous for its survival from the pirate Henry Morgan's plunder. Henry Morgan was infamous for razing the original Panama fort to the ground during his ransack. Legend has it that the priest not only hid the altar successfully but he was bold enough (and actually succeeded) in persuading Henry to donate to the church!

The serious thunder storm started at noon. We waited it out in our hotel and then went for lunch. It got even worse during our meal and didn't completely stop till late afternoon. As a result, we all got wet as we explored beyond the old city.

We first checked out the Mercado de Mariscos (Fish Market). Very disappointing! It's just a pier where fishing boats meet buyers and no outsiders other than peoples with admission privilege can enter. Considering the abundant seafood in Panama, I was expecting to see a vibrant fish market like Tsujiki in Tokyo.

During our wandering, we bumped into a Chinatown style gate on a random street. Hard to know why it was built there since there is no Chinese shop or restaurant in sight!

It seems Panamanians believe in simplicity when building houses. During heavy thunderstorms, the only thing they use to drain the water from the roof is a simple pipe!  As a result, we saw mini-waterfalls all over the street operating like free car wash!

Day 1 & 2 - Dec 2-3, 2017 Panama

Eric and I decided to take a father & son adventure to Panama as he's done school before Dec. At YVR Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge. Waiting for the first leg of our trip to Panama City. Eric is enjoying himself very much. He said he has no problem staying here whole day!

Our flights to PTY went through SFO & HOU, including a red-eye flight. It was a bit tough but we managed to sneak in few hours of "sleep" on the last flight. The use of all the United Clubs along the way made the journey easier too. I got upgraded to first class on the YVR-SFO flight as well which is a bonus. I gave my seat to Eric since he didn't travel much.

Airport taxi area is still a zoo. Despite my refusal, the "official" airport staff directing traffic still managed to muscle in to touch my luggage and lead us to the taxi car and promptly demanded his tips!

Our hostel is ok. Bright and ok clean. No soap or shampoo which I expected already. Considering it's only $25/night for our room, we can overlook lots of sins, especially with its prime location inside Casco Viejo (the UNESCO designated old town).

After settling in, we walked around a bit to enjoy the evening sun. The lighting was perfect for taking beautiful pictures of the old buildings. We even walked out into the neighborhoods surrounding Casco Viejo. Side streets were not recommended so we stayed on the main commercial drags. I was disappointed that the street food scene was pretty slim picking.

We ate at one of the locals' favorites: Cafe Coka Cola. Rice with/fish or chicken. Then we enjoyed the festive light decoration at their park.  As we're dead tired so we went back to hostel for an early turn in.