Bocas Del Toro - photos 2

Bocas Del Toro:

- This beach was supposed to have nice waves for surfing. But not when we were here!
- Lee found this tree to take some pictures of a couple of guys who were surfing. Nothing fantastic as no big waves! Following Dave's comments, the day before we arrived the surf was great. Is that a malediction for Lee?
- This family was fishing in front of our hostel. They arrived 30min before the sunset (which with the clouds was not very good to take picture) and they were using only a hand-line. The woman in the middle caught a lot compared to the kid on the left and the husband. Does fishing need a feminine touch?
- Well judging by the small fish that Lee caught after 1hr of fishing, I should definitively think trying myself if we want to have some fish for tea one day! During this evening, Lee caught several fishes like the one on the picture with some being pink and green. Nothing to eat either!

Bocas Del Toro - photos 1

Bocas Del Toro:

Our second stop in Panama was in the Archipelago of Bocas Del Toro, in the Caribbean sea, close to Costa Rica. It is composed of several islands whose major is Isla de Colon where is the capital Bocas Del Toro. Nice surf can be seen so Lee was excited to get some decent pictures.

From Panama City, after a night spent in the bus, we reached Almirante where we took a boat to join Bocas Del Toro, in Colon Island. Hopefully the sea was quiet (I hate boats you know that!). Here we met our 2 Irish friends from the San Blas boat trip, Dave, the surfer, and Neil who's got a "real" ginger beard! (Note for Stu) who where in Bocas for surfing. Unfortunately and now it is like an habit, the waves had gone down and no picture! The weather was not great either! (Is the English rain following Lee by any chance?) But we had nice walks around this island and the island of Carenero with tropical landscape.

- It is 5am and the bus from Panama just left us in front of the boat office in Almirante. Here we waited 1 hr for the first boat. During this time, Lee played with a dog with a golf ball sent by his mum for Christmas. But the dog started to be very possessive and did not like the game of throwing the ball. We said goodbye to Almirante, the dog and the golf ball!,
- One of the beach close to Bocas Del Toro. The picture shows a nice and paradise like beach but in reality, it was full of rubbishes and not very attractive,
- On the boat, sailing around the Island of Carenero, we saw these pelicans which were watching carefully the water for some food. One of them jumped in the water in front of us and came back with in its mouth a decent fish.....bigger than any Lee has caught so far!!
- We passed an area on the island where the roots of the trees were up and and that make the forest like in the Lord of the Ring book!
- Typical tropical landscape.

Panama City - photos 2

Panama City:

- Superb sunset on the Canal with the "Puente de las Americas" in the background. It was built between 1959 and 1962 by USA,
- Typical buses in town. From now, this is the kind of buses we will be taking to do short journies,
- Monument to the workers and French engineers of the Panama Canal at the Bovedas in Casco Viejo. This monument, with the symbol of France, the cockerel, was built in commemoration for the 22,000 French who died during the construction of the Canal,
- Traditional costume of the indigeneous Panameans. We can't see well in the picture but the women were very small (around 1m50)
- Who needs to go to the dentist? We surely did not visit this one!!!!

Panama City - photos 1

Panama City:

From San Blas Islands, we reached Panama City after a 3hrs journey in a jeep where the guys in the back where packed like sardines! At this point, everybody dispersed to different hostels. So we said goodbye to the lads with who we had good time on the boat. We arrived during the carnival period and it took us 50 min to go from the new town to the old town or "Casco Viejo" where we wanted to stay.

Panama City has 2 faces: the new town is very "Miami" type with its skyscrapers, posh hotels and boutiques de luxe; the old town is full of colonial buildings where some houses were abandoned for so long that just the walls are stayed up. A revitalisation process is on-going today. The city was founded in 1519 by De Avila but was destroyed in 1671 after an attack of the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. Some ruins are still visible in Panama El Viejo. The city was rebuilt 5 miles away and this location is known as Casco Viejo. This part of Panama City was classified World Heritage Site in 2001. The construction of the Canal was first attempted by the French in 1880 but failed (21900 workers died) then the second attempt under US leadership was more successful and the Canal was open in 1914.

- View of Casco Viejo from Cerro Ancon, a small mount north of the district. In the background centre, we can see the towers of the Metropolitan Cathedral. On the right, it is the entrance to the Canal,
- View of the "New town" or "El Cangrero" from Cerro Ancon, the modern banking district. Does that not remember you Miami?
- View of the Canal from Cerro Ancon,
- The Metropolitan Cathedral built in 1674,
- One of the churches in ruins which was being renovated. Lots of buildings were in the same state and lots of renovation works were on-going in Casco Viejo.

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - video

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip:

I could not write this blog without adding the video of Micha's jump from the yardarm. He looked very confident on the yardarm but the jump was a little painful at the end. Anyway Superb!

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - photos 3

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip:

- The guys were lucky. A couple of pilot fish were hunting below our boat and Lee and Neil managed to catch one each (not sure if there were the same fish!) after lots of effort as the fish was pretty big! Good for Lee as he normally catches tiddlers and nice for Neil as that was the first time he was fishing. Well done boys!!!
- It was with great fun but also lots of worries that we were watching the boat crew helping Peadar (pronunced Padder) charging his bike to the small canoe. The operation took at least 20min!!
- Peadar was probably breathing better once he reached the land and the village of Chepo!!! Removing the bike from the canoe was not so easy and the road, well a kind of road, to reach the village of Chepo was very muddy. We had to cross a small river; with the 4x4 that was OK but we thought at one point that Peadar was on his way to sink! But finally all ended well and the lad is now in Mexico!!!
- "Photo de Famille": from left and top: Micha, Julien, Olivier, Marina, Harold, Neil, Sam, Dave, Pedro, Kerry and me. Just missing Peader who was supervising the operations to remove his bike and Lee of course who was taking the picture. We had a good time on the boat (for me once the boat had stopped!!!) and everybody was very friendly. I was happy to chat a little in French and played "belote" card game, even if I lost! Good entertainment from Dave and Harold and a special mention for Micha for his jump from the yardarm!
From San Blas, we reached Panama City where everybody returned to his own trip but sure we will see again some of the lads!

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - photos 2

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip:

- Barbecue on the island. Fried chicken, well more probably burnt chicken!, mash tatties and rice salad on the menu, with obviously lots of beers and rum (Caribbean islands oblige!),
- A very tight competition of "petanque" or boules as the English call this game. Olivier (left) and Harold (centre) were measuring with the most precision as possible the closest "coconut" from the jack (cochonet in French). The problem was that this game is normally played with round boules and not "coconut". Harold won this point as his coconut had a little growth. Olivier played fair and concluded "C'est la loi de la coconut" or "it is the coconut's rule"!!! Good laugh and Paddy (right) could do nothing in front of the 2 French "experts" but defended well the colours of Ireland!,
- Lee was fishing while the chicken was cooking. He was expected adding some fishes to the menu but except some algae, nothing! But he will be more lucky later...
- On board, again the French were showing their talent at cards, playing the famous "Belote" game, well only famous in France! We were very concentrated and the others guys were amazed of our professionalism. They were just jealous!! I was playing with Olivier and we lost all the games but getting better each time...
- The 4 "mousquetaires": from left Paddy, Lee, Dave and Neil. Lots of drinks in front of them but please note that half was from the Frenchies!!