Second Panama Trip I

I took a week off from work to go to Panama. I left on Friday night with two of my friends. We arrived in San Jose at 10:30pm and just managed to catch the last bus to Panama City leaving at 11:00pm. Luckily it had three extra seats. The bus had reasonably comfortable seats and I managed to sleep until we arrived at the border at 5:00am. Unfortunately the border didn't open until 6:00am, so we were forced to wait in line for an hour. The Panamanian side was no better as acquiring tickets to cross the border and waiting for baggage checking took up another hour or more. The ride through Panama was another six hours but we were served meals and they played movies so it wasn't too bad.

We took a taxi to the part of the city known as Casco Viejo, famous for its colonial buildings, where we found a hostel. We spent the rest of the daylight wandering through the streets, admiring the cathedrals, buildings and monuments in the town before finding a pleasant restaurant to eat at. The next day we took the bus up to the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal and watched a big boat pass through. We then returned to the city to look at the ruins of Panama Viejo, which was the site of the original Spanish settlement. We climbed the ruins of the cathedral which gave an excellent view of the ruins and the city of Panama behind. Returning to our hostel, we arranged a meeting with a tour guide to the San Blas Islands who would take us out to the islands.

The next morning we got up at 5 am and we were picked up in a jeep. There were four other people already in the jeep: a couple from Vancouver and two girls from the US. We went east out of the city along the Pan-American highway for about an hour until we reached a dirt road. The road has been recently improved and now it is possible to make the trip in only 2 hours. Previously it would have taken 7 hours of hiking through the jungle. The road rose into the jungle covered mountains and it provided excellent views of the countryside when the clouds cleared. The ride was extremely bumpy, however, and I was glad when we finally arrived at the end of the road. The guide's brother and a boat were waiting on the river and all of our stuff was loaded onto it. The boat made its way up the river and we began to pass a number of dugout canoes manned by the local Indian tribe, the Kunas. At one point we passed a collection of huts and our guide, Germaine, mentioned that it was the local cemetery and we shouldn't take pictures of it. The Kuna people inter their dead in hammocks in a room with offerings left to the spirits to provide smoother passage to the afterlife. Eventually we came out of the river into the Caribbean and the San Blas Islands. We headed to the island of Cartí where our hosts lived. It was a densely populated small island that had 2000 people packed into huts that completely covered the island. We were taken to the far end of the island where our host family lived and we were provided two huts to stay in. One had a bed in it, so the couple from Vancouver took that one, and the other had five hammocks strung up in it. It was very primitive and reminded me of when I lived a couple months in the shack. The floor was dirt and the shower was outside. The outhouse was perched over the sea and you could stare into the toilet and watch the hundreds of tropical fish swimming around in the water below. It was around 11 am by this point, so after we got our stuff packed away into our rooms, Germaine brought us to his boat and took us out to a small island covered in palm trees to spend the rest of the day. The island was so small that it only took about 5 minutes to walk completely around it. Germaine brought us freshly caught and fried fish for our lunch. We spent the day swimming, lying in hammocks, and talking to Germaine about life living on the islands. All of the Kuna people speak the Kuna language and most of them understand Spanish. Germaine's spoken Spanish was excellent and he also spoke a little English but he was much more comfortable speaking in Spanish. He was studying tourism in Panama City and worked in a hostel in the city.

After returning from the beach we had a chance to look around the town. Most of the huts were traditionally constructed with reeds and palm leaves, but some, such as the school and the clinic, were concrete and were built by the Panamanian government. They had a generator on the island that provided electricity between 6 and 11 at night and some houses had a TV, which Germaine mentioned was a new development. The island was full of kids playing games in the street and many of them said Hola or Hello as we passed. At night I got to experience a night's sleep in a hammock. I was pretty uncomfortable in the morning, but I got a decent amount of sleep.

The next morning we set out on a more extended expedition to another group of islands. After an hour boat ride we arrived at Dog Island. This was another beautiful palm-filled tiny island and this one was surrounded by coral reef. There was a sunken ship just under the surface offshore of the island so I took advantage of the opportunity and I went snorkeling for the first time in my life. It was fantastic. The water was incredibly clear and floating above this huge ship teeming with sea life was awe-inspiring. There were so many different kinds of colorful tropical fish swimming about in big schools and small ones. Some were long and skinny, others were round and flat and all of them were brightly colored. I also saw a large barracuda hanging out in one compartment of the ship. It was as long as me and I kept a close eye on it until it decided to take off. Another cool siteing was seeing a group of squid. There was about 10 squids of varying sizes hovering over the white sand. At first I just thought they were funny looking fish swimming backwards but when I looked closer I could see their tentacles. I was so impressed by snorkeling that I spent all afternoon snorkeling around the island. The reef completely encircled the island and I followed it all the way around. The reef itself was a different experience than the boat. The depth varied greatly, some times it was difficult to avoid touching the coral because it was so shallow and other times the bottom dropped out and the coral disappeared into the depths. One of the American girls wasn't quite so lucky in avoiding the coral and got some nasty stings on her hands. It was amazing the amount of life in the sea. At times I would be surrounded by a huge school of fish and there was so many different kinds. Unfortunately I was so engrossed in snorkeling that I forgot my back was exposed to the sun. It was mostly cloudy, but that was all that is needed to give me a nice red sunburn. But the snorkeling was still worth it.

We left the island later in the afternoon and headed out even farther to the edge of the archipelago. The strong waves of the Caribbean could be seen crashing onto the reef at the outer limits. There was a lonely palm tree on an island that would have made a good desert island. Our guide took us to his friend's sailboat. It was a German boat and it was sailing around the world with a crew of 3 volunteers. It was currently spending it time sailing people back and forth from Panama to Colombia. The only way to get to Colombia from Panama is to fly or sail because no road connects them. The boat was anchored and was being cleaned but they gave us a tour and showed us they had space for 24. If you want to make the 5 day trip you would have to help out with the sailing and put up with crowded conditions, but it would be fun. After we left the boat we returned to town. Germaine let out a fishing line and every 5 minutes we would stop and pull in a tuna or some other type of fish. One time he pulled in only a bloody fish head. "Barracuda" he said with a smile, and I thought twice the next time I wanted to put my hand in the water. When we got back we had fish for dinner. After dinner we went to the local museum and were given an hour long lesson on the history and culture of the Kuna people by a very dedicated Kuna who spoke both Spanish and English. The religion of the Kuna has a lot of parallels with Christianity with an Adam and Eve story and a Jesus figure but there was also a lot of emphasis on the spiritual world. The world was affected by many good and bad spirits who were always present and many customs were necessary to appease them. The speaker also mentioned a number of times about the spiritual health a person and blamed illnesses on the fact that too many of the Kuna were gradually being westernized by TV and other influences and were forgetting to take care of the spirits. It was very interesting and it seems that this determination not to lose traditions, but at the same time taking advantage of the technology and tourism available, has made the Kuna people into one of the only indigenous Indian group that is actually growing in size. That night I slept very soundly despite the hammock and the sunburn because I was so exhausted from the entire day.