Panama Six month backpacking trip through Bolivia, Peru and central America: update 9/14
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 15 September 2024
Updated on 15 September 2024
Alright, as promised, I’ll pick up the chronology now. After 1 day in Lima, 4 hours in Bogota (yes, yes, got the Colombia stamp now), I arrived in Panama City. What a culture shock! A supermarket where you don’t have to stand behind a little gate to point out your products but can walk right in, and they sell EVERYTHING, including Gouda and yogurt! In short, I’ve been eating nothing but grilled cheese sandwiches and yogurt for 5 days.
What I haven’t mentioned is that in Panama City, while searching for the old part of town, I ended up in the most dangerous area of the city. Saved by a big mama, she walked me home and put me in a taxi.
A small compliment for the Americans (I’ll criticize them later): digging a canal through a continent in 10 years, while in the Netherlands, it takes 30 years of debate to build a bridge over the Maas. Super impressive to see the largest possible ship passing through the locks. In the Netherlands, you throw a euro in a wooden shoe on a fishing rod to cross a bridge; here, they pay up to $250,000 (this was in 2002). But it can be cheaper: the least ever paid is 36 cents by someone who swam across the canal (fun Lonely Planet fact).
Panama and Costa Rica are bird countries par excellence. I’m definitely not a birder, but I’ve already seen 7 of the 944 different species. Only the quetzal just won’t show up.
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Traveled route: Panama City, Cerro Punta, Sendero de los Quetzales, Boquete, Zegla, Bocas del Toro, borderCostaRicaPanama
next country: Costa Rica
Six month backpacking trip through Bolivia, Peru and central America: update 10/14
Besides encountering quite a few Bolivians, Peruvians, Panamanians, and Costa Ricans, I occasionally run into Americans. They’re easy to spot. If someone extends their hand and shouts, “Hi, I’m Jim!!!” the very second they see you, even if th
Panama
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