Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia, October 4, 2017

Leaving my hostel on the way to the airport, I finally got a good picture of the Jenga building - 

I like the colors on this apartment/condo-

What a fiasco this morning trying to check in to go to Cartagena, Colombia at the Avianca airline counter!  Because we are driving in South America, I obviously do not have a flight booked to leave Colombia, so according to Avianca, I would be turned away at immigration in Bogota, my first stop today!  So the woman at the counter conferred with her colleagues, read my itinerary, took my bribe of a metro card :) why not?  I'm in Central America!, then took my itinerary and passport and disappeared for 30 minutes.  She returned shaking her head.  I explained that I planned to fly from Rio de Janeiro to Guatemala City February 13, 2018 but for no reason at all, I had not yet booked my flight.  She suggested some sort of flight would make a difference, so with only 30 minutes of free wifi at the airport to play with, I quickly booked that portion of my flight home.  Another 30 minutes passed (good thing I was at the ticket counter 3 hours in advance of my flight) and finally she appeared with information about a required Platino payment at Colombian immigration of 190,000 Colombian Pesos which is $81 Canadian.  Fine.  Just give me my boarding passes please!  She thought maybe if I had a flight booked to Canada, my home country, I might not have to pay it so I was madly thinking of a date to book home from Mexico City in March.  Oh ya, I forgot.  My flight to Bogota was fine and I had a guaranteed seat but I was on stand by for Bogota to Cartagena.  Little did I know that the Avianca pilots have been striking the last few weeks.  My early afternoon original flight was cancelled and now standby!  

I eventually got both boarding passes and was free to go through security - 2 hours later!  I had heard about the Platino thing from a New Zealand traveller last night.  He and his South African girlfriend flew from Panama City to Bogota but were denied entry because of her S.A. passport.  And by the way he said, there's something about Canadians too and a platino thing.  You might need a visa!  What!  A visa!  You don't just get visas from a roadside stall!  I googled and our good old Government of Canada website mentions nothing about this!  So I could do nothing but wait until I got to Bogota.  

The countryside close to Bogota, Colombia-

The flight was pretty much empty so once again I had 3 seats to myself.  Interestingly enough, on a 1 hour 10 minute flight, they serve drinks - red wine is free and lunch-

Upon arrival, sure enough, there were signs for Canadians to join a special queue.  No one was in the queue so I walked right up to the kiosk, paid my 190,000 pesos, got my stamp and I was in the country.  Weird there is a line just for Canadians but the official said the Platino charge has been in effect for 2 years.  Canada charges Colombians, so Colombians charge Canadians!  Nice.  She didn't  ask about an ongoing flight or anything!  After my morning,  I couldn't believe it... well actually I could because having travelled to 74 countries, that was the FIRST time this has ever happened and it didn't make sense.  Anyway, everything turned out fine but I didn't get to Cartagena until 6:30 pm and by then it was dark.

Boutique Bourbon Hostal is nice but boutique?  Come on!

There are 16 beds in my area-

Each bed-

has a light and 4 plugins, as well as a wide shelf and a drawer.  For privacy, I just pull the blind-

After getting settled, I did a little emerald shopping -wow are they beautiful and expensive! 

I'm in the old walled city so it's very touristy - lots of shops - jewellers and artists.  I love these glass objects-

The coconut in the middle is made of wood.

Looking forward to a good sleep and exploring Cartagena tomorrow!

Panama City, Panama, October 3, 2017

I wandered around people watching.  It takes all kinds is all I can say!

How's this for expensive?

That's a U.S. $8.79 too!

I finally found more of the original wall in Casco Viejo.  It is also being incorporated in the remodelling of new buildings-

More cool balconies-

In spite of all the work being done, there are still very rubby areas in Casco Viejo-

There is also a huge police presence.  Most are dressed in black with Policia written on their backs but I walked by two men today in black/grey/white camo with sawed off machine guns.  I think they were Policia!

Some nice graffiti-

I like how they show what's under the stucco. It's hard to imagine all the layers on the walls and I wonder how old these buildings might truly be-

La Cementario Amador is huge-

I visited La Iglesia San José and its wooden altar covered in gold leaf.  Legend has it that when the Pirate Henry Morgan was on his way to ransack Casco Viejo, a Friar removed the gold columns and other valuable pieces from the church and hid them in the Pacific.  Once Morgan arrived, that same Friar said the altar was under construction and demanded 1000 ducats from Morgan to complete it.  Morgan laughed and said the Friar was more of a pirate than he was!  Later, Morgan instructed his accountant to give the money to the Friar!  Of course, it is only a legend....

Records indicate the altar was covered in gold leaf in 1915-

Another building waiting to be renovated-

La Iglesia Campaña is only walls-

Yes it's hard imagining that and not just bull dozing them down and starting over!

I've met some interesting people in Panama City - Candice from New Zealand who does the administrative work at her family's company while Dad and her brother are heavy duty mechanics; John who sells advertising in Chicago; Dutch Pim and Abigail who work for KLM; Caroline from São Paulo who works for an entrepreneur promoting company and David from Israel who was in the military for years and will go back to train others.  I haven't met anyone my age - everyone is in their twenties and early 30s.  None is married but there are a few couples.  It's weird too because most tend to hang out in the hostel rather than go exploring or visiting museums/seeing the sights.  They also like to party until the wee hours of the morning and then spend the day sleeping it off.  Seems like a waste of time and money to me and not sure how they will describe their trip once they get home!  But once again I ask.... Where are all the travellers my age?

Something that's interesting and a practice that I think makes a lot of sense:  Leaving the city Sunday morning in the dark, few lights were on in the sky scrapers.  I've taken a picture tonight and a few more  lights are on, but truly what a waste of electricity to have the buildings lit up like they are in our cities during the night when no one is in them. What's the point?

I am packed and ready for my 10:45 am flight to Cartagena tomorrow!

Pic of the day!

Adios Panama!

Panama City, Panama, September 30, 2017

I started the day with a visit to the Museo Del Canal Interoceanic de Panama.  It presents the history of Panama with a more indepth history of the canal.   It was very interesting and I couldn't believe I spent 2 hours there!  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed.  

Then, I walked down along the bay to the fish market and had my first ceviche mixto  - shrimp, octopus, calamari and snapper.  Unfortunately it wasn't my favorite.  As usual they served it with soda crackers.

I kept walking along the water and decided to check out the hostel where Madventure is staying.  Unfortunately Jan wasn't there - naturally I didn't call ahead, but I had a great visit with Bob, a Canadian from Barry, Ontario who is also on the trip.  It's interesting because I contacted Bob when I was first considering an overland with Madventure and now 3 years later, we meet!  

After the hostel visit, where I wish I was staying - very quiet, very new, very clean compared to Luna's Castle which is a rocking party house - right up my alley- not!  Music in the Rustic Bar right below my room starts pumping at 8 am and finishes at 2 am.  Luckily I am a good sleeper!  Anyway, after the hostel visit I found the Hard Rock Café Hotel, then the HARLEY DAVIDSON STORE!!!  Unfortunately nothing appealed to me so....

Supper toniight is the same as last night -

Pretty sweet for about $4 Canadian!  

No pictures today because when I tried to load my camera onto my IPad, they all deleted without saving.  I didn't have many, just wish I had one of the HD Store.

I'm going to the San Blas Islands tomorrow for a 2 day, 1 night trip.  I won't have internet until I return, Monday night.  Looking forward to meeting the Kuna!