Hello friends,
Babsi, Werner and I were traveling in Panama during the whole month of January. After my travel with Kleiner Bär und Kleiner Tiger I was happy to show Babsi and Werner some of the highlights of Panama.
Lazy people can just enjoy the photos, otherwise you are welcome to read some lines about our trip.
Oh, I’m happy that you are interested in our story: I already knew from my first trip that it’s often difficult to reach Panama and due to some problems (something about a Panama City in Florida) we got stranded in Atlanta. There we met Sarah and Jonathan from couchsurfing.com and had a perfect time with them.
But finally we reached Panama and here are some highlights of our travel there:
Panama City, Panama (!!): the capital has the cooooolest public transport that I know – the famous Diablos Rojos. They are individually designed with cool grafittis inside and outside, tapes, etc and sometimes this was combined with cool music. What a ride!
Bocas del Torro – the typical, (and over-hyped) beach destination in Panama … but we don’t know why! We enjoyed the tropical rain there for 3 days before we left it. If the weather is better then you have some beaches, but you always need a watertaxi, a taxi or a 30min rainforest hike to get there.. Babsi and Werner found that a good Cuba Libre really helps you there to survive …
Boca Brava was the opposite of Bocas. Sunny, relaxed and lots of hawler monkeys for our daily morning call. I discovered nice beaches, corals on Isla Bolanos and nature hikes right at Boca Brava.
The highlands – Boquete, Guadelupe and the Sendero de Los Quetzales. Wow – what a difference. In Boquete you see what happens to a nice mountain village when some americans decide that this village is the perfect retirement spot … luckily the countryside is still really beautiful. Guadelupe showed us how nice a typical panamanian village is and we loved the hummingbirds there. Sadly there a no hummingbirds in my look (black’n’yellow strips) but Werner declared them as his favourite inspiration: never stop – always full action! After 2 lovely days in the Los Quetzales lodge the three of us went onto the hike „Sendero de los Quetzales“. Everthing started fine, but then Werner got really sick and in the last hour he was just a picture of misery. Therefore he really missed the beautiful rainforest there, but Babsi and I enjoyed it.
Santa Clara After the time in the mountains we needed a beach break and after some reading we decided to go to Santa Clara. We knew that there was a campsite so we bought a (cheap) tent and took the bus to Santa Clara… and it was just perfect: the blue pacific, white sand beach and our tent under the rancho. Additionally we met new friends there and just enjoyed the time at the beach (without getting a sunburn).
The Emberas of the Rio Chagres After a really adventurous taxiride to get to the Parque Nacional Rio Chagres, we spent a day in the Embera community of Parara Puru. The Emberas really understood the tourism business and they run it in a perfect way. We learned something about their culture, their way of life and at the end Babsi and Werner finally got some strips – not yellow/black but still …
Archipelago San Blas is definitly the tropical dream! The archipelago consists of 360 tiny islands and just a few of them are populated. Most of them just consist of whitesand beach, coconut-palms and one family that lives there and harvests the coconuts and all that is surrounded by the turquoise, caribean ocean and corals! And the adventure already began with the flight to the islands in a tiny 20-seater – what a cool ride.
Allright that’s it, if you read down to this line then stop reading NOW and look at the photos!
