Posts for July, 2009

We had a surprisingly comfortable night, the noise of trucks did not disturb us, and our $9 Wal-Mart fan kept the climate tolerable.

We awoke to the clouds misting around us and drifting across the car park, and a bit of light rain accompanied breakfast. By 8:00am the first bus load of workers and tourists arrived, among them the man who controlled the main gate, so now we could leave.

A correction - the place we are staying near La Libertad is called Centro Obrero or workers center and is provided by the government for "workers" and visitors.

This morning Nina decided to stay at the camp while Norm and I went for another look at the antics of the fishermen and their boats. Being Saturday did not seem to make any difference to the level of activity.

Another day in La Libertad. I am sitting in the passenger seat of the Tiger, the engine is idling to charge the house batteries and as a side benefit the air conditioner is on. The vehicle thermometer says its 88°F outside but that does not do justice to the feeling of heat and humidity.

Another quiet day at the Centro Obrero La Libertard. Nothing hopeful seems to have happened in Honduras over the past few days, we will wait a little longer before looking at radical options.

We moved to a new location today, but since it was only about 50 miles away we started at the civilized hour of 8:00 am.

The only thing of note today was some work we got done on the Tiger. Norm had suggested that we should get a cover for the propane valves that are visible on the side of the Tiger; his thinking - the shipping company may not notice the propane and ask us to empty the tank. This is of some importance as (apparently) propane will be hard to find in South America.

Norm has injured his ankle - I don't think he knows how he did it - but it's definitely swollen and appears painful. So this morning we spent some time at the local hospital and pharmacy.

It's the afternoon of July 14th and I am sitting in a nice room at the Camino Real Hotel in Managua Nicaragua. The last 4 or 5 days have been a bit of a trial and it is a pleasure to have some comfortable surroundings for a brief period. Its also good to be past the question mark of Honduras and now - we hope - definitely on our way to Panama and thence South America.

At breakfast Norm offered to conduct todays city tour himself rather than use a local tour company, and we accepted.

At dinner last night Norm suggested we stay at the hotel another day and spend today touring the nearby city of Granada - about a 50 minute drive from the hotel.

Getting out of Managua and towards Lake Nicaragua Norm got stopped by a radar trap and paid US $40 in "fines"

Last night Norm paid a local man to sit guard over our vehicles throughout the night. I am not sure that this was necessary but he certainly carried out his part of the deal as he was still awake guarding us when we woke at 5:00 am this morning.

Apparently the monkeys made some noise over night - but I did not hear them.

The morning dawned clear and with no sign of the rain and cloud of last night.

Again the morning was clear with no signs of last nights rain storm.

Yet again, last nights rain is gone, and we are now convinced of the Panama rainy season weather pattern. Clear in the morning and storms in the afternoon.

Today our priority was to get started on the paper work associated with shipping the vehicle to Colombia. The latest information we have is that the ship will depart from the port of Colon - on the Atlantic side of Panama on Friday 31st July and arrive in Cartagena Colombia Sunday 2nd August.

After early morning coffee at the local McDonalds we settled down to wait for news on the progress of the police inspection and other paper work.

Today was the Canal visit - I am sure everyone who comes to Panama City visits the canal and locks at some time. Today we took what is called a partial traverse. Which means we started in Gatun Lake, the highest point of the canal, and descended 31 meters through Pedro Miguel locks and then through another 27 meters in each of the two chambers of the Miraflores Locks to the Pacific Ocean level. In the process we passed under the.

We visited an indian village - Tucipono - today situated east of the canal. The people are called the Embera and migrated from the Darien region about 40 years ago and settled in the forest east of the canal where they continued their traditional life style of slash and burn farming. In the mid 1990s the Panamanian Government created a National Park encompassing this region and as a result the Embera people where prohibited from continuing clearing land to conduct their farming. Now they rely on tourism for their primary income and this allows them to continue a way of life that is close to their traditional existence.

Today was the big day on paper work, late in the day we heard from the customs agent that all was complete and Nina's passport had been stamped to indicate that she could leave the country without the Tiger. In each of the countries we have traveled through Nina - as the owner of the Tiger - got two entry stamps in her passport, one for herself and one for the vehicle. This prevents her from leaving the Tiger behind when she leaves the country. Thus to leave Panama she needed to have the vehicle stamp effectively cancelled.

We have heard a lot about Colon while we have been in Panama, almost all of it bad. We have heard that it is ugly, poor and dangerous. We had also heard that the train ride between Balboa and Colon is very interesting. Just to emphasis this we would learn later that an American family staying at the hotel visited Colon today, catching the train over and a bus back. At the Colon end the local police insisted on giving them an escort between the train and the bus, and the bus driver would not let them open the windows of the bus even just to take a photo. As we would learn first hand the ugly and poor part was evident.

We both woke early this morning, I assume partly because we are anxious about what lies ahead but also because at about 5:00 am a rain storm started with the most amazing heavy rain that sounded like jumbo jets over head. It lasted for a couple of hours. The rain, and its impact on traffic caused the driver taking us to the airport to call and suggest we leave half an hour earlier than planned; and then he arrived 15 minutes earlier still.

We had an organized walking tour of the old city this morning. And even though the guide did not speak very much English, and heavy rain accompanied us and wet us for most of the tour it was a good introduction to the walled old town area. Even from this short introduction we can see why everyone we have talked to about Cartagena says it is a lovely place.