well, that’s it…for now.
i just dropped off ushi (the sentra) at the port of manzanillo. unfortunately the whole shipping process is very hands-off….and i didnt even get to see the container that the car would be travelling in. FYI, the container # is IPXU3504411 and will be traveling on the ship capt. melville….which you can track online here: (link to follow…or may be posted in comments).
it’s a bit sad being separate from the car….and much harder to get around. today, it took me about 45min to get a taxi from the port. (oh, i also got a flat tire on the drive from panama to manzanillo…..thanks to vince for the suggestions to carry extra full tires….and to mark for his help. it’s so much easier to just swap out a tire….and worry about patching it later).

today, as the gps may attest to, i spent the whole day trying to leave the country. first, i went to the shipping agent, and confirmed all of the details. then, i went to the secretary general’s office to get the car inspected and get an exit form for the car. after the 20 second inspection, i waited 3.5hrs for the secretary general to show up…only to find out that the customs agents (at the border) copied my license plate incorrectly. so, a quick sprint to the customs office….followed by another 2 hours of waiting. at 4:50pm, they told me i’d have to come back tomorrow. knowing that i could not afford to wait around another 5 hours….i begged….and they gave me the form.
so, i spent the whole day in an office waiting for one form and a signature. but, at least the office was air conditioned! also, one funny thing: i needed to get copies of….well, everything…and being a typical beaurocracy, none of the offices have copy machines. close to the offices, however, were two photocopy places. one was around the corner, the other across the entrance to a highway (with no pedestrian crossing). apparently it’s safer to dodge cars than to dodge bullets.

pictures on the way to panama city:
1) i get a bit worried when driving on a road with only suv’s. but then again, i’m sure ushi and i have driven on poorer roads than any of those suv’s have.
2) couldnt make it to la chame on account of a precariously positioned power line. others were more daring.

pictures today from el valle:
1) el valle has a species of trees called ‘square trees’. they’re not really square….but certainly not circular either. they’re also famous for a golden frog species….which sounds a lot cooler than it actually is (unless you’re really into frogs)
2) nice watefalls at el valle
3) a pic of the sentra (…i’m missing two flags…well, maybe three…can you guess which ones?)

the drive to el valle was kinda tricky….since it was raining very hard….plus there was construction going on. the first time, i went the wrong way….but saw the national stadium, and an overturned truck. once i got to el valle, i drove around looking for hotels. one hotel ended up being a private residence. in their lobby (aka living room), the hostess (owner) asked me what i was doing. i then mistook her for an american (she did not have a panamanian accent), etc. etc. anwyays, i’m now here, at a hotel.
el valle is pretty incredible. it’s a charming ‘mountain’ town. i imagine it’s like aspen? (i’ve never been there). it also doesn’t seem like it belongs here (from what i’ve seen of panama so far)….it’s just too nice. the owner of the hotel i’m at is a retired german ship captain. unfortunately, he has no contacts for shipping my boat…or tagging along for a ride. he’s also selling the hotel here for $1.3M

the miraflores locks feature a very nice visitors center. but they also feature tons of tourists….which kinda takes away from the experience. but they do have a theater, nicer facilities, buffet lunch ($24!), etc. i then decided to drive to el valle. i went south, when i should have went north.
on my way back north, i stopped by the town of saber….which is actually a retired us army base. it looks very very similar to the presidio….only instead of being next to the pacific, it’s next to the canal. i had a good lunch at a small bakery there….then drove ar

ound a bit. like the presidio, it’s kinda easy to get lost….and i ended up reaching the same dead end twice (i almost drove off the cliff the first time….and the second time, the people sitting on the sidewalk laughed at me). i did end up finding a hostel there, so hopefully i’ll crash there tomorrow night (i need to meet with the shipping agent monday morning in panama city….about 10min away….but maybe 45min with traffic and me getting lost).

here’s a video of a ship going through the panama canal: http://youtu.be/gX3f-D2E7i4

you know those days when everything is a bit off? i felt a bit like i was on a prize package from the price is right…with the theme being: wrong turn. it started off with me driving down some sketchy streets (i.e.–any street in colon) to the zona libre…..which is apparently closed on saturdays. sorry naldo. i then swung by the supermarket to pick up a yogurt drink and a banana. i think the supermarket there may be the only one in the americas to not sell bananas. i then drove to the canal (gatun locks). the trip should have taken 5min, but instead took closer to 1hr, because i kept taking wrong turns. i even ended up crossing the canal…..and drove out of the entire complex (i was following other cars….which i thought were going to visit the canal….but they just wanted to drive to the cities on the other side). i then drove back to the canal in search of the visitors center….and found myself on a dirt road on the banks of the canal….with a paved road right next to me….but barriers to prevent me from crossing onto it (…or more likely, to prevent other cars from driving into the canal….like i had done). so, i made my way to the other cars which were queued on the paved road next to the canal. turns out they were waiting for a ferry to cross back to the other side. i think they were confused….because i just went back the way i came, and crossed over the canal again on the grated road (i think they lift the road when ships pass by). so i’m finally on the right side of the canal….drive past the visitors center (accidentall) into a work area, and then come back and finally make it to the vistors center parking lot (which is not labeled).
of course, i walk in through the wrong entrance….take some wrong turns….but finally make it to the viewing dock. which is very cool. there’s a constant stream of huge boats going through the canal. i was also confused about the canal before….apparently boats are raised to the level of a man-made lake….travel on that lake to the other side….then are lowered back to ocean level. i need to learn more about it…like why didn’t they just make the river the same level as the oceans?
oh, and as i was leaving, i accidentally walked into a restricted area and loitered around there for about 5 minutes. (story continued on next gps point)

IF YOU WANT ANYTHING FROM COLON’S DUTY FREE ZONE, EMAIL ME ASAP

today, i swung by the panama canal on the way to colon. unfortunately, i arrived before the main visitor center opened (9am), so i couldn’t see too much. nonetheless, the canal is incredible. not so much from what i saw (hopefully i’ll see the locks tomorrow)…..but for what it represents: the engineering feats, the global economic impact, etc. it’s definitely one of themore amazing places i’ve driven to so far.
i continued on to colon….the first part of the road is a really nice freeway (i.e.–normal freeway for america)….the latter part is a regular freeway (i.e.–country road for america). i drove around colon for a bit, talking to different shipping agencies. then, i stopped by the supermarket in ‘colon 2000’ (a mall here). while walking around i came across the colombian consulate….only i showed up 20min after they had closed (9am-1pm). talking to a security guard there….he told the janitor to take me to ????. he ended up taking me next door to the colon police tourist center. i spoke to a captain….and was afraid he wanted me to fill out paperwork (registering as a tourist), pay a small fee, etc. instead, he called a friend at a port nearby. 5 minutes later, two additional cops showed up….and sat in the backseat while i drove to the port. apparently the neighborhood around there is quite dangerous, so they were my personal bodyguards! later on, a police pickup joined us, so i had a police escort helping me to find a small boat that could take my car without a container. unfortunately, we never found one. so, i’m going to be using norton lilly and paying $1600 for everything (plus a couple hundred for a flight to ecuador….couldn’t find a company that would let me stay on the boat). it’s about $200 cheaper than leaving from costa rica, and about 5 days faster….so it was probably worth the drive down.
the scary thing re: the police escort is that those are the same places that i was driving/walking around this morning. the cops said that i shouldn’t even drive to a restaurant tonight, but should instead eat in the hotel. apparently colon is ridiculously dangerous….or the cops are paranoid. nonetheless, it’s nice to have that kind of service. i took the liberty of tipping the cops (even though it wasn’t requested….i figure it probably wouldn’t hurt to get on their good side).
i also walked around a bit in the duty free zone….which is a huge complex (a couple acres?) filled with every store you’d want to visit (from kappa to panasonic). given the crime here….i wonder how much of the merchandise is bought, stolen from the customer and then finds it’s way back onto the shelf.
pics: 1) colon seems like a rundown city…but has some very photogenic areas…this is taken from the end of the main street; 2) here’s one of the cops that took me around; 3) one of the ports we visited was next to a large dump. obviously, it smelled pretty bad….but the steam rising from the garbage and the humidity didn’t help; 4) the ‘zona libre’ is the biggest dutry free zone i’ve ever seen. many of the mannequins here also have very big breasts. (sorry for the poor quality of the last pic….without my bodyguard, i too became overly paranoid about showing my camera in public).

in san pedro (guatemala), the caretaker of the volcano made a joke about the sentra: se entra agua y sale humo (water comes in and smoke leaves). he was pretty right. the exhaust is more or less fixed (i patched it a couple days ago in costa rica, for $15). today, i found a small mildewed pool of water in the trunk. i knew my trunk leaked before this trip….but didnt expect such ridiculous rain here. in retrospect, it would have been wise to fix it. even now, i should probably consider patching it myself….but i probably won’t, since i’m lazy.
lonely planet suggests a great source for finding detailed maps of the city. i drove around for about 1.5hrs looking for it. the maps are quite good…but i still get lost. why? well, for one thing, street signs don’t necesarily match the labels on the map. second, maps/street names seem very foreign to the people here. earlier today, i asked a gas staton attendant where avenida simon bolivar was. he didn’t know and asked another guy. turns out it was the major street that the gas station is on. later on (after i had the map), i asked a waiter where we were on the map. it took him about 5minutes to find us. it’s kinda annoying…..and certainly not unique to panama.
traffic in panama city can be pretty awful. the traffic is probably worse here than in san jose…but at least it was dry here during rush hour. (note: it seems to be raining earlier in the day, as i drive south from mexico to panama). panama city is probably the most developed city i have seen so far. they are building tones of sky scrapers. it’s also quite large and complicated. during rush hour, they have cops manning the streets (in place of traffic lights). i think they do that every day….which gives you some idea of how overloaded the existing infrastructure is — coming from the us, it’s also funny seeing how many things here are not automated, because the cost of labor is lower. i think panama city could be a very fun place to hang out, if you know somebody here.
tonight, i ate at el trapiche off of ave. argentina. it’s a very popular local spot….kinda feels like a panamanian diner (only not tacky/old fashioned like diners in the us…and serving local food). a 3-course meal here (soup, sandwhich, dessert and sugar cane juice) runs for $10. the chicken soup has tons of stuff….including corn (on the cob), chicken, chicken bones (small and large), potato, etc. it was very good…but also very diferent from american/european soups where everything in the soup is edible….and you only need a spoon to eat it.
whereas in the us, restaurants are typically enjoyed by most residents….in central america, many serve only the rich and tourists. thus, i should be more careful who i inquire for the best restaurant in the city. chances are, many people will have never eaten at it…and will instead suggest the most expensive restaurant (correlating cost with quality).
also, happy father’s day and birthday papai.

today, i woke up early and drove to panama. didn’t quite make it to panama city….so i’ll have to wake up early tomorrow as well….to get a full day of talking with shipping companies (…it’ll be a bit harder without the gps, though).
the border today was definitely one of the better ones — only taking about 1.5hrs to leave costa rica and enter panama. in fact, i think the costa rican border may have even had an atm…although, i think i probably mistook something else for an atm. the border crossing cost $17 ($1 for a passport stamp, $15 for a piece of paper for the car and $1 to fumigate the car). as with most border crossings, i’m not sure if i got scammed or not.
northern panama is definitely one of the nicer drives…and may have one of the nicest roads on the panamerican road (in central america). it’s nothing spectacular, like route 1, but is still pretty and varied. the terrain includes small fields, rolling hills, volcanoes and plateaus (with waterfalls too!). the colors are all different shades of green….such that everyplace looks similar….but nothing looks the same. the sky too, is pretty awesome: with textures/layered clouds and different shades of blue throughout the sky. my pictures can’t do it justice — sorry.
also, i saw a few cars on the road filling up their trunks with grass from the side of the road….what’s up with that? food for their cattle?