Panama City to Colon and Portobelo

View of the Caribbean from Colon

Our last day in Panama, we took the train from Panama City (south--on the Pacific Ocean) to Colon (north--on the Caribbean Coast).  The train goes along the Canal, takes passengers twice a day and containers the rest of the day.  To get the view car (the right thing to do), you have to leave your hotel at 6 a.m., but it's worth it for the wonderful views of the Canal, construction along the Canal, forest, and locks.

Bay of Portobelo

Colon is a world apart from Panama City, a morass of poverty and crime.  Our guide did not want us to stop, take photos, or really even visit Colon.  Panama City, on the other hand, is the largest financial center south of the United States, has hundreds of high rise apartment and office buildings, most of the government's investment in business development and infrastructure, and the country's wealth.  The residents of Colon greatly resent this.  Even so, there are some relatively high end, gated communities in Colon.  We visited the locks on the Colon end of the Canal before heading to Portobelo, a lovely bay where the Spanish conducted their Caribbean trade.  Portobelo was attacked by Sir Francis Drake, among others and is now a tiny, impoverished village with faded charm and lots of tourism potential. 




Upper reaches of Santiago de la Gloria Fort, Portobelo

Portobelo was protected, unsuccessfully, by forts on both sides of the bay.  Sir Francis Drake died here of dysentery, on his fourth visit, and is buried nearby.  He was not alone in ravishing the commercial port, but was instrumental in its demise as a key center of Panamanian commerce.

Today, you can still visit the Customs House, with its interesting museum, and a couple of 16th century churches.  There is a tiny market with locally made crafts.  Not much else, but well worth a visit.

Public transit in Portobelo



Portobelo graffiti

 

Panama Canal--Miraflores Locks

Cargo ship entering Miraflores Locks

Inside the first lock

The Miraflores Locks, on the Pacific end of the Canal, are the most visited site on the entire Canal.  Ships are lowered or raised 27 feet via these locks as they transit from south to north or vice versa.  Ships travel in only one direction for 6 hours before ships from the opposite direction are allowed into the Canal.  All ships must pay their fees before being added to the queue.  This ship paid $205,000 to travel through the Canal.  Generally, larger ships transit during daylight hours and smaller ships or boats at night.  A pilot takes control of all ships to guide them through the Canal.

Panama is adding more and much larger locks in 2 locations to accommodate the huge tankers and container ships that are used today.  U.S. aircraft carriers are also too large for today's canal and will use the new locks when they are finished, scheduled for the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal in 2014.



              opening the Miraflores Locks
 

The French, coming off their successful construction of the Suez Canal, were the first to try to build the Panama Canal.  Their plan was a giant trench that would be level, requiring no locks.  But, that would have meant digging down 1500 feet at the highest point of the route, as the Panama Canal goes through Panama's central mountains.  The French "trench" is to the right.









The Americans finally built the Canal with extraordinary design and engineering.  During the French effort, over 21,000 workers, mostly West Indians, died of yellow fever and other diseases, not to mention accidents.  4500 workers died during the American construction.

Dr. William Gorgas was an army physician who believed, amidst great skepticism, that mosquitoes transmitted yellow fever.  During his tenure at the Canal, he eliminate all the swamps and standing water that allowed mosquitoes to breed, thus enormously reducing the deaths from yellow fever.  Thus, so many fewer deaths while the Americans were building the Canal.  Colonel (later General) George Washington Goethals was the third American Army engineer on the Canal and oversaw its completion.  Later he became the Governor of the Canal Zone.



Container ship at entrance to Miraflores Locks

Panama City

Bocas del Toro archipelago from the plane

Time to head back to Panama City.  As you can see from the photo, the Bocas del Toro archipelago we just left is a very large mass of big and small islands, almost entirely created by mangroves, some with beaches and many comprised primarily of swamps.

Back in Panama City, we visited Panama Viejo, the site of the original Spanish fortress and settlement, built in the 1500's.  Casco Viejo, the next oldest part of the city, dates from the late 1500's.  San Jose Church has a magnificent gold altar that used to be in a church of the same name in Panama Viejo.  At one point, pirates were raiding the town in search of the gorgeous gold altar in the church, so the priests painted the altar black and buried it in the muck of the tidal basin.  They moved it to its current home in the late 1500's.                                                                                                        
In addition to the late 16th century San Jose church, Casco Viejo has so many lovely old colonial buildings, mostly in a state of ruin.  But, this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so has lots of cache. As a result, many of the buildings either have been renovated or in the process of being renovated.  This will soon be an upscale area of glitzy shops and restaurants and expensive hotels and homes.  The very poor people who used to live here (and many still do) are being moved into new apartment complexes which one can only hope will not become drug-ridden and rundown tenements of the future.


Stained glass window, San Jose church


San Jose church, Casco Viejo



Remains of 6th century cathedral

Panama City from Casco Viejo



Kayaks, mangroves and creatures

Kayaking through mangrove channel

Yesterday we kayaked through the rich mangrove swamps near Tranquilo Bay, in the Bocas del Toro archipelago off Panama's northern coast.  The mangroves in the lagoons are red mangroves while some white and black mangroves root farther back from the salt water.  The red mangroves have lots of yellow leaves amidst their deep, shiny green leaves.  These are the "sacrificial" leaves that collect the excess salt taken in from the seawater in which the mangroves root.  They die from the salt and drop into the water.

tangle of mangrove roots

Small clams cling to the roots under the water and eventually die, adding to the pile of shells below.  As you glide along in your kayak, it is astonishing to hear clacking noises from the swamp, the sound of clams clicking their shells  together.  The water is very clear.  One lagoon has hundreds of thousands of "upside down" jellyfish that lie on the bottom, allowing algae to grow on their tentacles.  They look like large white rocks and pack a nasty sting if you touch them.

Spotted butterfly

On a walk later, we found the beautiful and poisonous and very tiny red frog, which disappeared under a log before I could photograph him.  Some of the butterflies have clear wings that look just like gently veined leaves while others are spotted like the one on the left or multi-colored to match their favorite flowers.  Deep in the rain forest, the birds are in the midst of their mating rituals.  Hummingbirds fight in mid-air.  Manakins clear areas of the forest floor to show off their dancing techniques for the females nearby, announcing their display by literally clapping their wings so loudly that you wonder if they'll break.

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Tranquilo Bay

Tranquilo Bay cabana overlooking the Caribbean

The lovely and peaceful eco-lodge, Tranquilo bay (www.tranquilobay.com) is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy a Caribbean rain forest up close.  Yesterday, we spent the day at the Zapatillos National Park, about a 20 minute boat ride across the Sea from Tranquilo Bay.  There you can enjoy a fascinating walk across the island through the forest and along its white sand beaches.  Birds, crabs, bugs, flowers, mushrooms and much more, not to mention the soft green and turquoise water.  We swam and snorkeled along the reef just offshore.

Tranquilo bay's dock on the Caribbean

Upon our arrival, we took a fascinating two hour walk through the rain forest on Tranquilo Bay's property with one of their two resident naturalists, who are extremely knowledgeable about the entire eco-system of the island and the region.  They have remarkable abilities to see all the creatures we seem to miss, pointing them out and discussing how they live, breed, eat, survive and contribute to the overall ecology.  They also know the voluminous plants that thrive here and which animals use them for their survival.  A highlight of the walk is the hummingbird pool where these tiny birds dive into the water with lightning speed to bathe.

beach on island in Zapatillos National Park

A highlight of our walk across the island was seeing a vine snake, a very thin, long, stringy snake that is virtually indistinguishable from the vines covering the trees on which they live.  We could see his tongue slithering in and out of his mouth as he searched for insects on the tree trunk.  There are thousands of hermit crabs carrying all sorts of borrowed items on their backs, from leftover shells to Coke bottle caps. As they outgrow their current home, they discard them and search for another.

Can you find the vine snake?

Across the Panamanian Highlands to the Caribbean Coast

Panamanian Highlands

View of the Caribbean from the mountains

Yesterday we drove from Boquete to the Caribbean Coast, across the beautiful, mountainous Panamanian Highlands, winding around the upper reaches of steep valleys and along tangled ridges.  The rain forest changes noticeably when you cross the Continental Divide from Pacific to Caribbean drainages, with wetter, denser foliage.  The weather changed from sun and scattered clouds to fog, rain and wind once we started down the Caribbean side of the mountains.

We drove to a small cove on the coast, down a steep, rutted 4 wheel drive road to a small dock run by an ex-patriot couple from Florida.  They live surrounded by incredibly varied and colorful flowers and birds, set at the base of a forested mountain, and right on the clear, turquoise Caribbean.  Gorgeous, but just a little isolated.  So, they're trying to sell their lovely haven in order to move closer to their children and grandchildren.

Our destination was Tranquilo Bay, a peaceful and beautiful eco-lodge, set on 200 acres just
above the sea, on a mangrove island about 30 minutes by boat off the coast of Panama.  The nearest town is Bocas del Toro, also about 30 minutes away by boat, and a haven for divers, sun-seekers and backpackers.

The owners of Tranquilo Bay built the resort literally from the ground up, starting with clearing the thick vegetation, building a boat dock and concrete ramp across the mangrove swamp, putting in a rain water collection system, electricity, communication tower, a lodge and 6 spacious cabanas.  They  did all the initial work themselves before hiring local villagers to work alongside them.  The construction took 5 years and the result is as peaceful and lovely a retreat as one could imagine, overlooking the Caribbean, set amidst flowering plants and deep forest.

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Birding in Boquete

Boquete is a leading birding destination in Panama.  It is home to hundreds of bird species, ranging from large and simply-colored to tiny and brilliant.  Millions of migratory birds pass through here each year, feeding on its bugs, flowers, and fruits before continuing their journeys.  Hummingbirds with long, curved beaks flit in and out of the many trumpet-shaped flowers.

Mountains above Boquete

This morning we went on a beautiful birding hike, high up on the side of one of the calderas.  The vegetation is thick and extremely varied, with some trees towering over the canopy, elegant ferns of all sizes, vines, bushes and dozens of tree species.  This is an ideal environment for birds, with countless kinds of bugs, beetles, flowers and hiding and nesting places.  We did not see the long-tailed Quetzales, which will be here in March to mate and nest, but we did see the dead trees full of the holes in which they build their nests.  Clear creeks provide water for many kinds of animals, including pumas and jaguars, which stalk the forests at night.

Mountain home above Boquete

We drove high up the mountainside from Boquete to begin our hike, rising nearly 3000 feet above the valley, up extremely steep roads that would never work in a snowy climate.  Our van struggled in a couple of places that looked like 75% grades but were probably about 18%--very steep.  the hiking trail looks like a Colorado jeep road, descending steeply into a ravine with a rapid creek at the bottom before climbing, also very steeply, to the top of a ridge.  We did this up and down over several miles, stopping to enjoy the birds moving rapidly through the underbrush and along the canopy.  The air is fresh, the creeks are fast and clear, and the flowers and vegetation are luscious.  And then there are the beautiful birds.

Indian family walking to Boquete

We returned for lunch in one of the most popular local restaurants in Boquete.  We joined the long line, which continued to grow for over an hour, before passing through the cafeteria line to try several of dozens of typical Panamanian food options.  Very good, with not another gringo in the place.  Obviously, this is the restaurant to be seen in if you're a Boquete native.

Flower of the banana tree

We've talked to a number of the local guides and businesspeople who are very concerned about the changes taking place.  Developers are buying the coffee plantations to build gated communities for "snowbirds" from the north and from Europe.  Their primacy as the main coffee area in Panama is threatened, as is the lifestyle of what was a bustling, but indigenous, town and is now a tourist haven.  Boquete hasn't quite gained the mass of T-shirt and souvenir shops that have transformed so many newly-touristed towns, but the local citizens worry about that.  They don't want to lose their traditional culture, but also, understandably, can't resist the opportunity to improve their lives very significantly by selling their small land and coffee holdings.

Panama, Coffee and Boquete

We flew into Panama City Friday night and on to David in Panama's western highlands yesterday.  David is relatively low and hot, but the drive to Boquete, where we were last night and will be tonight  is interesting and beautiful.  There are 6 of us in our group.

Coffee berries drying in the sun - Boquete

Boquete is a town of about 25,000 people, set in a lovely mountain valley surrounded by volcanoes.  It is the heart of Panama's coffee production and a haven for American, Canadian, and European retirees seeking a quiet lifestyle in a relatively inexpensive place.  However, developers are rapidly buying coffee plantations and turning them into gated communities for these retirees, changing the culture and landscape of this rural area.

Boquete's birds are colorful

The largest part of the population in the area is Indian, mostly living in villages in the surrounding mountains.  They provide most of the labor force.  The women wear beautifully colored dresses while the men are Western-dressed.  The Flower and Coffee Festival is underway in Boquete right now, so there is exuberant color everywhere.



We spent yesterday afternoon on a tour of one of Cafe Ruiz's 11 coffee plantations.  There are 16 steps in the production of coffee, with many variations on how it is produced and processed.  First, of course, is the picking, which is done by hand so that only the ripe berries are picked.  They are a deep red fruit, with the beans securely inside the fruit.  In a variety of ways, these berries are sorted many times, washed, dried, fermented, squeezed and packaged, mostly before being roasted, and then exported to North American and European markets.

Indian mom and daughter

The coffee trees produce berries after 5 years.  In another 5 years, they are pruned severely to keep them low and available for picking.  After pruning, it is another 2 years before they will produce coffee again.  Pickers move through the trees every 2 weeks to pick the ripe fruit.  Because coffee grows in different conditions, the plantations have a mix of trees so that some coffee trees are shaded, producing one type of coffee, and others are in the sun.  When berries drop to the ground and eventually dry out, they'll produce seedlings from the dried seeds.  These must be either removed or cultivated so that the trees don't get too crowded.

We tasted coffee, which I've never thought about much before, and learned about the rich mix of flavors that different processing mechanisms deliver.




We are staying at the Panamonte Inn, with its spacious rooms and beautiful gardens full of brightly colored birds.  Fortunately, we're far enough out of the center of town to have some peace amidst the rather raucous sounds of the Festival.

Today, the clouds came in late, filling the valley with mist.  At this time of year, the clouds produce mist rather than rain, so it is cool and soft and quite pleasant.  Boquete is about 3000 feet, so quite cool and a welcome contrast to the Pacific and Caribbean Coasts.

Festival food

Coffee fruit ready for picking

Cheetah on the hunt

Twenty years from now, will you look back and regret you didn’t get to visit the places you’d always wanted to see? Serengeti cheetahs streaking after their prey? A rare Black Rhino mom and baby grazing so close you could almost touch them? Myanmar’s ancient pagodas glistening with 24 carat gold and tended by monks in blood red robes? Burmese fishermen rowing with one leg while working their nets with their hands?

Black rhino mom and baby

Bagan's magnificent temples

 

                                               

Well, these are two of the trips we’re offering this year (Lush and lovely Panama, our January trip, is closed.) and we hope you’ll join us.

 

But, you’ll need to move quickly. Our trip to Africa from September 22 to October 6, 2013 (https://www.eglobaleducation.com/east_africa_13/east_africa_13.html) is nearly sold out. 

Besides that, Africa’s splendid national parks and gorgeous wildlife are under constant threat from poaching, highway development, and invasion by landless farmers. Who knows how long the vast savannah of the Serengeti and Masai Mara will teem with big cats, elephant herds running with surprising grace, hippos half submerged in the river pools, elegant giraffes loping smoothly across the savannah and millions of antelope grazing watchfully? This is the time to see them all, based at relaxing and luxurious game camps, enjoying excellent food and wine after an exciting day.

Bagan temple painting

 Meanwhile, Myanmar https://www.eglobaleducation.com/myanmar_13/myanmar_13.html), still a blend of the old colonial British Empire and the ancient Buddhist culture, has become an overnight tourist sensation and is changing fast, so now is the time to enjoy this beautiful country before tourism takes over its traditional culture. We’ll see Bagan, on the banks of the Irrawaddy River (one of the longest in the world), which seems to have put most of the gold on the planet atop its thousands of temples. And Inle Lake is the “center of the earth” to thousands of villagers who live and farm right on its waters. 

Sunset over the Irrawaddy River

Please take a look at the itineraries on the webpages linked above and get back to us right away.

Serengeti giraffes

 

Masai zebra baby and mom

East Africa Safari

Our East Africa trip (https://www.eglobaleducation.com/east_africa_13/east_africa_13.html) takes us to the lesser-visited and unique Samburu National Park in northwestern Kenya, where some of the giraffes, zebra and antelopes are distinct from their cousins in other parts of East Africa. In the magnificent Masai Mara, where the great migrations of wildebeest and zebra take place, we’ll see thousands of antelope and zebra, hundreds of giraffes and elephants, all mingled in warily with the big cats. We’ll spend 5 days in Tanzania’s unmatched Serengeti watching the migration of tens of thousands of animals, while our 2 days at the Ngorongoro Crater will immerse us in the largest concentration of big mammals on the planet.

Boy monks in lunch line

Burmese lady selling peanuts

Myanmar (Burma) Adventure

In Myanmar, we’ll visit the most beautiful and important pagodas (but definitely not so many that you’ll never want to see one again!), wander through traditional local markets, glide around Lake Inle’s watery villages in our long-tail boats, and offer a beautiful hike through mountain villages above Lake Inle, before heading to lovely Ngpali Beach to relax beside the sparkling Bay of Bengal. We will also enjoy a day of meetings with business and political leaders to gain special insights into the economy, politics and culture of the country. 

Villa Inle Resort's lake view room

Pa'O mom and baby

   

Why travel with us?

Our trips are small, usually no more than 8 to 10 people, and are led by us personally, so that you know we will take care of every detail and any problem that might arise. We choose smaller, exclusive game camps, lodges, and hotels, all five star or the best available, provide comfortable and oversized vans, buses, or Land Cruisers for overland travel, and use the most knowledgeable and congenial guides, whom we’ve checked out in advance.

We always visit countries before we take a group so that we can select the very best and most unique accommodations, the most interesting places to visit, and the top restaurants—not where you’ll see dozens of tourist busses—for our meals. We meet our guides and the local travel companies that handle our logistics so that we know you will be getting the trip of a lifetime. And we look for unusual travel experiences that are off the well-trod tourist tracks to enhance your experience.

We use our business and political contacts to set up exclusive meetings just for our groups with local and international business and political leaders and visit small local businesses when available. We select our guides carefully and do not let them take us to the teeming tourist shops where they get big commissions and we pay too much (unless you really want to go there).

Our goal is to assure you an exciting, memorable trip with superb personal service. We want you to enjoy these trips as much as we do. 

Elephant family

A note about costs

Other travel companies, even top line companies, have groups of 14-26 or more people. Group size has the largest impact on trip cost, so we offer several price points depending on group size, as you’ll see on the itineraries. As noted above, we include most meals (on safari, all meals), oversized vehicles so you can travel in comfort, all internal flights, and all tips (so you don’t have to worry about when, whom, and how much to tip).

Please contact us if you are interested in learning more:

gailschoettler@msn.com

donaldstevens@mac.com

We wish you an exciting and adventurous 2013.

Lioness at your fingertips

Inle Lake fishermen