The aforementioned 14 hour bus journey from San Jose to Panama's capital took more than 20 hours. I was always confused by our departure time of 8pm knowing that the border was 350km away on good roads but only open between 6am and 11pm. And with that we turned up at the border at 3am and waited in the bus for three hours for it to open. When it did it was almost farcical. The queues moved slowly and the signs at both sides of the borders were nonexistent. To leave Costa Rica and enter Panama we had to buy a postage stamp looking thing on each side and present it to the immigration official but the only people selling the stamps were dodgy looking folk who couldn't explain why we should be buying them in the first place and they were charging more than the face value of the stamp "because it's my business" we were told. In comparison to every other Central American border this one was awful – we spent most of our time in lines without knowing why we had to be in them in the first place and having to do it at six in the morning on very little sleep made it very difficult. Things improved slightly once in Panama - during the journey we were treated with three movies, but all of them finished between 5 and 10 minutes short of the actual ending. At least I had seen them all before.
THAT CANAL
Today we took a bus out to the Miraflora locks, one of three huge locks on the Panama Canal and the closest to downtown Panama City. We spent a few hours in the hot sun, watched a few ships pass through and saw the video at the information center. There is still a lot of work being done to improve the canal including widening the Gaillard Cut, which is the 14km stretch through rock and shale mid-way through the canal, as well as the annual maintenance to keep the canal open 24 hours a day. Something like 12,000 ships passed through the canal last year, paying an average of US$55,000 to do so. Vessels are charged according to weight and passenger capacity and are guided through the canal waters by a canal captain who assumes charge from the regular captain during the ten hour journey. Famously the Crown Princess passenger ship holds the record for the highest toll, around US$150k, while some bloke holds the record for the lowest fare, 0.36c, when he swam through in 1928.
Miraflora Lock - Panama Canal
Me at the Canal
We were both surprised by Panama City and had a great time walking around the streets of the old San Felipe district. The markets were packed with holiday traffic but the plazas and cathedrals were really lovely. From San Felipe we could also get a good view of the new part of Panama City with huge high rises to rival Singapore. Sara tried a few of the cheap ice drinks from the street vendors but on our walk back to the hotel this evening we picked up a few cans of Balboa Beer for 0.50c each. Bargain!
San Felipe district
San Felipe district
Panama City skyline
Buying shaved ice from a street vendor
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