January 25th, 2010

January 25th, 2010

Panama City, Panama, just over 5,000 miles from Minnesota. What a ride, more or less half way and we've seen it, done it, and driven it.

Here is the overview of what we did and where we went. From the smelly border crossing into Honduras, we quickly across the country and entered into Nicarauga making it to Managua, the capitol that evening. The next day we stopped at Volcan Mayasa (see picture). It was nice for everyone because it was an active, smoking volcano that we could drive to the crater to see. We did even do a little hiking around which for the others was plenty of excercise for the day. We were supposed to see lava, but couldn't see any to speak of.

Just another quick thirty minutes down the road we stopped in Granada, the historic city in Nicaraugua. We ate some lunch in the city center amongst the old churches and buildings. The city is located on the shores of lake Granada and a popular tour is to take a boat ride through the 365 islands that lay just off the shore and the city. As we were eating a young man came and offered us hand rolled Nicaraugan cigars and we all declined. Bob had woken up from his daily nap as we were finishing eating and he walked through the city center and happily told us he had organized a boat tour of the islands. Coincidentally, the guy he organized the boat tour with was the smooth talking cigar salesman. This guy had lived in California for five years and spoke perfect English so he accompanied us on our boat tour and gave us the schpeel. He was a younger man in his 30's and knew how to sell and talk. The whole time he cracked jokes about girls, spoke about the history of his country, tried to sell us land, cigars, tours, and the like all while keeping the beer glasses full. A very personable guy that you had to respect for his drive to succeed at his trade. That afternoon we drove down to San Juan del Sur where I got to hang out at the "Pier Bar."

The next morning Donn, Charlie, and I went zip lining on the mountainside right out of town, a first for both Charlie and Donn. It was quite good fun with 17 ziplines, the largest reaching just over 1300ft. long. That afternoon we headed south for the Costa Rica border which was pretty uneventful, but a little long, about three hours to get through. While crossing the border we bumped into two Danish guys who were driving south as well. We chatted for a bit and without much thought that was it. We didn't know, they would come in handy down the road!

Once in Costa Rica we bedded down at a pretty sweet Hilton Resort right on the the water called Playa Hermosa. The place had little bungalow type rooms and was really spread out (in the photo with red roofs).

The next day we drove hard driving all of Costa Rica in one day. That was always in the plans as Bob had spent a good couple months in the country and didn't want to spend any more time there. The drive was quite scenic though along the beach most of the way, through palm tree plantations (used for palm oil), and rainforesty type forest. We stopped for dinnner (noon) at a surfer's shack right on the coast. Peel and eat shrimp for $4, cold beer, and the waves crashing right at our feet! That night we stayed in a little town right near the border to get us in line to get across the border to Panama in the morning.

That next day we crossed into Panama at a small border crossing called Rio Sereno. This was a total hassle as we had to go to about six different offices to do all the paperwork instead of the typical one big building or area. Without really knowing it, we actually drove through the gated area into Panama without doing any customs or immigration. Technically they could have arrested us and conviscated the car, OOPS. Turns out they didn't care much and everything went fine, just a pain in the but.

After the border we toured around an vegetable/agricultural area around Volcano Baru. We met a real estate agent who's son went on a foreign exchange trip to Lake Crystal, MN the home of Bob. Another example of how small the world is. That night we stayed in a very small and quiet hotel right on the water in Las Lajas before heading to Panama City the next day.

Once in Panama we did a city tour and canal tour because Donn and Charlie were leaving the next day. Panama City looks alot like Miami from a distance with towering buildings right on the water. After closer examination, you notice that 50% of the buildings in downtown are under construction. According to our tour guide, there are 75 major construction projects in downtown alone. The Panama Canal was interesting to see but honestly a little bit of a let down. If you've been to the lock and damns on the Mississippi, you could just as well have seen the Panama Canal, smaller scale. I will admit it was impressive to see the BIG ships come through the locks. Totally an engineering feet in history for the time it was built and what it represented for world trade, but after the construction, pretty straight forward. See pictures of of Donn with Panama City in the background and the cranes, ships, containers at the Port of Panama.

Donn and Charlie flew home today to a major snowstorms accross the U.S. Flight delays, cancellations, and crappy roads for them and 95 degrees and sunny for Bob and I. Our day wasn't much easier though as we began our car shipping process which took most of the day just to find a company that would work well with our schedule and details.

Tommorrow we head to the police station for vehicle inspections, customs for more paperwork, and the office to wrap of the bill of lading, etc. We start about 9:00a.m. and should more or less be waiting around till late afternoon, AWESOME! Stay posted and I'll let you in on the secrets of putting a car on a massive ocean liner for international travel!

What I Learned: 22 Days to see all of Central America should be illegal, but it was still sweet!!!