Panama City, dernière ville en Amérique Centrale !

1914 – 2014 : le canal de Panama a 100 ans !

Inauguré il y a cent ans, le canal de panama fait partie du décor planétaire !

Il mesure 79 km et il est régulé par trois écluses. On estime à 27 500 le nombre d’ouvriers qui périrent pendant la construction par des maladies comme le paludisme ou la fièvre jaune et aussi des glissements de terrains.

Quand on arrive à l’écluse “Miraflores” c’est très impressionant ! On a vu deux bateaux passer en même temps, l’un qui mesurait plus de 300 mètres de long et 30 mètres de large. Au bord de l’écluse il n’y avait que 60 centimètres pour toucher le bord. Il faut environ une heure pour traverser l’écluse.

Les droits de passage sont soit par conteneurs soit selon le tonnage. Le canal rapporte plus d’un milliard de dollars par année. C’est pour cette raison là que Panama n’a pas d’impôts sur le revenu.

Aujourd’hui nous sommes allées au centre historique ‘’Casco Viejo’’. C’est une ancienne ville coloniale avec des vieilles maisons de couleurs blanches, jaunes, oranges, vertes etc… Il y en a qui sont parfaitement refaites et d’autres qui tombent en ruines. Je crois que les familles qui possèdent ces demeures n’ont pas assez d’argent pour les restaurer.

On a vu aussi des femmes habillées à la traditionnelle avec un pagne, une tunique, des sortes de guêtres aux bras et au pieds et une coiffe sur la tête. C’est assez beau. Ces femmes vendaient des souvenirs pour les touristes : des sacs, des hamacs, des bijoux et des pagnes.

Depuis la vieille ville on apercoit la nouvelle ville avec ces immenses tours qui font plus de cinquante étages et c’est assez magnifique de voir cela en pleine Amérique Centrale.

Nous nous en allons samedi pour Cartagène en Colombie et nous allons voyager sur un bateau à moteur pour traverser les îles Saint Blas et notre voiture s’en va dans un autre bateau pour nous rejoindre. L’aventure continue !

Had to borrow a dress to complete a bureaucratic process

We have now reached Panama City and embarked on the administrative process to ship our van to Columbia. I like Panama City, there are plenty of tall buildings of various styles and uncommon architecture and The Bridge of the Americas (Puente de las Americas) crossing the channel is absolutely stunning. We went to the Panama Channel yesterday to watch huge cargo ships going through the various locks, it is very impressive. The largest ships have only half a meter space on each side so they are guided by cables. Some carry up to 5’000 containers piled up on their decks. It is some kind of miracle that they do not fall off (or maybe some do?). 

But back to our main business: we went to the shipping company this morning. The first step is to get a clearance from the police allowing us to export our vehicle from Panama. So we had to go to the police headquarters to get the car inspected: that was easy enough, the inspection was just about taking the VIN of the car and comparing it with the title… We had to come back at 2pm to get the clearance. At 2pm, I was back, but was denied entry because…. I was wearing shorts… not very short shorts though, just above the knee, nothing really indecent here, but shorts still… it is around 30°C here, so what are we expected to wear? Well, we wear the same thing as Panamanians, shorts... I was going to go back to our hotel (no campgrounds in Panama City) and come back the next day, when enlightenment stroke: I went to the street and borrowed a skirt… from a woman selling food on the street, she had a spare one. I put it on over my shorts, I was looking like a clown, but could enter the police station and retrieve the clearance. I gave it back to the woman afterwards of course, we both had a good laugh about this (and my Spanish improved once more). Maybe she will start a new business renting trousers and dresses in from of the police station???

Our car is again at the workshop due to the terrible roads we have encountered in Costa Rica and Panama. In my opinion, these roads are a public safety issue.  They are bumpy, patched, full of huge potholes and are thus killing our vehicle slowly but surely… this time it is something in the suspension. It seems that wealthiest countries have the poorest roads, surprising but true. Honduras has fantastic roads, Nicaragua and Guatemala have good roads. But Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama… Gosh… cannot wait to see what the next countries are like!!! We have already booked an appointment with the Dodge dealer in Carthagena, Columbia to have the car fully serviced before we embark on the Andes mountains…

Wish we could linger longer

We have been in Costa Rica for a little more than a week, and we already have to leave. This is very unfortunate, because it is a beautiful country and I have the feeling that we missed a lot. I wish we could stay longer, but unfortunately we have to head off to Panama. We ship our camper on a cargo to Colombia on 5th of August and there is a lot of paperwork to do. The process starts on 29th of July and it is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare; it always is, according to the blogs of travellers who have done the same journey. Yes, even on a one year vacation, we still seem not to have enough time to explore properly the countries we are crossing. Why did not we book our passage to Colombia on the next cargo ship two weeks later, is a question worth to be asked. In retrospect we should have. We could have visited Costa Rica and Panama properly. It did not help that we had to stay in the capital San Jose for three days, trying to fix an electrical issue in the van. We went to several mechanics until we found the one who could fix it. Actually, there was nothing to fix really, it was just a breaker that had tripped. I wish I had known that and had noticed the breaker control box hidden in one of our drawers. Well, we learned something new… if it happens again, we will reset it in no time; this is also part of the journey. Positive side: It is great that it was not something more complicated to fix; and we are making great progress in Spanish.

It is the rainy season in Costa Rica right now; because of this we could not see the active volcanoes, their peaks are concealed in clouds. Last night we watched a spectacular thunderstorm over Golfo Dulce with splendid lightning strikes. People are very friendly over here, specially when they learn that we have driven all the way from Los Estados Unidos to visit Costa Rica. We are camping now on a beautiful beach on Golfo Dulce. The campground owners are very nice, one of their sons took us on a walk in the rainforest this morning and showed us the different kinds of trees and plants. Xenia D. found a huge toad in the shower today, she had to chase it out with a stick. I witnessed a giant iguana falling from a tree, fortunately not on my head, but not very far. I did not have my glasses on so I thought first it was a branch falling, but then the branch started to move, I put my glasses on and saw this huge pre-historic animal, first a bit stunned then climbing quickly back into the same tree. There must have been something wrong with it, iguanas usually do not fall off trees.

Definitely, I wish we could stay longer in this gorgeous country but we still have a long way to go until Tierra del Fuego.

A ticket straight into the policeman's pocket

Samara, Costa Rica

We have now reached Costa Rica after a crazy drive of three days through Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. We drove on average 450 kilometres per day. It does not look like much, but because of bad roads ,(sometimes, not always though), endless trucks, careless driving, check points and border crossings, this is equivalent of at least twice the same distance in Europe. I was pleasantly surprised by Honduras, although we just drove through without doing any sightseeing. It is a very green and hilly country, it is supposed to be the most violent country in Americas (with Venezuela) but we did not experience any of this. Nicaragua was far less pleasant. Some policemen and customs officials are absolutely obnoxious. We stayed less than 24 hours in this country and were very relieved to leave it. I was called twice a “Puta Gringa”, the first time by a customs official at the border post (was it supposed to be a welcome greeting?) and the second time by a policeman at a checkpoint. Then I was robbed of the equivalent of USD 120 by another policeman at another checkpoint. He took my driving licence and the vehicle papers and claimed that I was not keeping enough distance with the vehicle ahead of me and that I had crossed a white line on the side of the road meant to protect pedestrians from traffic. All this complete nonsense of course. I was stupid enough to give him my genuine licence and not the copy because I thought at first sight that it was just another check point. There are check points in every town in Nicaragua and we were stopped at almost all of them. He then went into a convoluted explanation saying that if I did not pay right away he would send my driving licence to Managua and I could retrieve it in 20 days, because I had done two of the most important offences on traffic rules in Nicaragua and on and on. It was getting late, we had another hundred kilometres to go to reach our destination, I was tired and slow minded so I paid. I did not get any receipt so it went directly in his pocket. I made his day because this is probably equivalent to a month salary for him, even more. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas (Haiti being first). There is a 19th century flavour in this country: carts pulled by horses everywhere on the roads, bike rickshaws, wretched houses. Well, if this is the way government representatives welcome their very few visitors it is not going to improve soon. I will certainly avoid to visit again. 

Passages de frontières

Marché à Chichicastenango

Depuis le lundi 15 juillet nous avons traversé plusieurs pays : le Guatémala, le Honduras, le Nicaragua et le Costa-Rica. Nous sommes partis très tôt le matin parce qu’il y avait beaucoup de route à faire et puis il y avait surtout il y avait les passages de frontières.

Il faut une ou deux heures pour passer une frontière et c’est extrêmement pénible. Tout d’abord nous sommes envahis de  ‘’tramidadores’’ qui sont censés t’aider pour les papiers contre rémunération et qui ne nous lâchent pas. Au Nicaragua c’était des enfants… 

Il faut aller à l’immigration et ça c’est tout à fait normal. Puis il faut aller à la Douane pour ressortir le véhicule et pour importer le véhicule dans l’autre pays. Et c’est cette importation de véhicule qui est tout un problème.

Tout au début, le véhicule doit se désinfecter avec un produit qu’ils mettent en générale sur les roues. Et puis il faut remplir de la paperasserie, donner le titre du véhicule, un ou deux passeport avec le tampon de la douanes comme quoi on est bien rentrés, les permis de conduire et éventuellement une assurance. Au Guatémala et au Honduras nous avons conduit sans assurance… Après il faut photocopier tout ces documents et les redonner aux douaniers. En général ils visitent le véhicule et regarde le numéro de châssis et sont ébahis par le micro-ondes. Suivant les pays, tu dois payer pour la désinfection, l’importation, l’assurance et les personnes qui sont dans la voiture.

Chemises de Chichicastenango

La palme revient au Mexique où on a dû payer 50 dollars pour la voiture, 25 dollars par personne pour la carte de touriste, et puis bien sur l’assurance pour environ 150 dollars. On s’en ait toujours sorties mais trois douanes en trois jours c’était épuisant !

Unrelated writings from the Land of Eternal Spring

Volcan, Antigua

Tonight we are camping on the shores of Lake Atitlan, a beautiful place surrounded by volcanoes. We are at about 2’000 meters high, in the middle of July and guess what? It is actually cold at night. Cold to the point that we took out our comforters last night, first time since Oregon… We have not put the heater on though. The sweaters are also back on stage in the evenings (but not the MontBells, not yet at least). It is quite pleasant and a nice change from the previous weeks. Because of this pleasant weather, Guatemala is called the land of eternal spring. What is not so nice though is the cold shower in the morning… Most campsites in Guatemala do not have hot water… this is fine in tropical climate, but on a chilly morning, not so much. Yes, I know, we could use our bathroom in the camper, it actually has hot water, but it is really cramped and has turned over time into a storage space for drinking water, laundry in waiting and so on. In the USA, most campsites have washing machines and tumblers. This is not the case in Guatemala, but we can give our laundry to a “lavanderia” and retrieve it fresh and dry the next day; this is actually better as we do not have to do it ourselves. Bathrooms are usually clean, but there is always something wrong: broken flush or faucets, water bypassing pipes and coming directly from the wall, no hook to hang the clothes… Well, those minor inconveniences are part of the journey and it is not going to get any better the further south we go anyway… 

We have not observed abject poverty, except a few kids begging or selling chewing gums on the streets and some shanty towns here and there. It is actually better than I expected, but we have been to touristy places, definitely not an accurate picture of the situation in the country. The US border patrol caught 52’000 unaccompanied minors (some no more than 4 years old) in the last six months, coming mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. These kids must have a very good reason to leave on their own this beautiful country and face rape, violence and sometimes death on their journey for a better future “en el Norte”. I would definitely do the same, if I had not been born in the right time and at the right place. Lucky me, I was. 

Les Guatémaltèques sont souriants !

Depuis que nous sommes au Guatémala les gens sont très souriants, gentils, attentifs. Ils veulent souvent engager la conversation avec nous. 

Les villages sont assez jolis avec des maisons peintes de toutes les couleurs ou dans la campagne on voit des huttes en adobes avec des toits de chaumes. Les femmes lavent le linge à la main et le fond sécher dehors se qui rajoutent encore des couleurs. Dans les Hautes Terres (Antigua) les mayas sont habillés en vêtement locaux : des jupes longues et des tuniques pleines de couleurs. Elles vendent des colliers, des châles, des ponchos, des sacs, des tee-shirts avec Guatemala marqué dessus etc… Elles sont souvent accompagné par un enfant en bas âge à qui elle doivent donner le sein.

Les paysages sont luxuriant : jungle, collines, montagnes, champs de maïs, d’huile de palme, de cocotiers, prairies, cannes à sucre. Il y a toutes sortes de verts : du vert foncé au vert le plus clair. Ils font aussi beaucoup d’élevage, et en circulant on a vu beaucoup de vaches, des veaux et des taureaux, des chevaux …

Dans la jungle nous avons vu des animaux sauvages : singe en toile d’araignée, singe hurleur, renard, serpent, paon, oiseaux et fourmilier. La nuit on entendait le bruit de la foret avec ses criquets, les singes hurleurs, les oiseaux…

Three countries in three days

Tikal

We are now in Guatemala, camping in the world famous Maya site of Tikal, in the middle of the rain forest. Tikal is the most beautiful Maya site we have visited. It is huge and covered by forest. We walk under the canopy in the shade and here and then we come across a pyramid or a palace in ruins. Simply gorgeous, and surprisingly deserted, which is absolutely fine with us. I am wondering why there are so few tourists. True, Tikal is a bit remote, lost in the forest and relatively far from big cities. But summer vacation has started and Guatemala is safe, welcoming and friendly. We left Mexico for Belize last Thursday, stayed two days in Belize and crossed the border to Guatemala on Saturday. Crossing borders is pretty straightforward, it takes roughly one hour, the delay mainly due to the fact that we have to fill paperwork for importing our vehicle each time… A bit cumbersome but far easier than, say, crossing a border in West Africa… Mexico, Belize, Guatemala: three neighbouring countries, but a world apart from each other. Belize is very Caribbean, particularly on the coast; in the highlands it is very British kind of, with tidy colourful houses and trimmed lawns, really cute. I got a haircut in Belize City, I really needed it. Béatrice had a pedicure while Xénia was watching a world cup game. And then Guatemala. We have not seen much of it yet, but we like it already. Our travel guide says that if we liked Chiapas in Mexico, we will love Guatemala, and actually Chiapas was our favorite in Mexico, so let’s see!