The Road to Panama City

Sometimes runs northward to Nicaragua first. Unsure of what to do after Costa Rica, I boarded a northbound international bus with the intention of going diving in the Bay Islands of Honduras. What I actually wanted to do was go to Bolivia, but this did not hit me until I was finally reading the Bolivia section of my guidebook during that bus ride. Realizing my error, I alighted in Granada, Nicaragua and desperately searched for airfare to La Paz.

The cheapest ticket by far was from Panama City, but that was now two days' travel by bus. Still, it was worth the saving of several hundred dollars, so I decided to take the first bus from Managua to San Jose the next morning. Unfortunately, I was too one-track-minded to get to enjoy Granada's colonial architecture before dark. Here are some pictures borrowed from the web:



I caught a microbus into Managua, an hour away, and got to observe firsthand the phenomenon of busses not really stopping for passengers. They tended to slow down instead, and those alighting had to jump off and run a few steps while those boarding had to run to catch up, sometimes after throwing their luggage to the handler riding on top of the bus. It was all a bit comical and proved true the next day as well. Fortunately, I was always riding the full length of the route.

The Nicaraguans I met during my brief stay were very friendly, but everyone tried to warn me about this and that danger. I found a decent hostel near the Ticabus station and the proprietors insisted on walking me to and back from the local diner which was just a block and a half away.

The next morning I discovered that all long-distance busses were full. Determined to get to Panama City in one day, I took a local bus to Peñas Blancas, walked across the border, taxied to Liberia, taxied again to San Jose (the cabbie booked a domestic flight for me enroute, reading off my passport and credit card info while driving as fast as possible, and definitely overtaking over 100 vehicles on the curvy, one-laned, three-hour speed ride), flew to Golfito (where I got take-out from a nice Chinese family-run restaurant), bussed to Paso Canoas, walked across the border again, waited for two hours, and caught an overnight bus to Panama City.

Excellent displays at the Panama Canal museum.

Including a small aquarium section.

Miraflores Locks.

A cruise ship enters, guided by little vehicles called mules on the sides. This particular ship is paying $78,000 to pass through the canal.

Gates open and the ship is lowered to that level.

Successful passage! One more lock to go before they're at sea level with the Pacific.

My favorite thing about Panama City was the city busses, decommissioned former U.S. school busses, all decked out with loud stereos systems and even louder paint jobs. I was mesmerized for half an hour on this pedestrian walkway over Via España.