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Panama land of many different peoples - Indian (originals), Spanish (the usual!) and African Carribean (Panama canal). Arriving in Panama city at night we were amazed at how developed it was and American. It has 2 big malls complete with all the usual fast food (McD etc.) and designer clothing stores. We watched the Simpsons movie one night at the Multiplex mall. There were loads of the usual up market hotels - Raddisson etc. etc. Yet just outside in the old quarter there are some very poor people so it is a city of extremes. Walking through town (which is not that big) we saw loads of developments - apparently a lot of them financed by the likes of Trump. Through the old quarter to the west of the town you come to the causeway. This was a beautiful area which thronged with people walking their dogs, runners and cyclists. As you go out on the causeway to your left is Panama city (as per photo) and to the right is the canal. Did some fishing off the causeway and caught a few needlefish and garfish (photo in album to prove!) while Cath lived her dream and hit the malls!
We did not spend much time in Panama city as there was not too much to do except for the canal which we decided to do just before we flew out. Intent on having some beach time we wittled our options down to San Blas and Bocas del Toro both on the Carribean side. Bocas seemed the more chilled option and we flew out there the following day.
Bocas del Toro, a bunch of islands, has become somewhat of an American retirees Florida with loads of tourists from Europe thrown into the mix. It is situated in a delta region and thus has a massive mangrove area sheltered by reefs on the seaward side. We started off our time there with one of the popular one day tours that took us into the mangroves. We saw dolphins in dolphin bay (!) which were so harrassed. Each dolphin that dared show his or her little head soon had 15 + boats jetting after it ... am not sure they were living the care free life that they were used to 10 yrs previously or what many of the touristos/retirees were looking for! This was followed by some snorkelling. Given the river flowing into the ocean and mangrove area the visibility is not that great maybe 5ms or so. I swam away from the crowds and found myself blissfully alone checking out the odd reef fish / piece of coral. However my aloneness did not last for long as something about the same size of me came into the vicinity. My first thought was shark and that got the adrenaline pumping then I thought you gotta be kidding me must be another snorkeller - it wasn´t there was no one in sight. It was in fact a nurse shark which is about as harmless as they come but still enough to get the blood flowing a little quicker! Another German girl also came across one later on in our trip in a different area. We finished off at Red Frog beach which was great for body surfing but did not last long as the good ol´ tropical afternoon showers came down. We spent a few days on the main island Colon and then headed to Bastementos about 5mins water taxi away. We stayed at Tio Toms owned by a German couple who had been there for the past 11 years. The first arvo Cath and I took their sea kayak out and braved the 2 metre swells on the ocean side of the island for a little trolling. This was rewarded in not such a long time by a 14 pound king mackerel. Our first really decent sized ocean fish ! It took about 15mins to subdue but was soon just in (!) the kayak and headed home for dinner. The next day we went to Wizards beach and spent sometime swimming in the surf and then a little fishing which was rewarded by a nice 9 pound yellowfin jack just near some rocks. I could not believe how good the fishing was but that was where the luck ended as I went on 4 fishing trips after in a boat that and ended up with very little. On the first Cath and I went out night fishing. I ended up hooking into a grouper - rockfish that got down in it´s cave and was not coming out that night. Jeff one of the guides told a hilarious story. Now imagine with the Afro Caribbean accent... he lived right next to the beach and had a few pigs. One day one of them disappeared - he had some idea of what it might be so he got a really strong rope, tied a massive hook baited it and threw it out. Soon enough he caught the culprit a 400 pound grouper rockfish whose stomach contained the missing animal! This was followed by many more tall tails that were hilarious!!! Back to the real truth (!) - the second we caught nothing to write home about and I ended up breaking my rod!! The grouper do get really big and snatch more like gulp down fish etc. as it passes their caves - once they are back in their refuges it is almost impossible to get them out - and thus follows the dismal tail of my grouper experience on that night and on the next trip - I went out with an American chap who caught a nice wahoo and grouper (which was only 30 pounds and thus not too hard to pull away from the rocks with the help of the boat). It was nice to be on the boat and experience the catches - I managed to hook into 2 groupers the one which shredded the line and was not at all interested in leaving his cave which he managed to get into. The second managed to break the wire trace which I suspected was very old - man!!! The final trip was awesome in that the sea was absolutely boiling with bonito (Tuna family about 30cms - small ones). However there were no predators hunting them - saw a few 30 pounds + tuna coming in and out of the waves but they were not interested in rapalas suspect they were very well fed! Did have some luck and caught a red snapper off the bottom using bonito as bait. Enough fishing tails! The one night at the Tios it was the Ina´s birthday and they invited a local Afro Carribean musician over. I cannot describe how much he made us laugh but the videos will testify! Other highlights of our Bocas time were a motor bike ride into the jungle in the middle of the island and a lot more beach time. We had a fantastic time and felt very rested at the end of it all.
We arrived back in Pan City a few days before we were due to fly to Guatemala and went to see the canal. Very impressive and a huge money earner for the economy. Have a few small stats with the photos. They are in the process of extending it due to the demand - not suprising given the rapid growth in globilisation and continued growing dominance of the likes of India and China. We found the Panamanians very friendly but especially the Afro Carribean people who were so so chilled - easy going easy to talk too...
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