Panama, The Canal and Beyond

Day Eight – 14 Nov 2014

Weather: And I thought it was hot in Panama!

I was up at 6 and the first thing to come to mind is the sunrise. I spent a half hour on the balcony taking pics of the strings of ships waiting to enter the canal. Remember the lights I saw last night thinking it was the causeway? Nope. It was a line of ships.

I didn’t bother with breakfast and was down to check out and then board the transfer. One of my tourmates who is not going to Cartagena was on the transfer and I had thought she was in her 60s. She told me she was 85! I nearly fell out of my seat. She was amazing.

We arrived at the airport by 8:30 and check in was smooth with short lines at checkin, immigration and security. The condition of the departures is much better than the arrivals area and as I check out the shops, I see a new terminal being built nearby. Exactly what they need.

I picked up my second t-shirt – yeah, I got a grand total of two – and dropped into Dunkin Donuts for their Big Toasty. Delicious. And the guy sitting next to me said he loved the smell and was resisting going to get one.

We are a group of six going to Cartagena. One couple remained behind as the husband was sick. Which reminds me, a few have gotten traveller’s gut on this tour and not one of them took Dukoral before leaving home. They had never heard of it and weren’t offered it by their travel clinics. This baffled me. It’s the oral e-coli/cholera vaccine that can protect you from 70% of the causes of traveller’s gut. It not only protects you from the bugs in the water, but from improperly prepared food which can happen anywhere, including at home. But at home, you stay in bed. That’s not always an option on tour. A little more digging and I learned that it’s not available in the US. They consider it too short acting to be of use since it lasts only 3 months, but that’s more than enough for travelers.

The water in Panama was perfectly safe to drink (they boast it’s the best in the world and it did taste great) but every one of those that got sick all said they had salad. I ate the same salad and drank the same water to no ill effect. One of the sick girls is on the Cartagena extension and she spent the day in bed as soon as we arrived.

So, the six of us board the Copa flight to Cartagena. It takes less than an hour and the views of Cartagena are wonderful.

Of course, I can’t help but wonder what sea level rise is going to do to all those buildings on the sand bar.

Getting through Colombian customs is much quicker than what we faced in Panama. The customs guy asked if I only had the one bag and I said yes and he pointed me towards the exit. The others had to put their luggage through an x-ray machine.

Outside, I met David Romera, our guide for the weekend. He’s wearing a TT shirt and nametag, unlike the Panama side of the tour where they wore Gamboa Tours. He’s a pleasant guy and noted that we would get an orientation walk this afternoon. Sweet!

Once the six of us are together, we board a mini-bus and it’s a short ride to the old town where our hotel is located. David said it was a 400 year old house that had been converted into a hotel. The rooms have no windows to the street. We face the interior courtyard.

My room is huge with a cast iron bathtub next to my bed, a sink just outside the washroom and a shower in the washroom. It has safe, fridge, shampoo stuff and like all the hotels, a good selection of tv channels though it takes time to find one in English. There is free wifi as well.

And rubber duckies in my tub.

David gave us 30 minutes to freshen up and given the oppressive heat, I got into capris and headed down. Then I realized there was a huge cage in the middle of the courtyard and two toucans there. One tourmate had one of the birds on her arm.

Let the photo frenzy start!

It flew off when it got bored and we met up with David. The first thing he did was to give us a package of wipes. He said the heat can get so bad, we will be constantly wiping the sweat off our face.

Okay, now I’m looking forward to seeing the snow at home.

I think I’ll fall back on an old army trick and borrow a small towel from the hotel, wet it and leave it in a bottle carrier on my backpack for easy access. That works really well in oppressive heat.

David gave us maps and took us out on the street.

He said the street names can change and there’s not always signage, so they use the plazas as reference points. He points to the small plaza at the end of the street and says it’s Madrid, so if we get lost, we just have to remember that.

He showed us a supermarket around the corner and we did a loop of a block as he pointed out restaurants, the currency exchange and the friendly locals.

He answered all our questions and we were done by 2:30 with timings set for tomorrow. I go back to my room, grab some stuff and head for the Cartagena wall. I’ve walked on a city wall in North America (Quebec), Europe (Dubrovnik) and China (Xi’an). Now I get to add South America to that list.

The wall almost completely encloses the old city with a section missing where the old meets the new. I walked down to the artisans market which is a string of shops under the wall and walked up the ramp to the wall.

It was hot and I drank two full bottles of water and two bottles of Coke and had an ice cream. There were shaded spots to take a break in and I made the entire walk without a hint of heat stroke (unlike Dubrovnik where I didn’t start out with enough water).

There were street vendors with water all over the place so it was easy to restock. My plantar’s fasciitis acted up and I almost didn’t finish when I realized I was close to the hotel, so I stopped, stretched and carried on.

I dropped back down to the street at the artisans market and found my fridge magnets and a cat figurine. I picked up a Fanta and more water and trudged back into the hotel by 5:30. (It gets dark at 6 – though David said it’s perfectly safe in this area even after dark). I said hello to the toucan on the way back to my room.

I was wasted, so I took a nice long shower and sat back to sort photos and stuff. While my tummy has been fine, my allergies are acting up and I’m getting a cough. Funny thing is I always brought a bottle of cough syrup with me but it expired a couple months ago, so I tossed it and didn’t replace it. And I haven’t seen a pharmacy all day.