Updated Sophie photos

 

 

 

Last day in Panama

Spent the morning walking along the Cinta Costera that runs along the Bahia de Panamá that has been renovated and landscaped with palm trees, basketball courts and fountains with spectacular views of Panama City. It’s a very popular place for locals to come to run, bike, roller blade and walk with their dogs and we also watched the pelicans diving into the water to catch fish.

The Cinta Costera also runs alongside one of the main road arteries, Avenida Balbao, named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer who crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. He was a busy fellow: in 1509 he set sail as a stowaway, hiding inside a barrel together with his dog Leoncico to escape from his creditors in Santo Domingo. That must have been fun!

We walked about 9 kms from the Fish Market and back again which is where we had agreed to meet Evelio. We were bloody hot by the end of it and scoffed down a plate of papas frites (chips!) with lots of salt and beers. Never did a beer taste so good!

Then back home to do house cleaning duties like washing floors. We'll pack this afternoon in preparation for our morning flight tomorrow.

In two week's time, Panama will host the Summits of the Americas; and the wet season will probably start.

The summit will force the city into lock-down as the security will be immense. Obama will be here along with all the head honchos from the Caribbean countries. On the agenda is the return of Cuba to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the re-establishment of Cuba's relations with the United States. Venezuela will be raising the issue of Obama's recent declaration against it as being a threat to US security.

All down the street past Kathryn and Regis' house will be armed guards as the American Embassy is just around the corner. Kathryn and Regis went there the other day to organise Sophie's US passport. She is a Panamian by birth but will have dual citizenship - triple actually as she will have an Australian passport also.

The BioMuseo

In the morning My Friend and I went out on Kathryn and Regis's bikes for a swing around the neighbourhood and further afield through some more gated communities like Clayton with their nice homes.

There is also a place called the City of Knowledge (Ciudad de Saber) which has a small shopping centre with lots of International agencies like the UN World Food Programme where Regis has his office. The guard wasn't too happy that I took a photo here. Very sensitive!

The guards at the shopping centre wouldn't let us take our bikes up close to the coffee shop where we planned to have coffee, wanting us to leave them further out in the street where we couldn't see them. Shows how we take these small things for granted at home. We declined on the coffee here and continued on where we found another shopping strip where we could park the bikes right outside and we enjoyed a nice piece of cake and a coffee.

On our return, whilst we were still hot and sweaty, we took Boba the dog for a walk and even braved letting the huge creature off his lead so he could have more of a run. He was very well-behaved although he did disappear for a time into a piece of jungle and was seen at one point like greased lightning dashing across the jungle floor - having a wonderful time - whilst we peered down from the hill above wondering where he was!

Just after lunch we drove with Kathryn to the BioMuseo. This is an amazingly brightly colourful piece of architecture designed by the renown architect Frank Gehry, although it is in fact not quite finished - with 3 rooms still to go: the ones housing the aquariums; a bit of cheek to be charging full price when it is not completed. Nonetheless, it is very good, especially the multiscreen immersive video installation.

I didn't realise that this was Gehry’s first building in Latin America, and he took the job in part because his wife is Panamanian. We have visited his museum in Balboa in Spain and I am real fan of his work.

The design centres on an outdoor atrium looped by galleries on two levels, the whole thing blanketed by metal canopies of different shapes and sizes, clad in blue, red, yellow, orange and green. They echo Panama’s traditional tin-roof housing and its Neotropical habitat. Viewed from afar, some say, it also looks like the ships that ply the canal.

It is a great concept I think to have a museum showcasing the movement of species between the north and south American continents across the isthmus and Panama's biodiversity. Just a bit bigger than Ireland, Panama has more species of birds, amphibians and animals (if insects are included) than the United States and Canada combined. The scientific content of the exhibits has been put together with the assistance of the Smithsonian Institute and with funds raised by the Amador Foundation.

As a by-the-way piece of information, not really to do with biodiversity, we also learned that the first steamship to pass through the canal when it opened in 1914 was the Ancon, and thus (I presume) the name of the Cerro Ancon that we climbed in our first week's visit here.

And another piece of trivia: I had never heard about the Darién Scheme which was a botched attempt by Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama in the Gulf of Darién in the late 1690s. Scotland lost so much money that it had no choice but to join in a union with England in 1707.

Amazing what you learn!

Dinner at Segundo Muelle in town with Kathryn and Regis - and Sophie. Peruvian food - just great; probably the best food out that we have had on this trip. We left it to Regis to order and sat back and enjoyed a couple of pisco sours. Yum.

The gifts have arrived from Australia - via Regis' mom in Florida where she is holidaying. The parcel then came into Panama via special courier.

Kathryn and Regis are thrilled with everything and are overwhelmed by everyone's generosity.

The 2 Cs

A cemetery and a causeway.

There is a big cemetery down the road from where Kathryn and Regis live that we pass everyday as we go in and out of their community - and I was curious about it.

It is the Corozal American Cemetery. Buried here are more than 5,000 American veterans plus others who died during the construction and operation of the Panama Canal. Some died from Yellow Fever.

In 1914, the Canal Commission designated land for use as a cemetery for U.S. remains. The graves contain veterans from the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II and most conflicts that followed. A small visitor centre displays the history of the cemetery and American involvement in Panama. In addition to honouring members of the U.S. armed forces, the cemetery commemorates the deeds and sacrifices of U.S. civilians who contributed to the security and operations of the Panama Canal. Corozal became a permanent American military cemetery in 1979 when ownership of the canal was transferred to Panama.

We walked down there this morning with Boba the dog being pretty sure we wouldn't be let in with the dog - which was correct. But the guard went and got the superintendent to check on the rules and Mr Gutierrez walked down from his office in the visitor centre to greet us. A very personable man with impeccable English. He offered to take us on a tour when we returned (minus the dog) so we made plans to come back later today with Kathryn.

So Boba got a walk and we returned home to continue with our plan for the day which was to visit the BioMuseo with Kathryn who had Regis' car for the day for this purpose. As things turned out, there was not enough time when we got there - but it was closed anyway. So we will return tomorrow.

Part of the day's plan was to continue past the museum along the causeway with its nice views across to the city. Many expensive sailing boats are berthed here and it all looks pretty swish with lots of cafes and restaurants along the foreshore obviously catering for the well-heeled yachties. It was very picturesque.

The Amador Causeway is a road that connects the mainland of Panama City with a small archipelago of four islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was built in 1913 with rocks excavated from Snake Cut during construction of the Panama Canal. The site was originally part of a U.S. military complex known as Fort Amador, established to protect the entrance to the canal.

We then braved the traffic and headed into the depths of the city and its skyscrapers. Here we were headed for one of Kathryn's old haunts when she and Regis lived in an apartment when they first came to Panama: a nice cafe with lovely pastries and coffee.

Returning home in the traffic was real heart-in-your-mouth stuff. We got to the cemetery as planned and met up with Juan Gutierrez. He is a civil servant employee of the American Battle Monuments Commission which maintains American military cemeteries in foreign countries. He has been managing this cemetery in Panama for 2 years and is missing his wife and daughter who are in Sweden, unable to relocate because of some issue with his wife's Swedish pension.

The cemetery is very pleasant and nicely maintained. He has more plans for it including some bench seats for visitors to use to rest and reflect although he is somewhat ambivalent about this idea because he said they are most likely to be used by his Panamanian employees who he thinks may find the benches too tempting.

We had a lovely time with him wandering around and asking questions.

The Metropolitan Park

The 265 ha Parque Natural Metropolitano de Panama was inaugurated in 1988. It is located within the city boundaries and provides a tropical rainforest oasis with several walking trails which we did - ending at the short but steep summit, Cedar Hill Lookout Point at 150 m above sea level. Here there are great views of the Panama Canal entrance on the Pacific side, the Bridge of the Americas, Ancon Hill and an incredible panoramic view of Panama City. The trails pass by vines, bindweed, shrubs, orchids and trees between 30 and 50 meters high.

We saw a couple of agoutis running speedily through the undergrowth; these are a type of rodent related to the guinea pig.

The reserve is noted for the Geoffroy’s tamarin monkey but we didn't see any - but we saw several black monkeys at the mirador at the summit; I think these are howler monkeys. So we spent a pleasant couple of hours here in the parque.

 

 

Evelio's brother Roberto picked us up to take us to the Albrook Mall where we enjoyed lunch at the Crepes and Waffles restaurant (and free wi-fi! - it's terrible at Kat and Regis' house). Also did some supermarket shopping for them including Ketchup for Regis.

Then home via Roberto's taxi - and out of the heat.

 

 

 

 

Back to Panama

So we leave Cuba fascinated by the different experiences we have had and most particularly the stark contrasts in circumstances as revealed by the places we have stayed.

The 3 casa particulares - the one in Trinidad and the other in Havana were light years apart and then there was the very pleasant one with Ridel the doctor in Viñales.

But how do you explain a medical specialist living in a nice but modest casa earning 60 CUCs a month (!) - and no wonder they are supplementing his professional income by opening their home to tourists where he can earn 25CUCs a night plus another 10 pp for dinner - with the even by our standards sumptuously appointed city apartment in Havana of Staly and her husband? Does the husband have special favours afforded him because his father worked in the Embassy in London? Does he have connections with The Party? And not surprisingly they were charging more - and happy to accept payment in Euros. Savvy.

We enjoy a lovely breakfast (as usual of generous proportions): a platter of fruit, toast in this case - sometimes in the poorer places out in the provinces it was stale and inedible, cake and biscuit, eggs, coffee, jug of juice - papaya mixed with guava.

The taxi driver was on time in an ancient vehicle even though it was a Hyundai but this journey seemed to be longer than I had remembered when we had arrived over a week ago; about 10 minutes before the airport we found at why because the driver slowed at a roundabout crowded with people and asked in Spanish if we'd mind if he picked up a friend (at least that is what I thought he said) and it turned out this was the plan and a buxom woman in a uniform with large glamorous (probably pseudo) gold sunglasses and long gold-painted fingernails squeezed into the back seat with me. Turns out she worked at the airport.

The airport is very basic; we expected no less and even though we were 3 hours early there was already a queue forming at a very poorly marked check-in counter which appeared to be ours. This all took an hour but fortunately we arrived at the departure tax counter just as another window was opened. Emigration was well-staffed and uncrowded and we were processed through quickly with our previous docket with the visa we had paid for at Panama on leaving there and which we had conscientiously ensured we never lost for fear we would have to pay for it all over again. We were glad to be finally rid of it.

Keeping an eye on the documentation can be a tiring aspect of travel. My Friend had had a sleepless night because he thought he had lost his Yellow Fever booklet. We found it this morning.

Now we wait for the plane to Panama.

In many respects I can't wait to leave Cuba.

Last thoughts on Cuba

We have seen a good assortment of what is on offer. Cuba is interesting but not an easy place to travel; there are plenty of discomforts.

I can't believe the poverty and expected it to be more scenic. It had its lovely spots for sure but I wouldn't choose it as a travel destination for that. It was so barren in parts and the heat was hard-going.

We had good accommodation for the most part, plenty of food but little variety (we expected this): rice, black beans, eggs, devon (they call this ham), fruit: pineapple, papaya; vegetables: tomatoes, diced cabbage for the mist part. We were probably lucky to get this from all accounts. Good coffee! Supermarkets were poor in content and lack of customer service a real standout.

Having said that, the ordinary man in the street, so to speak, was pleasant. But for all of that, Cuba nevertheless registers some enviable and somewhat surprising social markers such as low infant mortality and high life expectancy -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salim-lamrani/cubas-health-care-system-_b_5649968.html

It has a literacy rate of 99.8% and is almost free of the drug trade and its accompanying violence. The murder rate is low compared to many other countries.

It is a country in a time warp. It'll be interesting to see where the detente between the US and Cuba announced by President Obama last December will lead. How will the country deal with an influx of tourists? Will it be over-run by US multinationals - especially the fast-food companies? Regis thinks things will revert back to pre-Castro times with the wealth skewed to a few and life made much worse for the poor.

This makes Cuba an interesting country to visit because it undoubtedly will change and not necessarily for the good. Many people fear the march of McDonald's into the country and want to visit it before this happens. No doubt many will find the socialist attitudes and creaking infrastructure challenging.

Interestingly, on the 17th when we were on our last day's ride out of Trinidad, the headlines in the New York Times stated:

"U.S.-Cuba Talks on Restoring Diplomatic Ties End Abruptly".

Apparently this is in response to Obama's declaration that Venezuela is a threat to national security, angering the Caribbean countries - including Cuba - which have rallied around Venezuela in support.

Cuba is just interesting. Simply that.