Panama is a country of contrasts, probably more so than any other country I have traveled through on this expedition. There are definitely a lot of other countries in the world where you can see the stark contrast between rich and poor, the haves and have nots but because Panama is such a small country relatively speaking, these contrasts can literally be observed without really going anywhere or even trying.
Category Archives: Countries
Scuba Coiba and Santa Catalina, Panama
February 11, 2009 – 9:41 am
Our last destination in Panama was a sleepy town called Santa Catalina. Surfers first came sometime in the early 80s and not much has been developed since, aside from a few restaurants, hostels and cabins. This would be a good place to come “to get away from it all” as there is zero cell phone service or internet access. For better or for worse, it’s a seemingly odd little vortex of a tropical town and no one in it, tourist or otherwise, has any clue what is going on. After about 45 minutes trying to look for our hostel on one of only 3 dead-end dirt roads, our friends Tom and Steve mentioned that they met someone in the Panama City airport who told them that the town is “really confusing”.
Photo of the Week: Sleepy Newbie
February 9, 2009 – 12:00 pm
Life on the road often involves late nights followed by long days of driving. New crew member Steel Henessey Jones is pictured here catching up on his beauty sleep. Our trip this day took us from Dominical, on Costa Rica’s pacific coast, to Chilamate Eco-Retreat, in the heart of the rainforest.
Done And Done
February 8, 2009 – 7:04 am
No more shipping the trucks! When we were in the planing stages of the expedition, we could not have possibly imagined how difficult, complicated, convoluted, annoying and downright painful the overseas shipping process could be. After four international, overseas container shipments during the course of the expedition, one would think that we are now knowledgeable experts when it comes to shipping vehicles abroad. The sad reality of the situation is the only thing we really know about putting a vehicle into a container and sending it to another country is that we never care to do it again.
Trek To The San Blas Islands
February 6, 2009 – 6:14 pm
4:45 a.m. rolled around and it was time to get up. The great people at Luna’s Castle Hostel, in the Casco Viejo neighborhood of Panama City, set us up with a jeep ride to Carti to meet the rest of The World By Road crew for the first time in the San Blas Islands.
Photo of the Week: Our lives are in your hands
February 6, 2009 – 11:40 am
Photo of the Week-El Capitan!
Sailing the San Blas archipelago around the Darien
February 3, 2009 – 11:36 am
Point of Departure: Cartagena Yacht Club
Point of Arrival: Panama City, Panama via San Blas Islands
Mode of Transport: 30ft Single Mast Sail Boat
Approximate hours at sea: 41
Captain: A gregarious loose cannon named Hernando
Crew: 6 travelers entirely un-experienced in sailing and just trying to get to Panama
Getsemani and Casa El Carretero
January 31, 2009 – 6:03 pm
For those of you that don’t know, the famed Pan American highway isn’t exactly a complete run from Alaska to southern South America, the road unfortunately lacks roughly 57 miles between Panama and Colombia. The reason being: a 3,000 sq/mi. area known as the Darien Gap.
Sailing The Gap
January 25, 2009 – 12:04 pm
It has been a time consuming and difficult process trying to find a way around the Darien Gap here in Colombia, but we have finally managed to bypass the gap and are going to do it in an exciting way. Dealing with the shipping companies in Cartagena has been pretty much par for the course in terms of mind numbing complexity and ridiculousness. The first several quotes we received for our 40′ container were well over $3,000.
New Photos – Navimag Ferry
January 24, 2009 – 9:39 pm
To save a bit on driving time and gas consumption and to take advantage of a unique opportunity to check out the beauty of the Chilean fjords, we decided to take the Navimag Ferry from Puerto Natales more than 2,000 kilometers north to the town of Puerto Montt. The ferry is basically a commercial operation transporting commercial goods such as produce and livestock from the isolated southern coast of Chile to Puerto Montt, where the main highway begins and runs all the way north to Santiago and beyond.
