UNRESTS IN PANAMA

Gatun Locks in Colon

October was a busy months with BDs. We celebrated a total of 
8 , just good October comes only once a year. It’s the peak season for rain and it does rain every day. This month we only had a few days where that shiny object called the sun peaked between the clouds blinding our eyes. Enough time to waterproof all the canvas that had to be scrubbed of bird poop.

With the heavy rains we often loose satellite coverage on TV and of course only when it is the most exciting part of a movie, news etc. The other thing is the power goes out VERY often. We have kind of gotten used to not having power on Sundays. Rumors have it that Panama City has power problems, so they zap it out of our line on weekends, but as I said that is a rumor and you know about those things. The other thing is that when the power goes out they blame it on a car hitting electrical poles.

We had a bad leak on the boat and Sid was finally on board during a heavy downpour and saw where it was coming from and it took him many days to fix the leak.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 “Tigre” Binnie’s cat or what she now calls our cat has taken over. He does eat breakfast and lunch together with all the dogs at Binnie’s but does come down in-between feeding time to sleep on our bed or when we watch TV to chase Sid out of his couch so he can get comfortable on our bean bag chairs. You know cats don’t have owners, they have staff and it shows as he is trying to train us!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

We were getting ready for our friends Bill and Nell Boren from Virginia’s arrival.  Two days before their arrival problems started in Colon, Panama. The US consulate warned us that a number of groups are calling for protests in Panama City and elsewhere in the country. Protests may lead to road and highway closures, disruption of traffic, and possible violence. There are reports that the road linking Panama City to Colon has been closed.

The cause for all this is the Government decided to place the biggest Duty Free Zone in the world up for sale. 35% of the sales were going to be invested for the City of Colon, which by the way pretty much everybody living there is at poverty level. The rest, 65%, was going to go to the government (of course!). The Colon people did not like the idea, especially being afraid of losing their jobs and so they started to demonstrate. Of course there is always some hoodlum to take advantage of the situation and the looting started. Burning tires were blocking the roads in and out of Colon. We found out why they burn tires: they ignite the fastest and burn the longest.

The riot caused the closure of the road from Sabanitas to and from Colon. Sabanitas is the crossing where our road crosses to go to Panama or Colon.  This all happened the day before the arrival of Bill and Nell.

The president told his people that if they must demonstrate to go ahead and left his country to visit China and Vietnam. Within the same day all hell broke loose. A 6 year old girl was killed in a gun battle between thugs and police. One police officer was killed execution style. Then the word came that all Colon was closed, which is the State we are in and that the University in Panama City was going to demonstrate as well, plus one of the biggest Union in Panama was going on strike to support the folks in Colon.

Not good as I had to drive to the airport. Any road closure would have prevented the drive to the airport so I decided to leave early instead of in the afternoon. Word had it that there would be talks around 10 before demonstrating so I thought I was safe to leave at 8:00. One hour later I arrived in Maria Chiquita and a demonstration was already underway, not good! I was pulled aside the road by police so that the demonstrators could pass. I did ask them if it was safe to return the same day and they responded that they will close the road. When I told them that I was planning to return at 22:00 they said “oh, no problema at night”.  Later southbound on the Corridor Norte I noticed a large police presents along the north bound freeway. Then at one of the overpasses some youths came running down the embankment and lighting up the tires lying across the two northbound lanes. 4 police cars were already at the scene but did not seem to do anything about it, that’s when I made the decision that we would not spend the night in Panama City as planned but instead to head straight home. I hit the stores right away and bought what I thought we needed. Then I stayed away from the hot zone around the University and all the mayor arteries in town and headed to the Metro Mall which is about 10 minutes away from the airport and spent all day at the mall waiting for the arrival or Bill and Nell at 21:00.  The worst was I could not do any shopping and fill the car up as I needed the room for my guests LOL. I am not much of a Mall shopper so it was a loooong day. Had dinner, went to the movie and had another hour to wait until their arrival.Just ordering Subway sandwiches for their ride home when Sid called and told me that their flight was delayed by 2 hours! Oh man, that made for a really looooooong day now and the mall was just closing so I had only the airport left. I parked alongside the road at the airport playing Sudoku awaiting their flight. Bill and Nell made it out of customs at 22:30.

They were troopers when they heard the news of the unrest and did not mind driving the two hour drive back to Puerto Lindo. Well, I had dinner for them, rum and coke for Bill and a whole box of wine for Nell, they were happy. Unfortunately they missed the scenic view.

It was a good thing that we drove straight to Puerto Lindo as a huge looting riot brought not just Colon to a standstill but also Panama City. The whole country was demonstrating. Roads were closed for 6 days. The road was blocked 3 miles from here, then half way to Portobelo.

Portobelo had three tire burning areas at both ends of town and in the middle. Between here and Sabanitas there were at least 10 sites with burning tires blocking the road. 

The following photos are not from the riots but from the day after the Black Christ Festival in Portobelo which was one day before Bill and Nell's arrival. 

Stores were running out of food and the president was still overseas and the guy in charge here waited for his word to put a curfew out but that never came, the president obviously does not care for his country.

This is probably a trip Bill and Nell will never forget, having to deal with riots, food shortage and power outages. Not to mention that they live on the water in Va. and Hurricane Sandy was on her way. I think they will think twice whether to visit us again in the future LOL!  

Here is Bill’s story of their hold up in Atlanta and their horrible time in Puerto Lindo:

Well here it is Monday morning, October 22, 2012.............we are finally off to visit Sid and Manuela in Panama. We have been looking forward to this vacation for a very long time. We had a good flight from Virginia to Atlanta where we changed planes for Panama.  We boarded the plane for Panama and dang, we just sat there at the terminal for quite a long time. Finally the Captain said we are being held up for departure as apparently there was some unapproved chemicals found in some luggage in the cargo bay on the plane. Oh no, they found all that coffee we brought................11 pounds to Binnie, about 6 or 7 pounds to Boatbumms, and all those T-J nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes................

I think it was the Captain's!

Well, after about two hours sitting on that plane we were finally cleared to take off. So now Nell and I are worried Manuela will not get word on what happened and will be, hopefully still waiting at the Panama airport............turns out, she found out from Sid we were delayed. After this long day of flying to Panama, we sure were looking forward to the hotel room Manuela got for us near the airport. That was a good idea on Manuela's part because in the morning we could ride in to Panama City and do shopping and see the city and maybe go to the canal before heading out to Summer Place.

Wrong.

We unknowingly landed into a chaotic, rioting, protesting, country. Geez.

Manuela  greeted us at the airport and told us about what is going on in the country and the change in plan, we are going straight to Binnie's place..............so we promptly put on our new carribean sunglasses Manuela got us, so yea, now we get to fit in better with the locals.............

loaded our bags in the car and headed to Summer Place. Dang if Manuela didn't have refreshments for us already in the car too, Rum & Coke, and Box of wine...........heck, we were good to go!!!!! We could see some of the evidence of the tire burning and trash on the road from the various road blocks on the night drive from the airport to Summer Place.

Our first full day at Summer Place, we got a grand tour of the grounds. What a super nice place it is. This is the first time for us near a real jungle with all sorts of fresh food growing and ready for picking.

View from Bill and Nell's Patio

Manuela and Sid had stocked our apartment already with loads of fresh fruit, fridge full of essentials, snacks, plenty of beer, Nell wine, and Rum and coke!!!!!!! 

Heck, we just landed in a ten star resort.......... complete with a gourmet chef. Yea, we had scrumptious Fondue Bourgignonne dinner that first night. And dessert!!!! It was fabulous. Presentation, oh geez.........pictures won't do this justice!!!!!!!! But my tummy did!!!!!!!!! Just trust us on this one!!!!!!!!!! It was dang good!!!

Happy, happy, happy....

Before dinner we met Binnie and her Sid for cocktails and delivered her a little care package which consisted of several items but the most important was we think, the eleven pounds of Dunkin Donuts Coffee she requested. It was really nice to meet Binnie and Sid. Nell and I had a great time sitting on her deck overlooking the Carribean sea talking with them. Thanks so much to Binnie and Sid for inviting us up. 

Earlier in the afternoon Teresa introduced us to Dooger. What a guy, eh critter. Dooger, Binnie's pet Sloth, really brought new meaning to how life in and on and around "Paradise" can be so relaxing and brought a whole new meaning to how everything goes on at very slow pace in that part of the world!!!!!!!!

Teresa and Dooger

What a huger!

Who's got the bigger smile?

Sitting here writing this, there is sooooo much that comes to mind we did while there I could never get it all in here. It was just non stop super fun the whole trip. Ten days went by so fast.  Nell and I will never be able to thank Sid and Manuela for all they did for us this trip. Being  stuck in and around PuertoLindo for the first five days or so due to the protest across the country wasn't all that bad. Why I have never had to actually live off the land like we did here before..........eh, jungle. Dang jungle food ain't bad.  And as Sid says, nothing gets the day started better than a good "BM".

aka, Manuela's fresh, cold, home made Bloody Mary.

Sid is right. Again.

 We went to Mame Island and spent the better part of the day playing games, eating Manuela's gourmet jungle food platter, complete with fresh home made bloody mary's!!!!!!!!!! and snorkeling. 

No water!

Wild island flowers

Jungle Food

Of course we had Beer, Wine, and Rum & Coke for backup.................Doesn't get much better than this!! But hey, water and food was scarce due to the protests so we had to improvise the best we could.............so the little island was the perfect place to forge for food, fish, jungle food, and since there is no water, Bloody Mary's were in order........................then there was a side trip on the way back in to another island to see some wild monkey's. Boy, they love saltine crackers!!!

Hey dude....where is that cracker I just had in my hands?

Hey Bill......... did you take that cracker??!!! It's not that bad with the food shortage here!

 We took off one day in the kayaks for a really cool trip that went past Mame Island and we winded............. paddled,  around through the mangroves...........well, since we couldn't take the car, heck, the backroads .............that is, the water route will work!!!!!!!...........................of course after a while of paddling and Nell and I being taken with all there is to see in the mangroves, we didn't realize what was going on with our tour guides who are, we thought, paddling hard behind us.............Nell and I in the kayak for two up front, apprently had to help our guides get through the mangroves with a little tow............ we didn't know we were towing them for a long time ..................................and that we just happened to not know we were actually doing this little tow job for probably ten miles, maybe longer..............(hey, we aren't exagerating here!!!) 

well, seemed that long when one is towing TWO MORE kayaks, loaded down with people,  gear and those alcholic refreshments.................. well, anyway, the joke was on us............but Manuela got some great photos since she didn't have to paddle. We finally made it to Panamarina for a really good lunch. We worked up a pretty good appetite by now too!!!!!! Really neat little place. Then it was back to the kayaks for scenic trip back to Summer Place.

went snorkeling around this island

Puerto Lindo in background and Mame Island on very left

Now in the middle of all this fun we are having, we get news of a monster hurricane heading straight for where we live in Virginia and ultimately it did hit North of us, sparing our property of damage. After a few Skype conversations with our daughters, we confirmed we were going to be spared the brunt of the storm. The only good news about this devasting storm was it sucked all the bad weather out from the Panama area leaving us with mostly sunshine or at the worst, overcast days. Only one or two days did it rain and really not much for what it is supposedly this time of year. One night the power went out.

One night we got introduced to Summer Place's John Deere (nicknamed)  generator. That sucker is loud!!!!!!!!! But Sid had warned us about it so we knew what was going on when it fired up at about four in the morning. That thing sounds like a 767 taking off from your driveway when it fires up..............but it ain't all bad, our A/C came back on with everything else in the apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just did soooo much in the short time we were there, we can't hardly put it all together. It was all just plain non stop fun. One day we drove to Juan Gallego and Jose Pobre, on the only road open. 

Laundry day in the jungle

Not sure if this is a bar but same guy sits here every time we come here

We did a little hike up the mountain, couldn't have been more than five miles up in ninety degrees of temp in the jungle to Jim/Heather property. Sure glad we had plenty of refreshments and in good shape!!!!! Well, ok, I was feeling the climb pretty good............... Wow, what a view from up there though.

View over Panamarina

Back at Sid and Manuela's we had a scrumptous home made super fresh Coconut cocktail, yea, made from real coconut juice straight from the coconuts. For dinner, it was a short walk from Summer Place to Cindy and Reed's house where we caught up with them and walked on down the road to have Pizza at Silvy “Wunderbar”. Due to the protests and the roads closed they were short on booze so we brought our own. Worked out pretty good. Pizza was really good.

(Manuela's Note: while heading to Silvy's we were so lucky to run into a flock of Aracari Toucans. Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)

 

We finally made it to the town of Portobelo via taxi, as Manuela and Sid were still a little concerned about driving the car there and possibly getting it messed up due to the protests. We walked all through the little town there and bargained for a boat ride across the bay to hike up the mountain and check out the old fort there. 

 

Those old forts are pretty amazing for what was done back in that time. We got a nice tour of the shoreline around the bay on the way back to Portobelo. After a quick refreshment break, that being nothing else but good ole ice cold beer, at a local outdoor restaurant, we walked up to Captain Jacks for some good ole local Jungle food. Vietnamese chef there did it up right. That was some dang good jungle food!!!!!!!!!!!!! Drinks aren't bad either..................

Those colorful private buses are a sight to see. Brilliant colors and imaginative paint schemes. A lot of them have pictures of family members on the back. Pretty interesting. And boy do they drive like they own the road, I mean the whole damn road!!!!!!

There was plenty of evidence left behind from the Black Christ festival that took place the weekend before we arrived. Lot of cleaning up left to do!!!!

Panamanians don't believe in trash cans

Portobelo was a very interesting town with a lot of history.

The day excursion ended with a couple of rum and cokes and wine at the Bambu Lodge in Puerto Lindo.

Wore him out!

The one day it rained the most, but not all day thankfully, we went to see the Panama Canal. But before that we had scrumptious breakfast by Manuela. Fresh jungle food and a wonderful........ full of good stuff omelet, all the fix'ns, plus her famous Bloody Mary's!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, nothing like a good BM to start the morning off.................... Sid stayed home this trip to gather more jungle food and work on Paradise.

 Off to the Canal in the pouring rain............. Now this place is amazing too. Engineering marval. We saw the Mexican Navy's Sailing school ship come through while there. We saw this ship in Norfolk this past summer for Op Sail. Beautiful ship. Plus we got to see a freighter go through with a couple more waiting their turn. On the drive out we got to see part of the new canal under construction. Massive.

(Manuela adds: Just as we arrived at the locks the sky opened up just over us and the sun came out while it still rained all around us, the minute we hoped back into the car it started raining again. We did drive what seemed a loooong way through the rainy jungle to Fort Lorenzo which is by the mouth of the Chagres River).

Then it was off to Shelter Bay Marina for lunch. Another great meal. Fresh Sea Bass, coconut rice, vegies, Taco salad, it was all really good. On the way back we stopped and got some roasted coconut. Now this is good stuff.

That evening we had dinner up at Cindy and Reed's house and a little pool game or two before dinner. Chef Sid did a wonderful scrumptous delicious job of barbecuing ALL that food on the grill. Filet Migon, Chicken, Shrimp wrapped in bacon, lobster, pork, baby back ribs, potatoes, egg plant...........Huge salad............oh geez, it doesn't end. All while some of us tried our hand at pool, Binnie and Pam had a good game.............. and all the girls worked on getting the table set and all the other food out, salad, etc. It was like a gourmet buffet you have never seen before.  Even celebrated Pam's birthday with a cake and candles. What a great time. Thanks so much to Cindy and Reed for having us up. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Sunday is-Ping Pong at Binnie’s, and we hope the end of demonstrations across the country.

Quite a few cruisers showed up for ping pong and some refreshments. Turned out to be another gorgeous day, no rain.

Our last full day we went to Embera Indian Village. That was quite an adventure too. Before we left for the (dug out wood'n) boat ride up the river to the village, we had a short, exciting, heart pounding, exhilarating side trip visit with a couple of their pet monkeys. Well, Manuela did, Nell and I were standing a little further behind her when one of the monkey's decided he wanted some, eh, I think, ALL of Manuela's hair!!!!!!!!!! 

That little innocent sweet monkey that I just knew wouldn't hurt a fly suddenly grabbed her hair, ALL of it, and would not let go!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally the Embera guy got the monkey off of her with most of her hair intact, a little out of place, ok, a lot out of place!!!!! but all in all, not tooooo bad............could have been worse, well, maybe it couldn't have been worse................it was pretty dang bad ......................at least her tears subsided somewhat after the little innocent critter finally let go..............like they don't get enough wet weather around there as it is, Manuela tried to add to it...............but shoot, he was a cute little innocent little Monkey wasn't he...................he just wanted to play...............

ok, anyway.............we are now off to the boat for a relaxing ride up to the Embera Village. It apparently was carved out from a huge tree, cheating a little with a little outboard on the back. We soon found out dang if you don't need it!!!!!!!!!!! It was nice a smooth ride, till we hit the rapids, then it got really cool. That was a fun trip. 

Once there we got a overview of their heritage, history, a few dances that we got to participate in, and a great lunch. Yep, more Jungle food!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The fish was really good. Nell got some of their crafts for gifts here at home. It was pretty cool while there, one of the Indian ladies actually took Nell's bracelet of her wrist for a closer look as to how it was made. Manuela made Nell this bracelet this trip and gave it to Nell about half way through our visit!!!!!!!!!!!! So Manuela, in their language.............of course............explained she made it and then gave them lessons on how to do her crafty jewelry. 

On the drive back to Summer Place, I thought for a spit second we had James Bond driving. Geez, he ain't got nothing on Manuela when it comes to driving..............I mean we are cruising down the narrow two lane country road, hilly, rolling alone and dag gum all the sudden man, we did a complete one eighty in the middle of the highway at sixty miles an hour and at the same time Manuela lets out a, well, I don't really what it was at first, me and Nell are instantly what the heck is happening.............all within a micro second here.................well it turns out, the traveling fresh fruit, vegies, and fresh caught shrimp guy was on the side of the road in his little truck......................we sure didn't know that is what was in that truck at first............. but it's a local thing...............wow. What a bat turn. She wasn't going to let that truck get away!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

FOOOOD

Needless to say, we had yet another amazing Chef Manuela gourmet shrimp, all the fix'ns dinner, on our last night. Fixed in her famous hot sauce recipe no less. Damn it was good. We had more fabulous dinners than one can imagine by Manuela and Sid this trip!!!

After dinner we went out to the deck over looking the carribean for a few after dinner cocktails before calling it a night, on this our last night at Summer Place, in Paradise, and near Paradise's mooring............drop dead gorgeous view.

We can't thank ya'll, all ya'll enough for a great time. All the sightseeing, meals, food, drinks, people we met............it was a truly great time. Thanks sooooo very much to Binnie for providing us a place to stay there at "Summer Place". We appreciate it so very much.  What a gorgeous place. Sitting out on their deck looking out over the Carribean with Binnie and Sid in the evening, and of course with the pooches.............and with you guys Sid and Manuela, having a cocktail, just can't get much nicer than that!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Teresa for introducing us to Dooger. That was I have to say one of the many many many highlights of our trip. I mean, how many folks can say they got to hang out with................ and hold a Sloth?????????

Thanks to Cindy and Reed for having us up at their place for dinner and a few games of pool. It was a lot of fun and damn good food!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of damn goooood food!!!!!!!!!!! and drink...............

I wasn't really prepared for all the hiking in the mountainous jungle........good thing I brought more than one pair of flip flops because I blew out one pair while there.............I know Jimmy Buffet can relate to a blown out flip flop................anybody ever go hiking in the jungle in flip flops............I don't recommend it.................I got reminded several times while on hiking trip in and around the jungle, mountain trips, etc., by Sid, that there isn't any ambulance service up there, only the buzzards flying over head and that's all the medical care one can get in that part of the country.............geez.

well, to sum up and quote from our last visit..............................

Sid and Manuela, thanks sooooo much for such a wonderful time. There is just no way to describe the amount of fun we had this past week. We did soooo much in this short week I can't hardly remember it all!!!!!!!!!! It went by sooooo darn fast. This was truly one of those vacations one just cannot put into words how great it was. Pictures won't even do it justice. But they would help.....a little............You guys are just absolutely the best hosts and the best couple there is. Thank you for such a great wonderful time.

eh, well, I forgot, can't leave Dooger out..............he's pretty cool too...................

and Binnie...............and, well, you got it..........................

Thanks so very much!!!!!!!!

Nell & Bill

Thanks Nell and Bill, we sure had fun and I got a little break not having to write the story LOL.