Getting out of Panama

The sailing trip was made fun with friends on the Fritz the Cat. What annoying me were the promises made by the captain. When I first shake his it was rough. I knew that he was a working person, not the soft type that uses pen or the computer a lot. I paid US$300 for Hope Too. Captain said it include everything. When I ask ‘what about this, what about that?’ he replied ‘I said everything and I mean everything, trust me’.

So the issue was he did not give me a proper import permit. He went to the immigration office and got a stamp on my owner’s registration paper and he try to convince me that it was everything that I need to have. I was not satisfied so I proceed the journey, left the boat, to Panama City. That was a Friday.

I couldn’t do much paperwork with the government officials on Friday late afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. meanwhile the captain ask me to keep in contact with Erica, which she promised us that she will meet us on Monday to bring us to the custom office in Panama city to get a proper paper.

We call her on Saturday and whole Sunday morning she didn’t pick up the mobile. Until they really pissed me off in the Sunday afternoon conversation. Erica told Sam many excuses for not to meet us, things like:

The US$300 was only documents on Columbia side.
the bike was initially charged US$375 but we charged you US$300.
We are busy on Monday.

then I talked to the captain, he ‘explained’ to me:

look, we have things to do on Monday. if you insist us to go to the custom with u then we have to charge you for the job we had to be done on Monday.

trust me, I had ridden central America with a bike, like you before. that piece of paper that I gave you is enough. (that was 11 years ago).

we will help you over the phone. Erica will sent u an email on where the custom is. If you have any problem, call us and we will talk to you.

we didn’t have a good sleep for the past 3 nights while waiting for Monday to come. luckily, on Monday morning, we reached the custom office, did the paperwork in 15 minutes, get back to the hostel, pack up and leave this busy city.

But we had wonderful time in the busy Panama city, not the usual experience. We went to a laundry shop across the street. it cost us US$1 for a whole bucket of sweaty and salty laundry. It was a Chinese owner. Out of the 3.2 million populations in Panama, 10% were Chinese. The lady owner had 4 kids here, which all 4 held Panama citizenship but not her. We get to know about her life being away from China and coming to Panama to survive. Nice chat with the locals here.

The casinos here are really happening. Unlike in South America, casinos there are only machines like jackpots and only to get to play with computers. We went into this casino in Panama City and they had everything including blackjacks, poker, bacarat and dice game. not to mention about the jackpot machines. its managed by a five star hotel and yet we walked in with shorts, singlets and sandles.

Does Panama City looked like Singapore? Property is blooming here.

While waiting for the laundry, 2 Panamanians young chap started the conversation. They spoke understanding English and just friendly chat to know more friends, not about trying to know foreigners. Later we got to know from the Chinese lady owner that these 2 young guys were from the country side of Panama.

The entrance to the Chinatown in Panama City. we took this photo from the taxi as the driver warned us not to wander around the streets here, even we are Chinese.

Big shopping malls are so common in Panama City, as big as Suntec City in Singapore. The food court had wide varieties of fast food chain. I noticed the fast food in Latin America is not really fast. Example in KFC, we would queue up to take the order, make payment, get a recipt and go to the next counter and wait. The staff at the next counter will look at a computer screen analyze what was the order and try to put in in a tray. when my number was being called, i would collect my food. Unlike at home, the cashier took the order and will gather the food himself/herself. When the cashier is taking the order, he/her had already had the item in his/her mind and thus making the gathering of food much faster. I think the system here only trust one person on money, that´s why it´is abit slower. when i said abit, it doesn´t really mean abit. Also the person clearing trays in this huge foodcourt, they also had a trolley for trays and rubbish collection. In Singapore, any uncle or auntie would do the work much faster by pushing the trolley to the table and clear the trays and rubbish into the trolley BUT here in Panama, I saw the trolley was being used as a central collection center (where there is also one main collection center at some corners) and staff would walk around and collect the trays and rubbish with their hands, walk back to the trolley, walk back to the same table, clear again (because they only have 2 hands that carry limited) and back to the trolley. sometimes we saw 2 staff clearing 1 table. It would be much efficient if any property management from Singapore to come here to work.

Forget about telling you about the old city of Panama and the museums but something that got me interested was the relationship of Panama and USA. The USA administration was not out of Panama until 1999. There were also some contract between 2 countries about the Panama Canal.

We escaped the busy city, getting away from backpackers and Israelis, did a camping by a beach of Pacific coast at Las Lajas before reaching Boquete. The property owner in Las Lajas welcomed us. One of the co-owner often walked pass us to have a short and warm conversation. The conversation was not about where had we been, where we come from and how big was Hope Too. It was a human conversation that we would like to reply with our heart.

Again, we were welcomed in Boquete with the rain. the only affordable lodging we could stay in with proper bike parking was taken up by the English speaking bag packers. Then we have to go around in the heavy rain to look for another affortable and safe place to stay. Boquete became very popular when an American magazine for the retired rated Boquete as four top places in the world to retire. Not to be surprise as the property here rose and American product rained everywhere here. From my point of view, Cameron Highlands of Malaysia could be rated as the first in the magazine.

While searching for a place to stay in Boquete, the black cloud is chasing us.

what you think about Panama? Jungles? Panama Canal? Panama City could be as modern as Singapore. Condominium rose and properties bloomed. It seems to be Dubai of Central America. We saw sign board that was selling the property, having a swimming pool being the second largest swimming pool in the world.

We will get to Costa Rica soon after I celebrate Sam’s birthday here. We need to go to San Jose, capital of Costa Rica to apply for Nicuaragua, El Savador and Mexico visas.

we saw this advertisment on the TV here. It´s a channel from USA. it was saying something like: create jobs for America, not China. Are they trying to brainwash the citizen that China is taking away their jobs? are they trying to tell the people that China is their enemy now?

29: Panama.

Bye bye south america with Cartagena city on the background.

Loading Hope Too on Fritz the Cat.

Across that 'bridge'.

It's solid gold!

Cartagena, Columbia was hot and humid. we had rain attacking us everyday in Columbia except in Cartagena. We had to reach Cartagena as soon as possible to meet up with the only sail boat setting off on the time we wanted; else, we had to stay here for another 1 month to re-apply for the Panama visa.

So, how far are we away from Alaska from here?

We met up with the captain and he quoted:

US$375 per person
US$300 for Hope Too
total US$1050 we have to pay.

else, he could accept Columbian pesos of 920000 per person. that means he was using the exchange rate of 2453 pesos for US$1.

at that time, the market rate was 2223pesos for US$1.

Our captain.

if we pay him all in peso, which we withdraw from the ATM, we would lose equivalent to about US$100 for that transaction. we have some options…

1) to withdraw US$ from the ATM directly. It only convert Singapore dollars to US dollars BUT our Citibank and HSBC wouldn’t let us do it.

2) get Peso our from our ATM and change it to dollars. luckily we had a bit of money in our Citibank and we could withdraw Peso without any transaction charges if we use the Citibank ATM. We went to the bank. there is some tax involved if we buy US$ with Peso. (we would defiantly do not want to buy US$ with other private companies or black market. most of the world’s fake US dollars comes from Columbia.) To reduce the tax involved, we took out our spare US dollars that we always carried and reduced the actual sum to be bought.

Cartagena had very thick history about the Europeans attacking this city.

anyway, if you don’t understand the above, it’s ok. We had to think of the best way to save money from these small transactions.

meanwhile, waiting to sail off from south America, we visited the mud volcano nearby. walked the old town of Cartagena, that was filled with tourist and touts, expensive restaurants and souvenir shops.

we could not believe that the volcano is 2km deep!Can you see us?

Our guide for the day.

Anyway, we met the deadline of 17th May 2009 to reach Panama. We sail with Fritz the cat. Total, we had the captain, his girlfriend, 11 passengers and Hope Too. First night on the open sea was terrible. According to the captain, it was a calm sea. Sam had seasick, vomited and had bad appetite. For me, beer was not for the night. Strongly recommended for non-seasick-patients. After 44 hours of sailing, we reached the San Blas Island of Panama. We saw some Indians living on the island filled with coconut trees and banana trees. The island was owned by a family of the Kuna Indians. Their house was built with palm tree leaves and they survived by eating fish and drinking water from coconut and rain. they dressed like modern humans like us but do not have access to the outside world. Google on Kuna of Panama.

the moment we woke up, the beautiful coconut island and clear blue water welcomed us.

Snokering? we felt that the Malaysia waters are much better.

The situation we had now:

Thou we reached Panama safely, had our entry stamp on our passport, we still need to wait till Monday to visit the custom office in Panama City. The immigration office that the captain went to do not have a custom office. the only documentation that we had for Hope Too was a stamp on my vehicle owner’s registration. That does not look official to any government officer in Panama or any part of the world. We need a proper paper to say that Hope Too was imported into Panama legally. The captain just came back to the ship with our passports and papers saying that it is ok to have it ‘stamped’ like that. If I need a proper paper, I must go to Panama city to get one. I asked him where and he said:

I don’t know. The custom officer also doesn’t know too. Its ok, you know this is Panama. That stamp will get you out.

THAT WAS AN IRRESPONSIBLE ANSWER.

He will not be the one that is going to exit the country to me. How am I suppose to explain to the custom officer when I exit Panama into Costa Rica?

I asked the captain to request the custom officer (that he visited) to write me a letter that the ‘stamp’ that he gave me is a proper stamp and the captain says:

yeh, that’s what I asked too! but they don’t write any letters here. you know, it’s the way it works here.

anyone needs a cook at home? we were well fed by Erica on the boat.

so I requested the captain to accompany me to visit the custom office in panama city. He said:

call me on my mobile phone then.

now we tried to call them, nobody is responding. well, the money was paid. we are now in Panama, they can say bye bye to us. He charged US$300 for Hope Too. that includes all the paper work that we need, else Hope Too should only be categorized as a luggage for the passenger. Then why we pay the US$300 for????

Abrahim (Holland) Justin (UK) and Alex (Swiss) were partying with the 80's music.

Christina (USA) came alive when we anchored.

Bryan(USA) and Sabrina(UK)

hmmm…. we are not in the mood to write about anything. without this import permit we can’t get out of Panama.

we were welcomed by the Panama road when we got off the boat.

Well, the rule of the game is: Do not fight with your captain.

we found this video in my hard disc. i have not publish this yet, i think. it's on 1st January 2008.

End of South America Phase

Quick lunchbox from last night dinner and cup of coffee. trying to hope that the rain will stop.

We got the mobile phone back. After much of my furious shouting and quick steps on my army boots, that guy dropped the mobile to the floor and ran away. The street was not in his favor phone because he is running towards a place where there will be many patrolling policemen and didn’t expect someone would run after him.

We were lucky.

Columbia:

day 1 : Pasto
day 2 : Popayan
day 3 : Cali
day 4 : Cali (supposed to leave but overslept)
day 5 : Manizales
day 6 : Medellin
day 7 : Medellin
day 8 : Taraza
day 9: Cartagena
day 10: Cartagena

The main roads here are quite safe. I would rate the quality of roads here: Good.

Most of the bridges from Pasto to Cali are being secured with military installations. An average of 6 men (fully armed) will guard on each bridge of different length.

We heard from other travelers that the Columbians were very friendly BUT we were warned about the crimes here, like not to accept anything like drink or even a handshake from anyone suspicious here because they have a kind of drug that will knock you off.

My main question is: shall we be friendly to them? shall we accept their friendliness, shall we open ourselves to them?

Sometimes when they came to talk to me, I would react normally by answering their question and not thinking much about what were their main motives. Are they trying to know that we have cash on our pockets or they were just curious? if we chose to be defensive towards the local, then why travel? Travel just to see the historic buildings, churches and museums? What we want to know more are the people, making friends around, knowing them in real person rather going thro the tourist office. You will know what I mean if you had travel enough.

Maria had a pet chicken in her balcony, Rossini. Rossini had a special perfume that Maria will apply on it.

BUT, if we are friendly to everyone, are we putting ourselves to risk? Usually they will ask the below questions when they know that we are traveling on our bike around the world. The sensitive questions were:

1)much money is enough for your round the world trip?
2)how much does your bike cost?
3) how do you manage your money? do you usually use ATM or cash….?
4) what do you work as when you are in Singapore?
5) what is the average salary of a Singaporean and what is the exchange rate of your currency to our?
6) Where are you staying tonight / where you will be going tomorrow?

The local sometimes are just curious or are they trying to have bad motive?

Even I sensed that they are normal people, or well to do people here, I felt insecure when I have answered them these questions. We are not 1 month tourist here but they know that we are traveling around the world.

Is this my sister´s bike?

While walking on the streets, folks sitting by doing nothing, watching people walking pass and will say hello, shouting ‘Japan?! Chino?!’ to us. Are they trying to know us? Shall we reply or walk on? Sometimes I will glance by the side of my eye, if he is a ‘ok’ person, not drunk, I will wave back and tell them I’m from Singapore to start the conversation. They will reply, asking that Singapore belongs to which island of Japan. Then I would try my very best explain what Singapore is all about. In less than 3 minutes, friendly and curious crowd will gather. No harm.

Night view of Manizales. can you feel the rain?

While riding to Manizales, we stopped by the roadside for a scenic view of lunch break with our packed sandwich. There were also locals stopping by for photos. As usual, they saw aliens (Sam and I) stopping too, with a spaceship (Hope Too). They mumbled quietly and observed the aliens for a while, trying to figure out where we come from. Some will come closer to the spaceship and have a look. 2 of the motorbikes (125), with their girlfriend behind, came to talk to us if they could take a picture with us that were to break the ice. The usual questions came up.

Maria, Me, Samantha and Felipe in their house.

There was a strange request by the girl, Maria, if we could show her our Singapore notes. I tried to dig out the infamous one dollar in the tank bag and present it to her. After knowing the value of this coin, she wanted to give me Columbia Pesos in return for the Singapore coin. We rejected but agreed for her invitation to her home for dinner. Maria and Felipe lived in Manizales.

The place where we first met Felipe and Maria.

Young, energetic, curious, shy but yet friendly; Maria, a law student, 20 years old was with Felipe, a veterinarian student, 22, showed us around the night of Manizales on our bikes after the dinner at home. The night was perfect except that Rain attacked us and there was a motorcycle curfew of 2200hrs in the city.

Maria´s mother and brother.

Manizales was one of the richest town in Columbia due to the trade here: COFFEE.

Medellin was another major city in Columbia. Don’t be surprised by the high rise buildings, efficient metro network, big shopping centers, private estates and condominiums were here. It was also the home town of Fernado Botero, the famous artist that created the big bird bronze statue under UOB Plaza in Singapore.

A plate of chinese fried noodle cost S$6.70 in a shopping mall. We have to pay 1st and wait for 30 minutes for it. Guess who is eating that? Sometimes we just missed home food.

The bronze bird in UOB Plaza, Singapore. Fernado Botero´s work.

In the hostel, we were offered to smoke. Not Marlboro, but weed. Not weed in your flower pot but some slices of cocaine to accompany with rolled tobacco. I am a very curious person but would defiantly say NO to it. I had it once in Bolivia, which I didn’t know it was weed. We had conversation with other bag packers in the hostel and they were sharing a rolled tobacco. I was offered a puff and it was a smooth one, not realizing it was weed until my head went turning and I had an awful feeling thro out the night. Now I understand the meaning of: not to accept anything from stranger.

We exchanged.

Ask Sam how was Felipe´s skill? in Columbia, there were rules about riding a bike. Rules like have to wear a refletive on both person with the bike number on the refletive vest and the helmet. There were many cases of motorbike robbery. Robbers uses motorbike for bank robbing....

We started wheeling out of Medellin at noon time after a lazy breakfast, reaching a small village 220km north after 5 hours of riding. 3 hours of the time we were attacked by rain. Taraza, a village along the Pan-Americana Highway, had a Hotel with bike friendly parking, room sufficient for not more than the length of my height, that was when I sleep straight, my head and feet could touch the both ends of the wall.

This plaza in Medellin should look very beautiful in the night. these concrete poles will light up in the night.

Walking into the room thro the door, not more than 2 person could stand together unless moving into the private bathroom. The only window we had could easily climb out to the common corridor. There were no ventilation except for the fan. We had reached a place of high humidity. We could not breath. Imagine after having lunch and getting back into your car that was parked NOT under a tree, that was the moment.

Spicy Thai papaya salad with cold chicken feet. We prepared it for ourselves!

It was very interesting to stay in Taraza for a night. While we were exploring around the village, walking along the row of shop houses, I sensed that 3 teenagers were following us for the past 20 minutes. We made several turns making sure that they were not stalking us. I could hear them shouting at us. I was sure it was on us but didn’t understand what they were shouting about. As usual, we were the aliens and the normal folks would want to know our reaction. Like a sparrow that flew into your house, you would either chase it away or try to make some chipping sound to be friend with the sparrow but the sparrow wouldn’t understand what you are chipping about and looking at your fingers, trying to fake some food for the sparrow. The annoyed sparrow would get out of the house.

we also visited the botanical garden of Medellin.

Must say sorry to the Swiss team that we cooked Thai Pineapple rice that night.

As we waited for dinner in a local family eatery, these 3 teenagers that had stalked us for the past 30 minutes had came in. They talked to the senior lady owner for quite some time and the senior lady came to give Sam a light pat on the shoulder, speaking some Spanish to her. We could not understand a word but from her gesture, we knew that……………..

In Medellin.

…………we knew that the senior lady was an ice breaker. These 2 young ladies and a guy wanted to be friend with us but didn’t know where to start. They were just shy and had never seen an Asian in real life, except for Jackie Chan in the national TV program. 2 of them were 16 years old and the other girl was 15. The color of the skin was light brown with dark hair. They were not very tall but from the look of their body shape, at aged 15 and 16, they were almost fully developed as an adult. Does Columbia coffee contribute an effect on a person’s puberty after long period of usage when it was infused since young?

The crowd in the eatery grew. There were also younger kids like aged 8 or 10. Everyone went crazy when I could write my Chinese name. Sam and I wrote at least 20 Chinese names. They wanted their names to be translated into Chinese characters.

Example:

Teresa = 特丽沙

After giving them their name in Chinese, they wanted their friend’s name to be translated too. The 3 senior ladies in the family would also want their name translated. Maybe we can work here , just for $2 per name.

We went to a local cheap bar for some cooling beer as we watched the people walking by. 3 young ladies scrolled by us and kept looking back at us as if they had seen a man with 10 noses. They made a U-turn and went to our next table to chat with the owner. The ice breaker was to ask about the time from us. One of them had a puppy on hand and Sam took this opportunity to cuddle with it. The people here were just shy and friendly. We do not understand the usage of Spanish but could memorize the questions and answers from the people that we met first time.

Now we reached Cartagena, will mark the end of our south america phase. we will talk to the boat captain tonight and see how he would arrange us to sail through the toughest part of the continent, The Darien Gap. will keep you all updated.

Information for fellow travelers:

Pasto
N1 12.702 W77 16.666
Hotel Casa Lopez (Calle 18 no 21B-11 La Merced)
90000pesos for 2 person in 1 room.
free internet
very clean and 5 star hotel service.
breakfast included.
the only place with safe motorbike parking.

El bordo
N2 06.932 W76 59.349
GPS co-ordinates not precise.
about 130km north of Pasto.
We did not stay in this small town but there are about 7 lodging with private parking. Just as what a biker need. go check it out!

Popayán
N2 26.346 W76 36.343
Hotel Capital, Carrera 5, No. 7-11
15000pesos for 2 person in 1 room without window.
very basic.
Parking in courtyard.

Cali
N3 28.147 W76 31.773
Casa Blanca Hostel, Avenida 6 bis, Calle 26n, #57, Santa Monica Residencial, Cali
There are no such thing as biker’s friendly hostel but a friendly owner hostel, also an ex-RTW rider.
It is more like a home. Owner had his own private bike parking in a very safe compound with armed security guard. He also parked his big bike there.
Very good and safe location.
15000peso per person in dorm room (special discount because of low season).

Manizales
N5 04.283 W75 31.209
Hotel Califonia.
Calle 19. No16-37
40000pesos for 2 person in 1 room with private bath.
Private parking.

Medellin
N6 12.349 W75 33.953
Casa Kiwi
Carrera 36 # 7-10 (El Poblado)
Bike parking in a good safe and lock garage, sharing with the garbage. The time where they open the gate of the garage is when the garbage truck comes and they collect the garbage. NOT able to do up your bike there unless you are a Smurf.

they had cleard the rubbish, at the spot where i was standing. If not, i wasn´t able to stand there.

Free: internet only you have your laptop. connection is random.
Free: kitchen to use. beware of dropping cabinets filled with knife that will drop on your feet. please wear steel toes.
Free: wake up calls by the constructions on their ‘extended’ annex at 9am, weekdays only.
Free: weed to smoke, offered by one of the hostel staff but I rejected. (there is a notice written something like: The hostel does not allow usage of drugs. All guest have to leave at 2am and to be quite after this time) so… don’t expect it to be quite before 2am and who are they referring as ‘guest’???
Free: get to know the locals. drunk young punks which were non hostel staff nor travellers that were invited in the hostel, smoking weed, making noise and talk about non-sense…….is it safe to keep our belongings around?
SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR BIKERS!!! The staff quoted my wife 40000pesos for a private double room without bathroom. It was a special discount for bikers because they usually charge 50000pesos. we agreed because the dorm room was a mess and it was starting to rain. Next day, I heard the other staff/owner quoting to a bag packer 40000pesos for the same room we had. Maybe that bag packer had a motorbike in the bag.
Nice guy that helped us a few small but important issues in the hostel. He is an American. I’m sorry I did not get his name.
BUT I believe the hostel will get better in time as they are reconstructing the whole building. it’s a bit messy but at least I did not lose anything in this hostel. point to add, it is quite a good location.

Taraza (220km north of Medellin towards Cartagena)
Hotel Noche Y Dia
N7 35.072 W75 23.960
15000peso for 2 person in 1 small, humid but clean room with private bath.
very secure and easy parking.
Along Ruta 25. we enjoyed the folks in this small town. very friendly but shy people.

Just a normal village, nothing special except for friendly people.

El Jardin
About half hour ride north from Taraza if you don’t want to sleep in a humid room.
N7 45.058 W75 15.505
behind the gas station. military checkpoint is just outside the gas station.
we didn’t stay here but we did have a look at the rooms. possible place for a night with nice cafeteria. Very nice retired couple running the place.
18000pesos per room. check it out.

We were there only for coffee breakfast and the owner treated us well, like a gentleman. He wrote something like greetings to us on a piece of paper and present it to us. We felt very welcomed with him thou we only had a cup of coffee there.

Cartagena
N10 25.358 W75 32.701
Hotel Holiday.
Calle de la Media Luna.
30000peso for 2 person in 1 room with TV, fan and exotic bathroom.
Have special planks for wheels onto the steps, parking along courtyard BUT have to strip my cases and front bags. just enough for my xrv750.
I think it had the best deal. with the same price, could only sleep in a dorm in other places.

What is columbia? If you think this place is a jungle and full of black people, then you must view this video!!