Tag: Pan American Highway

Our Adventure to Costa Rica

We cannot detail our adventure without a brief prologue…Our adventure was to begin on August 19th. We did everything right and had perfect instructions for our journey. Step 1 was to go to the Banco National and pay the exit tax. Due to past corruption in the government here, these taxes are paid directly to the government bank account and you take the receipt to Adunas (Customs). There they process paperwork to allow you to drive your personal vehicle across the border. We paid the .50 cent exit tax a couple of days before and made multiple copies of every document that would be required. We left early and drove just over 6 hours to David where we would go to Aduanas for the document needed to cross into Costa Rica. We waited for an agent to come back from lunch and were told that due to a computer problem we would have to come back in 5 days. With no other option we turned around and went back home. Investigation told us that the only other Adunas office is in Panama City so we made the decision to go there to get the document before driving back to the border. This would delay our trip to the first of September due to other things on our schedule.

Aduanas (Panama Customs)
Aduanas (Panama Customs)

We are often asked what we do to stay busy during retirement. To be honest, we never have trouble staying busy. We are active in our church, do some volunteer work, relax at the pool, read, and spend time with friends. One of our volunteer opportunities is with the local health and respite (hospice), and they do a lot of other stuff, including sponsoring blood drives. Our misfortune at the border allowed us to donate blood on Tuesday. Panamanian people are afraid to donate blood so the donors are very much appreciated here. We both donated and were in agreement that it was one of the most pleasant donation experiences either of us has ever had.

On Wednesday we took the bus into the city to straighten out our problem with Adunas. They collected all our documents (copies) and told us to come back on Friday. We have limited communication skills, but we were being told that the new computer system did not migrate all the vehicles registered and ours was not in the system. Everything would be fixed by Friday. On Friday we returned to find that the problem remained. We friended a man in line with a similar problem. Fortunately he was fluent in Spanish and English, and he helped us to get through the process. They had to do a hand search for our vehicle record to authorize us to take it across the border. They asked us to return in two hours.  It was a monumental accomplishment when we  returned to find they were going to issue the document.

The document to allow our car to leave Panama.
The document to allow our car to leave Panama for 90 days.

On September 1st we took off on our Costa Rica adventure again. We were able to pass through the border, but I must say that it is much harder to travel from country to country here than it is to cross into the United States. Here they want to make sure you will not be staying for more than a visit. It is the legal process. We do not recommend travel like this without good instruction. We had good instruction including multiple copies of numerous documents, and a specific order to do each task. We do not know which was worse, going to Costa Rica or returning to Panama. Both border crossings were stressful, but not impossible. We both agree that it was worth the trouble, and will likely return for another visit in the future.

One of the reasons we selected Panama as our retirement home is they use U.S. currency. One thing we recommend when traveling is to get some foreign currency in advance. This was our first mistake. While at the border we were required to purchase Costa Rican car insurance. Using U.S. dollars, we think, caused us to pay a premium for this insurance. On our travel day (Sunday) no banks were open for the exchange of money. We usually pay for most things with a no foreign transaction fee bankcard, and that worked well for us until we were able to obtain Colonies (Costa Rican dollars). With Colonies in hand we were able to enjoy the roadside diners (Soda) we love, as well as make small purchases. At the end of our adventure we returned with just over $100 USD worth of Colonies.

The other thing we returned with is Momanes. Momanes are a Central American fruit that we are calling “hairy balls” because they have an appearance like, well you know. They really are yummy. When you peal away the skin they look and taste like a big white grape. They have a pit in the center, which you do not eat.

Our first stop in Costa Rica was a wonderful port town called Quepos. We did not want to drive after dark and this was a perfect place to spend the night. We had a great meal and outstanding service at an oceanfront hotel. While we had dinner we enjoyed a spectacular sunset. Our plan for morning was to wait until the bank opened, to exchange cash. This allowed us to wander about on the boardwalk and enjoy a great breakfast. When the bank opened at 9 a.m. we discovered a long line because of 1st of the month payday. Rather than endure the line we elected to continue on our adventure with no Colonies. This was not a problem. We stopped at a wonderful restaurant along the road that accepted our card, and paid a toll with a US Dollar (it was about .35 cents).

We were once again on the road to Surfside. Our good friends own a home there and we will stay with them for a few days to explore the Gold Coast beaches. The journey was another 6 hours on roads that appeared to be carved right out of the jungle rain forest. We spent most of the ride in awe of the beauty of the country. Much of the ride was along the Pacific Coast with small beachfront towns along the way. The roads, even the Pan-American Highway, were primarily two lane and paved. They were also mostly in good repair. We were able to use the Wayz app on our phones, and it worked flawlessly. Forgive us for not taking pictures along the journey. We found that often there were limited space to pull off the road for photo opportunities. The pictures below are from a stop along the coast at a small town called Jaco.

We arrived mid afternoon at our friends, John and Barbie’s home. Their home is located in a beachfront community near the town of Potrero. We noticed that there are many expats living and vacationing in these areas. The locals are much better at speaking English than in most of Panama. But, like anywhere in Central America a little Spanish goes a long way. The restaurants, bars, and breakfast sodas were numerous and most seemed to be doing well even in the slow season.  Over the next few days we enjoyed exploring the area. John and Barbie took us to an upscale condo project called Las Catalinas, which was like walking into a movie set in Italy. It was very beautiful and quiet. We took about 100 pictures but will only share a few. These homes here were in the million USD range.

Las Catalina looks just like an Italian village
Las Catalina looks just like an Italian village

We also explored numerous beaches. Playa Penca was incredibly beautiful and deserted. There was a road adjacent to the beach and we followed it to the end. I promised an end of the road story and this is it. It was somewhat anti-climatic but it was, no doubt, another in what we hope will be  a long lasting theme to our end of the road stories.

Playa Penca
Playa Penca

John and Barbie took us to several great beaches. Some were literally deserted, while others had a lot of people around. The beach at Witches Rock in Tamarindo was a surfers paradise. There were surfers around waiting for high tide, when they would take a lesson or hit the surf. We enjoyed a great lunch on the beach and browsed through some of the great shops.

After visiting Tamarindo we went to an amazing pool at Mar Vista for an afternoon of relaxing and swimming. This infinity pool is separated from the ocean by jungle and rain forest, but when you were swimming in it you could enjoy the awesome ocean vista.

Along the way we spotted this very colorful and handsome iguana. He was not shy and we got a great picture of him to share.

This handsome guy was so collorful
This handsome guy was so colorful

We could not get over the fabulous restaurants in the area around our friends home. The last night at their home we went to Vaca Loca. Translated Vaca Loca means crazy cow. We came to the conclusion that the proprietor was the crazy one. We were served ribeye steaks, that weighed out at over a pound, with appetizers, one side, and a shot of limoncello to finish for about $12 USD each. It was beyond delicious and perfectly cooked. The truth be known, our friend John is an expert at finding great restaurants that will not break the budget. Most of the restaurants in Costa Rica, with the exception of the sodas, are very expensive. This reality was another strong argument for our decision to retire in Panama. We enjoy eating out and having economical restaurant selections is important to us.

The following morning we embarked on our journey to the mountain town of Tilaran.  On our journey we made a special stop at Walmart. Walmart in Costa Rica is a high end department store and we found the prices to be high compared to the States. We did pick up a few snacks and soft drinks for the road. We also got a few things that have been difficult to find in Panama.

The Ciudad of Tilaran
The Ciudad of Tilaran

From there we traveled on to Lake Arenal and the pinnacle of our trip, a visit to Lake Arenal and the Arenal Volcano. We stayed in a great casita with a full kitchen and an awesome view of Lake Arenal for $50 USD per night. Our friends John and Barbie stayed with a friend down the road a bit. The lake is about 26 miles long and we were on the west end of it. The volcano and the small town of Arenal were about an hour drive away on the east end of the lake.  Our plan was to go to the volcano, hot springs and explore on Saturday. We will head back to Panama on Sunday. The pictures below are near where we stayed. The weather was perfect when we reached our temporary home on Lake Arenal.

On Saturday morning we woke up to torrential rain. It is rainy season and we were deep in the mountains and rain forest. Determined not to let the weather affect our plans, we took off bright and early prepared for whatever mother nature dealt us. We drove to the volcano and the small town of Arenal. To make a long story short we did not get to explore because the rain did not stop. We, also opted against the hot springs as it would not be great in the rain. We shopped around the town a bit and took a few pictures before returning to our temporary home at the other end of the lake.

For the rest of the day we enjoyed meeting some of John and Barbie’s friends and a couple of other great restaurants. Our farewell dinner was at Moyas and it was another awesome experience.

Sunday morning we got up for our journey home to Panama. On the way out of the mountains we stopped for what turned out to be an awesome photo opportunity. We took a picture of the Arnal Volcano with a cloud over the top resembling a hat. The rest of our journey was more beautiful countryside and we thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

We both agree that the experience of driving through Costa Rica was memorable and we will likely make another trip to fully enjoy the mountain experience. The beaches were great, but we have great beaches right here at home.

If you are enjoying our blog, please, like, share, and sign up to get it each time we make a new post. We also like to get comments and questions. We do our best to answer questions quickly. Some questions we answer by private message; while others we answer publicly so others can benefit from the answers. We will never share your information.

Blessings,

Greg and Jen

The Panama Canal Tour

This is the post that we couldn’t wait to deliver. Please be patient with the content, as it was difficult to make it all come together. There were 35 pieces of video and a bunch of pictures. We will build the story putting a few of the pictures and about 20 pieces of video throughout to let you all see why this was the pinnacle of our trip. Feel free to visit our u-tube site to see the video that we chose to leave out.

The tour started at Panama City on the Pacific Port of Balboa on the Gulf of Panama. The Panama Canal is 48 miles long and the passage averages 8-10 hours. The average wait time for a ship to enter the canal is 28-30 hours. Our pictures in previous posts, that were shot from our resort, shows the ships lining up to wait their turn. We will be entering the Mira Flores Locks with the ship pictured above. The canal runs north to south from 4 am to 12 pm, south to north from 12 pm to 8 pm, and smaller ships pass in both directions during the night. We were one of the last boats going north. Panama Canal Tour 1 The videos are short and have a bit of narration. When any boat enters the canal it will be boarded and piloted by a boat pilot from the canal authority. According to our guide, these pilots have an average salary of $500,000 per year. Once the pilot enters a vessel a red and white flag will fly indicating that it is being piloted by the canal authority.  Panama Canal Tour 2.  After our pilot entered the boat we waited for a large container ship to pass. Panama Canal Tour 3. Off to the west we can see Panama City. Panama has about 4 million residents with 2 million of them residing in Panama City. The city ranks 3rd in the Americas for skyscrapers per square mile. New York and Chicago have more. We are going to let a dry goods carrier pass next. In the video you can see the bridge over the Pan American Highway. This highway extends about 40 km further to the south where it ends in dense jungle. The jungle is too dense for the highway to continue. Going north it ends at mile marker 1 in Anchorage Alaska. If you were to drive north from Panama City to Los Angeles it would take 9 days going 40 miles per hour with no stops. Panama Canal Tour 4  Panama Canal Tour 6 . The US Coastguard protects the south end of the Panama Canal to control drugs from South America Panama Canal Tour 7 . We are waiting to enter the first lock of the canal. Notice in the video that there is a cruise ship in the first lock just ahead. Panama Canal Tour 8 . We will enter the Mira Flores Lock with the ship in front of us. The Mira Flores lock is the first of 2 locks that will take us up. Mira Flores has 2 chambers that will each take us up about 27 feet each. Panama Canal Tour 9 . Once inside the lock the door will close and water will be fed into the chamber raising us about 3 feet per minute. The lock doors were made by US Steel in Pittsburgh. Each door weighs 60 tons and is assembled with rivets, not welded. Panama Canal Tour 10 . Panama Canal Tour 11 . The ship that we will share the lock with is in the next video. It was led into the lock by tug and tied down. You will see the mules that guide the ship during the time in the lock. There is less than 2 feet on each side of the ship. The mules keep it from floating against the chamber walls. This ship requires 4 mules; 2 in front and 2 in the back. Panama Canal Tour 12 . The Mira Flores locks took us up to the level of Mira Flores Lake. Mira Flores Lake provides about 30 percent of the water supply for Panama City. We have crossed the lake and we are about to enter the Pedro Miguel Locks. Pedro Miguel has one chamber that will take us up about 31 more feet to the level of Gatun Lake. Panama Canal Tour 13 . Panama Canal Tour 14 . Just past the Pedro Miguel Locks we are passing the 2nd bridge which crosses the canal. The Centennial bridge is one of only 2 that cross the canal. We will see a 3rd bridge later that is under construction. Just past the Centennial Bridge we began the 7-3/4 mile trip through the Culebra Cut. This is the part of the canal that caused the French to abandon the project. They were unable to excavate through the mountains and jungle due to problems controlling the dynamite and disease. Malaria, Yellow Fever, and blasting killed around 5600 workers before the completion of the canal. The United States took over the project in 1904 and completed it in 1914. The pictures below are the best we got of the Culebra Cut. This is the narrow portion of the canal. The narrow pass commands constant maintenance due to erosion.

Panama Canal Tour 15 . Last year the Panama Canal opened an expansion to accommodate the Panamax ships. On the south end of the canal the new locks are called the Cocoli Locks and on the north end of the canal they are the Agua Clara Locks. We did not get pictures of the new locks, however we saw some Panamax ships along the way. Panama Canal Tour 16  . Following the exit of the Juan Miguel Locks we traveled for more than 3 hours across Gatun Lake. The lake is about 15 miles of the canal passage, and covers about 180 square miles. It is the passing zone for the larger ships. We got a lot of pictures of the big ships, but the trip across was rather boring. The enclosed ship pictured is carrying 15000 automobiles. These ships pay in the neighborhood of $200,000 for passage through  the canal.

 

 

Gatun Lake was formed by creating a dam across the Chagres River and flooding the valley. The lake took 7 years to fill. The Dam provides hydro electric power, which is the energy source for the canal. It is positioned near the Gatun locks, which is the last set of locks as we exit out to the Atlantic Ocean. Panama Canal Tour 17 . As we moved toward the Gatun Locks, we learned that we would be going in to the lock ahead of the big ship that we had passed through the locks with earlier. The next video shows us slipping in ahead of it. The Gatun Locks are the locks that will take us back down to sea level so that we can continue out to the Atlantic. Panama Canal Tour 18  . Once we entered the lock the big ship slipped safely in behind us. Panama Canal Tour 19 . The final video provides an interesting perspective looking out at the last lock chamber and the Atlantic. If you look carefully you can see the construction of the Atlantic Bridge. Panama Canal Tour 20 .

The tour was packed with interesting facts about the canal. Every passage of the canal requires a toll. The lowest toll ever paid was 36 cents. It was paid by Richard Halliburton who paid it to swim the canal in 1928. He had to be escorted by snipers to kill the alligators that were a danger to him. Today swimming is not allowed in the canal. The dense rain forest surrounding the canal protects it and provides an accessible habitat where native Central American plants and animals can be observed. It took more than 30,000,000 pounds of explosives to clear the way for the canal.

We hope you have found the Panama Canal Tour interesting. Please continue to follow our blog as we prepare to spend this winter in Panama. There will be no shortage of great information to share. As always, comments, likes, and shares are greatly appreciated.