Thursday August 17th
From the overwhelming responses to the blog poll supporting a swim-to-Colombia option, we have decided to seriously investigate this new approach. After a quick trip to the US Consulate to work on my never ending Canadian Immigration issues, Jose and I headed from the Pacific to the Atlantic to size up the swimming options.
Upon arrival to the Atlantic (two hours) we visited Portobello, the site of Christopher Columbus´landing on his fourth voyage to the ¨new world¨. Very cool little sleepy beach town with lots of forts, cannons, sail boats and fishing boats. Next we visited the port of Colon and its infamous zona libra (free trade zone) where we could find fantastic deals on ten digital cameras 50 pairs of shoes. Sort of a hong kong of central america. Of course, in another attempt to extort mony from gringos, we were aked for a bribe at the gates to allow entry of vehicle which would bypass the paperwork. Maintaining our ¨we don´t negotiate with those seeking bribes¨stance, we tried to aquire the required paperwork. We failed and parked the car outside.
We also made a stop at the Yacht club to investigate more rides to Colombia and ran into Captain Dennis Morris, who kindly offered us a cruise to Colombia for a cool $250. He didn´t seem too sketchy so we are considering it. While pondering the offer we returned to Panama city fighting the intense rush hour traffic leaving Colon. The sludge from mud/pollution covered out lights so much that we could barely see the road.
Upon arrival Joyce took us salsa dancing with Sara and Ketzary, who really were quite nice at putting up with my inability to move my hips in the latin fashion. We visited two establishments, the first was packed with hundreds of youngsters dancing all over the place with large beer bongs on the tables. Site of this scene: BENNIGANS. Next we went to a latin karaoke place where we heard everything from reggaeton karaoke to romantic love songs... Joyce owns this town!
Finally, I am pretty horrified that this vacation is more tha half done... quite depressing. 10 weeks and 8,000 miles down, but so much more to see!
2 comments:
Alexey,
Although it can be sad to leave the Volkswagen, you never need to leave the trip fully behind. For example the other day I was able to buy snot fruit at my local Hispanic grocer and even ordered my Bistec de Lomo in Espanol. Delicioso!! In addition by leaving things in the car, like a Gnarls Barkley CD for example, a part of you can travel on for always. Hope this helps ease the pain. If not copius amounts of tequila, mezcal or rum should do the trick.
Ruddick
Todd, good to know that the VGD (Volkswagen Golf Diaries) world and the real world are converging for you.
Speaking of getting back to the real world...hey, Greg! Are you at work yet? How was your trip home?
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