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| Panama Canal - Miraflores Lock |
For my next stop to see the Panama Canal, I decided to take the bus to Panama City from Mexico City because it was only $200 instead of a $400 flight (I'm on a very tight backpacking budget so every penny counts).
To sum up my bus
experience...
1. 5 hr bus ride from
Patzcuaro, Mexico to Mexico City on Aug 18 starting at 8am (via Auto Vias bus
line)
2. 20 hr bus ride from
Mexico City to Tapachula, Mexico on Aug 18 at 8:45pm (via ADO bus line)
3. I arrived in
Tapachula around 6pm Aug 19 and had to wait until 7am the next day to catch the
TICA bus
4. 60 hr bus ride from
Tapachula to Panama City starting Aug 20 (passing through Guatemala, Honduras,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica), and slept in several bus terminals (well
kind of - it's hard to sleep in chairs or on the floor - lol). I am impressed
with the TICA bus line - their executive buses offer similar benefits as
business class flights.
5. I'm up on most of
the travel scams but the one I experienced at the Guatemala border takes the cake
for all of my 13 years of international travels. To sum it up immigration made
me pay a $100 'fee' to get my passport stamped and cross over (if you didn't
know there is no 'fee' to get your passport stamped anywhere). My Tica bus was
already over the border (it's a very short 20ft bridge over the border) and I
was the last one so I couldn't go back to the bus to drive me over the border.
This is a known scam at the Mexico/Guatemala border. I was reimbursed by my
bank, but as you can imagine this was a complete headache because I had to
cancel my debit card to file the fraud charges with my bank. The same thing
happened to someone else traveling on my bus, and there is really nothing you
can do about it - especially when there are border patrol with machine guns 5
feet away and there's a language barrier- it isn't worth arguing.
I also found out the
hard way that my Att plan doesn't make international calls (not even emergency
calls) - even though I called them prior to leaving and spent hours on the phone
to make sure nothing like this happened. So after being an Att customer for 13
years I switched to Verizon as soon as I arrived at my hostel (thankfully they
had wifi so I was able to communicate with the outside world again - lol) -
problem solved! No matter how well you plan there always seem to be
mishaps.
Needless to say I'll
never go back to Guatemala - not even for a simple border crossing en route to
another country. I'm a planner by nature so I always register my travel details
with the US Embassy and keep their contact details in my passport so I was able
to easily able to file a police report so they can handle it via their legal
system. I think my biggest surprise is this happens in front of the Mexican immigration
office at the border and they can't seem to get it to stop.
6. The other border
crossings were seamless and I'm glad I traveled via bus through Central
America. Even though I enjoyed getting my passport stamped so many times, the
constant entry/exit stops at each boarder is exhausting and I'll never travel
across that many borders via bus again. It was a once in a lifetime event that
I'll never forget and glad I experienced it.
Finally arriving in
Panama City around 3pm, Aug 22nd (3hrs ahead of the TICA bus schedule - which
was nice) at the Albrook bus terminal which is adjacent to the Albrook Mall - a
large shopping mall in Panama City. It is the 14th largest mall in the world,
the largest in the Americas and the largest shopping mall outside Asia. No I
didn't do any shopping this time - no room in my backpack nor budget, but I definitely
wanted to :) . It took me almost 2 hours to figure out which bus to take to my
hostel. I had the address, bus line, and bus stop info but completely forgot to
ask my hostel which bus route to take prior to arriving (oh yeah and no way to
contact my hostel thanks to Att). Well as you can imagine it's difficult
communicating only speaking broken Spanish, and after several unsuccessful
attempts asking the information booth, personnel and a few bus drivers; a nice
older gentleman named Edwardo who spoke English assisted me and helped me find
the right bus - he even rode with me to make sure I got off at the right stop.
After chatting with him during the bus ride I found out he worked at the Panama
Canal and he even gave me a few tips. This is why I love talking to locals -
they are the best tour guides and always have the best scoop that you just
can't find in a travel guidebook! You know I could blame not knowing what bus
line to take on the locals and say they are rude and not helpful, but that
isn't the case at all. It is me who doesn't speak their language so I only had myself
to blame. I think that is something I can only learn from traveling - years of
experiencing other cultures is quite humbling.
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| Gran Terminal Bus Station/ Albrook Mall |
So by now it's 5pm
rush hour and a 30 minute bus ride took over 2 hours (I thought Los Angeles
traffic was bad - nope Panama City wins that award - lol) - locals even started
getting off the bus and walking (including Edwardo, but he made sure the bus
driver knew which stop to let me off at). I finally made it to my stop and had
to walk about 3 blocks to my hostel around 8:30pm - I'd researched it earlier
and knew it was a safe neighborhood - my hostel had sent me very detail
pictures of how to get there from my bus stop.
Opting for my first
hostel stay in Panama (I can't imagine a backpacking trip without staying at a
hostel). I'd downloaded the 'HostelWorld' app prior to leaving and it is quite
helpful finding the best hostel. I stayed at Hostel Danicole for only $8/night
and quite impressed sharing a room with 3 friendly ladies from Venezuela. I
wish I'd known about hostels sooner - I would have saved a lot of $ during my
previous travels :)
I usually hit the
ground running the next day when I travel (I never venture out at night in any
foreign city - especially when I'm by myself - I'm a 'safety first' kind of
person and it's just not worth risking it), but when I woke up the next day it
was already 12pm - I had slept over 12 hours! Definitely my body's way of
telling me to slow down and it needed rest from the long bus trip from Mexico
City - lol. So I spent the rest of the day at the hostel resting & catching
up on emails, mapping/planning my trip to the canal, making sure I knew/understood
the local Metro bus system, and mapping out my way to the airport to make sure
I don't miss my upcoming flight in a few days.
Seeing the Panama
Canal was nothing short of spectacular! I arrived at the Miraflores Lock side
of the canal around 10:30am, Aug 24th and the entry ticket was $15 for the
exhibition, movie, and observation decks. All I wanted to do was view the canal
from the observation deck, but you have to by the ticket for everything. The
weather was a perfect 70F with a light breeze. It is not always guaranteed that
a ship/barge will be seen but I lucked out and saw 2 ships coming and going
that captivated me for almost an hour (I got some great video footage of the
ships/barges).
Of course I did my fair share of people watching and met a group of amazing Muslim women from the UK who were in full niqab garments- they introduced themselves and I got a great picture of their beautiful niqabs. I was awe struck seeing so many people from different countries who had traveled to the canal from different corners of the world).
Of course I did my fair share of people watching and met a group of amazing Muslim women from the UK who were in full niqab garments- they introduced themselves and I got a great picture of their beautiful niqabs. I was awe struck seeing so many people from different countries who had traveled to the canal from different corners of the world).
I'm not a big fan of museums - I figure if you've seen 1 you've seen them all, but this museum about the history of the canal captured my attention and was not boring at all. I enjoyed myself so much at the canal I completely lost track of time and before I knew it almost 4 hours had passed. The entire facility is clean, modern, and I highly recommend the experience for anyone traveling to Panama!
Most of the trip was very hot/humid (85+F/85% humidity) & I had to carry a towel because I was sweating like I'd just spent 3 hours in a sauna - lol, but thankfully the buses had a/c. The bus system in Panama City is highly efficient and cheap. I purchased a Metro Bus card my first day for $2 and only spent $6 exploring the entire city for 5 days!
Life is a journey... Next stop is Ecuador to visit Vilcabamba (I was going to go to Galapagos but the tkts/fees are too expensive so I’ve opted for just Vilcabamba)
#EnjoyingTheJourney #WorldTour #WondersOfTheWorld
