Trip to Colon, Monday January 5, 2009

(This is our third posting today...to catch us up!)

Monday, January 5th (Chris DeBeikes' Birthday!) we took a train to Colon, a port city just 50 miles away on the north (Caribbean) coast. We decided NOT to take a tour group and to do it all ourselves. We chose to locate a guide/taxi once we reached Colon. We secured a guide at the railway station in Colon whose name was "Rigo".

As I was putting this post together I noticed that our travel book recommended that we NOT do this without using a tour company and warned that we would be"asking to be mugged" to walk alone in Colon. I AM GLAD THAT I NEVER READ THAT PARAGRAPH BEFORE OUR TRIP, because we had a REALLY nice/safe time! Colon has much violent crime, everyone says. Poverty is extensive here. Funny that the cruise lines are trying to push this area as a port of origin for cruise ships because everyone says it is completely unsafe to walk beyond the port limits. There is an enormous "zona libre", "free trade zone here, tho really geared toward wholesale purchases. There are over 2000 storefronts here selling everything imaginable. This free trade zone is the second largest in the world after Singapore.

This is a photo of the train "station" in Colon, really just a covered platform.


Below are photos of Portobelo (named "beautiful port" by Columbus in 1502). For several centuries this was an affluent trading center that stored South American gold, silver, sugar, quinine and other luxury-trade items headed for Europe. Needless to say, this was a popular place for pirate attacks (Pirates of the Caribbean)! Because of the frequent attacks military defensive emplacements were built and rebuilt many times, the remains of which are partially seen today, though generally in a quite poor state of repair given their historical significance. These iron cannon 300 years old are just rusting in the mud, and there is mud and litter everywhere. All this despite being a UN-anointed historical site.


I just love this photo. The hole allows you to look through several walls as if a cannon ball went through all of them simultaneously (maybe one did)!


What a view!!!



Ok, now if Chris DeBeikes was only here...look at our England pictures if you what to know why I thought of him just now.



Our guide (Rigo) took us to a beach on Isla Grande by water taxi . The name of the place was the "Bananas Village Resort". It was beautiful even though the weather was on and off rain and our towels never came until our last few minutes at the resort (the maid was still doing the wash!).


I am taking this photo from the pool area. What you see is the coral reef area of the Caribbean. The resort is on the windward side of the island. We noticed that the Caribbean had more rain-fall than the Pacific side of Panama.



Here we are with Rigo eating our lunch at the resort. The food was very good!


Can you say: Froot Loop or Tucan-Sam? The island had a nice collection of exotic birds!



The road to get to Isla Grande was what I affectionately call a "Meclizine Road". OH MY GOSH!!! There was a paved road PART of the time and when it WAS paved it was only paved in pieces! (Annie, Chris, Cassan: take our Gorgona road and times that by on hour!) Here we stopped for a cute cow in the middle of the road. The area reminded me of some parts of Hawaii. It was lush. colorful, and agricultural (from what I could see with my eyes closed trying to avoid being sick.)


Of course we returned by train, and as you can see the train had a sky-view! The cars were very nice, even the toilet area. (Not like in Russia, Cassan, where they emptied onto the track.)


There was a waitress that served all of the passengers food and drinks. We tried a weird Kosher food (there are a lot of Jewish people in Panama) that everyone was eating. It was like a sesame corn cracker shaped into "O's". I think you needed to have an "acquired taste"...

This was a GREAT day!! Thanks to Keith for getting us to and from the train station and doing all of the research for the trip! I do wonder if he conveniently forgot to tell a certain spouse about the warnings in the travelers guide book though...
Kathy