Terminado

So... that was it. I am sitting in the airport terminal in Atlanta waiting for my flight back to Munich... 2.5 hours left...



Saying goodbye yesterday was very emotional. Got some presents like a poster print of a group photo where everyone wrote some nice words for me on the back, a certificate, a typical panamanian bag and more.



I had a very good time there, so it was quite hard to leave. Eddy brought me to the airport at 5 in the morning (otra vez, muchas gracias eddy!).

Since I have a cold I tried to smuggle nose drops onboard the plane, which they found at the security check. I am wondering how I should blow up an airplane with 10ml of liquid. The worlds getting kinda crazy these times...

El Valle de Anton

This weekend I had my last *snief* trip in Panamá. I went with the bus in the beautiful valley called El Valle de Anton. The valley is an extinct volcano which broke out last millions of years ago with such a force, that it blew off the top. What remained was a crater with a diameter of approximately 5 km which contains now a small village. They have lots of sights there, thermal springs, a mountain shaped liked a sleeping indian women, a zoo, fine food, waterfalls, jungle treks and much more.



On the first day I rent a bicycle and drove to the largest waterfall there. It was a nice walk through the jungle. Afterwards I drove with my bike to the thermal springs where I had a relaxing hot bath of about one hour. Since it was raining I hung around reading for a while. Later I went to the local bakery to have some coffee and cake.



Parts of the volcano crater look like a sleeping indian women (La India Dormida). Since I am always curious I took a bus which drives in that direction. On the way up the head of La India Dormida there are some colored engravings on a large stone. The kids there told me that that it was made by ancient indios thousands of years ago. After another 30 minutes walk I was standing up on the head of the sleeping indian having a great view over the valley. Since it is getting dark early here, I went back to my hotel where I took a (hot ;-) shower and had a very good meal afterwards.



On Sunday I slept long, had a nice breakfast with ham and eggs and patacones (again ;-). Later I walked to the zoo which was quite a sad place, for example they have eagles in a cage of 2 square meters. Finally I walked to the famous handicrafts market in El Valle where I've spent much money on gifts for my family.

Boquete, Volcan Barú, Chiriqui

I spent an amazing weekend in the mountain region Chiriqui in Panamá. The city of Boquete which I visited lies at 1060m. The climate is much cooler than in Panamá City, it has about 25°C all the time. The main product there is coffee, milk and flowers. The people there say that Boquete is the city of eternal spring. Since it is 600km away from Panamá City I decided to travel by plane which is quite affordable in Panamá. After checking in to my (this time really luxurious) hotel, I first took a long walk around Boquete and the surroundings. In the evening I had a good meal at a local restaurant as well as a nice conversation with Mack from New Zealand and some local retirees from the UK. Before I went to sleep I had my first hot shower since I arrived in Panamá 6 weeks ago, amazing :-)



On the next day I met two IAESTE trainees from Switzerland, Mascha and Denise, who work in Chiriqui. We spent a nice day strolling around in Boquete and having a couple cups of coffee. We visited a place called "Mi jardin es su jardin" a private garden open to the public and a nice waterfall afterwards. After having dinner and some shopping, they left me at the evening and my day speaking my native german dialect was over. The girls work in a dairy, unfortunately, 6 days a week. Denise has to make cheese (what else, she is swiss ;-) and Mascha works in a laboratory.



On Monday was my great day. I got up at 4:30 am and took a taxi to the entrance of the Volcan Barú National Park which lies at about 1700m above sea level. After an exhausting hike of 5 hours and gaining 1700m of height I reached the summit of Volcan Barú at 3470m. It is the highest point of Panamá and I was a little bit proud of myself because I made it in just 5 hours. Usually one can see both oceans, the pacific and the atlantic, from this point. But the weather was not very nice, so I just saw clouds. But it was nice up there anyways - 10°C and strong wind. After 9 hours I finally arrived back in Boquete. Volcan Barú is quite different than austrian mountains. The forest ends at about 3300m above sea level which is very unusual in Austria, where we usually have glaciers at this height. I also saw Colibris at 3200m in Austria we have Steinbock's and Gemsen ;-)



I went to bed very early this day. On Tuesday I slept long and had a nice breakfast and a short walk in the town of Boquete. Finally I had to travel back to heat of Panamá City.

Boquete is a very nice place with cool weather and rich vegetation. There are lots of retirees from around the world who enjoy the climate and the low prices.


Feel free to also view my Boquete Gallery: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

Panama la Vieja

After having a little good bye party for Eduard, who leaves us on Friday, we finally made it to get up and hit the road to Panama la Vieja, which was the first settlement on the pacific side of Panama. It was founded in 1519 and developed well until it was destroyed by the welsh privateer Henry Morgan in 1671. The city was rebuild 5 miles south west of the original place, which is now called Casco Viejo.



Panama la Vieja was not touched until the borders of growing Panama City hit the site. It was protected only 28 years ago, after a small (poor) neighbourhood developed around the site.



Panama la Vieja has a nice visitor centre with a small museum with interesting exhibits (and english texts ;-). Its a nice walk around the site as you can see also in my Gallery

Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal

On Saturday last weekend my work mates took me to the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal.
Let me give a short introduction first: Panama City lies on the shortest path (77 km) across the isthmus of panama. The canal consists of 2 artificial lakes which are higher than sea level. Due to that a lock system is needed which lifts the ships up to that higher lake level at the entrance and lowers them on the other side. 3 locks exist: Miraflores locks (where we've been) with a height difference of 16.5m, the Pedro Miguel lock (9.5m) and the Gatún locks (back down to sea level). The artificial lake between Miraflores locks and the Pedro Miguel lock is called Miraflores lake, and the lake between Pedro Miguel lock and the Gatún locks is called Gatún lake.



We visited the Miraflores locks, which consists of three chambers. Each chamber has two large gates. The pictures (see also the Gallery) show the case where a ship is lowered from the Miraflores lake to the sea level of the Panama Bay (Pacific Ocean). The ship enters the first chamber, the gates behind are closed. Afterwards the water of the first chamber runs into the second chamber until the have the same water level. The gates in front of the ship are opened, the ship is pulled by locomotives into the next chamber. The gates behind the ship are closed, and the water is released to the next chamber until they have the same level. After opening the gates, the ship is pulled to the next chamber, gates closing, water is released and so on, until the sea level is reached.



Thats it... the Panama Canal is according to Wikipedia (deutsch), one of the largest engineering projects ever undertaken.