Back to Panama After All - 8-2-2012

View from Lazy Loft, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

You can disregard my last post.


It's raining today in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Hard. It started last night with the strobe of lightning and the crash of thunder. My Irish traveling companion is going to San Jose, Costa Rica today. I'm staying one more night to listen to the rain and enjoy peace before heading back to Bocas Del Toro, Panama in the morning.


I don't regret interrupting my Panama trip to visit Puerto Viejo. I don't regret meeting Jen from Dublin. I certainly don't regret the fevered rush of promises made by and to a beautiful woman an hour from sunrise, made potent by four year old Flor de Cana, made intoxicating by the sound of summer thunderstorms and sweetened by the slow swing dance moves I taught her in the early morning. It's almost always the things I didn't do that I regret...not the things I did do.


Panama waits for me; new towns wait for me too. And perhaps on a bus, or in a hostel, or on a tour, a new traveling companion waits for me too. I can't wait to show her how to swing dance.

Visiting the Panama Canal from Panama City - 7-25-2012

Panama Canal 

Want to satisfy everyone at home who'll ask "did you visit the canal while in Panama?" Want to bask in the glory of human achievement? If so, then visit the Panama Canal. Two separate superpowers (19th century France and 20th century America), poured unfathomable amounts of money and lives into their effort to link Atlantic and Pacific. It is indeed one hell of an engineering feat, and getting out there and back from Panama City can be half the fun. The end of this article tells you how to get out there a couple different ways.


The nearest set of canal locks to Panama City are in nearby Miraflores, about 10 miles north of Panama City. First, I cabbed from my hostel to Albrook Bus Terminal for $6.00. All city bus routes in Panama City end at Albrook, and all buses leaving Panama City start there too. Traffic was awful; the 15 mile ride to Albrook took one hour. I did get to see a lot of Panama City, though. the cab driver dodged main thoroughfare traffic by ducking into working class neighborhoods hidden in hills. Back on the main road to Albrook, we passed ghettos and favelas, as well as American style strip malls anchored by recognizable chains like Office Depot.

Finally, we arrive at Albrook bus terminal. Albrook is a one-stop location from which passengers can grab buses leaving Panama City for other locales and grab buses that run routes through Panama City. Ticket windows line one side of the terminal from which customers can purchase tickets for intra-city trips. Buses that run routes within Panama City can be boarded by walking out to the main street. The new orange Metro Buses list their destinations on electronic signs on the bus' front. The diablo rojos, or red devil buses, usually have the neighborhood their route originates in painted on the front windshield. The red devils are heavily decorated (and heavily dilapidated) old US school buses pressed into service as public transportation. Most of these buses run incomprehensible routes through the city, but some run routes connecting Panama City to other places as well. A bus from Albrook to the locks at Miraflores costs $0.35 and takes about half an hour. You'll want to take the bus to Gamboa -- Miraflores is on the way. Pay upon disembarking from the bus.

Red devil drivers routinely pack their buses so heavily that people have to stand shoulder to shoulder in the aisle. My bus is no different. I ask the woman next to me if Miraflores is far and she gestures that it is. She also gestures to say she will let me know when we arrive. Sure enough, she touches my arm half an hour later and says "Aqui," as we pull up to a sign that says "Miraflores, home of the Panama Canal." I thank her and disembark. I cross the highway and follow the signs to the Visitor Center. It's about a 15 minute walk from the bus stop, partially uphill, that also passes a dammed river. Finally, I reach the Visitor Center. Prices for non-Panamanians are $8 for adults and $5 for students and retirees. It's three dollars cheaper if you want to skip the museum and theater and only see the observation decks. I came this far, so I pony up $8 and walk inside.





Container Ship at Panama Canal

Straight ahead is the lobby and past that, the first floor observation decks where throngs of people watch ships pass by. Just behind the observation decks is a small snack bar that sells hamburgers, hot dogs and similar fast food. The canal is busiest from 8AM until 11AM, and again from 3PM until 6PM. On the left side of the lobby are two theaters, but both were closed during my visit. There is an additional theater outside and to the right of the observation decks. This theater shows a 10 minute informational movie covering the history of the isthmus of Panama, the failed French efforts to build a canal, the American success, the handover of the canal from the United States to Panama, and the $5.5 billion expansion that is set to finish in 2014.




Panama Canal Museum, Miraflores, Panama

Back in the Visitor Center, you'll find the museum on the right side of the lobby. The museum has four floors; enter the first floor from the ground floor of the Visitor Center. The first floor covers the history of the Panama Canal's construction. It has videos, interactive displays, and several scale models of the dredging ships and locomotives used during construction. The second floor contains displays and videos about the relationship between the canal and the local environment, including life-sized displays of various butterflies and other indigenous animals. The third and fourth floors were closed during my visit.


The Visitor Center is also multistory. The second floor contains additional observation decks and administrative offices. The third floor contains Miraflores Restaurant and Bar. For $20, you are treated to a sumptuous Panamanian style buffet and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the canal. The fourth floor also held a restaurant, it was closed during my visit.

Your Author at the Panama Canal, Miraflores, Panama

Partway through my visit, I watched a few ships come in. Watching massive tankers and container ships navigate the locks and dwarf the crowd of spectators is indeed humbling. A loudspeaker announces the nature of each ship passing through and its length. Throngs of people crowd together to snap pictures of loved ones in front of each passing ship. I finally find someone to take a few pictures of me, too, but the ship has passed by then. It's OK. It's still a good picture.


The ride back to Albrook was uneventful, but steamy, loud and bumpy. Again, $0.35 and half an hour gets you from Miraflores to Albrook. Back at Albrook, I ask a few folks where I can find a bus home. I find the Panama Viejo diablo rojo bus and get on. This ride took nearly 90 minutes and cost $0.25. All diablo rojo bus rides within Panama City cost only $0.25. This ride took so long because I was riding at the start of rush hour. Off-peak, the ride should take about 60 minutes.


Getting here:
There are a few ways to get here via cab or bus. First, you can try to catch a cab here from Panama City. Some drivers will refuse depending on traffic into and out of Panama City. If you do this, don't pay more than $10 for each leg of your trip. I caught a cab to Albrook for $6.00 and then a diablo rojo bus to Miraflores for $0.35. Diablo rojo bus rides from Albrook will cost $0.35 for each ride. Finally, you can take a bus from Panama City for $0.25 to Albrook and then take a $0.35 diablo rojo bus ride to Miraflores. If you take a bus from Panama City to Albrook, I recommend the orange Metro Buses for their relative comfort and their air conditioning. Pick one up most easily along the Via Espana or the waterfront expressway that runs along the Cinta Costera between Panama Viejo and Cascao Viejo.

Arriving in Panama and the Purpose of My Trip - 7-24-2012



Panama City Skyline from Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panama

I arrived in an overcast, drizzly Panama City, Panama this morning after a 2:00AM flight from Los Angeles. I booked my tickets three weeks ago when I started to get antsy after being home for five weeks from my springtime trip to Costa Rica. Like that Costa Rica trip, I've booked a 29 day trip. I've begun my trip at a German-owned hostel called Hostal Aleman surprisingly far out on Panama's eastern suburbs. It's in a safe, purely residential neighborhood, but we're so far out and the traffic is so bad in Panama City that no fewer than six taxi cab drivers refused my requests for a ride back to the hostel today even after I had already walked east for two hours from Panama City's old town, Casco Viejo. Regardless, I got a nice walking tour of the high rise office buildngs and apartments along the Cinta Costera waterfront area. Panama City seems quite cosmopolitan, and somewhat similar to Miami.





Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panama

So...since I'm all about purpose...what is the purpose of this Panama trip? Panama is a new country for me, so I want to bounce around a bit and see what it has to offer. I want to meet new people on the road and learn more about myself through conversations with others. As I learned during this year's Costa Rica trip, we are all mirrors for each other. I want to see myself reflected in lot of different mirrors on this trip. I also want to see if I can get better at just letting things happen instead of meticulously planning or controlling the trip. For example, I haven't booked transportation or lodging for my next city. I don't even know where I'll go after Panama City. And I'm OK with that...for a change. I also want to continue some of the self-improvement work from this year's Costa Rica trip. Inhale love,
exhale attachment, as my yoga teacher back home, Dana, might advise me.

So, like this year's Costa Rica trip, this Panama trip is about personal growth. But it's also like the 2009 Costa Rica trip in that I want to be adventurous see new places, meet plenty of new people and immerse myself in a new country. I'm curious to see how it all turns out. Wish me luck!

Home and Away - 6-30-2012

A few days ago, Dad told me something touching. He and I were talking about my recent travels and my desire to take this year off to travel more, enjoy my life and generally just "be." I told him, perfectly truthfully, that I haven't headed out again since returning from Costa Rica in late May because I've really enjoyed being home. I've also really enjoyed catching up with friends in LA, picking up new interests locally, meeting new people, and visiting San Francisco to reconnect with some of my best friends from business school (and to reconnect with the coolest city in America...sorry LA!).




Playa Samara, Costa Rica

You'll remember that a big insight from Costa Rica was that I should love and honor my friends and family by being with them, not just by thinking about them. Being kind and loving to my parents has remained a part of that, as was visiting my friends in San Francisco...friends who never gave up on our friendship despite me putting off visiting them for over two years as I focused on my finances to the exclusion of all else. I've also just enjoyed the opportunity to relax and savor my every moment at home without the pressure of a job or a commute or the weight of a boss' or staff's...or my own...expectations. Savoring my life daily, "la dolce vita" as it's called in Italy and "pura vida" as a Costa Rican would name it, was an additional purpose behind saving hard, rejecting consumerism, turning my back on television's vapidity, getting my finances in order and taking this extended break. In short, I've been home instead of traveling because being home has felt great, it is what I've wanted to do recently and...because I can.

I told Dad all of this and he said he really liked that I felt that way. He said that he and Mom are happy to have me here and they're both happy to see me so satisfied with my life. Then he told me that he hopes I always feel welcome at home, because indeed, I am welcome here. All the time. Forever.

I thought that was beautiful. Thanks Dad!




Playa Samara, Costa Rica

Still though, the road is whispering to me again and I can feel my restlessness building. I've started thinking of the other trips I intend to take this year and early next year. I'll almost certainly set foot in Panama for an extended trip before this summer is done. I'll be visiting New York in late summer or early autumn to see more friends I ignored for years. I'm going to fly to Vancouver to visit friends I made on the road for a short trip as well. Ecuador, Peru and the Amazon, with its mysterious ayahuasca vine, whisper to me as they have for years now. Chile, and its reputably libertarian politics and burgeoning economy, calls me, as it has for a year or so now. Even Italy whispers to me sweetly across the years, like a lost lover. As much as I have seen of Italy, I never grew tired of her.

I love being home, but the road calls me back to it. So soon, I'll be abroad once more...learning, growing, and forging myself into a stronger and wiser man...fulfilling the purpose of my time away from my career. Indeed, one of the things I'm working on during this break is listening to the universe when it quietly directs me somewhere. Looking back, I've nearly always waited until the whisper was raised to a scream because I've also nearly always tried to ignore this guidance. I'm listening now, though,...and I'm trying to listen better.

Shortening My Trip - 5-2-2012

Pacific Ocean from Barracuda in Playa Samara, Costa Rica



Upstairs bar at Barracuda in Playa Samara, Costa Rica

Upstairs at Barracuda, Jack Johnson was playing on the stereo and warm breezes touched my skin as I drank my frosty Imperial. I admired the baby blue sky and sapphire water interspersed with white caps. I felt peaceful, more peaceful than I had since the Canadians left two days prior. And that's when it started to hit me. On this trip, I wanted to learn how to love unconditionally. Well, if I am supposed to love my friends and my family unconditionally, then the best way to love them is to be with them. For my parents, that means being at home, or at least close to it. For my friends in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, that means visiting them. Me hanging out in Samara for six weeks does not bring love to the people who love me, though I do acknowledge that it took coming down here for me to realize that.

Up at Barracuda, I started thinking about this freedom that I've scrimped and saved for. For six years, I've put off living, and starting my own life in favor of working stressful jobs, commuting long distances and living with my parents specifically so I could get out of debt as quickly as possible and put together enough money to travel for a very long time. I have accomplished these things.

But here's the kicker: I didn't realize just how much I changed from my last trip through Playa Samara until I got back here. I see that I don't actually want to be a perpetual traveler anymore. I do still want the option to bail on a job whenever I desire and without financial concern, and I certainly want to be able to travel when I want. For the first time in my life, though, I feel like the next step for me is to set down roots, not collect passport stamps. I want to find a job that complements or serves my personal purpose rather than only putting money in my pocket. That might mean something corporate; it might mean a clean break from my corporate past. I also want to find a girlfriend who shares my values. I want to move out of my parents' house, and be a better friend to my friends by visiting them often.

 

Swimming pool at Barracuda in Playa Samara, Costa Rica

That's when I decided, amid the warm breeze, postcard view and easy Jack Johnson songs that I have to go home. I have to go home and bring love to the people who love me by visiting them in NYC and SF and wherever else they may be. I have to go home and build a life, not run from things I don't want...but really build life that any man would love to live. Sitting on a beach in Costa Rica isn't moving me towards these things, even though I had to fly down here, sit on a beach (well...hilltop bar), meet a whole bunch of people, clean up loose ends and do lots of writing here in Costa Rica to realize this.

Later that Saturday afternoon, I changed my flight home and shortened my trip by two weeks. That gives me over two and a half weeks to get into random adventures here, meet more people, and gain further insights while also moving me two weeks closer to building an awesome life at home. Shortening my trip also pulls some pressure off me here. Now that I'm just passing through, I can just have fun without worrying that I'm not making friends with other folks who'll stay for a while. That's liberating too.

Back in Costa Rica. Starting in San Jose. - 4-20-2012

In March 2009, I was burned out from my career and desired freedom from both my student loan debt and a career path I regarded as a mistake. I so badly just wanted to run away and escape that I toyed with making a living taking travel photos, writing travel stories, even tagging dolphins in the Caribbean for marine biologists. I also remembered how free I felt when I traveled Europe for10 weeks in 2005, and how happy I was to take Mom and Dad around Italy the next year. I also felt like I had something to prove to myself and to the world after my perceived career failures. Consequently, I booked a thirty-three day trip to Costa Rica for March and April 2009 and this blog was born. The trip was freeing, fun, illuminating, and highly motivating, as my entries from that trip showed and as my life since has confirmed. That trip was an amazing growth experience and a powerful expression of my personal freedom.

Fast forward to April 2012 and here I am in Costa Rica again, at Costa Rica Backpackers in San Jose. The same way I started my trip three years ago. So far, my return feels good, and different. When I booked this trip after being laid off from my last job, I assumed this trip would feel just like the last one. This trip would be an adventure taking me from town to town in such a way that my sense of freedom would be overpowering. The purpose of this trip has evolved since then, and now I do not forsee hopping from town to town, or bar to bar. I'll elaborate in my next post.

Thoughts on Traveling Alone - Monday 4-13-2009

Juan left this morning. I talk a lot this evening with Leonie and Tyler over dinner and drinks at Sol Azteca, a Mexican restaurant up a hill from Casa Brian. Some of the conversation strays into traveling alone. Tyler has been in Playa Samara since January attending the local massage therapy school. He tells me it has been emotionally difficult to meet people in the hostels or in the bars, click with them, hang out with them for awhile, and then say goodbye to them when they move on. He says that doing something for himself is key to making it through the incessant goodbyes. Just hanging out somewhere isn’t enough, he tells me. Trying to find validation through socializing just leads to disappointment as a solo traveler. The key is to do something because you want to do it, not for the sake of meeting people – go to school, seek out new experiences, visit new places.

Leonie echoes Tyler’s sentiments. Leonie has been in Playa Samara since January as well (Tyler and her met on the bus from San Jose). She has been living at Casa Brian since early February and so has watched a parade of people come and go, some of whom she because very close to. Part of the reason she is moving on, she tell us, is because she had stopped experiencing life for herself and instead stuck around to hang out with people who just went on to leave. She needs a change. She needs to travel and live for herself again.

I disagree with both of them at first since meeting people was a primary reason I booked my Costa Rica trip. Later, I understand what Tyler and Leonie mean. I met the people I met on this trip while I was doing something I wanted to do for myself – traveling abroad for my own reasons. These private motivations helped cushion the sense of loss when my new friends moved on because I knew that my journey was an end unto itself and that I didn’t need to get attached to other travelers to have life validating experiences. In fact, this constant turnover of traveling companions has taught me to appreciate every moment I spend with them without regard for the future because I know that distance and circumstance will largely prevent them from being a part of my future. I have spent much of my life ignoring my present in favor of my future. That’s changing now, thanks to this trip.