Mar 21, 2013 - David-Clam Huntin',Fishing, Gulf of Chiriqui, and Tropical Paradise

Como estamos, (How are we)? I’m doing well for the most part, sitting here writing this from my homestay house in David (pronounced Dah-veed). It’s Sunday here and tomorrow we leave for another place in Chiriqui (the province where David is the capital). I’m not sure the name of the place but as I understand it, it is a primate sanctuary where we will have a mammal’s ecology class for 2-3 days. Originally this wasn’t in the itinerary, but the other week a student brought to Ruben’s attention that this sanctuary is new as of a few years ago...

Sep 29, 2011 - Daveeeeeeeeeed!!!!

We left San Ramon and got another tica bus to daveed in panama...after arriving in San Jose at 9am the bus didn't leave to go to daveed so we had 3 hours to kill who allowed us some time to see a little of san Jose. It took 8 hours to get there this included an hour at the costa rica panama border...the border crossings are a bit of a joke...you have to get off the bus and got too the countries exit, then go to the next countries entry. After this they make everyone take there bags off the bus and keep you standing outside in the baking...

Aug 24, 2011 - Descent pavements and lots of taxis.

David 24/08/2011 Descent pavements and lots of taxis. From San Jose we took a long distance bus to the first major town in Panama, the town of David, which is Panamas second city. There wasn’t anything special about David, but it was only 9 hours from San Jose, instead of the 15 hours all the way to Panama City. It was a good place to break up the trip for a few nights. There seems to be just as many taxis here as there are private cars. Hundreds of them, all yellow like the New York taxis. Some of them in various states of disrepair and...

Dec 10, 2010 - David - Panama

December 10, 2010 The border crossing was EZ. Whew! By all accounts that is the last of the tough ones. SA is supposed to be EZ too. Now just to get my bike to Columbia. I wish I was staying longer in Panama. It looks to be a great country but fuck it. I need to ride and ride. I hope to be in Columbia by Christmas. The weather was good today - for a change. By 1pm all my riding gear was dry from yesterdays soaking. I´ll try to write more later.

Jul 7, 2010 - The heady smell of a hundred magic trees

David proved to be quite dull, so to avoid boring you all to death with tales of how the hotel looked and where the post office is located, I will hop over the few uneventful days we spent here. However today we left David, on a bus heading for Panama City. We hopped of the bus at Santa Clara which is about an hour and a half from the city. In comparison to our other bus adventures this one was somewhat tame and uninteresting, or perhaps the events of this busride passed us by in daze as we sat intoxicated by the heady fumes from the...

Jan 28, 2009 - Shopping Spree in David

We took the bus to David today to go to the Free Zone for shopping. Here the prices are unbelievable, prices from a quarter to ten dollars for most items. On the way down to David there was a disruption in traffic due to a political demonstration. We hopped off the bus and walked past the demonstrators and got on another bus to town. I´m sure I´ll be shopped out after today! Regina located another suitcase. Let´s hope the third purchase is the charm. Will the wheels hold out? Will some bus line or airline destroy the handle? We´ll...

Jan 19, 2009 - Panama City to David, Panama

Yesterday when riding along the canal we came across a new bridge (I believe it was called the centennial bridge) crossing the canal. It is a massive, modern structure using a set of single, center cables instead of the traditional two sets of cables like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. (I am sure I have the name wrong as well as the correct description of the strand system but no matter, it is an impressive structure). The best feature from our point of view was that all lanes were open. No Construction. It was a little out of our...

Dec 12, 2008 - Panama City to David, Panama

You may notice that your map on the "home page" is for Central America. You can still access the South America map by clicking just below the map area. We thought the Central America map would show more detail about where we are. All we can say about Panama is that it's HOT! During our short time in David, at 9:00 AM the sun was directly over head and very hot. We've enjoyed the different scenery in Central America. We only have 1 photo with this update, but you can see how lush the vegetation is, and there are even guardrails!

Mar 6, 2008 - On to Boquete

I was safe and sound at Pension Costa Rica, a simple and old hotel, that's for sure. I walked to The Purple House Hostel just to see what it was like. No vacancy so I only got to see the exterior. I walked to the central plaza and found a place for breakfast. David is the 2nd largest city in Panama. It is very busy and the shopping on all four sides of the square was amazing. I found two blouses for less than a dollar each. This will have to be a side trip for shopping one of these days. Buses leave for Boquete every half hour and cost...

Feb 2, 2008 - Panama: David

This was quite a day: after arriving very early (well, at least 07:30 IS very early for me), at the bus terminal of Panama City, I had to queue for two hours to buy a ticket and another four to actually take the bus to David, the capital of the province of Chirique, next to the border to Costa Rica, where I arrived absolutely exhausted after a 7-hour drive. I was very amazed to notice that I didn't get impatient about the queing and waiting or upset about the chaos... at least the bus left punctually on the minute. ;-) The scenes at the bus...

Sep 19, 2007 - Bus to Boquete

We left Mondo Taitu the morning after the "Power Hour" and the 80s night. Ashtrays jammed with smashed cigarette butts, beer bottles crowding on every available surface, a girl passed out in a hammock, a roll of toilet paper swimming in the toilet. Someone had thrown up in the shower. So we left, grabbed some breakfast and boarded the 9:30 a.m. ferry to Almirante. It wasn't as exciting as the Changuinola canal ride, but we passed two giant Chiquita (they're the big banana producers around here) container ships loading up containers, and we...

Apr 19, 2005 - Boca Brava

Well, it worked! For the moment, as least, I have dodged the rainy season! And not only have I struck it lucky weatherwise, I've lost the crowds too. When I crossed the border from Costa Rica two days ago there were ten gringos on the same bus. One of them had a job in Panama City and had only hopped across the border into Costa Rica for a few days for visa reasons. The other eight all went to Bocas del Toro, the islands the guide books tell you are a must see, despite the fact that it is getting more heavily developed every year, and...