MacGyvered our way to Panama

(This is a long post - just warning you. If you're interested in travel to Costa Rica, Panama and living in the tropics this blog post might be  interesting to you as you learn from our misadventures.)

Wanted to let you know a little about our adventures and struggles in getting to Panama.

And why did we go to Panama in the first place?

Because we're looking to live here in the wintertime.

We're sick and tired of cold and dark New Jersey winters. We want sunshine all year round, beautiful beaches, mountains, nature, cheap and abundant tropical produce and a cheap cost of living as well.

So I figured I'd like to actually visit Panama first before I commit to living there. Karmyn and Andrew lived for six months in Costa Rica last year (and this year) and spent some time in Panama and loved it there. She liked it much better than Costa Rica for some of the reasons you'll see further below.

Actually Karmyn, Andrew and I flew into San Jose, Costa Rica first and stayed there for about 5 days. There we visited our friend and raw food guru buddy Frederic Patenaude and his lovely fiance Veronika.

We had a great time with them and made some Savory Veggie Stews together. Karmyn - The Stew Mistress - actually gave Fred a Savory Veggie Stew making lesson. Yes indeed Karmyn is also a master at making mouth watering - Savory Veggie Stews - http://SavoryVeggieStews.com.

And Fred was shocked at how much better our stews were coming out than his. So he wanted just a bit of tutoring. You can get that same tutoring with our 8 new videos. Seeing and hearing is so much easier than reading for SOME of us.

In case you missed it - we've put up a cool video of our 2 year old Andrew making a Savory Veggie Stew. We've also just added a video of my raw food buddy Rama and his multiple experiences with Savory Veggie Stews versus typical raw restaurant meals and raw potlucks. Andrew is in that video as well.

You can see both of those videos at the bottom of the page at this link:

http://SavoryVeggieStews.com

We actually ended up having neighboring hotel rooms with Frederic and Veronika for several nights. We stayed in our German owned ApartaHotel called "Puerta Del Sol," or Door to the Sun. Not sure if that's the exact translation or not.

Then we made our way to the Panamanian border with our hired driver Carlos and his mini-bus with virtually bald tires. (I found out later they were virtually bald.)

First we stopped off at our favorite beach in the world Playa Ventanas. We were the only ones there and had a great time. But it started pouring rain and we had bags and electronic equipment so we had to end our beach trip.

I think that is why the beach was empty.

RAINY SEASON

It's fairly remote and we're still in the rainy season. But those warm waters and the beauty of the beach were still as I remembered. Although the water was a bit cooler.

After Playa Ventanas we continued our trek to the frontera or Panamanian border.

The ride to Panama turned out to be quite an adventure. We had to use our creativity to get there in a timely fashion. Karmyn and some friendly and helpful Costa Ricans were largely responsible for our success as I'll explain below.

Shortly after leaving Playa Ventanas our driver's mini-bus got a flat tire. And to top it off his car jack was missing the lever to make it go up. We searched all around for an alternative. We put in wood sticks and eventually one broke off so we couldn't make the jack work at all.

We couldn't get the wood out and so had no leverage to lift the jack up.

All the time during this situation I was assesing our resources and seeing what we had to do to get out of there. It was like a MacGyver situation or a Star Trek episode where we had to think on our feet or die.

Well I don't think we would have died but maybe not made it across the border until the next day. And we were already 2 days behind schedule.

No time to play victim. I just kept on thinking of one idea after another to help get us back on the road quickly before the border closed. We tried so many different options and most of them ended up in failure.

One problem we had was that one lug nut for the tire was on so tight we couldn't get it off. It seemed impossible to get off.

We were jumping on the tire wrench and nothing would budge it. We used all our might but it was just stuck.

Finally after almost giving up hope I realized we should be using both of our strength together at the same time. While the driver Carlos pushed down on the tire wrench I pulled up and that finally got the lug not loose.

Whew!

We tried all sorts of stuff to substitute for the missing jack lever. Carlos used a plier and was able to get it up a bit. But soon the weight was too much the the pliers would have broken if we tried pumping it up anymore.

We also tried several sticks we found nearby. But they ended up breaking off and because of that we could no longer fit any lever into Carlos's jack because we couldn't get the wood out of the hole.

After all sorts of attempts and things tried for getting the jack to work Karmyn waived down a truck. (Actually she waived down 2 trucks and they both stopped to help us.)

Before that all sorts of cars passed us by and even a police car didn't stop to help.

It became obvious that we could no longer help ourselves (because the jack didn't work and wouldn't work because of the wood that got stuck) that we needed some assistance from someone else. I thought of calling AAA but Karmyn said they don't have such a service in Costa Rica.

We were hoping the truck Karmyn waived down had suitable jack for our mini-bus. The first truck didn't have their jack lever either. They had a jack but no lever - just like us.

And so we were back to the drawing board. They broke off pieces of their truck and hammered some pipe into a smaller piece so that it might fit the size of the jack opening.

But none of their creative attempts worked. Keep in mind these friendly Costa Ricans volunteered time out of their day to help us. One guy was laying on the floor and doing whatever he could to help.

We are quite grateful to these four men from the 2 trucks who assisted us.

Isn't that strange that the first truck also didn't have the metal jack lever?

Then the third truck was also missing it's jack lever. But eventually they found something from their truck that worked as a lever for their jack.

But it turned out that their jack was too short. It didn't go high enough to get the wheel off the ground.

So what we did instead was by hand to pump up our driver's jack and made it hold up the mini-bus. No need for the leverage as we already had the other jack holding the bus up. So we were able to just crank it up high with our hands without needing the leverage bar.

Then the other Costa Rican guys from the 2nd truck came back with a piece of wood to boost their jack up and finally we got the car all the way up and were able to change the tire.

We were a bit concerned because we had to make it to the border before they stopped taking people across.

Then on the drive there it turns out the bridge was actually flooded over with water. So we had to take a detour on this very long and slow dirt/rock road and hope that our driver Carlos didn't get another flat on his bald tires.

We lucked out and made it to the border. Hope Carlos made it back safely.

But getting across that Border was another tricky situation. Took quite a bit of time. Not like going to Canada which takes a minute to get past.

And remember we had to do most of our communication at the border in Spanish. Luckily I know some Spanish but I'm not fluent. Not even close really. But I can have conversations in Spanish. Karmyn knows some Spanish as well but a bit less than me.

I also had to bribe the Panamanian official who was deciding whether or not to let us in. He wouldn't let us in because we didn't have our plane tickets. But who does these days since they're usually electronic.

Actually this young Panamanian latched on to us when we were checking out of Costa Rica and I don't know if he was scamming us or what. But he had relations with the Panamanian border official and so I paid him the money which he'd later deliver. I paid a $10 bribe.

Not too bad.

Then our young guide arranged to get us a cheap cab into David, Panama. And I gave tips to a little boy and another man who helped us get our bags to this cab and helped in other ways. Quite a racket they've got going there. They all worked as a team.

But they did indeed make things easier for us.

Then our guide came in the small cab with us that was already packed to what I thought was the max with our bags or maletas. He actually asked me first if he wanted us to have him come with us as a guide and claimed the cab driver knew no Spanish or English and was from another country. That turned out to be a lie.

(BTW, Cabs are quite cheap in Panama - maybe 25% of the price you'd have to pay for the same ride in New York City.) Our wheeler dealer guy Hamilton  came to help us get a good hotel.

Of course our cab driver also had some arrangement with Hamilton, for indeed he did speak Spanish.

Make a long story short, we found a hotel. Which was again called Puerta Del Sol but this time it was in Panama.

I tipped Hamilton and we got our hotel room.

Was I foolish? Maybe so. But at least we made it safe and sound to a hotel.

Then we did a little bit of shopping for produce. We took cabs to a couple of local supermarkets including Supermercado Rey. It's amazing how much stuff they have in Panama that you can get in the United States. It was almost like I was back in the states. Much more selection of stuff compared to Costa Rica.

They've got virtually all of the name brands you'd see in the US.

Jokingly I told Karmyn, "It seems like we're in another country." Of course we were but to us we're in Central America and thinking things would be similar from country to country.

Panama is very different from Costa Rica. Much more modern, way better roads, hot and cold running water in most places. Just a better infastructure all around.

Even the taxicabs were much newer and in better shape than Costa Rican taxis. Seems to me the Panamanians are wealthier and enjoy a better quality of life. Don't know… I could be wrong. Just my impression.

Oh well so much more has happened. We've been struggling to get a hotel room with a kitchen. Seems it's simply not available in David.

Finally three days later we've arranged to get an ApartHotel in Boquete. We'll be going there tomorrow.

I know this email was quite long. But I thought maybe you'd be interested to learn a little bit about Panama and Costa Rica from our adventure here.

Will let you know more of our trip in the coming days.

Cheers,

Roger Haeske The 42-Year-Old Teanajer

P.S. I've now managed to make Savory Veggie Stews in New Jersey, Oregon, Maui, Costa Rica, Panama and Canada. They can be made just about anywhere. You don't need any fancy ingredients. Just stuff you can get at most supermarkets.

http://SavoryVeggieStews.com