panama

San Blas – Guna Yala

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The best way ending a long trip in Central America is to get yourself on to the islands of San Blas (Guna Yala). The images tells it all, almost – is that a starfish in the Caribbean Sea looks more beautiful than a plastic trash. The lack of proper waste management system in the area was conspicuous, just so you get the point that all the scenes aren’t this beautiful.

Tourism in the area is quite new and the local indigenous Guna people are basically running all the services for tourists on the coast and the islands. The region is autonomous, so Guna people have their own laws and everything; one of the laws is that only Guna may own land in Guna Yala. Their culture and traditions have remained mostly unchanged through years mainly because they have their autonomy and the society is fully endogamic. Continue reading →

Arriving in Panama City

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31-hour-lasting-day today with the lag, Helsinki +7hrs. Lufthansa served well and was in time. 

Local busses are a bit random here and there are no info on them, nada. So had to ask help from a local guy who just told: “es que, solamente se tiene que saber”. Meaning that you just have to know which bus to hop on. There are no timetables at stops nor destination signs on busses. The guy pointed the right bus stop and chicken bus ($1.25/person from Tocumen airport to City) for us and we got into the town.

Edit: after spending a few days in the city and getting used to everything including the public transportation services. Which is kind of divided in two, the old chicken buses and famous El Diablo Rojo etc. and the new MetroBus system. With the old I refer to my earlier story above. The new one is quite modern like we Europeans are used to. The metro with its connecting bus routes was inaugurated in 2014. Actually the metro line is just as straight as in Helsinki before 1998 – one line. But with the connecting busses the system is quite good and clear. There’s basically only one big minus there, the MetroBus card which you cannot buy from all the stations. We got an info from a local guy that the only place to get it is from the Southern end station Albrook. But noticed later at station La Gran Estación it is possible to buy one. The card costs $2 + the balance you want to buy on it (in downtown area one trip is $0.25). Also at least two (maybe more) people may use the same card so there’s no need for multiple cards if you have company.

Traveling from Tocumen to Panama City there are basically two reasonable ways to do it excluding the $45 taxi ride. As you cannot buy the MetroBus card from the airport (atm as I know) the first choice is to take a taxi to La Gran Estación (wouldn’t pay more that $10) and from there buy the card and take a metro to downtown. The second choice is to walk around half a mile to the bus stop and take a chicken bus straight to downtown (nothing is organized in Panama so ask locals). We did chicken bus but later on took a taxi to Albrook for the MetroBus card.