Big steps through a small country

Step 1: Tegucigalpa 

Boardercrossing

Chasing Birds in Tegu

We caught a very early bus from Managua to Tegucigalpa. The bus ride took us through gorgeous landscape with lush forests and rolling mountains, deep wide valleys and along clear rivers – Honduras might quite possibly be the beauty queen of Central American countries. We got to the capital in the late afternoon, spent some time walking around the city center with its small but nice plaza, churches and the busy pedestrian street but felt unsafe and uncomfortable and just grabbed some food after about an hour and went back to the hotel.

Step 2: Sambo Creek 

Hanging in there!

Another early bus took us to the northern coast of the country, to La Ceiba, the next day. From there we jumped on a chicken bus with loud Bob Marley tunes and singing dreadlocked smokers and went to the tiny seaside village Sambo Creek. A dirt track turns off the main highway and leads to the settlement that is inhabited by Garifuna fishermen and their families. On our way there, it started pouring and when we reached the miniscule 'plaza' to get off the bus, the whole village was already flooded. The paths had turned into muddy rivers, the skies were black and the sound of the raging sea was deafening. No one was out and every little store and restaurant was closed. We waded through the muddy street waters and got to the only hostel in town. It first appeared to be deserted but luckily a guy turned up, let us into the bare bone shed that was going to be our room and asked for a horrendous price for the night. We had no choice but to make the best of it and just hope for the bad weather to pass.

Zipping through...

We woke up the next morning to a completely different world outside: a clear blue sky was spanning over us with a blinding sun drying up the roads quickly. Our hostel turned out to have the most inviting terrace facing the blue Caribbean sea that was now calmly hitting the sandy beach. The tiny houses had opened up and the dusty streets were busy with barefoot children on their way to school, colorful traditionally dressed women running errands and gossiping men sharing a space in the shade of some trees. It was a beautiful scene.
We made our way up into the thick green forest that covers the mountain slopes and went for a canopy tour – a tour around the leafy roof of the jungle beneath. We went zip-lining. Together with two great guides we rushed through the sky, hooked up to a simple steel cable, and got to see breathtaking scenery, flora and fauna of the Honduran forest. One time we went through a big cloud of steam – down beneath us was a hot spring of more than 250 degrees Celsius. Another time the zip-lines let us bounce up and down and touch giant trees while pulling acrobatic stunts. And yet some other times the ride became so fast that we had to break like crazy and still crashed into the guides that caught us at the next platform. It was amazing.

Water-massage

After more than 4 km of cables and over an hour of what felt like flying we were back down at the foot of the mountain. But the fun wasn't over yet. We were guided back up into the forest, along the river and up some gorgeous waterfalls and pools. These formed a natural Spa that was fed by the hot spring that we had seen earlier – down here the water was still about 40 degrees Celsius hot. We were welcomed with a floating bowl of sweet tropical fruits, went for a quick swim and then got the most relaxing body massage before being treated with healing volcanic earth that we got to wash off in a natural whirlpool. It was incredible, the best spa we've ever been to!
In the late afternoon it started raining again and we made our way back to La Ceiba where we stayed for the night.

Step 3: Roatan Island 

All of you!

The next morning we took the ferry to the largest of the three Bay Islands, Roatan. When we left the shore, stewards started to hand out sick-bags to every passenger. We first made our jokes about that - in the end almost everyone had used their bag and it wasn't that funny anymore...We got to the paradise island around noon, made our way to the little town West End, found a hostel amidst some local family's houses in the middle of the jungle a little outside of town and a professional looking dive shop with the most welcoming atmosphere right at the beach – and jumped right into the water for our first dive less than an hour later. Heaven!

Our first eagle ray - so graceful!

The reefs around the western tip of Roatan are part of the second largest barrier reef worldwide
and home to an incredible range of aquatic life. The clear water and its comfortable temperature make this the perfect dive spot. So of course that is what we did for the next two and a half days: we spent our time under water. We got to see seahorses, turtles, eagle rays, octopus, lobster, giant morays, flounders, squids, sponges, corals and anemones among all the usual colorful tropical fish. We got all excited when we found our first lionfish (it was huge and beautiful) – and were accordingly shocked when the dive master got out his spear and killed the fish in front of our eyes (although witnessing the grouper that had been following us feeding on the lionfish by opening his mouth and swallowing it whole was actually pretty cool). Later we were told that the lionfish don't naturally belong here and are now so numerous in the Caribbean that they actually threaten local species. That is why they are being killed off whenever possible.

Whenever we were not under water we spent our time on the porch of Coconut Tree Divers to discuss the great dives with new friends while sipping on an ice cold beer and enjoying a great time with our amazing hosts at the most homely hostel we have stayed at so far (first the owner's birthday party with self made brilliant sushi, then a hearty BBQ night and at last the goodbye party of a long time guest with super tasty Mexican food – wow, that was one yummy stay).

The time flew by and we didn't really see much of Roatan itself but we found great new friends, had an amazing time diving and enjoyed the relaxed, beachy island atmosphere to the fullest. What more can you ask for.

Step 4: Copan Ruinas

Little, colorful Copan Ruinas

We left Roatan very early (this time we took some pills to not get sick that made us sleep through the ferry trip), got back to La Ceiba and caught the next bus to San Pedro Sula, the second biggest city of Honduras, where we changed buses again to finally go to the small town Copan Ruinas in the Copan Valley, close to the Guatemalan boarder. The whole trip from door to door took over 14 hours so we were exhausted when we got there and just got some dinner before falling asleep.
The next day we were out to explore. Copan Ruinas is very pleasant and welcoming, with clean, cobblestone streets and colorful little houses. A pretty square marks the center of the hilly town that, thanks to its mountainous location, has a climate that is perfect for outdoor activities (warm yet not steamy). We walked around town for a while and climbed a hill to catch a great view over the settlement and the surrounding landscape. Instead of the lush jungle of the north we were now surrounded by fields of corn and potatoes along the river down in the valley and rugged, grassy fields and stony mountain slopes around.

We walked eastwards out of town and reached the highlight of the Copan sights in less than 10 minutes: the town's namesake archeological site of Maya ruins. We hooked up with a guide, went into the park – and were astonished from the first moment on. We were welcomed by Honduras' mascot, the macaw birds. These magnificent birds live freely in the park and their loud songs fill the air around. Whenever they fly from one tree to the next it looks like a flash of red, blue and yellow in front of the dark green of the trees – spectacular. A broad path lead us to what was once the center of a sprawling Mayan kingdom and home to a long line of royal families, priests and their servants. The most remarkable aspect of the Copan Ruinas' Mayans is that they inscribed their history in stone. The fine lines of their picturesque hieroglyphs can be found carved into stairs, stelae and temples – our Mayan guide could read them to us and thereby, and with his great ability to make everything sound exciting and lively, make the ruins come alive for us.

The Acropolis

We first visited the Great Plaza with its many huge, intricately carved stelae that depict the Copan rulers in their majestic attire. Next to a couple of altars for animal sacrifices, we could also see the perfectly shaped round altar for the human sacrifices that were celebrated about every 3 years to please the gods. Built into the altar is a small hole where the head of the boy (it was always boys) was placed, and two diagonal channel that caught the blood of the beheaded afterward. The blood was collected and then burnt – when the smoke was rising up to the heaven the sacrifice was going to the gods. It sounds pretty horrible but our guide made a strong point of telling us that a human sacrifice was quite rare in the Mayan culture (unlike with the Aztecs) and the ritual was only celebrated when “it was really necessary because of long droughts”. Well, okay then, glad to hear it. 

From the Main Plaza we went on to the Ball Court, something we could call an early stadium with big stairs and lots of place for tons of spectators. Two temples frame the court that were housing the changing rooms of the two competing teams (interesting enough that they would put those into temples...). The rules of the game aren't certain today, but it seems clear that two teams had to keep a hard rubber ball in the air without touching it with either their feet nor their hands (they used their knees, shoulders etc.). They scored when the ball hit a statue of a macaw's head. Who would have thought it – ballgames originated here, in Central America. The only difference to today’s games: if there was need for a human sacrifice, the best player of the winning team was chosen. Not a great incentive for giving your best, I'd think.

Next to the ball court we found the most spectacular monument – the Hieroglyphic Stairway. On its 63 steps, the whole history of the royal house of Copan is inscribed with thousands of beautiful, detailed glyphs. The sight is covered with a massive tarp which lessens the photogenic beauty of the stairway but is necessary to protect it from the elements.
Next up on our tour was the Acropolis, with its beautiful plazas that are
flanked by massive, high rising temples and offer great views over the city. From here we entered the tunnels beneath the large temples – to find the preexisting structures that lay below. Each Mayan ruler used to destroy old temples and use them as the base for their own new and improved (or simply bigger) temples. There is only one known example where a temple was so sacred that it wasn't destroyed but kept intact – but still served as a base for a new temple. This is the Rosaslila temple (called so due to the color that can still be found on the temples outer walls) that can be visited via tunnel. When it was found in the 80s it was completely intact, including colors, carvings etc. Another tunnel leads to the Jaguar temple where we could see a king's bathroom, more carvings and the ridiculously large foundation that every building got since it was already clear from the beginning that it would one day become the basis for a larger building in itself.
After the tour, we walked around the park for a while longer and explored the ruins of the living quarters on our own. We were soon 'templed-out' though, and decided to explore the rest of the site the next day. On our way out of the park we found some dancing birds (they swing around the branches when they sing – it looks like a little dance) and what looked like a tiny tapir. Someone please tell us what it really is!

We started off our next day of non-stop exploring with a visit to the amazing Museum of Sculpture. From the moment you enter the museum through the mouth of a serpent you are enchanted by the beautiful exhibits on display. Some of the finest sculptures from the archeological site can be seen in a Guggenheim-like set-up while the center of the museum is filled by a full-scale replica of the Rosalila temple, with all its original carvings, sculptures, paints and statues.
From the museum we went on a further 2 km down the road to get to the Las Sepulturas ruins. This site is not as grand and impressive as the main one that was the political, religious and cultural center of the kingdom – but hidden away in the forest and rarely visited by tourists it is a great place to explore. This is where noblemen and religious leaders lived in grand compounds that were set around plazas and courtyards. Temples and altars can be found and carved walls as well as glyphs on stairs indicate the importance of the small settlement. We lost ourselves in this exciting area for hours before we – once again – decided that we had seen enough ruins for a day. So we climbed over a fence, made our way through some wild forest and ended up next to the river that we followed back towards Copan Ruinas as long as we could. When there was no way to continue, friendly farmers helped us over yet another fence, guided us over their fields and showed us a way through maize, forest and tiny 3-house-villages that inhabited 10 people but 100 chicken. After a beautiful long walk we got back to town just in time before sunset. A beautiful day out!

The Copan valley

One last thing, in case you were wondering: Of course Lara and Indi were featured in this exploration of ancient temples and cultures – they always come out when we get to some sort of archeological excitement. But when we found a nest of colorful, small but highly venous serpents that crawled all over each other and stared and hissed at us Indi, with his fear of snakes, decided to leave right away, and Lara just went with him. Pretty sure they will be back to explore other Mayan sites, though. So stay tuned for upcoming adventures...

Blubb...

 

Fire, Water, Earth...

Fire
We had already decided to 'skip' Costa Rica when we got to its capital San Jose from where we wanted to catch a bus to Nicaragua. And even though we drove along very pretty beaches, got to see where millions of Chiquita bananas come from, went through lush jungles and passed by beautiful volcanoes on our way to San Jose we were not inclined to change our mind. High prices and the omnipresence of all-inclusive tourism combined with our most recent lecture of 'Panama is the new and better Costa Rica' (ask any Panamanian and most backpackers who have visited both countries) we put Costa Rica on our 'come-back-when-we're-all-rich-and-grown-up' travel list instead. We had to wait in San Jose for 1.5 days until we could get our bus – enough time to explore the city a couple of times.

San Jose was without special appeal to us, as it had little, if any, touristic attractions and the street life was rather provincial after the metropolitan capitals that we had visited lately. A couple of plazas and small parks, very few impressive buildings (the national theater is quite the eye-catcher, though) and a pedestrian mall make up the downtown area. We walked around it a couple of times and got bored quite soon (and must have enjoyed it, as there is a number of museums that we just didn't take advantage of). The most excitement we got was when a building a block down from our hostel was on fire and almost burnt down to the ground. The firefighters were doing a great job, though, and got everything under control after an hour or so. No one was hurt in this incident and as far as people told us, the building was old and didn't belong to anyone, so we can honestly and without any guilt say that it was the best thing that happened to us in San Jose as we had something to watch for a couple of hours. (It even made national news, so we got to see it again in TV later during dinner...)

Water
The next day we left Costa Rica and went o north to Nicaragua. The boarder crossing was quite time consuming as every traveler's bag was searched and the officials took their time with handing out tourist cards. When we made it, we soon reached the shore of the Lago Nicaragua, a huge body of fresh water with waves that make it seem like a small ocean. In the distance we could see the majestic joint volcanoes that make up the Ometepe island while we drove through tiny villages, fields, herds of animals (both cows and pigs...), a windpark and beautiful forests before we reached our destination: Granada.

The Lonely Planet introduces Granada as Nicaragua's golden egg of tourism, and we found it to be just that. Luckily it is low season at the moment, so the beautiful colonial town was not crowded. We wandered around its streets that are lined with small old houses, visited the numerous churches and sat in the central park, eating huge 20 cent hot dogs (garnished with what we baptized 'the-weird-but-tasty-pickeled-stuff' as we never found out what it really was) while watching the colorful crowd of locals and tourists going by their business in front of the picturesque cathedral. We climbed a church tower to get an overview over the city and catch a glimpse of the two volcanoes that tower over it on the one side while the other side meets the shore of Lago Nicaragua and enjoyed the cool breeze eating typical Nica cuisine al fresco after nightfall. The atmosphere was very holiday-like with tons of relaxed people and a very laid back pace. To speed it up a little, we checked out the frenetic market where ten mangoes cost less than 50 cents and you can buy everything you never needed for less than a dollar – clothes, food, games, jewelery and everything in between.

Next we had planned on hiking up the active Masaya volcano at night – even though we were only half way up for it since we just recently had done something similar. Therefore the news of some bush fires on the volcano's slopes and the resulting closure of most of the hiking trails in the National Park didn't hit us that hard. We just decided to tour the 360 little islands that dot the water in front of Granada (Los Isletas) instead. Some of them are private and are owned by the rich and famous. They have beautiful villas, neat tropical gardens and show every sign of luxury – from yachts to helicopter landings. One island is inhabited by a special family: some spider monkeys live here since a couple of them were taken from their previous owners and put there by the government. By now there is a generation of monkeys that were actually born in the wild and since the monkeys cannot swim they just live on the little piece of land in the huge lake. After we had passed the monkey island we reached islands that are inhabited by local Nicas. Children passed us by in rowboats on their way to school and a family was bathing in the lake while fishermen tried their luck on the islands' shores. We stopped and visited a chief at his hut and he showed us around his garden where he grows tons of different types of fruits and veggies that he sells at the market in town. Inside his bare bone hut he proudly presented a small kitchen and we found evidence that women around the world are in fact the same: they love shoes. Before we parted from him, he invited us to a tasty coconut milk that we enjoyed while sharing travel stories. One of the guys from the tour talked about the great surfing at the southern pacific coast of Nicaragua – and made us change our travel plans in no time. Instead of going up to the north right away and go surfing in El Salvador we decided to take it slower and skip that country in favor of more time at other places and just get our surf-fix in San Juan del Sur.

It took us almost the whole day to make our way back there in local chicken buses and it was quite a ride – but once we got there, we were really glad about our decision. San Juan is a tiny seaside town (some might call it 'resort' but it's far too little developed for that) that sits in the middle of a picturesque horseshoe bay, flanked by highly photogenic cliffs and inhabited by a very welcoming and friendly crowd. There aren't any good waves directly in town as the water is too sheltered in the bay, but just a couple of km north and south of it, you'll find some of Nicaragua's finest breaks. So we got ourselves boards, shirts and some sunscreen and were off in the first beach shuttle we found. We had a great time, caught most of our waves quite well and even remembered the steering part after a while. Keeping in mind that this was the Pacific, not the warm, inviting ocean at white, soft sanded Kuta beach, we did a great job and only hurt ourselves a very few times – and let's face it, really: for us beginners, falling in and tumbling around is part of the fun.

Earth

After we've had a great time surfing in San Juan we went back north, passed by Granada again and headed towards Managua. We took the earliest bus there was as we were eager to get to Nicaragua's capital in the morning so we would have the whole day to explore the city before taking the bus up to Honduras the next day. We got to Managua around 9am and were ready to go – except everyone kept telling us not to go anywhere because it supposedly was too dangerous. We had to get out of the hotel, though, since we needed some money. Two friendly local hotel guests took us to the nearest ATM, just in case. They lead us through a labyrinth of small alleyways that were all spookishly calm and kept saying 'Don't go there, it is dangerous there!', 'Don't turn here, that street down there is dangerous!', 'Don't go to far into this direction, it is dangerous!'...We didn't even dare to ask what it actually is that makes those parts so dangerous, we just followed their guidance blindly. The ATM was at a smallish mall where the couple left us. We sat there, drinking a coffee to get over the whole 'shock' and then decided to just go watch a movie since we apparently couldn't go anywhere anyway. When the movie was over it was early afternoon. We walked back to the hotel, following exactly the same path that was shown to us as being safe (there was absolutely no reason not to feel safe, by the way, only all the talking of the people...sometimes ignorance is bliss and we somehow wished we hadn't talked to them before) – and then sat in our hotel room again. But we weren't ready to give up on our sightseeing quite yet. The Lonely Planet said something about the former central area of Managua, that was leveled to the ground during the great earthquake of 1972, and a couple of ruins and parks that could still be visited. We caught a cab to go there, even though it was just a couple of blocks away - we had been advised that walking was too dangerous. After we got off the cab and had walked down a closed street for about 100m, one of the hundreds of policemen that secured the area (as they do everwhere in town - they made us feel more uncomfortable instead of safer, though, with all their arms and stuff) stopped us and told us that we couldn't go anywhere in this area and had better leave. At first we tried to argue, than we tried to find a way around the closed zone to maybe see some sights from the other side – and then it started to pour and we just gave up. There really is a reason why most traveler's don't linger in Managua – there is just nothing to do for a tourist here. We caught a cab back to the hotel and went to bed early. It didn't matter much, as we had to get up really early the next morning anyway to catch our bus.
The next morning came, the alarm went off and – we missed our bus (for the first time on this trip, that's not so bad...). The next one went the next morning. Great. Another long day to spend in Managua. We went back to bed. When we got up again much later it was definitely time for some good breakfast and we went to a very good local cafe around the corner, ordered up some coffee, gallo tinto, eggs and tortillas and just got ready to dig in when for a very brief moment everything seemed to turn silent. Then, like a train that is coming ever closer, a thundering sound started, first quite silently but constantly turning louder and louder. And with it, the earth started moving. We, the furniture, the whole house – everything was moving from left to right, always a little stronger. Cooks and waitresses came out of the kitchen, people ran into the streets – and then it all stopped, just as quickly as it had begun. We had just experienced our first (and hopefully last, as it was a very scary experience) earthquake – a 6.5 on the Richter-scale as we learned later on. After that shock we went for a walk along our secured pathway and further up a heavily guarded hill from where we could see most of the city. There a only very few high buildings, everything is ducked away and the city lacksplazas or parks that could mark its center since everything was destroyed in the 70s. All in all it is just a very spread out accumulation of houses. The Lago Managua behind the city and the beautiful volcanoes along its far shore were a pretty sight, though. We walked back to the mall, watched another movie, caught a taxi to get to the next supermarket (how frustrating that you can't even do your grocery shopping without feeling unsafe and having to hop into a cab), cooked ourselves some dinner and were back in bed really early again. We have tried our best to enjoy Managua – it just wasn't for us. While we definitely fell in love with the other parts of Nicaragua that we've visited (we might even say it was the best country in Central America so far) we were now ready to leave and get to Honduras as soon as possible.

Bananas gone wild

We continued our quest and went from Panama City via David in the northwest of the country to tiny Boquete – a charming town nestled on the cool slopes of Volcan Baru, at 3474m Panama's highest peak. A river runs through it and beautiful, wild forests reach into town. Parrots sing their songs at dusk and dawn and the cool, dry (by Panamanian standards) climate allows people to mingle outside the whole day without suffering a heart attack. Boquete is in fact so darn pretty that it is flooded by US-Americans that settle here for their retirement. This leads to a welcoming, international vibe and we liked Boquete the moment we stepped out of the bus – but also had to realize that we would not find what we were looking for: the smell of bananas. And why would we not find that sweet smell? Because we were surrounded by the country's most famous coffee plantations. So instead of bananas Panama smells like coffee, at least in Boquete.

We went for long walks around the city and into its surroundings, along the coffee plants that looked so familiar and conjured up memories of Vietnam's coffee highlands. It was the day of local elections in Panama and in front of a small house there were quite the election parties going on – seemingly all the parties were celebrating right next to each other and right in front of the election office. The building was guarded by heavily armed national policemen that made sure that everything went according to order (taking into account all the bribery we witnessed – and took part in- the last couple of days the policemen didn't seem so out of place anymore). We went back to the hostel for a little afternoon nap and then started to get ready for our next adventure: climbing the volcano at night to reach its top right in time for sunrise the next morning. Prepared with tons of water, some food, warm clothes and, most importantly, headlights with fresh batteries we left the hostel around 11pm and got to the head of the trail at the entrance to the national park shortly before midnight. Under a clear, stary sky we started our 13km way to the summit quite energetically and made some way in the complete darkness of the forest before tiredness set in. From around 2:30am to 5am we were only stumbling on, sleeping while walking (yes, that is really possible), shivering in the cold air. When we reached the last steep climb we looked back to where we came from – the east. A fiery red sun was slowly rising above a sea of clouds that covered the valleys far below us. It was a stunning sight that woke us up immediately – we hurried up to the cross and enjoyed the spectacular view while the sun was coming up. Once the spectacle was over we had some well earned breakfast and then quickly turned around – it was quite cold up there. The way back down to the entrance of the park was torture. When sleepwalking up the mountain before we hadn't realized just how steep the way was most of the time. 13 steep km down means hurting knees after the first half hour, bleeding toes and lots of gliding, slipping and tumbling. We asked ourselves 'Why?!' more than once. At least this time we could actually see the beauty of the landscape we were walking through. Thick, lush jungle was covering the mountain slopes, we saw tons of colorful hummingbirds, glimmering, gigantic insects, some small snakes and we could hear monkeys in the distance. After we had finally gotten back to the hostel almost 5 hours later, slept the whole afternoon and enjoyed some good food for dinner we were ready to say: Yes, it was a good hike and totally worth the effort! The only thing we missed on that volcano was - you guessed it - the smell of bananas.

Therefore we left Boquete the next morning to continue our search on the Caribbean coast. We went back to David and took a bus to Almirante from where we left the mainland by water taxi and reached our final destination: Isla Colon, the main island of the Bocas del Toro archipelago. In this tropical paradise we were sure to find bananas and their smell.

The first day, we hired bikes and toured up to the northern tip of the island, along secluded white beaches, surf breaks and through thick jungle. It was steaming hot and we went through our 3 liters of water in no time. The old bikes without gear and real breaks were not really made for the dirt track that lead through the forest (and was actually the only road there was on this part of the island). We went through deep, soft sand, had to cross old, crumbling bridges, waded through rivers and got stuck in mud a couple of times. Finally we had to give up and surrender to nature when the path got lost in a swamp that was humming with the sound of animals. We had just encountered our very first wild giant snake (a black python with a diameter of at least 20cm) and were howled at by monkeys that threw stuff at us so we were not inclined to cross that swamp slowly, barefoot and unarmed as we were. Instead we went back the same road that we had come. On the way we met two very nice American girls that got stuck with their quad in the same deep mud that we got stuck in so we helped each other out of there and celebrated our jungle-survival when we made it back out of the forest and onto the beach with its very welcoming, laid back beach bar. We talked, laughed, enjoyed the view and our sun-downers and then went back to town to take a good, long shower.

The next day, we took a boating tour to explore more of the islands around Isla Colon. We first went to Dolphin Cove. The dolphins that supposedly live there in great numbers were all sleeping when we got there (typical...), so we didn't get to see any. That was not too bad, though, as we instead took a great tour through Cayo Crawl, a labyrinth of mangrove-dotted channels with a mystical calm aura. Afterward we went snorkeling. The variety of fish wasn't very impressive and the visibility was less than perfect but the kind of corals we got to see was quite fascinating, as we never saw these before. Very colorful hard corals and soft corals that formed underwater forests like seaweed covered the whole area. After a picnic lunch we continued the tour to the distant Cayos Zapatillas with pristine white-sand beaches and awesome forests to hike through. We spent the afternoon enjoying the warm waters and running from the mosquitoes in the forest before we went back to Isla Colon.

Our last trip on the island led us to the beautiful beach at Bocas del Drago in the north east. We walked along it for about 15 minutes, passed the most beautiful, lonely cove with crystal clear water and finally reached the amazing Starfish Beach. The water is dotted with beautiful red and yellow, small and big starfish and the occasional little ray that calmly swims by. We had brought our goggles and spent hours in amazement, inspecting every single starfish. About 5 meters into the water, the bottom dropped significantly and along that wall, there were myriads of the cute underwater animals – their sheer amount was a sight in itself. We definitely fell in love with starfish that day. But after spending a whole afternoon with them at their beach and two more days around the archipelago we had to admit: there is no smell of bananas on Isla Colon or the surrounding islands. 

Smell-wise disappointed (everything else was fantastic so there was no reason to be otherwise disappointed) we decided to give up our search and go on to Panama's northern neighbor: Costa Rica. We took the water taxi back to the mainland and went north by bus – and there, in the boarder region of the two countries, we finally found what we had been looking for all over Panama: miles and miles of banana plantations. So at the boarder, while leaving the country, we took a deep sniff of sweet sweet banana smelling air. Janosch was right: Oh, wie schoen ist Panama!

Bananas in the city

After a lot – and we mean A LOT – of hassle, the Colombians finally let us leave their country (sure, Colombia was absolutely fabulous most of the time but at this point we were just so thankful to finally being able to get out of there and move on) – and we were off to Panama (again). Almost every German child learns early on that Panama smells like Bananas. (If you are non-German and find this rather odd check out 'Janosch' and you will soon be in the know). So our mission for our visit to this country was clear: follow our noses and find the sweet promised smell.

We started our search in Panama City, the cosmopolitan capital of the country. With a skyline that would make most Northamerican metropolises blush and a beautiful setting on the pacific coast this is not a bad place to be. The flashy malls, yacht clubs and seaside parks show the still great US-American influence on the country's culture – and we enjoyed it quite a bit on our first afternoon when strolling along the oceanfront and ending our long day at the huge movie theater of glitzy Multicentro Mall. The modern world big city fumes made smelling any bananas impossible in the downtown area, though.

Therefore, we headed down to the old city of Panama, Casco Viejo, that sits on a rocky peninsula northwest of the city centre. Today it crumbles away along some streets while others have been completely restored to their former glory. This makes up a very appealing mixture of old and new that kept us wander around the cobblestone streets for hours (although the first one was spent trying to get rid of our newest loco that kept following us around and even sat down at our table with us when we went into a restaurant for breakfast...). We visited churches, marveled at the beauty of Teatro Nacional and the Palacio de las Garzas where the president resides, enjoyed the view from the Paseo Bovedas that leads along the old city wall and hid inside the astoundingly interesting Museo del Canal Interoceanico when it started pouring.  The canal was – and still is in the mind of every Panamanian- a marvel of engineering work and a wonder of the world. When the French started to build it, they were soon defeated by nature as tropical diseases killed thousands of workers and the available machinery had too little power to built the canal through the jungle. The French, in a way, were ahead of their time. So the US-Americans stepped in when they saw the time had come – and with medical knowledge, that time high-end machinery and a modernization of the whole area they finished what the world (and especially they themselves) needed so badly: a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean that enabled world trade to increase immensely. We stayed in the museum long after the rain had stopped. Afterward we took a cap to the other side of downtown, to Panama Viejo. That is weird, you might think – going from one old Panama to the next. Panama Viejo is in fact not only the old town but the oldest town – this was where the very first Panama City was prospering for over 150 years before the pirates around Henry Morgan destroyed it in 1671 and the Spanish moved their new city to Casco Viejo. The ruins of this first settlement now lay in a beautiful park and are quite worth the visit. Some of the many churches and convents are still recognizable as such and many walls of what once must have been grand living houses remain intact so that you can lose yourself in a labyrinth of small, grassy alleyways that were once the main street of the most important city of Central America. We climbed the restored tower of the cathedral (an image of which can be found on the Panamanian coins) and were, once more, rewarded with astonishing views over both, old and new Panama City. The vista was picture perfect – but there was no smell of any bananas in the air. We concluded: we have to get out of the city to find what we are looking for.

So the next day we ventured a little ways out of the city to the famous waterway that divides Panama and the Americas. At the Miraflores Locks we could see the canal at its busy best: huge freighters (that barely fit the locks) and (seemingly) small sail boats were lifted either up or down from or to the Pacific’s level while hundreds of tourists watched in awe and got bitten by a million mosquitoes in the meantime. Behind the locks the visitors could also witness the work on the next generation canal that will be a lot bigger than the original one, allowing for much larger traffic to cross through. The thundering sound of blowing up dynamite and the clouds of dust and dirt that spit up into the jungle on the other side of the water conjured up quite a vivid picture of what work on the canal was like a hundred years ago. To get an even deeper inside we spent hours in the visitor center's exhibition about the canal's history, present and future. It is astounding that the canal actually belonged to the USA until quite recently (1999) – only since then is Panama completely sovereign over all its territory and can control its most important source of income. No wonder the Panamanians are so excited about THEIR waterway. After having watched yet a couple of more ships being slowly transported through the locks and sniffing around for some sweet banana-smell without any success we realized that we were still too close to the city to find what we were looking for – we had to get out into the country. Easier said than done since we first had to escape the taxi-mafia that rules around the Miraflores Locks and robs tourists of their money. A miserable walk through pouring rain later we caught a reasonably priced cab and got back to Panama City. We went to the bus terminal only to stand in line for three hours before being able to purchase our tickets for the next available bus that went sometime the afternoon. But we made it – and were off sooner than expected (the buses leave when they are full, even if that means it's half an hour before the stated departure time) to the northern countryside of Panama – and hopefully the smell of bananas.