The Gash

Visited the panama canal today.  Truly is one of modern engineering's great successes.  The fact that that the locks are nearly 100 years old and still going strong are testament enough.  Whichever Frenchman decided it was feasible to just go and cut a river between the North and South America  was clearly crazy.  Its something I would try to do, but that's why I don't have the power to attempt things like this.  Anyway I got to see one big boat then a few small boats cruise their way through the Miraflores Locks and I probably shouldn't have enjoyed myself as much as I did, as there really wasn't too much there.  I also happen to be way to excited for my 10 hour bus ride tonight as I am leaving for Bocas Del Toro at 9.  Nothing like a good 10 hour overnight bus ride to make you feel alive.  

Oh, and in news back home what happened in the Illinois vs. UIC game?  Such a disappointment.  I've decided to start drinking more Orange Crush to improve Illinois karma.

Ciao

A Room With A View

A Room With A View

Having settled into the hostel (Luna's Castle) I snapped a quick pick of the view out my window, not too shabby if you ask me. First night was fun. I probably shouldn't have stayed up till three, but I couldn't sleep anyway so it wouldn't have mattered.

I took a quick jaunt around Casco Viejo today, it was ahh... interesting. Everyone keeps talking about how gentrified it has become so I was expecting the area to be a lot like Cartegena in Columbia. How wrong I was. While there are a good number of nice buildings, fancy cafes, and of course street vendors selling thier wares. There was also a disturbing number of crubling buildings and the police manning most of the corners almost made me feel more unsafe than safe. I walked through most of the old town then sat down in a nice little cafe just outside of the touristy area to enjoy some tasty fried chicken, rice, and beans. Little did I know that this would be the end of my stroll as a sudden downpour complete with seemingly softball size drops of rain rolled in. The rain was so bad i couldn't even make it outside long enough to hail a cab. So I did what everyone else was doing, ordered a cup of coffee and attempted to wait out the rain. Luckily about a half hour later the rain let up enough that I could jog back to the safety of the hostel, and it is here that I sit writing this. So much for December being dry season. Even worse, I am being told that the rain has been so bad it closed the canal a few weeks back for only the third time in history. More relevant to me though the rain has washed out some roads and some busses arent running. Hopefully its all lies, but if not things could get interesting pretty quick.

Ahoy Panama

After a good 20 hours on the road travelling, I have finally arrived in Panama.  I the voyage was rather bland, as expected.  The most exciting part of it was when i got into an argument with a guy going through security about whether or  not my suntan lotion was under 3.4 oz.  I bought the stuff down in Peru and it only had metric units listed so the people had no idea how big it was.  Eventually they did decide 90 grams was small enough and let me through.  I was able to catch a glimpse of Manhattan on my flight into Newark which was almost exciting.  The night spent in the airport wasn't nearly as bad as expected.  There was a 24 hour food court so I was able to grab some food, then I found a nice little corner and had me an uncomfortable sleep on the ground.  I got up just in time for the flight and hopped on the plane.  The flight itself was bland, just lots of blue water.  When we finally did reach Panama it took us all of about 5 minutes to fly across the entire country, if that.  I had the Panama canal on my side during those few minutes which made me far happier than it should have.  It truly is amazing they way the thing was just carved right through the middle of the country.  What I found most striking about it however was its disgusting mostly brown but with some green color too it, especially after the pristine blue waters of the Caribbean.  This is most likely due to the expansion work they have begun, if not... well who knows.  To go along with the expansion, judging by the number of ships waiting to use the canal, it appears to be much needed.  Anyway I've got to get out to the store to get the necessities i didn't bring with which includes the planned soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and razor as well as the unplanned towel which I somehow forgot to pack... oops. After the store I'll drink some coffee to hopefully wake up so i can make some friends, the trip wore me out.

A few last housekeeping items to the right --> you should be able to see my current location, which is somewhat accurate, but not perfect.  So if it shows me in the middle of the ocean dont worry I'm probably not drowning.  It also has a slide show with some pictures, clicking on it should link you to my picassa account which will have all, yes all, the pictures I take while travelling.  It appears to be stuck on an album of death road, I'm working on that.  Also, theres nothing there for this trip yet, but feel free to check out my previous adventures.  If you perfer a hyper link its picassaweb.google.com/kmelens... i think...

Hello Again

With my trip about to begin I have decided to relaunch my blog.  The blog lasted all of ten days the last time i did this, so this time I am hoping to at least get 15 days into my trip before abandoning everything.  Wish me luck.

As I prep for this trip much of the anxiety I felt before my first trip is eerily absent.  I feel much more comfortable knowing what to expect.  I have to leave for the airport about 24 hours from right now and I haven't even begun packing.  Anyway I should get on that packing thing, next update comes from Panama.