Panama City & trip summary

The last stop on my journey here at Central America was Panama City, the capital of Panama and the home of the Panama Canal which is celebrating 100 years of existence just this year. Expansion of the canal was scheduled to 2014 but will probably be around 2016. Canal is a massive engineering artwork (and a huge business) and hundreds of people come to see big ships go through the locks every day. Admission has gone up from what Lonely Planet said it was – this time it was 15 USD.

The Canal was just one of our stops on our city tour. We also did short stops at Panama Viejo, Casco Viejo and ended the day to the huge Albrook mall. Casco Viejo and Panama Canal I would recommend. Pictures of the city tour are already in the photo album. As I’m writing this on my last day here, I’m still wondering whether I should also do a quick visit to the National Park of Soberania. I have a couple of hours before I have to get to the airport. 

Overall, it has been a relatively rough trip with all the challenges – especially the start was consuming since my bag got delayed which complicated everything. I do not hope this kind of delay to anyone who is going on the road for a longer period. My fight with the airlines has taken around a month now. Copa Airlines, who is responsible for compensation issue since it was the last airline on my way to Guatemala, has offered me 200 USD as compensation for the delay. I have not accepted this since I feel that the harm was way more than 200 USD since I have used over 300 € to buy myself some clothes and toiletries – all of which I have sent receipts to the airline. KLM, who caused the whole thing in the first place, has given me a 150 € E-voucher to be used on their flights within the next 12 months. So, I’m still arm-wrestling with Copa and after I’m done I still have the claim with my insurance company, IF, who should cover the gap between my expenses and the final compensation received from the Copa Airlines.

As a whole, this has been a terrible service experience and it shows that if airlines fail with their basic concept, it is always the customer who will carry the burden. If airlines really wanted to, they could have a system which updates the situation and provides the compensation automatically – I think SMS would be a perfect platform to make this happen.

In a case where your luggage goes missing, you just register and connect your phone number to the baggage tag and then you get automatic notifications as your bag is registered somewhere. And you might even report your current address to the airline via SMS. And get an automatic compensation according the dates your baggage was delayed. I think it could be done and would be real service instead of bouncing the customer around with all these useless and expensive service numbers. And then I woke up to reality in which airlines do not really care about a single basic customer if there are any problems. Unfortunately.

Ok, then the best of Central America in my view:

Copan Ruins

For me this kind of sights just encapsulate the whole idea why I want to go and travel again and again. Exciting, amazing and simply inspiring. Also Luna Jaguar hot springs are totally recommended.

Antigua

Rustic little town with breathtaking landscape.

Ometepe

Nice visit to local community. I would have liked to stay a couple of days longer to be able to hike the volcanoes also.

Boquete

Relaxed, slow and on Central American scale quiet little town. Go and hike the waterfalls and if you are there for a longer period, hike volcano Baru.

Basic local restaurants

Like I’ve written before – small local restaurants are absolutely the best value for your money what comes to eating in Central America. Go and taste for yourself.

Puerto Viejo

Most enjoyable stop in Costa Rica. Relaxed beach vibe. Rent a bicycle and just explore.

Looptail

Book about G Adventures and its founder Bruce Poon Tip – interesting and inspiring read. I just have one question: what if your passion does not realistically provide a living for you?

That is it – I'm coming home for Christmas.