New Travel Adventures

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Kris Cunningham

We have been on a cruise with limited (expensive) internet, so apologies to everyone I haven’t answered. I’ll be catching up over the next few days. There were no limitations on photo taking though so you have been warned. There are lots of photos to come! Our cruise went to Cartagena, Columbia, Caracao, Bonaire, and Aruba, so I will post a bit about each location.

The ship left from Colon so we went with another couple to Panama City where we spent the night. Then, the next morning, we drove to Colon to board the ship. I was interested to see a little of Colon since I’d never been there before. I had heard that it is a more depressed area with higher unemployment, crime, and more problems than other parts of Panama. There also tend to be more dark skinned people, mainly descendants of Jamaican canal workers brought in by the US. The little I saw did not contradict what I had heard.

Panama City is always interesting. As always, there is construction everywhere and activity everywhere you look. We stayed at the Hotel Milan which I had heard about for some time, but was new to me. It was a nice hotel in a good location near lots of stores and restaurants, so walking around the neighborhood was interesting. The hotel was fine, and the room was large and comfortable but the poor air conditioner was nearing retirement and wasn’t quite up to the job. I usually choose hotels that include breakfast, but we had a very adequate breakfast in the restaurant on the ground floor.

I had some fun taking photos in Panama City of vendors, dodging traffic to sell various things.

Newspapers, anyone?
Air fresheners, towels, and things to eat.
Tomatoes, and this guy was also selling the things that look like large olives, but I’m not sure what they were.
This poor man was begging in his wheelchair out in the middle of traffic.

Once we got out of the city the trip to Colon was fairly quick and easy on good roads all the way. We did have to go through part of Colon on our way to the port though. The city was very crowded and traffic crawled along, giving me a chance to take a few photos along the way.

There were many people in the boulevard down the center of the street.
Laundry hanging out.
Three ladies – I think they were selling lottery tickets.
There was some pretty architecture. Unfortunately much of it looked in need of some maintenance. This one was looking good though.
There were many vendors on the street.
There were quite a few trucks in one block and they were selling chicken out of the back of the trucks. (apologies for the poor photo)
There were a lot of produce vendors along the street.
You can tell that elections are coming up soon by all the signs and posters everywhere.
There were lots of huge and amazing trees in the boulevard.
This is one of the biggest and most beautiful surprise (pink and white on one plant) bougainvillea I’ve seen.

We boarded the ship on Saturday in the early afternoon. The ship left port in the late afternoon, traveled all night and docked in Cartegena, Columbia on Sunday morning.

About Kris Cunningham

We live in David, Chiriqui Provence, Republic of Panama! This blog is about some of our experiences in our new country.
This entry was posted in Exploring Panama, Panama, travel and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to New Travel Adventures

  1. allison says:
    April 13, 2014 at 6:16 pm

    I have friends that took this same cruise in March. They had a wonderful time and inexpensive to boot!

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  2. Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua says:
    April 13, 2014 at 6:23 pm

    How exciting. I can’t wait to see your photos of Cartegena. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to travel? I know that if we were retired and living in the states, we’d never be able to afford to travel. We’re leaving in two weeks for a month’s visit to Ecuador..thanks to my new Social Security checks. 🙂

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    • Kris Cunningham says:
      April 13, 2014 at 7:24 pm

      Oh yes, isn’t that the truth. We’d be lucky to get by and there wouldn’t be any extra for things like this. I’ll be interested to hear about your Ecuador trip. I want to go there too!

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  3. John & Susan says:
    April 13, 2014 at 7:16 pm

    Great pics Kris.
    Colon looks a bit cleaner then our visit in 2004.

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  4. Laurie says:
    April 13, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    So Great!!!! Glad you had a good time. Love that you share all your pictures. It’s all so exciting!

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  5. Robert & Helen says:
    April 14, 2014 at 2:58 am

    Hi Kris and Joel. I have been for bussiness to Cartagena in 1980. Beautiful colonial city already in those days, but it must have been restored à lot by how. You will like Aruba, Curacao and very small Bonaire. Almost everyone speak English on these islands and of course some Dutch. But their day language is Papiamento, which is a mix of Spanish, Portiguese and African dialect. You
    will understand it. Bon Dia! Buenos días. In 1980 I had to visit in Colon at the dirty old free zone
    some customers. AND a little naked boy standing on a balcony was pissing and it landed on my head. Most of the black people in Colon are from Jamaica, Barbados and St. Lucia.

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  6. Karen Ama Panama says:
    April 14, 2014 at 4:01 am

    Great pics! Colon intrigues me for some reason. I watched a few videos and the architecture is so fascinating it would be interesting to see it in person. I can’t wait to see the rest of your pics!

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