Panama in a flash

Check out photos of Nicaragua/Costa Rica and Panama here

The border crossing between Costa Rica and Panama, on the Caribbean coast, is separated by a wonky old wooden bridge, with certain planks missing and wobbling under one’s weight (especially with 20 kg on your back!). It makes a welcoming entrance to the new country (new to me) and makes me wonder what Panama really is like.

We arrived, after a very long day of travelling, on an island called Bastimentos, which is part of the Boca del Torro conglomeration (famous as a Caribbean tourist destination). They are a set of islands with African communities living on them, descendants of slaves that were bought over by the Spanish. They have intertwined customs and traditions from Africa, Native American and Spanish and speak a mixture of Spanish and Caribbean English Creole. People calmly sat on their porches or out on the lane-ways playing cards (and gambling), chatting and quietly watching the day pass or doing chores around the house as kids play on the footpath. We passed along a house as two old men sat on their balcony singing along to a radio in the background, laughing as they noticed that I had overheard them in their moment of creativity. On one of the two nights that we were there, a large portion of the community gathered together to practice for Carnaval (Feb 13th to the 16th). They formed a parade along the main narrow pathway of the community, with boys with large drums at the back and young girls dancing and singing at the front. Loud but sweet voices were heard singing in perfect harmony as they went about performing their steps to the hypnotic sounds of the drums. The small parade was enough to obtain a sense of what Carnaval is like in these communities; vibrant, traditional and full of energy, music and rhythm. The elders of the community watched on until a few drops of rain appeared from the sky and soon turned into what appeared to be an avalanche of water being dropped over the small island, sending everyone scattering for cover.

On our way into Panama, we met an Argentinean girl who was heading over the border for the night to go to a Rainbow festival. She wasn’t exactly able to tell us what it was about but we asked at a cocoa farm on Bastimentos and they had a bit more information for us. We decided to see what it consisted of after being disappointed with our last festival attempt. We made our way to a nearby town (Almirante) and from there we weren’t quite sure where to go. Luckily as we were getting off the bus we were shouted at from across the road by a gringo and asked if were making our way to the Rainbow. One car ride and beautiful boat ride later, we arrived at the festival grounds by river and were greeted by a few people on the deck of the house, which was also used as a dock. One of the ‘elders’ of the Rainbow was packing up and leaving after being at the Rainbow for a week. He took some time to explain to us exactly what Rainbow is about, which is not so much a festival (as I imagined) as a gathering.

Rainbow is a hippie convergence based around the ideals of creating peace, love, harmony, freedom and community as well as re-energising participants and the land on which the gathering is held. It is embedded in a philosophy against capitalism and consumerism and instead holds a utopian vision where mainstream society and the systems of government are seen as out of step with the planet and the environment. The first rainbow festival occurred in Colorado in 1972. Since then there has been a gathering every year and the festival has gone international with many occurring every year in different countries. There are no leaders, structure or hierarchy at Rainbows. Money is not accepted apart from donations given by participants to buy food and essential items when the ‘magic hat’ comes around. There are trading areas where people can barter and trade luxuries. The festival has a strong Native American shamanic and neo-paganism influence which is seen throughout some of the ceremonies that are performed (none that we got to experience).

What this boils down to is a gathering where you aren’t forced to do anything at all. Meals are cooked communally by the good will of the participants and meal times are seen as a time to connect with each other. Once again circle time occurs before meals situated around a campfire where chanting and singing take place, giving thanks to mother earth for the food available. No need to say that I tried to arrive late for circle time so as to avoid any unnecessary chanting that I might be forced to do! The cooking gets done on a wood-fire makeshift stove which means that it takes a good few hours to cook for e.g. 20 people. The rest of the time was used either to swim naked in the river or sea (bloody hippies!) that was on either side of us, learning and making jewellery (macramé), yoga, napping, strumming the guitar (can’t do much more than a few awkward strokes!) and generally chatting and listening to peoples stories about other rainbow gatherings. Sand flies had also come along for the gathering and had bitten most to shreds, some luckier than others. I had about 100 bites on each leg when usually I’m able to stay mostly bite free. Scratching occupied most of my time especially at night while trying to sleep. The itchiness was almost unbearable while lying still, only feeling satisfied when I had scratched through layers of skin and blood finally appeared. The sand flies had made a lot of people leave the festival early (which lasts a month in Panama), meaning that there were a mere 15 or so people rather than the 100’s or 1000’s that have attended previous gatherings.

During the festival Agus became sick with what we think may have been Giardia. The smell of rotten eggs filled the tent as I arrived back from the campfire late one night. I slid into my sleeping bag without saying anything as I normally would have if he hadn’t been sick, but I did limit my breathing wrapping my head in my sleeping bag to get away from the smell (and the damn sand flies!).

The people at the festival were an eclectic bunch from hardcore hippies to people who had never been to such an event before and were quite new to the scene (like us). Some of the hippies seemed to adopt this lifestyle for image sake, talking up their experiences and competing against each other with their stories about drugs, nakedness and other practices of alternative lifestyle.

On our last day at the gathering, we went for a boat ride to the nearby beach situated on Bocas del drajo, on Colon Island. Traversing the river on our small speedboat we tranquilly watched the flora and fauna slowly passing us and saw many lilies, cocoa trees, coconut trees and herons. Reaching the part where the river and the sea merge together we got out of the boat and pushed it through the shallow water to enter the bountiful sea. Arriving at Bocas del drajo beach we realise that we had entered a paradise. It’s the kind of beach you daydream about while in front of a computer at work on a rainy, cold and dreary day and the type that you see on travel brochures. The water is a rich aqua blue and the sand is a soft white texture and contrasts finely with the coco trees, the many starfish drifting in the shallow water and the clear blue sky radiating above us.

We left the gathering on the same day that most of the others were also parting, leaving behind 5 people. A big group of 7 left together to travel up to Costa Rica. I was happy to continue on our travels even though Agus was still quite sick and had to endure an 11-hour bus trip to Panama City, the capital.

Panama City (from my impressions in the two short days that we spent there) appears to be a vibrant, hot city with a picturesque historical centre, sand stone buildings overlooking an effervescent harbour. A large diversity of people inhabit the city including many foreigners. A cosmopolitan and rather developed city in some areas with skyscrapers interfering with the skyline and many shopping malls with expensive shops. This contrasts with the relatively poor suburbs where many people live. Panama is relatively inexpensive (especially in contrast with Costa Rica), with a lot of cheap clothes available and other items such as perfume. The local buses are the same as the ones in all other central American countries but in Panama they are particularly famous for their graffiti and illustrations that are elaborately painted all over the old U.S. school buses. They are called Diablo Rojos (red devils), not only for their depictions but also for their style of driving; brusquely and rapidly making your body jolt forward every few seconds as the brakes are hit hard, stopping centimetres away from an obstacle. The famous Panama Canal which was built by the United States (commenced in 1881 and in operation from 1914), has around 15,000 boats passing through its passage every year. It costs approximately US $300 000 to obtain the right to cross the canal. An intense battle was finally won by Panama in 1999 to become the rightful owners of the canal and commence to receive earnings from one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects in the world. Unfortunately its not as exciting as I thought it would be watching ships go through the Canal, being a slow exercise of draining water from one lock to another so as to level out the water to enable to passage of a vessel.