Thursday, January 2, 2014
Fish Market, Panama City
Panama Citys Fish Market is worth a short trip. All week long except on monday they trade fresh fish. In and around the market you can finde heaps of little restaurants wich sell different ceviches and other tasty fish dishes. If you walk along the Ciclovia Cinta Costera (the promenade along the coast) and follow the fishy smell you won’t miss it.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Cafe Casa Sucre, Panama City
casasucrecoffeehouse.com
Cafe Casa Sucre is a relaxed place in a beautiful renovated colonial building. They serve delicious coffee and breakfast. If you stay at a place with bad wifi you will find good wifi at this place in a comfortable, nice environment.
Cafe Casa Sucre is a relaxed place in a beautiful renovated colonial building. They serve delicious coffee and breakfast. If you stay at a place with bad wifi you will find good wifi at this place in a comfortable, nice environment.
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Into Venezuela and currency madness (14.12.2013 - 15.12.2013)
As the christmas holidays where nearing all the plane tickets to Venezuela where skyrocketing. A ticket would sell for around 600 USD for the 75min flight from Santa Marta to Caracas. Something we were unwilling to pay. So we took the overnight bus, which should have made the journey in 18 hours. But it left with one hour delay and it took us more than 20 hours to reach our destination.
After getting our passport stamped and some comical luggage inspection involving a dog which wasn't interested at all we boarded the bus again. Once inside the co-driver announced that one of the passenger had asked if we could bribe the coming checkpoints so we won't have to take out our luggage again and stating that this was entirely our choice and without any involvement by the bus company. Melanie and I where the only obvious tourist with no venezuelan money and no clue what was going on. But one of the passenger exchanged us some columbian Pesos after which we knew the exchange rate would be around 1 USD to 50 Bolivar. Thanks to the bribes we weren't stopped again and early in the morning we arrived in the huge bus station in Caracas.
Just like in other places before we looked around the bus station for an ATM to get some Bolivares Fuertes. Some unfriendly people later we knew there was none to be found here. So we negotiated a cab to our hotel including a stop on the way at an ATM. So we stopped and Melanie got in line to get cash, as we have seen before and since there are always people waiting. And they have opening hours, they close/shut them down at night! o_O Our old and grumpy cab driver got angrier and angrier and wanted to leave. In the end the cash machine didn't work as it asked for the last two digits of our ID card, which of course didn't work with our swiss cards.
Unavoidably we exchanged money at the hotel for a shitty exchange rate and left afterwards to find an ATM which works. Five or six tries later we still didn't had any cash and thought we earned our self a treat and entered one of the fine restaurants in the banking district where we stayed. We ordered some nice sushi, salad and white wine and payed for all by credit card, assuming it would cost us around 40 USD. Later we could finally check in and once in our rooms and online we found out that the official exchange rate was 1 USD to 6!! Bolivar. Shocked we just realised that my credit card would of course use the official rate and our little meal just cost us 240 USD! Did we mention before that we travel unprepared ;) Some googling later revealed that everybody just travels with big wads of dollars and exchanges them at rates between 45 and 60 Bolivar.
We had some dollars left, but never enough to make it till we would leave for Curacao. We then frantically tried to contact Joel and Patrick in Bogota, to bring Dollars and Pesos!
After getting our passport stamped and some comical luggage inspection involving a dog which wasn't interested at all we boarded the bus again. Once inside the co-driver announced that one of the passenger had asked if we could bribe the coming checkpoints so we won't have to take out our luggage again and stating that this was entirely our choice and without any involvement by the bus company. Melanie and I where the only obvious tourist with no venezuelan money and no clue what was going on. But one of the passenger exchanged us some columbian Pesos after which we knew the exchange rate would be around 1 USD to 50 Bolivar. Thanks to the bribes we weren't stopped again and early in the morning we arrived in the huge bus station in Caracas.
Just like in other places before we looked around the bus station for an ATM to get some Bolivares Fuertes. Some unfriendly people later we knew there was none to be found here. So we negotiated a cab to our hotel including a stop on the way at an ATM. So we stopped and Melanie got in line to get cash, as we have seen before and since there are always people waiting. And they have opening hours, they close/shut them down at night! o_O Our old and grumpy cab driver got angrier and angrier and wanted to leave. In the end the cash machine didn't work as it asked for the last two digits of our ID card, which of course didn't work with our swiss cards.
Unavoidably we exchanged money at the hotel for a shitty exchange rate and left afterwards to find an ATM which works. Five or six tries later we still didn't had any cash and thought we earned our self a treat and entered one of the fine restaurants in the banking district where we stayed. We ordered some nice sushi, salad and white wine and payed for all by credit card, assuming it would cost us around 40 USD. Later we could finally check in and once in our rooms and online we found out that the official exchange rate was 1 USD to 6!! Bolivar. Shocked we just realised that my credit card would of course use the official rate and our little meal just cost us 240 USD! Did we mention before that we travel unprepared ;) Some googling later revealed that everybody just travels with big wads of dollars and exchanges them at rates between 45 and 60 Bolivar.
We had some dollars left, but never enough to make it till we would leave for Curacao. We then frantically tried to contact Joel and Patrick in Bogota, to bring Dollars and Pesos!
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| Pro Tip: Bring Dollars to exchange ;) |
Hostal Refugio del Rio, Boquete
refugiodelrio.com
The lovely town of Boquete, wich lays one hour bus ride from David, is on 1200 meter above sea. A green authentic village from where on you can do many different hiking tours. One of the best places to stay is Hostal Refugio del Rio. Like the name says there is a small river right next to the house and an idillic garden with a hot jacuzzi - perfect to relax.
They offer dorm beds, privat rooms in the main house and bungalows in the garden. On there website are all prices listet including pictures from every room & bungalow. In town are two good sorted supermarkets and the kitchen in the hostal is pretty well equipped. If you plan to stay there, make a reservation in advanced as it is often fully booked.
The lovely town of Boquete, wich lays one hour bus ride from David, is on 1200 meter above sea. A green authentic village from where on you can do many different hiking tours. One of the best places to stay is Hostal Refugio del Rio. Like the name says there is a small river right next to the house and an idillic garden with a hot jacuzzi - perfect to relax.
They offer dorm beds, privat rooms in the main house and bungalows in the garden. On there website are all prices listet including pictures from every room & bungalow. In town are two good sorted supermarkets and the kitchen in the hostal is pretty well equipped. If you plan to stay there, make a reservation in advanced as it is often fully booked.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Cartagena & Taganga (06.12.2013 - 13.12.2013)
After the first night in Cartagena my brother Joël and his buddy Patrick (not the same as in Cuba and Mexcio) joined us. We strolled through the old colonial town and ate some lovely although pricy ceviche. We didn't visit the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas as they wanted 8USD for it, we just made a picture from the outside and headed on ;)
The next day we took a bus up the coast to Santa Marta, another "little colombian town" as our cab driver told us. Only one million inhabitants ;) We soon found out that the dive shop Patrick contacted in advance wasn't in Santa Marta itself but in a little fishing village called Taganga, 20 minutes by taxi away. A much nicer place to stay compared to Santa Marta.
So Patrick was busy the next days with the PADI Open Water course and Joël, Melanie and I relaxed on the beach in the bay ;)
One day we went diving to see Patrick in action ;) Sadly the visibility was quite poor and the water was freeeeezzzzing even though we where wearing a long wetsuit. Ice diving compared to the warm waters of Utila =/ Nevertheless we saw some nice fishes.
The day after we got talked into visiting the bay "next door" which supposed to be even "better". A short boat ride later we landed in a place packed with locals and one little restaurant next the other serving the same deep fried fishes. As we where hungry we asked for the menu and they showed up with a plate of fresh caught fish. Sadly two of them where Parrotfish! Offended we ordered just some soup with rice and fries...
To get to our next destination, Caracas, we split up to meet again two days later. Joël and Patrick took a shuttle to the airport in Cartagena where they caught a flight to Bogota to stay for two nights. Melanie and I took an overnight bus to Caracas...
The next day we took a bus up the coast to Santa Marta, another "little colombian town" as our cab driver told us. Only one million inhabitants ;) We soon found out that the dive shop Patrick contacted in advance wasn't in Santa Marta itself but in a little fishing village called Taganga, 20 minutes by taxi away. A much nicer place to stay compared to Santa Marta.
So Patrick was busy the next days with the PADI Open Water course and Joël, Melanie and I relaxed on the beach in the bay ;)
One day we went diving to see Patrick in action ;) Sadly the visibility was quite poor and the water was freeeeezzzzing even though we where wearing a long wetsuit. Ice diving compared to the warm waters of Utila =/ Nevertheless we saw some nice fishes.
The day after we got talked into visiting the bay "next door" which supposed to be even "better". A short boat ride later we landed in a place packed with locals and one little restaurant next the other serving the same deep fried fishes. As we where hungry we asked for the menu and they showed up with a plate of fresh caught fish. Sadly two of them where Parrotfish! Offended we ordered just some soup with rice and fries...
To get to our next destination, Caracas, we split up to meet again two days later. Joël and Patrick took a shuttle to the airport in Cartagena where they caught a flight to Bogota to stay for two nights. Melanie and I took an overnight bus to Caracas...
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| Taganga |
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