South of the Border, and then some: David and Balboa Panama

14 and 15 July

Yesterday we left Volcan, Panama after spending the night at the Police Station. We drove less than 2 hours to David, Panama. The goal yesterday was to get our tanks filled with propane, which was accomplished. Our tank was 3/8 full and needed less than $40 to fill it up. After that was accomplished we went to the mall to buy a SIM card and get a navigation (data) plan for the phone. That cost less than $20 on Claro for 10 days “high speed” unlimited service. Unfortunately, high speed is a very debatable term. We spent the night in the Priceclub parking lot (think Costco parking lot.)

This morning we left David at 6:15 to head to Balboa, Panama, which is just north of Panama City. The first third of the drive was on washboard road, that was only safe going as fast as 35 mph. Roger was pretty good at missing the bad potholes, when he could. The road finally got better around Santiago. In fact there were times that it felt like we were on US interstate, except for maneuvering around the local buses that were dropping off and picking up passengers on the fly.

Balboa is in the old canal zone. Roger’s bus driver friend, Sam Melendez-Lopez has in-laws in Coronado, Panama. Sam really wanted us to stop at the family restaurant, and say hello to his wife’s cousin Malena Ellis and her family. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out so well, as it was too late for lunch (Norm had stopped us probably an hour earlier) and so we just did a brief drive-by visit. It was really nice to meet Malena, her husband, and son. They really enjoyed a tour of the motorhomes and Roger enjoyed a milkshake at Malena’s restaurant. Norm conducted some business with the shipping company, so when he was finished he was ready to press on. It seems we may be shipping to Cartagena as early as Saturday, 19 July. We should find out tomorrow morning if that will be the case, and we hope it will.

We got to Balboa around 3pm and then waited on Norm to find a place for us to camp. He had originally planned for us to spend the night at the local fire station, but Roger could tell that the station had too many trucks and no room for us to park. After Norm did over an hour’s worth of talking, we pulled out from our parking space at the Panama Canal Administration building and headed to the Armador Convention Center. There was no place to camp there either, so our third stop was at the Panama Yacht Club and there was street camping available. There are lots of old vehicles “parked” on the street, as well as some European RVs.

The good news is that I’m feeling better today. Last night I ran a temperature and was hot to the touch. Roger ran the AC for about 2 hours while it was HOT in David (before an afternoon cool-off rain). I guess I caught a weird cold, because today I’m coughing and feel rundown, but fortunately don’t have a fever anymore. I just hope Roger doesn’t catch whatever I had. Tomorrow is a tour of canal locks and some pre-European ruins.

Enjoy the pictures, taken on a cloudy afternoon.