Day One:

Come and enjoy Panama with us. We depart from San José Costa Rica through the southern Panamerican highway passing by the Provinces of San José, Cartago and Puntarenas. The highest elevation on this road is 3,480 meters above sea level, an area known as "Cerro de la muerte".

This part of the road is foggy and cold, we do recommend to wear a sweater with you at least when passing this section as well as when we return from Panama.

After passing the borders (Costa Rica and Panama), we have to fix hour watches as Panama is one hour late than Costa Rica.

We will pas the city of "David" and then will stop at Santiago de Veraguas, a town in between, in order to relax our legs and have a drink of coffee.

The Panama landscapes is very similar to the Guanacaste Provine of Costa Rica.

It's a long drive from Costa Rica to Panama, about 812kms, from San José Costa Rica to Panama city (The capital).

The Panamerican highway is wide enough and built on flat terrain, this makes our drive more easy and faster. We will be arriving to Panama at about midnight. We will go directly to register in our hotel where our rooms will be waiting for us.

Day two:

After breakfast we will visit the Panama Canal "Miraflores Gates". This is an amazing work of technology started by the french people and abandonedt before finishing it due to lack of funds.

The United States then bought the rights to the french investors and finished this world wide famous Canal.

The ships cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic in the morning and from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the afternoon.

The distance to cross from one side to the other is 50 miles and it takes approximatley 18 hours to go from one end to the other.

There is a balcony from where you can see the gates openning process and take all the photos you wish.

The toll fee to cross the canal depends on the weight the ship is carrying. The most expensive toll paid up to the moment was on January 17th. 2002 when a ship paid the amount of $213,517.75 and the lowest rate paid in the history of the canal was on February 28th when a man crossed the canal swimming and paid us$0.36 (thirty six cents).

This same day in the afternoon we will go to some stores who sell handcrafts and we will have the chance to see the Kuana Yala indigenous who still live in the same way they lived before the spanish came to America.

It is used that if you wish to take a photo to or with them, you have to pay them $1.00

Day three:

Visit to the "Zona Libre de Colón", this region is in the Atlantic coast of Panama and it's famous because people from all latin american countries come to buy at pretty low cost.

Everything is really cheap. This is a "Duty free" available for everybody from all the latin american countries.

Panama is a narrow strip of land. If a person get to the Atlantic of Panama in its narrowest section and starts driving from the Caribbean to the Pacific, it will take one and a half hour to the drive this distance.

We will also visit the "Gatún Gates" situeted in the caribbean section of the Canal.

The day will becomo too short to see everything in the region. After visiting the caribbean side of the canal and the "Zona LIbre", we will return to Panama city .

Day Four:

Visit to the ruins of old Panamá and the "Viejo Casco" as well as a city tour in order to go around the banks area and visiting an area of Panamá where new territory was stolen to the Pacific ocean by refilling a part of the bay with debris and soil.

Day five:

We will depart from Panamá at 04:00:a.m. towards Paso Canoasand will arrive San José at about 08:00p.m.

 
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