[Above: A colorful Panamanian commuter bus in Panama City.]

Journal by Neil Dana

Today was a driving day again. We woke up around 7AM and were on the road by 7:30AM. We stayed the night in a very small town on the way towards Panama City. We arrived late and I was sleeping in the car at the time, and when we left, we were gone so quickly that I don't even know the name of the town we slept in. It was just a stop on the highway to avoid us being too tired at night and also to avoid having to arrive in Panama City late at night. We were also a bit behind schedule, since we had our small accident earlier in the evening and had to change two tires on our vehicle. It was a bit scary -- BOOM, BOOM -- and just like that we were staring at each other in disbelief at our bent rims and blown out tires. It was loud! But anyway, that was yesterday.

So today we pushed into Panama City. It was a beautiful drive, passing through farmlands and at times, jungle and banana plantations. The landscape is similar to Costa Rica, but what really changed dramatically were the people. The people here in Panama have a very distinct Indian heritage, and you can see it in a large majority of the people. There are also a lot of African descendents as well. It is a much different ethnic makeup than in Costa Rica. And on top of the people looking very different, the humidity here is much more intense. It has been raining tons and it is like stepping out of your car into a steam-room.

Along the way, we saw a bus that had been in a crazy accident. The back of the bus and sides were completely smashed, and in the front, the entire hood was ripped off and smashed in. You could see the belts moving! The bus was also not lined up on it's chassis -- it was a bus driving down the road in a diagonal. AND, the roof of the bus in front was ripped off, so the driver had on goggles and was driving a beat up convertible bus! He waved as we passed by.

So we eventually made it to Panama City!!! Paaaaaaanama, Paaaaaaaanamahaaaaahooooooohaaaahaaaahoooooooo Paaaaaaaaaaaaaanama!!!!!!! (Thank you Van Halen!!)

As we arrived, we drove over the Panama Canal, which was an amazing canal to cross. It is enormous, we just passed it and haven't really stopped or been back to check it out yet, but we will. As we arrived into the city, I was blown away at the horrible conditions. Panama is much poorer than I had previously thought. There were buildings lined up with clothes strewn everywhere, and dirt and garbage and just really bad conditions. These are actually the worst conditions I have seen in a city so far this trip.

We found a hotel, called Marparaiso, and as we were checking in, a bus rolled up with 13 guys from Maryland who were on a surf trip over to one of the northern Caribbean islands. Unfortunately, they got skunked and had really small surf, oh well, it could be a lot worse.

After we got to our hotels, the customs official from our shipping company showed up and took our passports and car info to the local customs. Tomorrow, we finish the process with the police, then we go to put our vehicles on the ship to Ecuador!!!

We got our rooms, emptied our vehicles, and ate some food at a restaurant down the road a few blocks. The food was more typical American cafe style food, nothing special, but good enough to eat. Where's my gallo pinto though? This morning, there was no gallo pinto in our hotel restaurant. Bummer.

After dinner, we went into our room and watched the news to find out news about Saddam. You all know more about that than I do I am sure.

Then we just crashed out while doing some photo editing and writing, etc. So until the next Monday, ciao!

Neil Dana
neil@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 15th, Day 45
Start: Agua Dulce, Panama
Finish: Panama City, Panama
N: 8* 58.204'
W: 79* 32.085''
Mileage: 111
Notes: We started at 0745 this morning. As we were leaving the hotel in Agua Dulce, we met another American couple. Nick, of course, suspected them of being CIA. He suspects everybody of being CIA. There's no way they were CIA. They never are. We had an easy drive to Panama City, stopping just outside to visit an internet cafe. We had journals and photos to send to Rolf for the webpage. After a few hours and some lunch there, we continued on, the driving becoming a little tougher inside the city. Panama City is huge, and the drivers drive like they mean it. We fought traffic to keep the convoy together and arrived at our hotel at 1600 (4:00 p.m.) after only two or three loops around a few city blocks. Easier than it sounds. We had an initial meeting with our freight forwarder, so he now has the paperwork he needs to get our vehicles cleared for shipping. (N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.