Panamanian attractions

The biggest attractions of Central America are climate, ability to practice Spanish, multiplicity of countries, natural wonders and interesting cultures. I hope to see a lot.

• the Panama Canal (of course)


• coffee plantations in Chiriqui Highlands


• Bocas del Toro seashore and coral reef


• birds along Pipeline Road

on arrival

We arrived in Panama City late at night and stayed at an airport hotel, El Hotel Riande Aeropuerto. In the morning, one of the teachers from the school took us to our home-stay. We are staying in a large apartment in downtown Panama City; it has three bedrooms, two baths, a living room, a dining room and two verandas. Our hostess is an 84-year-old woman from Valencia, Spain. She has lived in Argentine and Peru, as well as Panama. Her Spanish is very good. She is interesting and patient. She volunteers at the Hospital in the Canal Zone.

map Central America

Here is a map of Central America showing the six countries I hope to visit.

site maintenance

Pardon our dust! I'm making some changes on the site. Different, better, soon.

The Photos View in Slide-show mode now views in full-screen mode (request by Alicia). I upgraded the version of Word Press 2.3.2 and also updated my Flickr plug-in from tan tan noodles . I also changes the home/start/landing page to my blog so you go directly to current news. Let me know if you spot some problems or have some suggestions.

Next Trip Scheduled -- Central America

In the first week in February (a week from Thursday), I fly to Panama City to begin my next trip. I will spend a couple of weeks in the City studying Spanish in an immersion program. After that, it's north and west--Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Not sure I will make it to Belize this trip.

Originally, I was focused on Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, but became disenchanted when I learned it was the rainy season. I didn't want to exchange the cold rain of Oregon for the hot rain of South America.

Snow

Snow

Originally uploaded by patrickdowd


This is the most snow Eugene has had for years.

Citroen

This is similar to the very first car I ever owned, a red Citroen Deux Chaveaux. I bought it in Marseilles. It featured a dip stick to figure out how full the gas tank was, windows that flipped up rather than rolled, and, of course, a roll-down top. It went considerably faster downhill.