Following lots of games of table football and an ill-judged game of Monopoly (surely the meanest game in the world) it was time to go our separate ways - Christina back to San Jose and Lisa and I further south to Panama City.
Panama's capital was quite a contrast from the other Central American cities we experienced. It is the region's richest city and it wears its wealth with pride throwing up high rise buildings and designer shops all over the place. Nowhere is this feeling of new found wealth more apparent than in the Casco Viejo neighbourhood. Once the heart of the city, this area was abandoned and left to rot for years before more recent attempts at restoration and gentrification. The result is a fascinating mix of tumble down buildings that look as if a decent breath of wind would knock them over next to brand new swank-a-dank restaurants and boutique hotels. It was a unique place and the changes going on were so dramatic that it almost felt that if we came back the next day it would have changed dramatically.
During our cab ride back from Casco Viejo, we noticed (on the enormous video screen that sits on the waterfront) that there was something of a big event taking place in the city that evening - Guns 'N Roses were in town. After some speedy internet searching, Lisa found out where to buy tickets (strangely, the Panamanian equivalent of Boots the Chemist) and by early evening we had secured our place in the company of Axl Rose for the evening. We wolfed down dinner and hot-footed it to the venue on the outskirts of town.
We arrived just ahead of the scheduled 8pm start time ready for an evening of classic rock tunes. We took our spot in the crowd and were quickly approached by a girl gabbling away in Spanish about having seen me before in Boquete - she had been hiking the trail the same day as Christina and I and remembered me (the ginger beard makes me pretty memorable in these parts). So now equipped with a new group of friends for the evening we were introduced to the legends of Panamanian rock, Trente-Tres fronted by a chap who (in direct contravention of Rock's anti-establishment rules) is now a member of the countries national congress. They cranked out a few tunes (and a few ill-advised dance moves) and then made themselves scarce.
It was from here onwards that the night got frustrating. The next band, Sebastian Bach, played a full two hour set, long outstaying their welcome and pushing the time to around 11pm. This was followed by an awful lot of waiting around before finally at 12:30am, Guns 'N Roses took the stage. So, after keeping his loyal fans waiting for hours, many of whom have waited for years for his bands first visit to their country, how did Axl Rose repay them? By coming on stage and immediately having a hissy fit about somebody throwing a plastic water bottle that landed close to him. His first words to the crowd were to tell them to 'play nice boys and girls' or he wouldn't be continuing with the show. Agonisingly this did not sour the Panamanian crowd who seemed to be endlessly forgiving (either that or their English wasn't too sharp) and still cheered him along albeit a little sheepishly.
Despite the early bad blood, the distinct lack of guitar legend Slash and the insistence on playing a large number of 'hits' from their new record, when the band finally got around to cranking out some of their classics I couldn't help but smile. Sweet Child O' Mine, November Rain, Paradise City - classics every one. The show, delayed again by Axl Rose making more costume changes than Lady Gaga (how many check shirts does one man need?), finally drew to a close at 2am. We were exhausted and very glad to make it home to our beds.
Now, it's safe to say that Panama is famous for two things. Having established in Boquete that it was going to be difficult to find a Panama hat big enough to fit a Waggott sized he
ad, it was necessary to make a visit to the country's other point of international notoriety, the Canal. Being a Birmingham boy, I fancy I know my canals, but the Miraflores locks rather put the Gas Street Basin in the shade. We arrived just in time to see a huge container ship passing through the locks and it was impressive just how quickly they get them through and how tight a squeeze it is (the ships are built to fit the locks almost exactly). We hung around for a couple of hours taking in the excellent museum (including a simulator version of the bridge of a container ship for which Lisa developed quite an affinity) and watching more ships pass through including a huge US Navy transport vessel, the Watson.The next morning it was time to say farewell to Panama City, Panama and Central America as we took our seats on our flight to Santiago, Chile and the South American leg of our trip. Much like my emotions on leaving the US for Mexico (see here) I looked back with fondness on our time in Central America, but was ready for a change, not least towards more developed countries where simple things like using public transport are less of a trial.
Santiago couldn't have delivered this any more perfectly. Despite having suffered a pretty hefty earthquake just a month earlier, the city and all of its services were fully functional which was a delight having endured the defunct US school buses that often pass as public tra
nsport in Central America for about as long as I could bear. But it wasn't just the basics that cheered us up, Santiago felt like a thriving young city that seemingly had a university on every corner. Equally prevalent, much to our delight, were shops selling the South American favourite, empanadas. Similar to Cornish pasties from back home these half moons of delight come stuffed with cheese or meat with onions and olives (as well as various other flavours). Put this alongside decent bottles of wine for a couple of pounds and strawberries and other soft fruit at incredible prices and you have the recipe for a pretty delicious place to stay. One particularly happy morning Lisa and I ate a kilo of strawberries for breakfast for the princely sum of 60p.We spent a couple of days taking in the city including the beautiful Cerro Santa Lucia, a hill covered in fountains and small parks affording a great view of Santiago and its spectacular back drop of the Andes. To put the icing on the cake of a great visit, we spent our final evening in the city watching a football match in the Copa Libertadores (the South American version of Europe's Champions League) something I had desperately hoped to be able to do on this trip. The match between Universidad Catolica (of Santiago) and Flamengo (from Rio de Janeiro) was a cracker. There was plenty of goal mouth incidents and the home side ran out 2-0 winners (always best, atmosphere-wise). The win kept Catolicas hopes of progressing to the next round of the competition alive and inspired a whole lot of singing in the stand behind the goal where we were sat (or rather, stood). After something of an Olympic bus journey back into the city, we returned to our hostel after midnight, tired but satisfied. After the awful football we watched in Guatemala, the game helped to rebuild some of Lisa's faith in the beautiful game.
From Santiago we headed west towards the coast and the port town of Valparaiso which also surpassed our expectations. What at first appeared to be a fairly grim port town turned out on closer inspection to be something of a bohemian enclave complete with brightly coloured suburbs in the hills surrounding the harbour with graffiti murals on just about every wall. Lisa's camera went into overdrive and we had fun riding the creaky funicular railways that run up and down the hillsides. We also sampled the local speciality chorrillana - a heart stoppingly greasy pile of french fries topped with onions, eggs, spicy pork and cheese (and served with a massive beer). We both agreed it was the Chilean equivalent of the Teeside after-pub delicacy, the Parmo.Our final evening before leaving we went to the docks to see the spectacular tall ships moored there as part of some sort of round the Americas race to celebrate Chile's bicentennial. The ships, with their towering masts all decked out with lights were incredible and it seemed that all of Valparaiso had turned out to see them in all their glory.
Sad to leave the town and the country behind, we boarded a bus the next day to cross the Andes and head for Argentina. I feel that we only scratched the surface of Chile and it is definitely somewhere that I would like to return to and get to know better (particularly the wilder areas in the south). But for now we are climbing up and up into the mountains headed towards Mendoza and more delicious wine.
