Escape from Panama

Taking in the view of the impressive Panama City skyline... until my bum started to burn from the heat of the stone.

Having arrived in Panama City in the late afternoon of the 4^th of June little did I know that I was going to spend as much time in this city as I eventually did. Rowan was flying out on the 9^th so he needed a few days to get his bike packed and shipped, I needed to replace some items that had been robbed weeks earlier in Guatemala, we needed to visit the sights like the Panama Canal, but most importantly a night or two on the town to mark the end of a fantastic few months travelling together. 

The lads hitting it hard with our glasses of water for Rowan's last night in Central America. Fancy new jeans and all, clearly no longer a touring cyclist!

We stayed at a nice clean hostel called Villa Vento Surf and then moved to Adrian Bisonard’s, a lovely and very welcoming Argentinian who I became good friends with through Couch Surfing. Adrian generously put me up for a few days after I bid an emotional farewell to Rowan.

Building in Casco Viejo (the old town)

Street in Casco Viejo

Modern Panama City

Upon arriving in Panama City I had also started to do some research on how best to make it to Colombia as believe it or not there is no road connecting Central America to South America. The Darien Gap lies between the two borders, a dense jungle and a complete no go area due to the presence of drug traffickers, bandits and kidnappers. (Not sure if they are 3 distinct catagories or if there is a bit of cross over in their job description). I remember reading the blog of an Australian ultra runner who was running the length of the two continents and he actually ran through the Darian Gap but with a heavily armed platoon escorting him all the way and the photos looked akin to the army group in the Predator movie. I didn’t have a special forces platoon to call on so it was either going to be a boat or plane to Colombia for me. By far the most popular backpacker route between Panama and Colombia is to get a yacht on the Caribbean side of Panama and sail to Cartagena in Colombia via a few days on the beautiful archipelago of the San Blas Islands. Unfortunately this option is extremely expensive and certainly well outside of my budget but having talked with my Alaskan Pan American cycling friends (www.atripsouth.com) who were a few weeks ahead of me they advised trying to get a deal with one of the yachts.  So I was finally back on the bike for the 120 km spin to the beautiful little port town of Portobelo. I passed the iconic Panama Canal which had some enormous ships passing through it and cycled through some incredible lush jungle.

The aptly named Blue Whale being maneuvered into position to go through the Mira Flores locks on the Panama Canal

The Wallenius Wilhelmsen squeezing its way through the Mira Flores locks on the Panama Canal.

Miraflores Locks

It was a big thrill to set eyes on the Caribbean for the first time in my life and having cycled close to the Pacific on and off since Vancouver it was unusual to have the sea on my left and not my right hand side for once.

One of my first sightings of the Caribean

Sheltering from a downpour on the road to Portobelo.

When I got to Portobelo I met Michel, whom I knew from Panama City and he introduced me to his fellow French man Julien. Similar to myself, Julien was looking to try and work a deal to see if he could get to Cartagena for a bit cheaper than the usual USD 500 plus normally required to do the sailing to Cartagena. After a few days talking to as many people as possible, the hostel owner,  a friendly American called Captain Jack put us in touch with Bea, a Polish woman who had been sailing one of the bigger boats on the route for the last three years.  She told myself and Julien that we could go on the boat for free if we got enough paying passengers and worked on the boat for the five days during the sailing. This was a risk as it is the low season and there are more boats looking to travel than there are passengers … a risk we were both obviously willing to take for a shot at a yacht to Cartagena via the San Blas!

The old Spanish colonial fort at Portobelo

Colonial firepower

I locked my bike to a bed in Captain Jack’s hostel, left most of my gear and back myself and Julien bused to Panama City to hit the hostels looking for backpackers. I have visited some amazing cities on this trip but Panama City is not one of them. I had been quite happy to leave the few days previous on my bike. It is a strange city with an impressive skyline but when you look closer you realize that many of the skyscrapers lie vacant, not that this stops them from throwing more up. It is not a bike or pedestrian friendly city at all. Once you’ve seen the canal and Casco Viejo (the old town) you’ve done Panama City. Julien and I walked the length and breadth of this hot humid city for five and half days hitting the hostels from 7 am to into the earlier hours. I talked to what felt like hundreds of backpackers over the few days.  Despite it not looking good for the first few days after a late rally Julien and I just about had enough passengers for the sailing to happen.  Phew.

We bused back to Portobelo on Saturday morning to be ready to go for customs at noon as we had been told. By 8 pm that night we were still sitting in Captain Jacks and most of the guys were wondering what was going on, this as well as the Bea threatening to put one of the passengers onto another boat didn’t make for the best of starts to the trip.

But by 9 pm that night we were all on the boat and slowly making our way out of Portobelo harbor. Julien and I high fived each other, equally relieved and excited to be heading to Cartagena on a yacht. We had missed customs but were told that we could do it at the Panamanian port of El Porvenir further on the next morning.  That night was spent on the open sea sailing towards San Blas, it was rocky and most people were sea sick. I somehow managed to avoid it thankfully.

When Bea arrived back with our passports from the customs office at El Porvenir the next morning she dropped a bombshell. She told us that apparently Colombian customs/immigration are cracking down on the backpacker yacht route to Cartagena and that she could no longer sail to Colombia as it would incur an extra USD 100 charge per person and that her boat would additionally have to pay over USD 1,000. She told us that we would still be spending three days at the San Blas but that she would drop us at the Panama Colombia border and that we could get a lancha (speedboat) over the border and make our own way to Cartagena. I was disappointed. I had looked into the option of getting speedboats down along the coast but had decided against it as lugging my bike and bags on and off speed boats would not do the bike any favors. As well as the more important fact that the speedboats eventually get you to a town called Turbo which is a bit dodgy and I had been warned against cycling out of Turbo, also some touring cyclists had been robbed on this road a few weeks previous. I had really wanted to sail to Cartagena. I wasn’t the only one and the captain seemed somehow surprised when some of the passengers questioned her as to what was going on. The atmosphere between the captain and the passengers soured and she ended up falling out with and threatening the majority of the group.

The passengers were a nice bunch and this set back was not going to take from our time on the beautiful San Blas islands. Obviously Julien and I still had to do some work on the boat but we still had lots of time on the beautiful San Blas. I found it quite amusing at times to be scrubbing pots and pans off the back of the boat in this most beautiful of locations. Certainly not your usual view from the sink when you’re doing the dishes!

Scrub a dub dub

The San Blas are an archipelago of around 367 islands and part of the third biggest reef in the world. The islands are resident to the indigenous Kuna people who govern the area as an autonomous region of Panama. We spent the most time on a beautiful island called Turtle Island/ Isla Tortuga. We had dinner on the island two of the nights and I even had the opportunity to spend a night in a hammock on Turtle island. Tough work indeed!

Happy to have arrived at the San Blas

The beautiful turtle island where we were able to spend two nights

Beach at Turtle Island

Volley ball net, never did round to having a game, too busy snorkling and snoozing..

The waves crashing on the reef out in the distance. By the island was very calm.

Dinner

Looking at these photos I miss San Blas already.

We arrived at the Panama Colombia border relatively early on the Thursday morning. Most people were keen to get off the boat at that stage but Julien and another French guy called Gaetan opted to stay another night on the boat. In the rush to get everything off the yacht and onto the speedboat I only realized that I was after leaving a bag on the yacht when I got to the Colombian fishing villiage of Capurgana. Despite planning to trying to push onwards that day I had to spend the night in Capurgana to wait for the guys with my bag the next morning. The speedboat to Turbo only leaves once early in the morning so I had missed that. I had already decided that once reaching Turbo on the speedboats that I was going to get a bus north to Cartagena where I had always hoped to start the South American leg of the cycle. Cartagena was just proving a difficult place to get to! Capurgana is a quaint little fishing village with plenty of tourism so despite not initially being on the itinerary it was a good opportunity to check it out. The only other person sharing my dorm was a smiley Irish girl called Alice so it was nice to have someone to talk about the recession with. I had arranged to meet Julien and Gaeten at 7am the next morning to get my bag from them and travel together to Turbo and onwards. I stood on the busy dock with my packed up bike (minus the missing bag) for three hours having watched the boat to Turbo fill up and long since depart. I presumed something must have been up as I wheeled the bike the short distance in town looking for a cheaper place to stay. Julien showed up an hour later with the unfortunate explanation. When the two lads had arrived back to the boat the previous afternoon, Captain Bea, still not done fighting with passengers, had decided to kick poor Gaetan off the boat! He spent the night camping in the smaller neighboring village of Zapsuro. When he woke in a torrential downpour at 3am to check that his belongings were not getting wet he realized that he had been robbed.  Gaetan and three other nearby backpackers had all been robbed. So they had spent the morning in the police station. Another day in Capurgana.

The fishing village of Capurgana

On Saturday we finally managed to get bike and all of our bags onto the speedboat for the bumpy 2 and half hour ride to Turbo. There was a lot of rubbish dumped into the water as we sped our way to the pier upon arrival in Turbo. What a sight. It was like something out of an end of the world film. The really narrow pier was about 1 metre wide but still had about 15 lads standing on it to add to the crowd and shouting at everyone as to where we they planning on going next in order to try and get them on their particular taxi or minibus. People were almost climbing over each other as they scrambled off the boat. Trying to safely maneuver my heavy bike off the boat and onto the packed dock was a piece of cake! So it seemed like there were only two places we could possibly be going as tourists with the welcome party  asking if we were going to Cartagena or Medellin? ..Julien and I for Cartagena and Gaetan for Medellin por favor! An hour later after a slightly paranoid trip to my first ATM in Colombia, the bike was heavily strapped to the back of a jeep and we were thankfully making our way out of Turbo for the 4 hour motor rallay to Monterea, the half way point where we would change buses for Cartagena. I was happier to be getting on the larger airconditined bus for the 6 hours to Cartagena.  6 hours turned out to be longer due to a traffic accident so it was approaching midnight when Julien, Jesa (American girl we bused with from Turbo) and I staggered out of the cold airconditioned bus into the bang of humidity at Cartagena main bus station. After a few calls to hostels it appeared that there was no room at the inn due to a bank holiday weekend. Thankfully the taxi driver got us a convenient place on one of the main strips before they shut up for the night. It had been a while getting there but I had finally made it with a fully intact bike to Cartagena. CARTAGENA BABY… YEAH!!!

Visit to Trocaire in Nicaragua and afternoon with their partner organisation Impulsivo

Nicaragua is the poorest country in Latin America after Haiti and with more than 4.4 million people living on less than 2 dollars a day, Nicaragua presents the worst poverty situation in Central America. It is the fourth country that I cycled through where Trocaire are involved and last Wednesday I visited their office in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.

Trocaire has been supporting local partner organisations in Nicaragua since 1978 and their current programmes support over 30 partners working in four key areas; governance & human rights, a sustainable livelihoods programme that support poor rural communities to improve their food security, disaster risk reduction programme and finally a programme aimed at supporting the prevention of gender based violence which is all too prevalent in Nicaragua. Trocaire’s programmes are focused in parts of the country (Pacific and North Central) where there are high or severe poverty levels. These zones are predominantly rural and where agricultural production was severely affected by the civil war in the 1980s.

When we met in the Trocaire office Ronie, Zoila and Carlos talked Rowan and I through some their projects in more detail.

Zoila, Rowan, Ronie, Carlos and Billy

Rowan (thrilled with his Trocaire sticker), Billy and Ronie

In the area of Disaster and Risk prevention they explained to me how they work to set up local committees to coordinate relief efforts, get radios into some of the more isolated rural areas that get effected by natural disasters, educate children in schools about natural disasters and steps they can take, and also encourage isolated communities to communicate better with their municipalities. Nicaragua is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters (earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods and landslides) and in the last 20 years has been the 4^th most vulnerable country in the world for extreme weather events.

In the area of sustainable livelihoods Trocaire work with poor communities by helping and educating them how to produce different foods to eat and sell and in turn help to improve their self esteem. Maize and beans are the most common foods in Nicaragua and traditionally the staple of the poor.  They work with communities to grow additional foods such as tomatoes, bananas, yuca and casaba to complement their diet and be less reliant on one or two food stuffs. 

In the area of advocacy Trocaire work with communities and partner organisations focusing on local participation of grassroots communities in political process and decisions that affect them, helping to change the reality of the community. A very real problem in Nicaragua is the dominance of the large political parties and strong government control over local structures that works more for the benefit of the government or political party than for the local communities. Over the past few years grave concerns have been expressed about the shrinking political space and the increasing control by the executive over state institutions. The Nicaraguan judicial system, the Supreme Court, the Electoral Supreme Court, the Ombudsman and the Comptroller General have all been severely criticised as a result of many controversial resolutions and decisions linked to the interests of the two big political parties. The government has tried to silence critical voices by controlling international NGOs and national civil society organsiations through the implementation of new procedures that are intended to regulate not only the administrative and financial aspects but also political aspects of NGO work and especially in areas of advocacy, citizen participation, government transparency and accountability. Nicaragua is said to have the most unfavorable political, economic and social context in the region because of the political and legal restrictions and attacks on organisations for their affinity or lack of affinity to the FSLN, Sandinista Front for National Liberation (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional)

Trocaire work with local partners to help communities so that they feel empowered and can see the difference that the communities can make themselves.  A recent example was in the municipality of Posoltega where the government wanted to build a school in a community where there was a low child population but there was a nearby area with a high child population without a school and the local organisations succeeded in lobbying the government to change the school location. 

The fourth and final area on which Trocaire focus in Nicaragua is a programme aimed at supporting the prevention of gender based violence. In Nicaragua, relationships of control and domination by men over women prevail. Gender based violence (GBV) is extremely high in Nicaragua, with one out of every 3 women having experienced GBV. In order to combat the high levels of violence against women on 26th January 2012 the Nicaraguan Assembly passed the “Comprehensive Violence Against Women Act” – this new law recognises “femicide” (femicidio) and other forms of violence against women as criminal acts. Femicide was described to me as the murder of a women because of her gender. The awful example quoted  was where a Canadian woman who was only 3 weeks in Nicaragua working for an NGO went out to a nightclub and was then raped and murdered by the taxi driver when she tried to get home. The main argument by the defense lawyer was what was a woman doing out on her own at midnight. This poor woman was killed because of her gender, it is considered fine for a man to be out at that time but not a woman.

Later I spent the afternoon with Impulso a partner organisation of Trocaire’s that works with victims of gender based violence in Laureles Sur one of the poorest neighborhoods on the outskirts of Managua. Laureles Sur is a ghetto that was established in 1990. As part of the peace agreement to end the civil war fighters from both sides were promised land if they laid down their arms. These were nearly all rural people from the countryside who fought on both sides of the conflict, they were all dumped into this small area with no electricity or running water. Not used to city life most of the inhabitants main experience was of working the land and war so needless to say it's a neighborhood that suffers from extreme violence. To be honest I was slightly apprehensive when the guys from Impulsivo told me where I was going for the afternoon once I had heard that background to the area.

Impulsivo was founded by a group of people from the community who came together. Rowan and myself were made very welcome for the afternoon into one of the groups of brave women who were undergoing therapy after all being the vicitms of GBV. It was an incredible opportunity to meet these friendly women who made us feel very welcome.

A diagram of how Impulso works within the whole community

Impulsivo runs a 5 year programme for the victims of GBV, with the first 2 years focused on councelling the women and helping them to come to term with their experiences. The remaining years are to train them in different techniques to be able to help other women and train them as councellors and legal advisors. Training would include such things as knowing the law, to help a woman who has been raped in preserving evidence and counseling.

Trocaire, Impulsivo and other partners main focus is on trying to prevent Gender Based Violence by changing attitudes and society. This is obviously a very long term process that involves the whole community not just the victims. At a community level they work with women, men and teachers and then at a municipal level they work with the police, court system and public prosecution office. A survey was done in 2010 where 52% of the women in the programme had faced GBV that year and last year in November 2012 there had been a reduction of 30%. The programme is obviously having positive effects and long may that continue but in a country that has experienced a recent civil war and violence against women is still all too prevalant this will be a long process, I wish them well.

Having seen it first hand yet again, I was incredibly impressed by the work Trocaire does along with their partner organisations here in Nicaragua.

Please donate now by clicking on the below link:

http://www.trocaire.org/sponsor-me/billys-big-cycle/billys-big-cycle

Justice in Guatemala as Rios Montt found guilty of genocide | Trócaire

Justice in Guatemala as Rios Montt found guilty of genocide | Trócaire

Please see full details of the verdict in the Rios Montt trail on the Trocaire website by clicking on the link above.

Top: Maya Ixil women and men, witnesses of the trial, celebrate after listening to the sentence given to former Guatemalan de facto President, retired General Jose Efrain Rios Montt, 86, for crimes committed during his regime, in Guatemala City on May 10, 2013.  Bottom: Rios Montt testifies in court. Photos: Elena Hermosa.

El Salvador

El Salvador here we come

Having spent almost a 9 months cycling through 4 countries (USA, Canada, Mexico & Guatemala) I was going to be adding a lot more countries to the list in relatively quick succession as I made my way through the rest of Central America.
We were greeted on our first day in El Salvador with lots of waves and smiling faces. We also saw a huge number of fellow cyclists on the road. Cycling in all shapes and forms is certainly a popular form of transport in El Salvador.

You see all sorts of things attached to bikes in El Salvador.

Through friends back in Ireland I had been put in touch with a few different Irish lads living in El Salvador so it was great to have been in contact with some friendly folk who had plenty of tips, contacts and suggestions for the way through their adopted country. For one reason or another I didn't manage to meet any of them, they were all based in the capital San Salvador which we would not be passing through and they all do a lot of travelling.... or else they had been warned to have their excuses ready!



Our first stop was Los Cabanos where a pal treated us to a lovely little hotel for our first night in El Salvador. We got there mid afternoon keen to make the most of our stay in this lovely place right beside the waters edge. Despite cycling close to the coast at various stages the last time I was actually on the beach was back in January with Nick just south of Mazatlan so I was thrilled to make it back to the coast proper.

Somebody is excited to be going to the beach

Cheers to our first day in El Salvador and arriving at the beach

The next day, after a quick swim in the pacific, we made our way along the beautiful winding coastline which was reminiscent of Big Sur in California. We were headed to Atami where had been hooked up with the use of a beautiful holiday place right beside the beach. This was a beautiful home and certainly not the usual kind of place we get to stay in so we made the most of it by taking a few days off to recharge the batteries.

Heavy traffic

View of the coast

Some of the many beautiful orange blossoming trees we passed, luckily I was wearing my matching orange TriAthy top.

It was hard to leave the lovely beach house but we needed to do a few big days to get us through the remainder of El Salvador and on through Honduras. Where we stayed the following night could not have differed more from our previous few days of relaxation. We spent the night in a fairly grotty "hotel" where Rowan spoted a rat crawling across one of the beams in the roof  so despite the stifling heat in our claustrophobic room we decided to erect our tents on our beds. The next morning I literally woke up in pool of sweat (nice) in my clammy tent but would rather that than have Mr Rat whispering sweet nothings in my ear as I sleep!

Always use protection.

The coast of El Salvador is a popular surf spot

House by the road

The next two days were spent cycling in hot humid conditions through the rest of El Salvador, taking breaks where we could in air conditioned petrol stations. You would not have to be in El Salvador very long to notice the amount of guns in the country. Most shops seemed to have heavily armed security guards, including a bike shop we passed. 

Some of the heavily armed security guards we met outside a petrol station

Beautiful El Salvador landscape

Some captured iguanas for sale to be eaten

Trocaire also have an office in El Salvador and although we did not have time to visit any of the their projects  I have included some additional information on El Salvador and Troaire's work in the country.

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America and has been wracked by civil war and a succession of natural disasters.The population in 2013 is estimated at 6.1 million and average per capita income is estimated at US$ 7,700.

In the 1980’s El Salvador was ravaged by a bitter civil war. This was stoked by inequality between a small and wealthy elite, which dominated the government and the economy, and the overwhelming majority of the population, many of whom lived - and continue to live - in abject poverty.

The war left around 70,000 people dead and caused damage worth $2bn, but it also brought about important political reforms. In 1992 a United Nations-brokered peace agreement ended the civil war, but no sooner had El Salvador begun to recover when it was hit by a series of natural disasters, notably Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and earthquakes in 2001. These left at least 1,200 people dead and more than a million others homeless.

The economy depends heavily on the money sent home by Salvadoreans living in the US. At least 20% of El Salvador's population lives abroad. The remittances they send home account for close to 20% of GDP, are the second largest source of external income after exports, and have helped reduce poverty.

TRÓCAIRE IN EL SALVADOR

Trocaire’s current programme in El Salvador focuses on supporting poor communities to improve their livelihoods and resist the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. As well as working directly at local level, Trocaire supports partners to engage in advocacy so that the Salvadorean government and the international community take action to mitigate against the worst impacts of climate change.

A wall mural we passed on the road in El Salvador saying No to violence against women.

Visiting the trial of Rios Montt - former dictator on trial for genocide in Guatemala

Testimony from Catalina-Sanchez-Solis. Indigenous women gives evidence against Rios Montt, Guatemala's former  president on trial for genocide.

 I was as in Guatemala's National Court with Trocaire on Friday the 19th of April observing the trial of the former dictator Rios Montt for genocide. Trocaire along with some of their legal partners CALDH and AJR had helped to bring the former dictator to trial. This is a very historical case as it is the first time a former head of state has faced genocide charges before their national court (as opposed to an international criminal court).

Rios Montt - former army general and president of Guatemala and currently on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The room was very tense as there was a very real chance that the trial was going to collapse on Friday due to events the previous day. Because of this there were a lot of big hitters in the room to support the case like UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in Guatemala, national ambassadors (the Uruguayan ambassador was 2 seats to my left!), a Guatemalan Nobel prize winner sitting directly behind me, Francisco Dall'anese the head of the International Committee against Impunity in Guatemala (www.cicig.org)

Indigenous women in court to give evidence in the genocide trial

The previous day Judge Patricia Flores in a lower court had tried to annul the Tribunal.

The place erupted into applause once Judge Yazmín Barrios confirmed that trial would continue as they did not recognise the resolution of the lower court.
Barrios then declared that the trial would be temporarily suspended so that the Constitutional Court could resolve the legal issue at stake.
As proceedings concluded more than half of the packed to capacity court auditorium were on their feet chanting and clapping "Justicia, Justicia, Justicia..." like it was a football match. 

Court room erupts into chants of "Justicia, Justicia, Justicia..." at the end of the days proceedings

One of the banners outside the courthouse quoting:  "Yes there was a genocide and sexual violence"

Another banner outside the court house depicting some of the violence of the genocide

There was a large congregation outside the courthouse where there were a few speeches.
Then without further ado a few hundred people marched out into the chaotic traffic of Guatemala City and through the downtown to the constitutional court where there was then more excitement about not letting press in, censorship and more chanting and protesting. After about an hour the Constitutional Court eventually let the press in.

After we marched through the streets of Guatemala to the Constitutional Court there was a protest outside to let the media in.

It was an incredibly interesting and moving day and not something I will ever forget. Real lump in the throat kinda stuff to be witnessing history so raw and close up as this. If you are interested to find out more about the Rios Montt trial for crime of genocide please see http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/ which is in both English & Spanish.