Relaxing here at a hostel and looking into options for transportation into Colombia. The city here is very modern and not too unlike the US, but especially diverse being located between South America and the rest of Central America and the only Central American capital on the Pacific coast, so there's some Asian influence.

Read in the paper here that the "economy" of Panama grew 7.5% in the past year, but 64% of the population is in poperty with a third in extreme poverty, and the poverty has not decreased. Also read that at least by one account the richest man in the world now is from Mexico, another country where there is much poverty. Something's wrong with this picture! Whose really benefitting from the economic growth?

written by  cjones on October 14, 2007 from Panama, Panama
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Harbor at Portobelo

Storm clouds over the sea

What luck to have a guitar onboard!

One of the islands inhabited by the Kuna

Really curious about seeing Colombia firsthand, since I've heard so many conflicting things about the country. Appears that all those things could be true, just that different people see different sides. Today I glanced through a book on the subject called Las Dos Colombias (another book apparently not available in English or probably in the States). There are a lot of police and military roaming the streets, but the ones I've seen so far seem no better or worse than those in the US - most seem like decent people and I'm sure they make the streets safer for gringos like me.

Met a Colombian lady who believes that most people here are not truly patriotic but have a regional mentality and are not very concerned about what is happening in another part of the country. The human rights organizations and the UN all say that the level of violence against the poor and indigenous people in the rural areas is the highest in Latin America at this time - akin to the violence in Guatemala in the 80s and most of it perpetrated by paramilitaries who have ties to the military and police. Colombia is also known to have the highest internal displacement (largely due to the violence) in the world except for Darfur - estimates are 2 to 4 million people over the past 20 years.

Streets of Cartagena

Walls around the city

Historic center of Cartagena

National elections are Sunday and as in Guatemala it's very dangerous to be a political candidate here. Candidates and their families are often targeted for assassinations or kidnappings. Read in the paper a couple of days ago that as of then there had been 29 assasinations, 9 kidnappings and 27 other attacks. Other differences I've heard about with elections here are that bars and liquor stores are closed the whole weekend of the elections and buses and many other businesses don't operate on election day. Wonder if that makes it difficult for some to travel to the polling place.

written by  cjones on October 26, 2007 from Cali, Colombia
from the travel blog: so-journ
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The fish pond

Experimental tanks & Emilio's new breed "jaguar fish"

In addition to his consulting work, Emilio has a farm about a hour's drive from Cali, near Dagua, where he grows coffee as well as many experimental crops for income including flowers, ornamental plants, giant bamboo, tropical hardwoods such as mahogany, butterflies and aquarium fish. In addition he grows a variety of food for his family and is planning to open an ecotourism center. At breakfast, I changed my plans to leave Cali today and instead rode with him to the farm where he gave me a tour for a few hours. Enjoyed a lot of good conversation (in English) and views of beautiful countryside and interesting roadside market activity.

Tree fern