Darien Adventure

How about the Darien for a true backpacker's adventure? Here is what I quickly learned about a trip into the jungle: transportation is highly unreliable, buses there are slow and uncomfortable, it is muddy, and the chicken is delicious. Would I do it again? Maybe, depends on the amount of time I have and the company I have.

Here is a brief synopsis of my trip to El Real, a small town somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We began our trip at the Allbrook Terminal in Panama City at 2:30 am Friday night, left Panama at about 3:30 am headed for the Darien, or at least to the end of the road, and then to the Darien. The bus ride was a little over 6 hours, over bumpy roads, in a Diablo Rojo, with about 3 police check points where you will need to have your passport documented. If you know anything about these buses, then you know the comfort level of the ride.

Once in Yaviza, where the road ends, we waited for about another hour or so, with sore backs, for a boat to take us to the small village of Real, bordering the Darien National Park. We were headed there to visit the family of a friend and see Panama's biggest cock fighting weekend. The boat ride was nice, about 45 mins down the river with very little civilization to see, sans a few small indigenous villages.

The party that awaited us was a bit of a surprise, I have to admit, I never expected so many people travel so inconveniently far to see some chickens fighting. All day Saturday was cock fights, drinking, and dancing in the streets. I also got to try one of the finest Panamanian foods I have put to my mouth: Guacho. It is almost a Panamanian version of Paella, but a little more soupy. After a full day of drunken madness, in the typical Panamanian fashion, we were tired and read to head back to the city.

This is where transportation was really an issue. We waited all day Sunday for a boat that we were supposed to be on by 11am that morning. After walking to another town, we managed to find a boat around 5pm, however, once back in Yaviza, we had already missed the last bus for the day, of course. So we hear of another bus that is going to be leaving in a few hours, but that was a disaster, over capacity, it wasn't worth the discomfort. The next one was to leave at 4:30am, so we grabbed a hotel and stuck it out. The ride home was a couple hours longer than the way in, with stops every few miles, sometimes every few feet.

I don't mind roughing it, I can stay in the grimiest of accommodations, eat rice and chicken everyday, and deal with setbacks. So if I were to do it again, I would give myself at least a week, you will need at least a day coming and going to recover from the ride. Then I would probably try for some real guided hiking in the park. The great part of this trip was to see how many average Panamanians live and travel, and the path less traveled by tourists.