Darien Cap, Yaviza, end of the road, watch out, we are coming today!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

    We left most of our equipment behind in the guesthouse and left very light to go to our final destination YAVIZA

     After hitting rush hour in Panama city and looking at sky risers, we were impressed with the development of the city compared to other Central American cities, we passed the airport and soon saw the road sign to the Darien Cap. this is the last district with still no roads connecting it with Colombia and even on foot, boat or horse it takes days to cross the last 50 miles plus all the FARC, banditos and outlaws, makes the territory infamous and dangerously, so that is one of the reasons , I wanted to see it for myself. The paved road was in bad condition, full of potholes for the 50 miles and we took a breakfast break Scotty style to get some courage to continue. Once on the road again, the road became so good and new, that we could go full out and soon hit the first Military stop and received a 3rd degree drill, what is the reason, we wanted to continue and how long and told us to check every night with them, where ever we were.

We had several stops like this and soon in the afternoon, we reached Yaviza.

It looked like a poor settlement on a river, with a few streets, but was busy with all class of people, doing business, before they return to the jungle. We drove around for 5 minutes and were picked up by a local military patrouille and had to follow them and at their barracks had to register again and asked us a few questions

Checked in a local hotel, there was only one and went downstairs in the cantina to drink our 
$ 0.50 US cold beers to celebrate our goal reached and stayed a few hours longer and got into conversation with the locals

The place reminds me a little bit as Guanaja or Utila Cays 30 years ago, with the same style of houses on stilts, same type of bars & Churches. After the bar ran out of beer, we went back upstairs in the hotel and of course the lights went off and felt like I was home again 30 years ago!

Yaviza