Why I Left Panama

A few days ago I left Panama City, the capital of Panama and flew to Montreal, Canada, the largest city in the French-speaking province of Quebec. I only spent five days in Panama, after spending a couple weeks on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.

I'm sure some people will be curious why I didn't explore around Panama and Central America more, considering there's so much to see in that area. I've followed some other travel bloggers who went to Panama and posted photos and videos of amazing beaches, jungles and waterfalls. When I flew there I was considering doing some exploring around the country, but ultimately decided it wasn't the right time.



For one, I have some pretty fun adventure plans coming up back home in the US. More about that later. Summer is around the corner and my home states of California and Oregon are ultimate for nature exploring. A friend has some time off in June and we're making plans to meet up, so I was planning to head back home pretty soon anyway.

Still, I could have spent a week or two traveling around Panama and Costa Rica. One problem was that it was the rainy season. There were some intense downpours in Panama City while I was there, in which I was glad I was in my hotel room when they happened and not walking around the city streets, stuck huddling under an overhang somewhere. I got lucky on my day tour to the Panama Canal. It was raining as we were driving there, but luckily the rain stopped by the time we got there. It was also hot and very humid. And I hadn't seen any other independent travelers while I was exploring around the city, other than some tourists out at the Panama Canal.

I'd just done three weeks of traveling solo across Mexico including going to some pretty out-of-the-way towns, and I was getting the impression there were going to be even less travelers in Panama. So I was realizing that it was going to be some pretty intense traveling. I was likely to be the only gringo around in a lot of places, dealing with the heat, humidity and rain, the language barrier, trying to go on waterfall exploring adventures through the jungle solo, dealing with the attention and risks of being an American in Latin America...I know, it would have been great for making videos. But you have to be in the right frame of mind for the challenges of that kind of traveling, and I decided it wasn't what I was in the mood for. I have a lot of summer travel plans in the works and was more interested in getting ready mentally for those trips, rather than diving deep into Central America.

I was researching the various possibilities for where else I could go next before heading back to California, and somehow came across Montreal. I'd never been there or to Quebec and it was a city I'd wanted to see. I found a fairly cheap flight and decided to go for it.

It's not going to be a long trip to Canada however, as I'm headed back home to the US soon. But summer awaits and the adventure will most definitely continue. And Central America, I'm sure I'll be back sometime. But I might wait until the dry season.