I'm stuck in Panama with no way out...

This is a long email. Grab a coffee and get situated. 😅

I drove out of Costa Rica and entered Panama on October 22nd. Once I entered the country, one border policeman informed me that nationwide protests would be starting the next day. They recommended I pick somewhere to potentially hunker down. Oh - and get gas.

My girlfriend and I drove straight to Boquete, a mountain town famous for the world's best gesha coffee. We started the day at 6 AM and arrived after dark. It was a long day.

On October 23rd, the country shut down...

Today is Day 14 of protests, and I highly doubt this has made the news where you are... especially with everything going on in the world right now. There are numerous 24/7 blockades stopping traffic all throughout the country.

The province I am in has been out of gas and propane for 11 days. Grocery stores are looking more bare by the day. No meat, no dairy, no frozen goods. They are limiting the quantity of rice and beans that each person can buy.

What does this mean? No driving and no cooking with gas. But it also means that medical supplies can't arrive at hospitals. If you get hurt and need an ambulance or need to drive to a hospital, you're shit out of luck.

Luckily, this region is where most of the country's produce is grown. We have access to fresh food still, unlike some areas east of here. We stocked up on essentials before the grocery stores started to run out.

Overall, we are good. We are parked at a hostel, in a grassy yard with a gated entrance. Paquito can run around. Somehow, there's even a pool in the back with a covered area to sit outside during the intense daily rains. The van has an induction stovetop (no propane), so we can continue to cook meals. We have access to clean water, and we have a filtration system just in case.

We are lucky. We have ridden this thing out for 2 weeks, and we can continue to do so for a while. If groceries get too scarce, we plan to bike to a nearby coffee farm and buy bananas and avocados as last resort sustenance.

Others aren't so lucky. Farmers in a nearby town are clashing with protestors who refuse to open the roads to allow them to take care of their crops. Their crops are rotting, and they have no other source of income.

Different elected officials from various regions are pleading with protestors to create a humanitarian corridor, allowing gas and medical supplies through for people who need it more. Protestors are refusing.

The islands of Bocas del Toro rely almost 100% on boats to import everything they need (gas, food, etc). They are quite literally cut off from everything. Even the chemical they need to process their municipal drinking water has to be imported. They will be without drinking water very shortly if the situation doesn't improve.

There are hundreds of thousands of migrants that cross the horrid Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama each year (a 4-5 day trek through intense jungle where cartel members and gangs rape, abuse, and kill people fleeing horrible situations in third world countries for a shot at a better life).

​This article explains what that is and is definitely worth a read. All of these people arrive in Panama needing food and water. Many need immediate medical attention. With the blockades, there is nothing getting to them. And nobody is reporting anything on it.

This is the land mass that we can't cross with the van for obvious reasons. Along with the lack of police in cartel territory, it runs through a jungle with no roads.

For this reason, every overlander wanting to make it to South America ships their vehicle from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia. Our shipping date is set for November 21st, but we literally can't move from where we are. There is no end in sight for this protest. The people aren't pleased with the President's actions thus far, but things are progressively getting worse.

If we don't make it to the boat a week before this date, we will miss our opportunity south. The next boat won't be until January.

We can't drive back to Costa Rica to drive north and ship from another common port. The stretch between David and Santiago (before getting all the way east to Panama City) is clogged with abandoned cars and trucks that have been left sitting for 14 days... just like a damn zombie apocalypse movie. It's nuts.

We can't try to move and see how far we make it because we may drive 200 miles somewhere, only to run out of gas and be stranded without access to food or water...

So, we wait. Can you tell I'm going a bit crazy? 😅

---

So what is the protest about?

It's over a copper mine that the President has sold the rights to a Canadian mining company. This company has international investors like BlackRock and such. There are major issues regarding Panama's sovereignty and the environmental problems of having an open-air mine in this country's climate.

The support among citizens to oppose this bill has been extremely unified until recently, due to the issues that it's now causing for everyday people. Now, there are mothers and fathers worried about feeding their children.

It started with friendly protests in the street that seemed more like celebrations after winning a soccer match. If you've ever been to a Latin American country, you know what I'm talking about. It's quite a joyous event.

Each day I check a little website made by an American woman who moved here years ago. She organizes all the news circulating in Spanish and puts it in English into one spot for all the other gringos, updated every few hours. It's been extremely helpful for following this whole ordeal in real-time. It's also taken a toll on my sanity because I find myself updating the page way too many times per day.

I'm trying to stay hopeful. We have friends stuck in Santiago who can't make it back west towards Costa Rica. We have more friends stuck in Horconcito who have given up on waiting and are abandoning their vehicle and hoping to get to the airport. It's easier on foot. You take a taxi to each blockade, get out, and then get another taxi to the next blockade. Rinse and repeat until you get where you need to go as you hopefully don't encounter any "bad eggs" among protestors taking advantage of the situation and robbing people or charging people to pass the blockades.

This whole situation has made me even more excited to build an off-grid base in the near future. I have already been dreaming for years about a stone cabin in the Italian Alps with access to a freshwater source, running off of solar energy, and growing my own food.

In a time when almost everything in the modern world depends on the free movement of traffic and access to gasoline, this event has put things into perspective for me. It's not a good feeling to know that basic necessities to live can be cut off at any time.

My heart goes out to people who are truly struggling right now. While I'm just harping on minor inconveniences in my life, things could be so much worse. I'm constantly reminding myself of that.

We are really lucky to be where we ended up the night before the protests started. Plus, it's where some of the world's best specialty coffee is grown... right up my alley!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Writing this gave me something to do while I continue to wait.

Enjoy your Sunday!
Alex 🙃

PS: If you have any book recommendations or projects to get into while I wait, I'm all ears.

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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