Yesterday I left Panama City in direction of Santa Catalina a little dreamy surfer beach town. It is so tiny that it has no ATM machines and you have to bring enough cash. Famous became Santa Catalina for hosting once the Surf World Championship. Every person in that little town had thought that this will bring lots of business and so they had invested in building more accommodation or buying more food to serve the expected thousands and thousands of guests. But the weather at the championship became bad and rainy and so very few visitors arrived to watch their surf stars. That brought many of the villagers financial problems since they had invested. Meanwhile the place recovers and starts to come back slowly. I stayed at Rollo’s Guesthouse in a two bedroom what I shared with a girl from Serbia which did not talk to me the first days… So today I went diving because the dive shops over here brag that they see the whale shark everyday. Funny when I went I didn’t see it… Also the owner of the dive shop was very grumpy and unfriendly and I ask myself how he ever could make business… He had a creditcard reader and when he had cash you could get it and he would book it plus 10% interest from your credit card. And since there is no ATM it was the only way to get cash over there… Still very unfriendly. The dives itself where not that amazing – I saw few sharks and a big school of rays. Lunch break was at Isla Coiba which is a national park.
Isla Coiba
Santa Catalina
I was looking for this specific the other day. i won’t normally post throughout forums but i wanted to say thank you!