Day 213 : Drive Back to Boat

Well barricade?

We woke up early this morning and quickly made our way to the ferry terminal to catch the speed boat back to the mainland and collected our rental car from the garage and drove towards David.

Within an hour after we left Almirante, we must have come across at least 3 other signs of blockades different from the earlier few we were caught in, as we saw debris of sawed off tree trunks (I pity the number of trees that were destroyed as a result of the protest!), and at one of the them, a huge well barricade in the middle of the road, which I had no idea how it was moved in the first place.

More destruction to nature!

Sawed off tree trunks

Niklaus says that not everything that happens in Panama is as it seems.  The blockades that occur may have been instigated by the opposition party, using the Indians as a front to create problems, and thus making the government look bad.

In fact, a call made by the former Vice Minister was apparently recorded, as he coordinated with the protesting Indians to buy them chainsaws to use to cut down trees to block the road.

Burnt police station

We picked up the oil and filters in David and continued our way back to the boat.  Since one of the burnt police station was on the way back, I was curious to see the destruction and asked Niklaus to make a quick stop.

Memorial service

While we drove through the area leading to the police station, we saw a group of Indians standing on the road, with a banner in their hands and realised that they were doing a memorial service for the Indian who was shot.  We took our photos and quickly continued on our way, in the fear that the Indians may do something nasty with us if we stayed longer.

After more than 10 hours on the road, we finally got back to our boat.  What a relief!