Sunday 25 August 2013

Central America - Road Trip to Panama

In case you were wondering what a Bongo is - well there's a picture of one below.


We travelled in the OM Costa Rica Bongo from San José to Volcán, Panama, where OM Panama is based.



The journey took about 9 hours in total, and we passed through some really beautiful countryside - both coastal and mountainous.


A part of the experience of the journey was the border crossing. It was definitely the most disorganised border crossing of my life! The crossing point was a mess of trucks, dust, puddles, shops and stalls. 


The process consisted of queuing up to leave Costa Rica, then carefully picking our way through puddles, trying not to be splashed or run over by trucks, and making for the Panama end of the crossing. There we had to queue up again and present various papers and proof of sustenance in order get the stamp to allow us into Panama. 


The Bongo had to undergo some degree of scrutiny too, and whilst this was going on we took the dance to grab a burger. Eventually we were on our way, and started to climb up into the mountains of Panama. After an hour or so, passing through some wonderful scenery, we arrived at Volcán, Panama.

The next day I became a monkey - but more about that later ... 




Thursday 22 August 2013

Costa Rica - First Impressions

Continuing on the trip to Central America…

First of all an apology - there aren't going to be any personal photos. A few weeks before travelling, my mobile phone was stolen, so I was using an ancient one, which has only a very poor camera. So any  photos I include will be from the internet.











My flight out of Sao Paulo was scheduled to leave at 6.20am, so I arrived to check in at around 4.00am to discover that the flight was delayed until 9.45am. (I could have slept more!). They switched me instead to a different route, going through Bogota, Columbia. When I eventually arrived in San José, Costa Rica, I was met at the airport and taken for Pizza. As we drove from the airport, I had the impression that the city was more Americanised - or I should say North-Americanised than Brazil. I saw more shops and restaurants with names in English, and many that you would find in the USA - like Dennys, Taco Bell, Popeyes (which I've never seen in Brazil), plus of course the obligatory McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Dominoes. Right in the centre of town, it looked a little more colonial - with the squares, churches, and municipal buildings. On a later trip to the suburbs, it felt much more Latin-American - and might easily have been in Brazil. 




It made me think about the "globalness" (if that's a word) of the world today. Costa Rica was a completely new country for me, but there was a lot that seemed familiar. 

I spent three days in San José, most of it working hard inside the OM offices. I was made to feel very welcome by the international team, and it was great to meet more people from more countries. The next part of my stay was a trip to Panama by Bongo. More about that next time …


Thursday 15 August 2013

Trip to Central America

At the end of July I took my first ever trip to Central America - to Costa Rica and to Panama. I thought it would be good to relate some of my experiences, so I will do so in the next few blog entries!

Geography
For those of you who don't know - if we think of Central America as the thin strip of land that joins the large land masses of North America and South America, then Costa Rica and Panama are the most southerly two countries of that strip. They are both small countries; here are their sizes in square kilometres: 

Costa Rica: 51,000 
Panama: 75,000 

By comparison:

UK: 244,000
São Paulo state: 248,000



Costa Rica borders with Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South, with Colombia also bordering Panama to the south-east. The Panama-Colombia border is closed to all ground traffic; you can only travel between the two countries by air or sea. I spent my time in Costa Rica in the capital, San José, and stayed just outside the small town of Volcán in Panama (too small to show on the map). More about those cities in subsequent blog entries.

Operation Mobilisation has bases in both countries, both of which are looking to expand their activities and grow their teams. To do this, they need to make the best of IT technology for their offices, which is why I, as OM Area IT Officer for Latin America was invited to visit their bases. 

This was really a great privilege,  and a very successful visit. Watch this space for more posts …