Wreckdiver in Panama

[wreckdiver1715]

Wandering around Central America today, and found myself in Costa Rica! First time here, awesome.

 

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[Red_desert]

Plenty of nice beaches?

 

[Curtis]

How about an update? Really enjoying the progressive adventure and pictures!

 

[PhipsFolly]

Hey wreckdiver1715... Any updates? Any cool finds? Keep us posted!

 

[White Feather]

Happy Birthday, Tommy!

 

[wreckdiver1715]

Thanks for the Birthday greeting Russ!

Ok, just a quick update. I took a flight up to Guatemala to pick up my ol 99 Blazer and some of my gear that has been in storage for the last year. I put the truck in the shop for a week, and then loaded up my stuff and started the drive from Guatemala City down here to Panama Pacifico (formally Howard Air Force Base). The trip took about four and a half days. The first day I decided to take a slightly longer route to avoid El Salvador and that took me past the Ruins of Copan in western Honduras.



After visiting the Copan Ruins, I got back on the road and headed to Florida Copan, near one of the homes of the Valle Valle brothers. This family is mostly all dead or in prison for trafficking in narcotics, cattle and people, but there are stories that when they had their homes built they also constructed a hidden underground tunnel that they have hidden hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and other valuables.



Next stop was Camayagua Honduras, where I spent the night at the hotel Coxal Real. This is my favorite hotel in Comayagua. The owner is a good guy, and most of the ancient artifacts that adorn the hotel were found on site during the hotels remodel and expansion.

The next day I crossed over into Nicaragua and spent the night at a friends house in Managua. He is a Guatemalan who is working for a Canadian mining company, exploring for natural resources.



Here is a shot of my Blazer at the boarder of Honduras and Nicaragua. I had problems crossing both in and out of Nicaragua. I got the impression they don't care much for Gringos. Especially a gringo with title to a truck with a Guatemalan registration and a Florida drivers license. That and they looked very hard at my passport and took a very keen interest in all my stamps and visas from my travels throughout the middle east and Afghanistan. In any case I was stuck at both of these boarders for an average of about three and a half hours, mostly on the Nicaraguan side.

The next day I was off to Costa Rica. This is one beautiful country, especially along the coastal stretch of the PanAmerican highway. Unfortunately, their had been an avalanche that had taken out part of the highway, so I had to divert my route and ended up camping out for the night at the Marriott in San Jose.

The next morning I was back on the road once again. I had planned a new route of travel that took me through some very beautiful mountain villages and passes to get around the avalanche, and eventually made it back down onto the Pan-American highway.



That night, I made it over the boarder into Panama in just over an hour. This boarder was a little crazy but it only took about an hour and a half. The number one boarder crossing was Guatemala to Honduras that I got across in less than 30 minutes.

That night I spent the night in the David District just across the boarder on the Panama side. The next day I arrived to my temporary home in Panama Pacifico, just across the Panama Canal from Panama City.



I only expect to be in Panama until the end of January, and now that I signed what I like to refer to as a Letter of Marque, I should be back in Honduras and able to settle down sometime in February. At least that's the Plan right now.

 

[Red_desert]

Good luck Tommy, hope you had a happy birthday, sounds like it was quite a trip.

 

[dieselram94]

What a cool adventure! I can't wait for more updates!!

sent from a potato with gravy!!...

 

[old man]

Nice pictures Tommy. Keep us posted.

 

[wreckdiver1715]

I was making a new facebook cover photo ( https://www.facebook.com/tom.vawter ) for my fb page and decided to use a map of targets we have worked or are working in Panama, so I thought I would post it here.
The yellow post it arrows represent old Spanish Forts. 3 of the five forts are protected by UNESCO, the other two have been lost to time and history.
The blue arrows are shipwreck locations.

 

[Mr.T]

Amazing adventure. Please keep the pictures coming. Best of luck on your searches!

 

[doc-d]

Senor Wreckdive…..nice pics and story of travels…….
How goes the diving there?
You were smart to avoid El Salvador I believe…..
Vaya con Dios

 

[wreckdiver1715]

Still down here in Panama, and got my last extension for the Visa on my vehicle yesterday, and I will be forced drive it out of the country for a few days at the end of January before I can return and start the process all over again. So, with that said I'm planning to drive up to Costa Rica and spend a few days relaxing, preferably at a nice beach resort some where.

I am planning on taking my metal detector and want to do a little hunting, so if anyone here has any good suggestions as to locations with good treasure hunting potential that you would like to share, I defiantly would like to hear about it.

 

[ARC]

Still down here in Panama, and got my last extension for the Visa on my vehicle yesterday, and I will be forced drive it out of the country for a few days at the end of January before I can return and start the process all over again. So, with that said I'm planning to drive up to Costa Rica and spend a few days relaxing, preferably at a nice beach resort some where.

I am planning on taking my metal detector and want to do a little hunting, so if anyone here has any good suggestions as to locations with good treasure hunting potential that you would like to share, I defiantly would like to hear about it.

Never been to Costa Rica but I would hunt...
Behind any good/busy looking resort style places... for modern jewelry.
OR
I would try to get off "beaten paths" beaches and onto more secluded beaches...the nooks and crannies for off the wall and old stuff.

 

[doc-d]

At least here in Ecuador, the natives don't wear much jewelry at the beach…….yet some areas like Monanita, with many visitors, may prover fertile grounds for a MD soon…….
Vaya con Dios, viva Christo Rey

 

[Red_desert]

Might not be much different than Brazil, if you dig (from what I've heard) enough beer caps there could be a couple nice finds made during a day out MD a beach. Depends also on how many little "Bandidos" are out patrolling the beaches looting the tourist and keep getting in your way.

 

[wreckdiver1715]

I met up with perdidogringo last week and we hiked part of the Las Cruces Trail or the Gold Road that the Spanish used to Transport Gold and Silver mined in Peru across Panama to the Spanish Treasure Fleets waiting on the Caribbean side at Fort San Lorenzo. This is the trail that much of the treasure that was aboard the ships of the 1715 Fleet traveled on it's ill fated journey.

This was also the trail that Henry Morgan and his band of Pirates walked after taking the Forts at Colon and Portobelo, on there way to sack Panama.

Later this trail was used by the 49s bringing gold back from California to the east coast of the US.


Backpacking the Las Cruces Trail


Parts of the cobble stone trail built by Balboa are still visible

 

[lukdiver]

Panama.

Might not be much different than Brazil, if you dig (from what I've heard) enough beer caps there could be a couple nice finds made during a day out MD a beach. Depends also on how many little "Bandidos" are out patrolling the beaches looting the tourist and keep getting in your way.

Spent several years in Panama (1980's) and never made it to the Gold Road, duh. Mostly dove the wreck at Isla de Naranjos (La Boticaria) and a friend just sent me a picture of the gold/emerald ring we recovered from it which reminded me of this thread. Sorry I didn't get back to you several months ago but wife came down with cancer so life's been full lately. If you're up in Costa Rica we've always hankered to explore the Nicaragua Trial and it's terminus at San Juan del Sur in the Pacific. A friend dove (couple feet of water) in the river below Fort Lorenso MD a pair of gold shoe buckles. These are the ones in Marx's book, they also detected a coin at the location of the town there from the Gold Rush but major PIA having to clear jungle to effectively detect. Have fun. Bob

 

[Red_desert]

Those gold emerald rings are quite a find....I've seen some nice pics over the years, a few of them that were brought up from wrecks.

 

[lukdiver]

I'm sure a 'one and only' find for us for sure. Thanks Bob