So, I am in Panama! Caught a bus from David to the Panama City in the middle of the night and slept in fits for the 8 hour trip. We arrived in the city the next day and stopped to pick up some American cash at an ATM becuase Panamanians use the US dollar. I was very excited about the prospect of understanding how much I was spending on things again! The four of us were loaded down, the other three with lovely, large hiking packs on back and small daypacks on the front. Myself with an awful rigged up day pack on my back (thank you Jenna!) I had a sleeping bag tied to the bottom and a pillow strapped across it, and my day pack on my front as well. I wish I had splurged on a big pack! There are so many things on this side trip that I wish I had. Never again will I travel thinking I will be happy staying in one place! (Anyhow, we were very obviously backpackers walking up to the border the precvious day. We then walked through the border, and up to a bus that for $2 took us to our previous destination of David. No police, no stamps, nothing?) So then we chat with a taxi and for $4 get a ride from the bus station to our desired location of Caso Viejo. After stopping at about 4 hostels and finding them all full, we end up downtown an hour later at our last option. The taxi driver was done with us, and we woul have to find another if we needed to go further. It was understandable, since that hour long taxi adventure was only costing us $8 in the end. This last hostel was full as well, and I cannot say I was diappointed because it left much to be desired. The owner let us leave our packs behind his desk while we went out in search of another place to stay. We finally ended up at a place called La Jungla. It was a very cute place, but we were not satisfied being downtown. It was just like any other city in the world, and we were looking for a but more culture, or at least something where there were not shops on every corner, and a McDonalds across the street! We actually ended up getting a bottle of wine and seeing a movie while we were in the city. We called it our "splurge day" even though the wine was only $4.50 and the movie $4!
I will update more later. I had several more paragraphs completed when the internet failed and I lost them. so sorry this is short, but I must let others use the computer!
