We took a smaller side road in order to get off the busy PanAmerican Highway and away from the trucks and that was a good choice.
James hadn't recovered enough and got sick again the next day. The sun was hot, but we found a really nice cool camp side by a clean looking stream and after spending the night, we decided to find a hotel for James to recover fully. The town of Soná was a terrible construction sight and it was hard...once again, to get some decent food. I wound up getting some chips and I was able to find a couple of ripe bananas in a bus stop for ten cents a piece and some eggs. The hotel room was kind of grungy, but it had air conditioning and the sheets were clean. At the time that is all we needed.
Of course we were told that once we get over the mountains all is flat all the way to Panama City which, of course, was not at all the case and we seem to make slow progress in the heat, the head winds (gosh, what is Patagonia going to be like?), the traffic and the ups and downs. James had seemingly fully recovered and we were off the next day and the road lead back to the PanAmerican Highway.
We stopped for the night at a sweet little community at Santa Clara beach and only spend one night, but got to swim in the Pacific and set up our tent under a palapa right by the ocean on the beach. Second night we spend in a palm house at a surfers camp and those guys would not bargain with us, so, we spent too much ($15) and we set up our tent inside the little hut 'cause of the bugs - it was pretty hot all through the night....couldn't wait to get back on the road. Panama City now is really calling....We already connected via couch-surfing with a very interesting woman and she had responded to my request to stay with her a couple of night.....can't wait to get to the big city.
