Out and About

First off, I believe I need to re-write about my trip to panama. I was in such a rush before i was unable to truly describe the shinanigans of Bocas and Panama City. Here we go: I had decided to stay at Rocking J´s for a night in P.V mean while there I came upon 3 girls, Barbara (Swiss), Steffi (Swiss) and Isle (Holland). All three girls were travelling sep. but met by chance. We were all headed to Bocas Del Toro, a bunch of islands off of the carribean coast in Panama. As we approach the boarder we realize the Panama immigration was on lunch! they take their sweet ass time there. As we waited for an hour I also met a bunch of more people but the ones that I ended up traveling were: Katie (Canada- Vancouver) and Adam (England). Later on Katie´s friend Rachel joined us. Ok Bocas. This place is insane. I had originally planned on going there for only a couple of nights...this ended up being a week. yes a week. Seems everyone comes to bocas and plans to stay for a few days but always ends up staying longer. That´s how it is. Bocas has a party everynight, each night there is ´ladies´night at some bar which means free booze (all booze and beer including tequila) from 9 to whenever. This is how i got my beer gut. As some of you guys have seen, eva got a little too intoxicated and well things happened. But of course all good things must come to an end and thankfully we picked a good day seems the next day it started to rain (Bocas is suppose to be a very rainy town but our week there it only rained one day and only for a couple of hours). Adam, Rachel, Katie, Ben (English boy we picked up) and I decided to take the night bus from Almirate to Panama City. This is a 10 hour bus ride. from 7 pm to 5 am. We thought we could do it..we did..but man none of us anticipated teh winding roads between Almirate and Panama city. I got car sick from the blasting AC (i wore my new toque that i bought, Ben was in his sleeping bag) and the winding roads jsut made me feel sick. However our stop in Santigo was great, this rest. had hashbrowns and i gobbled them down, needed that grease. We stayed at Luna´s castle, sister to Heike and Mondo in Bocas. Great place. I can honestly say Panama city is beautiful. It´s a really nice city compared to san jose and other capitals taht I have been to and others have mentioned the same thing. It is also the first place were we see a skyline filled iwth condo´s and acutal massive buildiings similar to Toronto´s skyline. Many of you know that panama city is great for shopping.. and indeed it is. I did buy a few items but not as much as i wanted (i have to rememebr i have to CARRY this things around).Panama city was also the last destination that our group woudl be together. Both Racheal and Katie were off to ecuador (so jealous!) and then Adam to Colombia and BEn and I off back to CR while Derrick (Holland) went further into Panama to the Darien province (i´m to scared to go there). It was funny, Isle and Steffi had left us in Bocas. But on the last night in panama city Isle gets there! and then last night while Ben and I went to David to the Purple house, Steffi was there! it´s quite a small world this backpacking thing. Currently both ben and i are waiting for our bus to palmar (eva) and his to quepos. i am headed to the BOruca indigenous reserve where I will be doing a hoemstay with an indigenous family and learning about the culture and way of life of these peoples. anyways i think that´s enuff for now..