Panama

My flight to Panama was great. I sat next to two women from Panama city, a mother and daughter both called Monica, and in-front of a lovely woman from Colombia who sold CSI equipment. Both the Monicas spent the whole flight either a) trying to scare the hell out of me with horror stories about organ snatchers, muggers, bandits, killers and the like, or b) trying to teach me Spanish, with little success may I add. The Colombian lady on the other hand gave me list after list of great places to go, restaurants to eat in etc. for when I get to Colombia. It was all very educational.

arrival in Panama, the greenest rain-forests I've ever seen

Getting into Panama city and my hostel was an eye opener to say the least. I stayed at what could be described as back-packer central, Luna's Castle, in the old town area of Casco Viejo, famous for being the go to zone for Panama residents during Henry Morgan's ransacking of the town in 1671. The area was pretty wild, delapidated wrecks of buildings standing next to beautifully restored villas. Luna's itself was a restored Colonial mansion close to the ocean, buzzing with hundreds of people on the Gringo trail, the atmosphere there was electric and super exciting to be part of.

The view looking out over the bay from my dorm.

I had three days in Panama city in all, a great chance for me to find my feet a little and flow into hostel life. Luna's being a party hostel, there was plenty of drinking beer round the table, playing ping-pong and hopelessly trying to remember everyones name. Out and about in the city I generally spent my time with Ed, a super chilled guy from Sacramento and various groups of guys from Israel and girls from around Europe. We checked out a local museum, various old churches and generally just took it all in.

Me, Ed, Avihoo and Alex

In the morning we'd make our own pancakes with Bananas in the hostel kitchen. During the day we'd eat at Panama fish market, recently featured on Anthony Bourdain's TV show, the market which had a restaurant above, was a gift from Japan seemingly to keep them sweet about trade routes through the canal. It had a bustling atmosphere and killer Ceviche (destroyed a hangover in less than 10 seconds), as well as other specialities such as their Tacu-Tacu, a kind of squid, prawn and pea curry.

Unbelievably good Ceviche and Balboa, the local brew

About 8 of us took  trip to the Miraflores Locks on the Canal to see the cargo ships pass through. It's amazing to see, and learning the Canal's history and knowing how many people died making it made it all the more special.

The lock and visitor centre at Miraflores

After getting back from the Miraflores I had a bus to catch for the 10 hour night-time journey to Bocas del Toro. I turned up to the station in my shorts, flip-flops and t-shirt and wondered why everyone was wearing their ski jackets. I discovered 10 minutes into the journey, Panamanian bus drivers have a strange love of aircon. After one of the coldest nights of my life and zero sleep, I arrived in Bocas yesterday morning. It was worth it!

Bocas itself is made up of a group of Islands and has a very different feel to Panama city, it's on the Caribbean and as such you can almost feel the Reggae in the air. Houses are painted in yellows, reds and blues and some of the locals talk like they're Jamaican. I decided to avoid the main tourist area otherwise known as Bocas town, and head straight to the island that had the best beaches, Isla Bastimentos. After 2 boat trips I ended up on Red Frog beach, apparently the nicest beach in the area serviced by my hostel, Bocas Bound.

It'll do I suppose!

Yesterday was spent sleeping on the beach, followed by dinner and hours of conversation with B, a party loving girl from Korea/Miami who was sharing my dorm. Later we stayed up with one of the American managers and a couple of Swedish guys, playing pool and drinking local rum.

I woke up this morning with a sore head and made my way into the rainforest to go zip-lining. It was a great experience to see the local wildlife such as boas, red frogs and monkeys whilst having some adrenaline going through my veins. I really wanted to see a three toed sloth but unfortunately it escaped me this time.

The view from above!

Right now I'm thinking that I'm going to stay a couple more days on Bastimentos then head over to Isla Colon and check out Bocas town for a few days before returning to Panama city. Ed's keeping an eye on boats over to Colombia for me at Luna's so I'm hoping it shouldn't be a problem to do the 5 day trip across the San Blas Islands to the northern Colombian city of Cartagena. So it appears for the next couple of weeks I've got nothing but sun, sea and good times. I hear the weather is still rubbish in England, sorry to hear that!

More in Miami & Ilysa's Birthday weekend

The last week has been incredible, it's my last night in Florida, and though I'm flying into Panama tomorrow, I've got to say I'm moving on with a mixed bag of excitement, trepidation and sadness.

Tuesday was a relaxed day where I got the chance to enjoy some sunshine in the Gables, get in a much needed run and have dinner with Dave in my favourite BBQ spot in Miami, Shorty's. Whenever I'm in the UK and craving some real dirty food, my mind always wanders to Shorty's ribs with slaw and garlic bread. Bodeans feels like a poor substitute for this place!

My face paints the perfect picture!

I finally made it to the beach thanks to a kind lift from Ilysa on Wednesday. Luckily the weather held out long enough for me to get some sun in. I've got a strange love for South Beach in a similar way to how I feel about Vegas. It is what it is, proud of it's cheesiness, cool in a unique way, and largely successful due to its corrupt and seedy history that is too easily overlooked. People in Miami are nicer than Vegas however... and tend to wear less clothing.

Dave had a crazy couple of days at work coming up so I agreed to be Ilysa's companion for fun and frolicks up until the weekend. With Ilysa being a frenzied food lover much like myself we ended up having some amazing taste sensations whilst I got the chance to meet some of her friends and family. We ended up back on South Beach one night for dinner with Pete and Charlene at the newly opened eatery 'Pubbelly'; Charlene being an old colleague of Ilysa's from London. They had flown in from Blighty the night before for a two week tour of Florida so we obviously had loads to talk about.

The next night we had dinner with Ilysa's sister, Loryn and her boyfriend, Omer, in the local oriental fusion restaurant, Yuga. It was great to get know them over a couple of bottles of unfiltered sake and some pretty impressive curry type dishes. Unfortunately I have been left mentally scarred from the evening due to certain video clips being shown to me involving a woman doing a yoga session with a baby. Weird...very weird!!!

Friday saw a trip to Fairchild Botanical Gardens and a lucky stumble across the Miami chocolate festival. Further bingeing occured in an amazing tropical setting. I had a small taste of Peru with some Mole Chicken wrapped in a Banana leaf whilst strolling through tropical fruit gardens.

As the rain started hammering down I decided to head back to Casa Corns, but on the way out I spotted a posh chocolatier selling chocolate covered S'mores, an American treat that Rebecca had introduced me to a few nights earlier that are basically a marshmallow sandwich with biscuit that you heat over a campfire. I decided to buy a couple as a little present for Ilysa and Rebecca. Aren't I nice?

Upon getting back Casa Corns I proceeded to dump my bag on my bed and pop to the bathroom for no more than two minutes. When I opened the door to the bedroom again I found a hyperactive Winslow crunching down on said s'mores, melted chocolate spread all over the crisp white bed sheets. He'd got through two layers of plastic and the zip on my bag like some kind of Houdini mutt to get to the treats. Chocolate being poisonous to dogs, I panicked! The sheets went straight into the wash and I tried to figure out a way to explain to Dave and Ilysa, my closest of friends, how I'd killed their dog, the love of their lives, the creature Dave lovingly refers to as 'my son, my first born'! Luckily Winslow survived, I think I got to him before he managed to get to too much of the chocolate. When Dave got home we took Winslow to some friends to spend the weekend, I explained to Dave what had happened, Dave explained to his friends that they should expect some Diarrhea. I worried I might have lost Dave and Ilysa a couple of friends!

Friday night saw Dave, Ilysa, Rebecca and myself take the four hour drive up to Orlando as a treat for Ilysa's birthday. We were to go to the newly opened 'Wizarding World or Harry Potter' in the Universal theme-park with Loryn and Omer, Ilysa's brother David and his girlfriend Leanne, and two of Dave and Ilysa's closest friends in Miami, Aryel and Vanessa. An early start on Saturday started with a trip to 'The Waffle House', seemingly an American institution for a ridiculously unhealthy but so delicious breakfast.

David, Leanne, Omer and Loryn's arm. Oh and 10,000 calories.

Like sugar loaded 10 year olds we headed to Hogwarts. It was pretty incredible. We drank butterbeer, ate in 'The Three Broomsticks', went on some amazing rides and bought Gryffindor scarves. There were more adults there than kids. It honestly was magical and a little surreal. 

We went into Olivander's wand shop where Ilysa found the wand that had chosen her, a birch beauty strengthened with unicorn hair or some thing like that. I made sure she got it as an early Birthday present. The look on her face was priceless!

Ilysa (Ravenclaw) & Rebecca ( Gryffindor)

Upon leaving the park my childishness took over. I saw one of Spiderman's bullies so tried to kick him in the nuts. He wasn't happy! He was a 7ft Aussie who kept on shouting 'That's not Cricket', I thought he might punch me so I proceeded to run away.

The evening saw all ten of us take a trip to a hilarious but brilliant theatrical dinner type affair called 'Medieval Times'. The premise being you sit in a kind of mini stadium and have a medieval style feast that you eat with your hands whilst cheering on your chosen knight. Our knight was rubbish and died early on, obviously not literally. Great fun though. We got back to our hotel at 9.30pm at which point pretty much everyone crashed out. Rebecca and I managed to stay up and although we had great intentions of hitting a local nightclub, we made it as far as the hotel's lounge bar but somehow still didn't get to bed until close to 3am.

This morning meant a visit to 'Cracker Barrel' for the group as a stop on the way back to Miami. The restaurant is a classic institution, inspired by the deep south and seemingly untouched since the 50's. My breakfast involved a curious combo of Chicken Fried Chicken (????), biscuits (bread rolls), gravy (a strange floury sauce), grits (still not sure about this stuff, something inbetween porridge and polyfill?), two fried eggs sunny side up, buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup, hash browns, and 3 cups of coffee. Delicious, but a bit weird to the british palate!

We're now back in Casa Corns watching cheesy TV. Dave, Ilysa and Rebecca just introduced me to 'Whip and Dip' Ice cream parlour where I felt obliged to have a chocolate and Vanilla fundge Sundae with cookie dough pieces. I think I'm going to go to bed and dream of raw carrots and fresh fruit instead of my upcoming adventure. I love this place and my old friends as well as the new ones I've just made, but for health reasons it's probably a good time to leave!

Oh, and Dave has told me he's booked a flight to meet me in Ecuador on March 5th, the day before my 30th, what a guy!

Hola Panama, Adios Florida. 

Miami and Casa Corns

I arrived in a hot and humid Miami of Thursday night to be greeted by my old friend Dave in his vintage convertible MG. It was to be the start of a long and somewhat unpredictable adventure. All I knew was that I had a flight booked to Panama on the 24th January, from there my loose plans were to soak up a bit of sunshine and party vibes before heading to Colombia amongst other countries, ending in Buenos Aires several months later. What might happen in between was anybody's guess. For now though, it's all about catching up with old friends and mentally preparing myself for the trip of a lifetime.

Last weekend was spent with Dave, Ilysa and their amazing dog, Winslow, who was to be my companion over the next week while Dave and Ilysa were at work.

We were due to go out for dinner Friday night in Coral Gables and then hit up South Beach on the Saturday night with Chris, who incidentally has just got back from his own year long trip in South America, and Rebecca, both of whom are old friends of the Corns'. So we all went for amazing Tapas on the Friday, had some wine, drank Old Fashioneds and washed it down with beer. Saturday ended up being a slightly more subdued day than first anticipated. We think even Winslow felt a little hungover. Our quiet evening of catching up ended up with us chatting around the fire pit until 4am. Saturday's South Beach adventure was duly shelved so that we could all fully appreciate our Sunday Brunch at Michael's Genuine the next day. An amazing restaurant in the design district that Ilysa designed the website for, and I have now decided serves the best brunch in the world! Their Kimchi Bloody Mary's are unbelievable!

Dave was off work on Monday so we planned to hit the beach, get some jetskis and play like kids. Except it rained... all day! So we spent our time putting up pictures in the house and eating Tacos and Burritos. Lots of them. Maybe I'll get to the beach later in the week!