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!