Panama

Headed back to Cuahita for more cash, god knows how much ive burned but its been worth it. Whilst we were doing that team Brazil disapeared to smoke the last of their weed. Hence the quote “Dude I cant believe Im following 3 stoned Brazillians into Panama” courtesy of Ryan. Bit pissed my ipod seemed to have died, Ryans dies when he swam at the waterfall so we are only left with Phils music, which admittedly aint too bad....Micky Avalon anyways!

Made it to Sixaola the Costa Rican border town, got sheperded into a carpark, a very muddy carpark and then led across the border which looked a lot like the bridge over the river kwai.Got our stamps, Ryan had to pay for a visa – apparently Canadian/Panamanian relations are at as low point too! Now we wer in we wanted to go to Bocas Del Toro a collection of islands, so 6 of us loaded into a minibus and headed for the ferry. Another minibus another lunatic Mario Andretti driver. An hour later we were boarding a bright yellow speedboat taxi and cruising down a river lined with some seriosly battered looking homes in a fishing village. Then into the open water and straight to Bocas. As soon as we arrived another 'helpful' local showed us where we wanted to go. Not bocas itself which was the big island but its small neihbour. We landed at the agua lounge a hostel looking hotspot, which was full so we traipsed past 3 more hotels to see what was available. Not too much. We ended up flipping a coin with team Brazil to see who got the supercool placeand who got the super expensive one. Ryan flipped we lost. All good though very nice pad for $110 / 3. Top floor balcony 3 beds. Right on the water.

Started to notice a real abundance of annoying flying bastard insects. Sand flies I think. Not good whatever they were my feet 4 days later look like they've been grated. Were very itchy. The island – whose name currently escapes me was awesome the more I walked around the more I felt like I was actually in a Monkey Island game. Lots of building on the water, no cars, lots and lots of boats, and only one path. You can go into building but cant stray from the path at all. I loved it.

We swan in the clear water off the dock, Ryan got bit by a crab. Found team Brazil who had the sickest room right on the water with hammocks etc outside, in a hotel/home ran by the nicest lady ever. They were lamenting the kid who lead us here because they gave him $100 to but them more weed. Big mistake. We had dinner without them in the only place we could find serving food and got an early night. This is where a lot of the major insect bite action may have happened. The Avon skin-so-soft may work for mossies but whatever bit me wasn't phased by it. Deet from now on.

Next morning we moved to the same hotel the Brazilians were in but upstairs. Joanna the owner hooked us up with a boat trip in the afternoon after we had a look around Bocas. 1$ taxi ride each way. Sorted out the fins on my fish only to notice one is about to be ripped out. Quite annoying as its only 2 months old. I like the board but the craftsmanship is shitty. Gotta have a word when I get back.

We went to look for some non existent dolphins, had an expensive lunch of some random island, and then got heavily rained on. Was freezing, but we went over to a place called hospital point (used to bee a hospital there) and snorkeled over the coral reef there. So much life to see, water was warm, real shame the sun wasnt out would've been amazing.was still really good fun. The snorkel was rubbish though. Scraped the crap outta my foot getting back into the boat in the shallow water, hurt like hell and bled a lot. So skipped the afternoon surf session I favour of cleaning my wounds. Boards got issues anyway.

So we chilled out back at the hotel with Joanna and Brazilians who had caught a couple of lobsters and and giant crab on their trip. Joana was telling us about how she came to be there, from Florida and the ins and outs of buying land in Panama. Said there was an acre for sale fro about $15000 still. Sounds tempting, but difficult and the bugs are a bit of a deterrent. Regardless it was cool talking to her about her adventures- she's 63 but lived all over. Even dated one of Phil's friends dad back in the day. The crab/lobster was awesome but left us all starving so we headed over to Bocas for a proper meal. Had to call a taxi because none were around. We ate and looked for somewhere cool to hangout but the rain seemed to extinguis the town and our stomachs were all heavy with pizza, so the Brazillians headed back and we tried our luck buying $10 of weed. Needless to say we got ripped off too. But in the process found a better bar. Still not really feeling energized or like drinking we decided to head back. This was 1am. Couldnt find a taxi boat back to our island anywhere. Things were starting to feel really bleak when the guy looking ater the taxi boat business told us to sleep one of his boats. Eventually we found a boat in the first bat/nightclub we were in. In the bar of all places. I told you this was like an adventure game. We finally got back and crashed out.

Was raining hard we got so wet, and it was still raining hard when we awoke the next day. We got our stuff together swapped email with team Brazil(who stuck around) and Joanna and headed back to Bocas to do the previous journey in reverse. Rain died out so we went for it. Had some weird issues crossing the border – they wanted proof of our onward journey. I had mine, they made ryan and Phil go to an internet place and print theirs (forget that they were back in CR) Decided on the way back to ditch gloomy Puerto Viejo and motor back to the west coast. We had to return our truck anyways. So we grabbed our stuff and hit the road. Arrived in Mal Pais at about 1.30am Dead to the world.