Panama

27.12.

It rains like hell. Scott, Em and I leave Puerto Viejo at noon to go to Bocas del Toro in Panama. Share the bus with about 100 other people and have to fight for a place to stand or sit. Bordercrossing is quite easy and a guy leads us to a cab on the other site of the border to go to the place where we can take the watertaxi to bocas, as bocas is an island. The whole trip including cab and boat is supposed to cost 5 Dollars. What a great deal and how nice! But when we arrive at the harbour we suddenly have to pay 5 $ for the cab and 5 $ for the boat no matter how hard we discuss. Forget about the great deal!

The ride with the boat to the main island of bocas is at least awsome and you feel like riding on a river through the jungle.

Arriving in Bocas the whole island is booked out and we have to stay in probably the most dodgy dosshouse of Bocas. Share a bed with Em and the mattress is so soft that one is almost kicked out off the bed when the other one moves. There is no water in the bathroom - who the hell needs water? We decide better to leave as soon as posible and look for something to eat and drink. Find a place that has nice food for Em and me but not for Scott as he orders Spaghetti Bolognese and gets Spaghetti Pomodoro wondering since when Bolognese is without meat??? Have some drinks and go to bed round midnight as we are quite tired.

28.12.

Find another place for the next nights in the Mondo Taitu directly after waking up and then have breakfast at a cheape place. As the weather is not the best we decide not to go on a boat trip but spend the whole day just walking around, shopping, internet, booking flight tickets (which is not that easy with the panamanian airline!!! Took us altogether at least 7 calls and 3 hours waiting to get our tickets from bocas to Panama City)... Coming home I discover hundreds of small ants on my bed and on and in my backpack and almost break into tears ("because I do not allow ants to be on my backpack!!!")

Cook stir-fry in the evening and have several drinks.... Round 11 everybody staying at the hostel goes to the only club on the island. Have a great night there and dance and drink a lot.

29.12.

The whole dorm sleeps until 11 o'clock - new record! Have never slept that long since I've been travelling. But we obviously need the sleep as we all have a really bad hang over - Em was so kind to represent our feeling waiking up in the morning;-) We have a nice decent breakfast with eggs toast and ketchup. Scott and most of the others leave towards Panama City as they are not taking the plane but going by bus. As the weather is perfect Em and I decide to rent bikes and go to a nice beach 15 kilometers away from our hostel. Get two bikes at a place recommended by the hostel and ride along the mainstreet. After about 5 minutes Em realizes that it was not because of her hung over but the breaks that made her ride really difficult. Her brakes didn't work properly as they braked all the time without doing anything while riding. So we go back to the bike rental outlet to have them repaired. Riding again towards the beach Em decides after 1 minute that repairing wasn't very efficient and we go back to get another bike. Unfortunately all bikes are already rent and Em gets her money to go to another shop. After some exchanges we get a bike that seems to be o.k. and ride againtowards the beach. After 5 minutes at about the same place on the road as with the first bike Em's chaine break. So I have to go back and get the guy to bring another bike and take the broken bike.

Now we pass the ruddy point and can ride for about 10 minutes on a really rough street with about 30 degrees and the sun burningon our already suffering heads - until my bike suddenly looses its pedal. You can't bike with one pedal! So we turn around, take the next beach we see and decide to forget about biking but have a siesta at the beach. We both fall asleep and I weak up when I realize that I can't stretch my legs. When I open my eyes I can see three wild dogs lying around our towels - so close that I can't move. When I take my towel to move one of the dogs takes that as an invitation to play with me and bites my towel ands pulls. I have to shout and pull myself to get it out of his muzzle. One of the other dogs decides to dig a huge hole next to Em to sleep in and is more than a wonder that he doesn't hit her with all the earth he is getting out of the hole. Crazy dogs in Central America! We arrive the city without breaking anything else of our bikes!

Em and me decide to have an evening without alcohol as we still suffer from the night before and go to bed quite early - not easy as it is Friday evening and there is a big party in our hostel!

30.12.

Have the most random breakfast ever as killing all the food which is left in the fridge and then walk to the airport which is just 5 minutes away from our hostel - probably the only airport I have ever walked to in my life!

Both airport and airplane are one of the smallest I have ever seen but the highlight is definetively the ticket: a huge wooden disc.

Arrive in Panama City 1 hour later and take a cab to our hostel the "international voyager hostel" wher we have booked a 3 beds dorm 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately 3 beds dorms aren't available anymore and we are supposed to stay in a dorm with 10 people. I get a little bit angry and try to apply my best Spanish knowledge to let the guy at the front desk know that I don't agree at all with the prodedure and that we are going to leave to find another place - which would probably not be that easy round New Years Eve. I don't care - I am angry!!! And suddenly he finds another double room that we can have - telling me that it is really impolite to get that angry and that people in Central america do not appreciate such a hot temper. Aaaahhhhh! Shut up and give me the room! The room has a doble bed as soft as the one in bocas and a fan that misteriously doesn't move any air but at least we don't have to share the expected New Years hung over with 8 other people.

As we still suffer from our bocas hung over we don't do big things but go to the launedry and go shopping both in shops and in the supermarked "rei" - a really nice place as huge and nicely cold compared to the 35 degrees outside. Panama City is probably one of the hottest places we have been to so far.

In the evening we go to the cinema to watch Casino Royale - great film!

31.12.

We spent the whole morning in the supermarked and on the project to get back our clothes from the launedry. In the afternoon we go to the Isla Flaminco - from where you have a nice view over the skyline of Panama City - to hire bikes - one of our favourite hobbys while travelling!!!

At the bike rental outlet they also have a tandem and we both agree that hiring a tandem would be great fun! It takes some time to figure out how to start and to stop but quite soon we both do a good job! Arriving on the island we notice how hungry we are and have a nice big hamburger at a restaurant - the last one for the next time as a result of the naturally New Year diet;-)))))

In the evening we cook Chili con Carne as a good base for the rest of the night (didn't work out for me by the way) and have a nice New Years Eve Diner on the hostel's balkony.

At half past 11 we move to the upper balkony to celebrate the beginning of the new year together with the rest of the hostel.

Round 1 o clock we all try to go to club together and naturally the whole group gets kind of lost and E, Scott and me end up together. We define a mission for the evening: Have drinks which capitals form the word "New Year". There is no drink with w so Em finds another awful alterative to drink. Scott finds a horrible "E" and the White Russian" for w is my treat. After that we find another bar where I work out the "Y", change it to "J" and we get a Jaegermeister. Unfortunately Scott's "E" then has probably the name "Evil" as it is my last drink this evening. When I realize that tspeaking and seeing becomes more and more difficult I decide to go for a little walk to get a clear head - would probably have been a walk for 10 hours to get that head clear!!! Em is not really happy with my plan and decides to follow me - what I am not happy with at all. We have our first an only argument - luckily hardly remember it - about how dangerous it ist to walk in the middle of the street in the middle of the night in the middle of Panama City!I suppose I lost the argument in the end as we went back together.

After a little stop in the restrooms Em gets me into a cab and takes me home - thank my angel Em! Probably would have woken up next to Mike the next mornin if Em had not cared for me so much!