So after a shaky start in Panama and it's terrible canal - things started to improve(ish)... we got back to our 10 bed dorm (we were the only 2 girls) and met two English guys who had met each other on boat over from Cartagena (Colombia) to Panama... only problem was their boat got a bit shipwrecked and they were stranded on an island for a week - CRAZY! It was happy hour in the bar downstairs so we all met up there for "a drink" 3am came around and we were in a 24 hr fried chicken place with a crazy fat american lady who picked a fight with a one-legged panamanian?! Ooop... how did we end up there? Who knew... perhaps Havana Club did! All I can say was it was an experience to tell the grandkids. So all four english amigos made the hasty decision to get out of the city asap so the first thing the next morning we hit the bus station full throtle to buy tickets to anywhere but there. Costa Rica was the first bet but too far and everyone in the Hostel had been banging on about a place called Boca Del Toro... Boca Del Toro it was and I tell you it was worth the 10hour bus ride!
We are staying in the sister hostel of the one in the city - which has a great laid back vibe full of other travellers. So the three of us (Flo, Me and Nick - one of the english guys) settled in nicely to our air conditioned room and planned to hit the beach. This was yet another experience - apparently the number one panamanian rule is to screw over english people?! We'd already had a rip-off incident getting here and then we paid for the bus to Boca Del Drago (a beach) and somehow missed it?! So the same guy who'd screwed us over before told us we could get a taxi for a $1 each to catch up with the bus. 10 mins into the journey I was having a spanglish row with the driver who wanted us to pay what we paid for the bus each... apparently they dont understand spaniglish so we gave in! The only bonus was we beat the bus by about 10mins WAHOOO!
Anyway the beach was great and we just chilled out on hammocks played in the sea - the usual beach score. That was until we passed out - me forgetting that my malaria tabs make me prone to sunburn and the 2hr sleep I had frazzelled my back - oops. Anyhow back to the hostel and out for dinner back to the hostel to find we were the only 3 people in our dorm that night and proceeded to tell ghost stories - apparently not the best idea and managed to scare ourselves shitless.
Right i'm off.... got to check on my spag bol am cooking! Over and out xxxx
My dear Becky,
ReplyDeleteI wrote to you a week ago, responding to your blog and my letter, which had taken an hour to write, was lost! .
Yesterday I saw a super funny film: Tamara Drake. It’s based on a cartoon serial by Posy Simmons that runs/ran in the Guardian about middle-aged, middle-class writers on a writers’ retreat set in an idyllically beautiful village. The wife in the couple who own the retreat is an efficient manager who charms the guests and encourages and pampers her husband, a successful writer. He, however, is a serial adulterer with younger pretty girls, constantly trying to cover his tracks. I don’t know if it would be your cup of tea but I had the best laugh in a very long time! Tamsin Gregg played the wife – she’s v good and was in a TV show called, I think Green Wing.
I’ve just read your blog up to Tues 19 October – it’s a roller-coaster ride – and a real contrast to life in Greenwich! But it did rather remind me of my days hitching round
France and Germany although despite its risks, what you are both doing is more – lets say - challenging! Fingers crossed I hope the situation following the theft has sorted itself. Your mum will now show me how to send this!
Lots of love from
Granny X