Panama

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We are in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. Finally broke down to pay for some internet here. It is $2 an hour. So expensive. We made it here yesterday around 4pm. Time changed when we came to Panama and now we are in the same time zone. We met a girl from Sacramento and her name is Elyse and she is traveling alone. We all got a room together yesterday and it was a dump. So bad!!!! We spent last evening checking around other places for so we could move elsewhere today. We found a place and moved there. I guess it is really hard to find something right now because the Costa Rica students are on two week break so everyone came here for vacation. The place we are in now is $22 each but very clean. A bit more than I want to spend but CLEAN. It is called hotel Hansi. Anyway back to last night. At 4:30 am there was what souded like a riot on the street in front of our very disgusting place and sleep was not good.
Today we rented bikes and rode to La Grunta cave. You are supposed to be able to wade through water and see bats, etc. but when we arrived the locals were trying to get money to enter. The man had a machete and was not going to let us in before we paid. We refused since it was supposed to be free. Needless to say we had to turn around and come back. It was an 8 kilometer bike ride through extremely hilly terrain and we were absolutely spent. We had to stop constantly for water because it was so terribly hot. Macayla was extremely upset when she found out that we could not go to the cave after all that work. I was disappointed too. So tomorrow we booked a Catamaran snorkeling tour. We leave at 9:30am tomorrow and will not return until 4:30pm. They feed you lunch and a snack, there will be two snorkeling locations, fishing and dolphin watching. We are extremely excited. This is a splurge. It was $40 for myself and $33 for Macayla. But we need to do something fun after the horrible day we had. We had some really excellent Indian food tonight at the Om restaurant and am very satisfied. Best food ever. Hopefully I will not get ill. Knock on wood. Still not 100% after being sick from last Tuesday. Will be calling it a night very soon.

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Photos

Panama
Bridge from Costa Rica to Panama.

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Another bridge photo. Scary!!

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View from catamaran trip.

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Another great view.

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Macayla at the wheel of the catamaran.

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Another view from Catamaran.

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Macayla on net over water.

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Starfish cove.

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Starfish next to Mollie's big foot.

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Macayla with starfish in hand at Starfish cove.