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Published: October 10th 2011
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Hey
So had one final day out in Panama before saying fairwell to the city. Headed out to the Parque Natural on the outskirts of the city to a national park in the rainforest. The adventure getting there was almost as good as the park itself.
Decided to brave it and take my first Chicken bus (the funky old USA school busses) My particular one had a class painting of the joker (Heath Ledger) from batman on the back and it was just as jazzy as all the rest. I decided as they all stop at the station id take my chances and get my taxi from there to the park as it is alot closer. So off i went standing randomly at the side of the street and flag down this bus. First of all it is jam packed when I get on and I am the only tourist on it so everybody is staring at me. The bus costs .25c and every seat has about 3 to 5 people crammed in and the aisle is packed so I am left half standing half sitting on the driver himself tearing through the city at 50mph stopping every 5
seconds to cram more people in.
As usual the people are so nice some lovely panamanian lady stands up so I can sit (I am the only tourist and quiet the fascination at this point with my white skin and blond hair) You literally cannot hear a word with the reggae music blearing and it appears if you drive one of these busses there is no need to obey road laws as you are driving the biggest vehical around. All they watch out for is other chicken busses, otherwise its weave in and out of lanes cutting people off at every junction. It really was hilarous.
Arrived to the National park which was much more scerene and spent a beautiful afternoon finding turtles, Monkeys and some other animals that I dont even have names for. When we finally reached the top of our 2 hour hike the view was amazing of panama and of the city itself. It was well worth the effort.
Said Adios to Panama city and headed on an overnight bus to Bocas Del Toro a group of islands in Panama right on the border with Costa Rica. Its a tropical paradise here. Got
the bus to a town near by and then had to get a water taxi across to Bocas. Have spent three days here at various beaches each more beautiful than the next. I also got to do some dolphin watching and snorkelling on the way to our final beach yesterday Zapatillas which is one of the nicest beaches that I have been on . However on the downside I got eaten ALIVE by mosquitos. I am in agony today and itching like crazy and at last count I have over 60 bites.
Much of today has been spent applying cream and feeling very sorry for myself but I will get over it once the itching stops. Tomorrow I leave here on a 3 hour journey to Puerto Viejo and my first border cross of this trip into Costa Rica
Ill let ye know how it goes
Slan x
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