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Hola a todos!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Panama! The last country on my list in Central America with a population of around 3million people!!!!

First I stopped in the highlands of the province of Chiriquí in Panama. There is a small but charming valley/city called Boquete which is nestled among the country's most mountainous region, at 1.200 meters.
Birding, hiking, mountain biking, rafting... (of course everthing quite expensive) .
I did the sendero treking which was really, really nice...pristine nature and silence :) On the way there and back I've met a lot of very friendly localas...delicious coffee, beautiful nature...

My second real stop was completely different from the one in quite Boquete.
Bocas del Toro archipelago which consists of nine islands, 52 keys and some 200 tiny islets. The largest and most developed island is Colón Island. I've heard sooooo many nice things about this place...and at the end I was a bit disappointed. A little bit. It was nice, but nothing sooooo special. My opinion is that this is just a very good place for party, party, party...nice for a day or two - but not for more (especially on the main island!). For my taste it was just toooo many "gringos"...I'm sure that was an amazing place few years ago, but now...well, now people go there mostly because of the party.
Specially the main island is like that. There I've met Alex and Katrin...and we decided to go together to much nicer Isla Bastimento where we had GREAT time. Practicaly we had our own guest house with a porch and hammocks above the water :))))) From there we walked to the "close" beach (Wizzard beach), which wasn't soooo close as locals said!!!! Instead of nice 15min walk, we walked (barefoot) for an hour or even more through the rainy forest with legs half in the mud (a night before was raining like crazy)!!!!!!!! But at the end we had a lot of fun :))) I left my shoes there, cause they simply didn't survive...

Bocas’s biggest inconvenience is the rain. Well, this is part of a rain forest after all....so it is one of the wettest regions in Panama.

After Bocas I went straight to David (the 2nd largest city in Panama with the weirdest »purple guest house« ever) and from there to the amazing Panama city!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to stay longer in the area around David, but the weather wasn't on my side.

Panama city - with its modern and older part (Casco Viejo), vivid rhythm, cheap clothes and much more! I could stay in Panama city even longer cause - it is such a cool capital!

One day I went to PANAMA CANAL a with dutch girl. It wa svery interesting to finally see the most famoues canal on the world.

The 77 km international waterway known as the Panama Canal allows ships to pass between the Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean, saving about 12,875 km.

Every time a ship crosses the canal toward the Pacific ocean or toward the Atlantic ocean 197 million liters (!!!!!!!!) of fresh water are bleeded from huge Gatun lake. It used to be the world biggest artificial lake.

The canal makes the trip from the east coast to the west coast of the U.S. much shorter than the route taken around the tip of South America prior to 1914.
It takes approximately fifteen hours to travel the canal through its three sets of locks (about half the time is spent waiting due to traffic).
In September, 2007 work began to expand the Panama Canal. Expected to be complete in 2014, the Panama Canal expansion project will allow ships double the size of current Panamax to pass through the canal, dramatically increasing the amount of goods that can pass through the canal.

And that was it!
a week or so in Panama city I went to amazing San Blas islands, came back and flew to Colombia!

Hope u are all having as much fun as I do!

Besitos a todos,

Jana

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