PANAMA OCT 2010

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Hola,
Greetings from Isla Tobago. We're on a small island a few miles out in the bay from Panama City. Its about an hour's ferry ride from town. We arrived yesterday with a boat load of day-trippers, but once the last ferry left it was like we were the only visitors on the island.

We walked down to a great little restaurant at the only other hotel on the island, Hotel Vereda Tropical. The meal was fantastic and we were the only ones there. We sat outdoors on a balcony overlooking the bay. Everything was perfect-the view, the food, the breeze. They were playing some really nice easy listening jazz by Diane Kroll. We all got up and slow danced while we waited on our food. Our young waitress just watched and smiled.

We nosed around the hotel until the owner offered to show us one of the rooms. They were small, but with a lot of character. There was a cute little "Juliet" balcony that overlooked the bay. Our own place was a two bedroom upstairs apartment at Cerrito Tropical. We had a long balcony with two hammocks that overlooked the bay and all the ships lined up to enter the canal. At any one time you could see 40-50 big tankers and container ships waiting their turn to enter. One of the Princess cruise ships must have gone through durring the night cause she was gone when I looked out at 4:00am. This island is so tranquil. We spent most of the day just lounging in the hammocks and planning our route for the rest of the week.

We're catching the 9:30 ferry back to Panama City where we will check out our rental car and head into the interior of the country for some real adventure. We're looking forward to seeing the rest of the country.

Stay tuned for more updates to come

David and Malialani (and Craig and Alisa)

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Photos

ARRIVING ISLA TOBAGO
this and all the beaches completely vanish during high tide.

ISLAND STILL LIFE
If you don't use it- you'll loose it

DANCING WITH THE STARS
we were dancing with the stars and the moon