I left Brisbane in Summer to Escape the Heat, I arrive in Panama to 34C

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Just a short blog update today. Well after making the bus ride which wasn't too bad. I had 2 seats to myself for a while until some German girl appeared from nowhere 2 hours in and said she needed to sit next to me. Okay, where have you been the last 2 hours? Anyways all good, still enough room to get comfy and try and sleep. Spent most time listening to MP3 player on random. Jeez I have some random shit on there that I never listen to. Nothing exciting about a bus ride really is there. Made a pit stop and I took a few photos of an empty Costan Rican village that obviously serves as a stopping point for long distance drivers.

Few hours later we make the border. All good getting out of Costa Rica and I get chatting to this German girl who sat next to me and a Mexican dude. Well they sure had some stories to tell. The girl was kidnapped in Granada at the same time I was there, had a knife held to her throat and was driven around for over an hour before being released only losing sunglasses, her friend apparently had a lot more. Now the Mexican was also kidnapped in Mexico. Express kidnapping, his parents had to pay $10000 ransom and they've made him leave Mexico and travel since as they're scared for his safety. He was a really nice guy.

So we have to walk across to the Panama side and get passport stamped. The immigration guy asks me where my ticket out of Panama is and I say on my computer because its a flight, give him all the details yet he is still a dick about it and I have to find an internet cafe and print the ticket. Bring that back and he doesn't believe its real. At this point I'm getting angry and telling him in Spanish to "call Delta if you damn want". His boss sees whats going on and comes over, takes one look at the ticket and my passport is stamped straight away. Was told by a Costan Rican guy later they often do that in hope of a bribe. Well sorry I'd been on a bus for 10 hours already, you were getting an angry gringo, not a bribe.

Next they take us into this room to check all our luggage which takes forever as they are very thorough with their looking, then it comes to me and they barely even check. Weird. Now the drama starts. They take the Mexican guy I had befriended for aditional checks and questioning. Ok cool...but the bus wanted to leave without him. Sorry but I'm not letting that happen and in my best Spanish I told the bus driver we weren't going anywhere until they were finished with him. He was going on about his schedule to which I responded. "No podemos salir el hombre en la frontera". Again thanks to my Spanish teachers in Central America because I speak enough Spanish that I convinced the driver to wait. 30 minutes later they let him go and we're back on our way. I slept for the remainder and woke up in Panama City bus station. Turns out girl next to me was going to same district so we shared a taxi and I got to my hostel at 5am.

They gave me a blanket and let me sleep on the couch until dorm was ready at 8am. However I have 2 friends arriving this evening so we're trying to score a 3 person private room for same price as what dorm would have cost each anyway. Fingers crossed. Anyways I'm here, its bloody hot and I'll blog later this week.

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