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The boat trip and San Blas experience wasn't quite as relaxing as we'd expected so we ended up spending a week recovering in Panama City. All eight of us from the boat (minus psycho J2) had promised ourselves that if we ever got out of the Kuna village we'd treat ourselves to a nice hotel, with comfy beds - or just beds as opposed to hammocks actually! But once we got back to pricey Panama City thoughts soon turned to budgets and so we all ended up sandwiched in a tiny room of a hostel - not the best place to dry off our smelly belongings from the shipwreck!
We made the most of the luxuries available, good restaurants, American bagels for breakfast, a trip to the cinema (for anyone who saw 'I am Legend' - some friends of ours watched it again in a hostel and a girl watching it with them said at the end; "I still don't understand how there were two viruses; one that turned people into vampires and one that turned people into manikins - classic!). Angie and I treated ourselves to a shopping trip, oh yes and lets not forget a night on the
The last supper
An Indian went down well after 5 days of rations chairs of a police station to report our crazy experience - how long can it take to type up a report- 24 hours apparently - how?! More importantly I managed to quash my curry craving by finding a Indian restaurant for a final group supper before we all went our separate ways - quite sad after all we'd experienced together but there was a chance we'd bump into each other along the way. We didn't get round to seeing the Canal which may sound a bit lame but to be honest, we couldn't be bothered! It didn't get a good write up from people we spoke to and most of them agreed that if you've ever seen a canal before just imaging that but a bit bigger!
Paul and I next headed off to the beach and party islands of Bocas del Toro, stopping off for a couple of nights in the town of David. Everyone recommends staying at the Purple House but this must be because it's the only place to stay. The lady owner was a little neurotic; obsessed with the colour purple and even her dog 'Fluffy' hadn't escaped the theme, being branded with a purple
spot on his forehead! She was friendly enough but her rules and the layout of the place made it feel more like you were staying in her house rather than being a paying guest. I got the impression that we were a bit of an inconvenience and wo betide you brake one of her rules- don't you even think of getting Fluffy wet!
Anyway we stayed there a couple of nights to wait for Angie and Dave- he must have been disappointed that he shared a name with this place as their really wasn't much to write home about - in fact, I'm not sure why I'm even bothering now! It reminded me of a town from the deep South USA with pick up trucks and dusty wide streets. Dave and Angie met us on the second night and we whiled away our time with a few games of bowling, which I'm not sure even now Dave will have got over losing, even to me!
After missing out on the San Blas beaches we were keen to arrive in Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast. Unfortunately as it was carnival time it was near impossible to find
anywhere remotely affordable to stay but eventually we had to settle for a dingy hostel which housed a ginger lepricorn who vehemently tried to save anyone within a ten metre radius (he didn't seem to like to leave his chair), which was handy when you were frightened away by his fire and brimstone. His religious comments were extreme from the start but ended up getting a bit ridiculous - I'm not sure how accusing Hiliary Clinton of being a lesbian had anything to do with the conversation! Anyway as he damned us all to hell we thought we may as well go for a few drinks, leaving him to rock on his chair until the next poor unsuspecting traveller arrived - I wonder if he was the reason they were the only place with spare beds?
The next morning we struck gold with a room in the most popular hostel on the island - 'Hostel Hieke', where we settled for a week chilling on gorgeous beaches by day and partying by night at lots of silly fancy dress nights. We were convinced to stay for an extra few days to get a taste of the carnival, not quite Rio
style but the island did make some effort. The main tradition seemed to be a guy dressed up in a devil costume who walked up and down the main street challenging people to a fight- you with your stick and him with his whip. He scared most of the children and me thinking about it so I gave him a wide birth.
Bocas is definitely a place we could have stayed longer but with only 6 weeks of the trip left we had to pack our bags and head north to Costa Rica.
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