Soo South

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After an 8 hour bus ride, I arrived in Panama City early this evening. First impressions are fairly good.

I ended up only staying on the Boca islands for two days. I always listen when that sudden urge to move on arises. Strangely enough, despite spending a couple days on the Carribbean coast, and then a couple days on a Carribbean island, I haven´t been in the water at all. I´m discovering that after living on a boat in the ocean for 3.5 months, my desire to be around the ocean has basically evaporated. I certainly don´t mind the ocean, we´re not enemies or anything, but I don´t feel the need to be near it. I repeated the same awesome boat ride off of the island that winds through swamps on the edge of the jungle. When the all of us from the boat arrived at the small town on the mainland, everyone else headed north on a big, secure bus, while I was the sole foreigner to go south, packed into a minivan for a 4 hour drive to the town of David. I stayed the night there. Not much to report from there. Kind of a drab city from what I saw. I caught a large bus early this morning and rode down the northern half of this country. It´s a lush and gentle landscape, with rolling hills and the occasional small mountain in the distance, all covered in green forest. I saw a few waterfalls off in the distance. Finally we came upon the massive bridge that crosses over the Panama Canal. I plan on swimming in the Panama Canal tomorrow.

I'm staying in a hostel that is a converted apartment in a highrise apartment complex. The owner tells everyone to call her ´¨mom¨haha.

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