Again we found a really cool hostel and a lot of people from the previous hostel had come here as well. So it ended up been about 30 people we knew. Plus beers were 50 cents. Most of the people were from Toronto or Montreal so was mixing up French & Spanish all the time none of which I´m in anyway good at and over the space of the few days managed to eventually forget anything I'd learnt!! First impressions of this place were great and it didn´t fail to impress one bit. We did a snorkeling tour around a number of islands and again a lot more partying. To get around the islands here are water taxis which you just hail down. Most of the buildings are built just over the water and a lot of the bars over the water have a small area in the middle of them for swimming with a platform around it. We decided we needed a few days detox so heading off to another quieter island called Bastimentos. Lobster dinners, amazing views and amazing beaches and only ten minutes away from the other island! To get to the beach here we had to walk 40 minutes through the jungle in the sweat, heat and mud and then came out to this amazing blue water deserted beach. Literally the jungle hanging out over it. The odd local coming out to surf in the evening and maybe one or two other tourists but essentially the whole place to ourselves. Id say if we got stranded here it would be perfect place!! We spent the day chilling out, drinking and eating coconuts and pineapple that were all over the place. I´m sure if we´d been stranded we would have found some lobster to cook! There is definitely loads of crabs crawling around all the time. Apparently you can buy lobster off local fishermen for $1.50!! Then just like kids, 6 of us in our mid 20s and early 30s playing around in the waves for hours!! Loved it!
Panama city is unbelievable. It has an old part which is a bit more run down and then the huge business district and skyscrapers everywhere. I've never seen so much construction going on in the one place even when Ireland was at its boom. Half the skyscrapers are under construction and they seem to be starting a new one everyday. The Irish out of work should come join in!! A lot of the people who helped build the canal here were Irish, Chinese, Jamaican and French. And something like 10% of the population is now Chinese so very much a culture mix going on. The night life is well known as well. We heard of a few different areas of where to go and were all undecisve cause some night clubs could have been up to $30 but thought we'd splash out for once. So about 12 of us from the hostel got some taxis to this area but ended up getting split up. Because I didn't bring ID our taxi driver got us in the back door of a place. Well we'd lost everyone and I decided to go to the bathroom but in fact what I thought the bathroom was opened up to a huge street full of night clubs. Like a place specifically built for about 30 or 40 clubs. And not in anyway tacky. We managed to find everyone and enjoyed the scene till the early hours!
So after a day spent doing nothing on the computer recovering two Irish guys that had come out with us asked me to come for a surf. They had driven down from California and had spent since Jan surfing the coast. Its funny any Irish we meet are purely here to surf. So many good Irish surfers around as well. And also in Panama we are meeting a lot of people who have driven down from Canada or America and are now trying to sell their cars. One guy had to sell his for $60 since there was no one who wanted it and at the moment it looks like the same for these Irish guys. Plus they are good cars worth a few grand. But was great having the freedom of the car, to go where we wanted, check out a few beaches plus it was a lovely day. Really reminded me of going surfing in Ireland checking out the waves at different spots. Spent a good few hours driving around and ended up driving the whole of downtown Panama at one stage as well at night which was amazing. Top class hotels, casinos, restaurants and shopping malls. Places we'd missed on our walk around the city the first day.
So sitting here on my last day in Panama City now quite sick and trying to recover before our boat tomorrow. Were getting a four day boat trip to Columbia via the San Blas islands in the morning. Have also convinced quite a few people to join us and a lot of other people are heading on different boats. There is no road to cross the Darien Gap and meant to be very dangerous. Although I met some crazy English guy who'd walked across it in five days from Columbia. Either way the boat were getting is meant to be great, 22 people lots of food and travelling through some amazing islands!
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