Saturday, July 19, 2008

A man a plan a canal panama

Much has happened in the last week, I will try to keep it succinct though. Last time I had written I was in San Jose, Costa Rica. Well my next stop was Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. This is located on the south eastern corner of Costa Rica. According to the travel book it is "a laid back beach town where anything more than surfing or laying on the beach is considered overly ambitious." Once there I have to admit that I was dissapointed. The town had a seedy feel and my friend and I immediately thought we would leave the following day. On a whim we decided to walk down the solid coral, depressing beach in search of better pastures. To our amazement as we turned bend an immense expanse of beach with crashing waves opened before us. Immediately we did a 180 and decided to stay a couple of nights. We certainly took advantage of the beach as well as the waves, body surfing.
Next on the itinerary was Boca del Toro in Panama. This is located on the north eastern part of the country. Its an archipeligo (a chain of islands), each with it's own personality. We stayed on the main island which was called Isla Colon, mainly because it has the best night life and restaurants. We spent the first night enjoying the 50 cent beers and getting to know some of the other travelers. Yada Yada Yada, large headache the next day. Taking a water taxi we visited another island and spent the day laying around a beautiful, private beach. What I neglect to mention is that to get to this beach you have to take a 30 minute hike through mud upto your calves, the only way to make it is to go at it barefoot, which got quite slippery. I am not sure that many beaches would be worth it, and this was barely so.
Today I have just arrived in Panama City. We crossed the Panama canal to get to the bus station, I will be checking that out in more detail in the coming days. I will hopefully be able to get some pictures up here is a few days. Until next time.