So, here I am in Panama ! We left Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica and got the bus down to Sixaola on the border. Quite possibly the most suicidally mad bus driver I have encountered so far - and that is saying something over here in Central America. On a road that involved lots of twisties around mountains he either ... a, didn't know where the brakes were .... b, he did know where they were and they weren't working or c, just couldn't be bothered with them. I'm guessing option C is the more realistic.
We arrived in Sixaola intact surprisingly and retrieved our luggage and walked over the border to Panama. A few interesting points to note ...
- Apparently you have to pay a $26 exit tax when leaving Costa Rica when leaving by land or air or sea .... we didn't pay !
- Apparently you need to pay $5 for a tourist card when entering Panama .... we didn't pay !
- The bridge you walk across to Panama resembles the Bridge over the River Kwai, after it was blown up. Looking through the wooden slats whilst walking across down at the brown swirling river was a tad disconcerting not to mention diving out of the way of a bus coming across from the other side. I wouldn't have trusted that bridge to hold a Citroen 2CV never mind a 52 seater.
Anyway, we got into the country very smoothly and grabbed a minibus to Bocas del Toro region, the town of Changuinola which is the headquarters of Chiquita Bananas, I've seen banana plantations before but never this many ! From there we jumped on a water taxi to take us to the island of Bocas del Toro in the Caribbean and from there we had to take another boat to the island of Bastimentos. It was an absolutely beautiful boat ride, sort of through mangrove type stuff and yet you could see the break of the Caribbean sea just through the vegetation.
Bastimentos was ok as Caribbean islands go. The locals weren't particularly welcoming and I can see both points of view. We are tourists on their island so I suppose they are a bit sick of us coming over but at the same time I can't quite see where any income comes from apert from tourism. The main town is just a long strip with a path leading through it with no beach to speak of and it is strewn with litter. We were having lunch in a bar over the water and the woman behind the bar just threw the bottle tops into the sea. It's awful that there is no sense of pride in their surroundings (this is an ongoing theme in all of Central America, litter just thrown anywhere, it's really difficult to see) but I don't know what they do about rubbish collection anyway.
I convinced Tamara that we should go snorkelling over at Hospital Point (doesn't bode well does it with that name ??!) - it's over on Cayo Nancy and it was named for the United Fruit Company hospital that was built in 1900 when the company established it to try to isolate victims of yellow fever and malaria before they realised it was transmitted by mosquitos (thanks Lonely Planet for titbit of info). To get there we hired a 2 person Kayak, didn't look very far ... I don't really think it was Tamara's "thing" so I ended up doing most of the paddling for both of us but it was worth it, for me at least. The water is heavenly and I quite enjoyed the snorkelling this time and I so starfish and lots of other big fish things and those small electric blue ones and loads of others that I haven't got a clue about. Unfortunately Tamara's mask was leaking so she didn't have such a good time. When we left Hospital Point we paddled round the corner before heading back over to Bastimentos because I has seen a nice looking small beach. Once we got there it was beautiful but unfortunately it was also private but that didn't stop us popping onto the beach for 10 minutes. Unfortunately getting back out of that cove proved somewhat tricky as the waves were quite strong. A incident involving the kayak half in the water and half on the beach, Tamara sitting in, me pushing off ready to jump on the kayak and a big wave ended up with the kayak with Tamara half in and half out of it halfway up the beach and me arse over tit in the water with bloody great big scrapes down the back of my knees. Ow that hurt !
Once we got both of us in the kayak we powered our way back to Bastimentos, well, I powered and Tamara dipped her paddles in rather ineffectively. We toasted our safe return with a beer or two !
The beaches on Bastimentos are on the other side of the island so in the afternoon I took the path across - it had been badly raining and that was a trek and a half but bloody hell it's worth it.
Right, I'll finish this now, we are now in David, the 2nd biggest city in Panama. More news soon !
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