My first overnight bus ride, an experience that is expected to occur several times over the course of my trip, was, for lack of a better term, quite the experience. Traveling 200 miles over the course of 9 hours, the first half was spent enjoying the romantic Latin flavor of, what i can only assume, is the Panamanian Fabio. I was quite enticed by the videos of him professing his love to a random Latina woman, all of whom were either laying in bed in a silk nightgown or staring out the window adoringly, wishing for Fabio to embrace them in his arms (which of course would ALWAYS happen at some point in the song, causing the Panamanian woman seated next to me to shyly hide a smile). Despite this soothing love-inspired music, I unfortunately only managed a few hours of slumber, as our driver seemed to possess the incessant urge to honk at every moving object in Panama.
Upon my arrival in Bocas Del Toro, a chain of islands on the western coast of Panama, I was shuttled over to the ferry station for a 30-minute boat ride to the island, before proceeding to wait for Laura to arrive from Costa Rica. Given my previous ability to highlight places visited in Powerpoint-esque format, I provide you with what I can only assume will be my future method of summarizing places visited during this expedition. Onto the highlights of the 4 days in Bocas Del Toro:
- The 7 hour wait for Laura upon my arrival in Bocas Del Toro, providing me with time to ponder those hours upon hours of waiting "by the flagpole" during elementary school, as no other means of communication existed in the age before cell phones
- The 17 bed bug bites which now provide my legs with a pleasant constellation-esque look (Aries Belt is almost perfectly placed on my left heel)
- The free Spanish lesson received by three 8-year olds at the bus stop, in exchange for a $1 plate of rice and beans. They thanked us for the food of course by requesting more money. Oh poverty...
- Randomly running into former high-school friend Erik Stringwell and his wife Leah on their honeymoon... twice
- Beautiful beaches, friendly locals, and other non-sarcastic bits of information that, in all likelihood, nobody on this blog cares to read about
After the 4th day in Bocas, with the arrival of my 29th birthday only hours away, we decided to spend the night celebrating the best way possible in this fine section of the world: On another night bus. This time, however, we unfortunately were not joined by the soothing tunes of Latin lust. Instead, thanks to our new drivers desire to take every turn in Panama at breakneck speed (there are a LOT of turns in Panama), the new sounds of our journey were instead those of passengers relieving themselves of dinner onto the floor of the bus. (Insert Happy Birthday to Me Song). All was not in vein however, as the experience did allow me to learn an additional phrase in Spanish: "Excuse me sir, there is a little bit of ¨"sick" underneath my seat. It smells bad. Thank you." Fluency is almost around the corner!
Next stop: Panama City
Onto the pics:
 | Albrook Mall: Three foodcourts and not one bookstore, gotta love the 3rd world |
 | The Panamanian Fabio rocking his locks of lust |
 | Bocas Del Toro Town - Thriving with nothingness |
 | Bike riding our way over to Bluff Beach |
 | Life is rough |
 | For this guy, life is REALLY rough (as a note, his hammock is attached underneath his 16-wheeler) |
 | $0.50 beers? I could get used to that |
 | 3 dedicated dogs that probably followed me for about a mile before I gave in and left them my scraps |
 | I´m pretty sure running into Erik and his wife Leah on their honeymoon tops my most random travel-encounter list |
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