Coral Suites Panama City

we arrived in sticky Panama after two hour and a half flights, one from Quito to Bogota, and one from Bogota to here... food on both and tv, music and games, like long distance planes... We spent half an hour looknig for the bus stop, and trying not to hit the annoying taxi man who would not leave us alone, despite my constant politeness, turning to being quite rude...

We jumped on a chicken bus, depositing our rucsacs at the front and got to the bus terminal, magically ...

... heet, maar de kleine 30.000 man die overleden zijn bij het bouwen van het kanaal en alle politieke strubbelingen er omheen werden volledig doodgezwegen.

Toch had het één lichtpuntje: de simulator. Mich heeft zich een halfuur vermaakt als bestuurder van een gigantisch vrachtschip. Blij als een kind!.

De laatste dag bezochten we een klassiek concert in het prachtige Teatro Nacional, en zijn we heerlijk tapas gaan eten.

Heleen

... great. We skipped the restaurant and went to the lobby bar to order from the sushi chef. Two delicious rolls, some chili poppers, and some amazing potato chips had us feeling content. Once back in the room (and back in those comfy robes), we found a good movie, got some more milkshakes from room service, and called it a night.

... gr*nd. The *ncient c*stle ruins, the pe*t bogs, the hurling, the pubs, the *ccent, the sense of humour, the comr*dery...It *ll m*de for * gre*t visit *nd I´ll definitely be b*ck when I h*ve more c*sh in my skyrocket. Th*nks to everyone who put us up *nd put up with us, without y* it wouldn´t h*ve been in the budget!

Exit Irel*nd, enter London, exit London, enter Los Angeles.

We touched down in L.A. pretty d*mned tired. We went from * f*irly rel*xed Irel*nd ...

... here! Always more enjoyable to share the experience with someone else!

I dont know what else to ramble on about here, but if the next 7 months
are half as good as the first 5 its going to be money well spent!

By the way Dad, if your reading this, Im abit short on cash. Can you send some over!?!?!?!?! Its no joke!!! $3000 should help me out!!!

(I will post photos later on, cant be stuffed now plus ive put the motherlode on facebook already)

... t a nice place to be but it could be beautiful.

We left and took another taxi to get home (most fares are 2 dollars and if it means not taking a 'muggins' - that's for you Shane - then its money well spent). This cabbie was young and when he realised we didn't speak Spanish he grunted and turned his techno up to Ear Damaging and we drove off. The traffic is pretty pushy and crazy. He stopped to ask directions a few times and going through some streets it looked like ...

... forested areas and destroy native trees that have no native adaptations to fire. The canal grass resprouts vigorously after fire and quickly colonizes the burned forest areas. The plantation in the canal grass area that we visited included plots with 4 native tree species that had the canal grass machete 'cleaned' from 2 to 10 times per year, some with herbicide applications, some without. The results of this project are ...

... films about Cuba . It was all grand with amazing tiles and stuff but faded and decaying. It was when I had to ask to pay for an extra night in this hotel that realized I was speaking French to these people instead of Spanish. Un Autre night por vous plait. James Dean and Darren were in a party hostel down the road and Dan and I would sneak in and eat the free pancakes in the morning. I introduced Dan to bacon on pancakes with ...

Martyrs Day was actually on Friday, which was why we were unable to buy alcoholic beverages on Jon´s last night. Luckily we had a bit of a stockpile to see us through a dry evening!! Today (Monday) is a bank holiday and what fun I´ve had. For no particular reason, other than Lying Planet said it was authentic Panama and off the gringo trail I decided to come to Los Santos (the town is famous for declaring independence from Spain ...

This is the big day...our whole purpose of this cruise! We got up before the sun to see that our ship was parked in the holding area. We could see tons of red/green lights and bright white arrows. We then heard the tugs next to us as we approached the Gatun Locks and saw several alligators. We ran all over the ship...starting at the front of the ship to watch us approach the first of three locks in this section of the canal. After the mules were hooked up, we ran to the back ...