Pension Tio Tom Isla Bastimentos

... to the border. At Sixaola is the Bridge to the Americas, it was originally a rail bridge but now is a road bridge of sorts.There are boards loosely placed either side of the rails and today they are wet and slippery and the gaps between them are just nicely wide enough to trap a wheel. Keep looking ahead, hope the pedestrians coming towards us clear the way and go for it ...

... never find a monkey doing that, no matter how many kinds of fruit you threw his way!

After dinner Alessandra and I joined the rest of the "band" at the local bar. Salsa was danced, or at least the effort was there, I'm not too sure that the steps were ever actually produced from the rum fuelled limbs, cocktails drunk and laughter made. A memorable and very enjoyable way to start the final year of my twentys.

Today we woke up to not a cloud in the sky, big blue sky with the sun beating down. We decided to make a day of exploring with Thai holding a big spot on the itinerary. We had heard about this little place called Island Time Thai, the only Thai in PANAMA, and delicious!!! Well, it didn't disappoint. Gregorio took us to "Bastimentos" which is called Old Bank to us non locals. This is kind of the “city” on Isla Bastimentos. It’ ...

We left La Loma with the rest of our group as they were all heading to town or back to Panama City. We were running late and were about an hour and a half behind when we met up with Gregorio, the caretaker of the house we rented. He wasn't especially welcoming, but we chalked it up to him having to wait so long at the dock for us. We made it to the house, and we were greet by a local Ngobe woman who is the maid every other day or so. She was friendly and a ...

... wasn't the easiest with just the flashlight that Milton had to guide us.

Later that afternoon, we took a little side trip to Red Frog Beach. This is a big surfer’s hangout, BIG waves. There were three other guests besides us, Sue and Kevin (CO), another newlywed couple (June 19) and Peter (MA), a 25 year old who just finished school and decided to go on his first solo trip to Panama. The five of us and Goose, spent some time playing in the ...

... a snack lunch. We had sandwiches, chips, something light and fast. It's too hot to eat a heavy meal. The temperature hovered around 90 degrees. We are located only about 9 degrees from the equator. I walked to the beach again and one of the horses strolled by and yes, I fed him more dog biscuits. It is odd the animals stroll around, all mainly "wild" yet taken care of by all the locals. I think the tourists do most of the feeding by the ...

... and fauna of the area. He really knows his stuff when it comes to the poison dart frogs, butterflies, and anything else living aroud here. He's even discovered new frogs around here! So our goal for the day was: -snorkelling -Cacao Plantation -Dolphins -and whatever else we could fit in. What we got was: -Sloths -Cheating wives and machete's -A new 2nd mate -Poison dart frogs ...

... san jose. we then took a bus to puerto viejo, a cool town on the caribbean coast and right when we got there it started raining and didnīt stop until about 5 days later....bummer....i guess it was a crazy freak storm that hit central america, it usually rains here for just a little bit each day but not all day every day downpours!! we still enjoyed ourselves and got in some quality time lounging in hammocks and reading. we also rented bikes and did a ...

... fifteen yards from the beach. Joey was not far behind him, and Kevin helped him up on to the sand bar. I was still swimming along the beach, a little further out and to the left of them. I started to panic a little around this time. Kevin started towards me, trying to reach me. We could hear Joey yelling for help around the time that Kevin grabbed me and pulled to where i could touch. At this time Joey was about twenty yards fruther out than we were. It took us a ...

... literraly) where we would try some snorkelling. Islas Zapatailla is part of a National Marine Park so it is protected (and requires and additional entrance fee of $10 per head). Off we jumped into the water and after a few minutes of playing around with our masks and snorkels we got the hang of the snorkelling attraction...it is just like swimming around a huge fish tank! We initially thought the fish would swim ...