Hotel Puerta del Sol David

Today was the annual 3000-5000 km check-up for Wesley. We choose the city of David as it was the second largest city in Panama and we felt we wouldn't have too many issues finding a professional. The City itself was like most large cities in Central America... dirty, confusing, and a place where you don't want to spend too much time.

We scoped out the town for mechanics and found one in the city central, right across the ...

A lesson that is being repeatedly pounded into me while traveling:
plans are pointless. Last night was a perfect example. The plan: to
collect, move, and save turtle eggs from poachers and the various
wildlife that drastically reduce their chances of survival. Reality:
something quite different, but equally as important.

Five of us left Boquete for a dock just outside of David around 1 p.m.
yesterday. After stopping at the store to pick up supplies ...

... decided to head back into the jungle, hike over the saddle of the mountain back towards the road that our bus had dropped us off and then hike back up to the hostel. It was on this last stretch that we saw all our species (not the jaguar or any mammals unfortunately)- We saw some mini toucanets, some green parrots. a whole lotta other birds and a blue mono butterfly - this thing was massive, the size of my hand spread out at least! Al and I also heard howler monkeys in ...

... here, and I really can't wait to leave tomorrow morning at 5:45 for Panama City!

Milli says:

Our last night in Jaco was excitement PLUS (plus scariness if you must know) as the hostel was broken into. Shane and I had been chilling in our chilly beautifully cool as a cucumber air con room (wow I'm not currently pining for it honest) and just about to doze off to sleep when we heard one of the Canadian girls yelling and when we got out she had said she ...

... charge you an entry fee if you are for the "wrong" country. Luckily we weren't! However you do need an onwards ticket out Panama, which we didn't have, but Maja smiled sweetly at the man and gave him an complex and confusing explanation, which just made him look even more tried, so in the end he let us go without the ticket, think he just wanted some peace and quite. We have been so surprised by Panama, we were going to travel straight through to get to Panama City and then out ...

... and furry but not a monkey- he is a cute little dog I have named Stanton! He followed me... or maybe he led me to the beach the first day I arrived. I am not sure why but he sticks to me like glue... sleeps in front of my door every night and follows me everywhere I go. I have no idea who he belongs to- but for the time being he is my best buddy! He loves going to the beach and playing in the water... but I think his favorite activity is chasing the crabs on ...

... the trail heads mostly downhill for about 9km before reaching the road back to Boquete, a mere 12km away. The walk itself was amazing, beautiful scenery looking out over the cloudforest, in the middle of the jungle. We were the only people on the trail that day, I think. No one else had signed the book anyway. The trail is rightly closed as there are two huge landslides that have completely swept away part of the ...

... anywhere. Finally, a girl working at one of the hotels said she knew of a private house where we could stay. The room would cost $35 and all 5 of us could fit. We asked if we could walk and the owner of the house said no, because it was far, but we didn't realize just how far it would be. The locals say something is far away if it isn't within 4 blocks. We got in a taxi and rode for 20 minutes, out into the middle of nowhere. The room wasn't horrible, but just a few sagging beds in ...

... here are quite obviously used to rich holidayers coming over from Costa Rica and quite happily paying more then double they should for a piece of fruit or a beer..us poor backpackers, on the other hand, were most put out and so didn't stay long. Before we left though, Mary and I had a surfing lesson which was an immense amount of fun (even though I´m still ****!) we had a rather hunky instructor, who taught us all in Spanish. So even though I failed miserably at the ...

Wouaaaah Wouaaaaaah Wouaaaaaaaah... Welcome to Paradise... We found the place to be... The place to be a volunteer and have an amazing experience, living the dream every minute : PAradise Garden. Owned and runned by Paul and Jenny a retired English couple, Paradise garden is a refuge, rescuing and releasing animals native from Panama, Costa Rica and the Darien Jungle. It means that we are working : feeding, caring, cleaning animal like monkeys, birds, sloths, wild cats and ...