Hotelito Del Mar Bocas Town

... silent when we walked through the trees. We grabbed a quick lunch at a small restaurant (whole red snapper with a garlic sauce... amazing) and then caught the bus back to town.<br><br>After cleaning up, we tried to hit up Guari Guari for dinner (recommended by Mandy S's brother in Panama City), but it was closed. So, too, was Cafe Om, another recommended Indian restaurant. We ended up at El Refugio, an out-of-the-way ...

... cud* of very decent size swim by me. A highlight. I *lso got * little souvenier in the form of * n*sty bruise on my thigh from climbing b*ck into the bo*t using the l*dder, the l*dder fell *w*y from the bo*t resulting in me thumping *g*inst the sill... ouch. Still, th*t couldnt m*r wh*t h*d been * perfect d*y *nd * current highlight in the trip so f*r. We he*ded b*ck to El Chitre th*t night for some more t*sty grub *nd then h*d *n e*rly night, tot*lly wiped *fter ...

... beaches, the municipality seems to be selling its islands to whoever wants to build a condo or resort. A traveler who came to Bocas ten years ago during her stint in the Peace Corps said that at the famous Red Frog Beach one could see the beach littered with thousands of a special red frog (i can´t remember the name now) that is only native to that island. Now, you have to pay to enter the beach where the frogs used to be and instead of spotting them ...

I know its Panama's rainy season right now (which isn't difficult, seeing as it lasts for nine months of the year), but this is taking the Michael. When you are staying somewhere where the main attraction is the variety of lovely beaches on offer, frequent and prolonged tropical downpours tend to put a dampener on events. Instead of spending our days watching the girls go by while lying on a sun kissed, white sand paradise, we whiled away the hours watchin grungy lookin ...

... that Roxy does as well while jumping around wagging his whooooole body.<br><br>We inquired as to if we could feed him and the expats said, probably shouldn't the dogs will fight over the food. But if we decide that we're going to, that we need to do it on the sly away from the house and while no other dogs are present. So last night it began. He got probably one pound of left ...

... This is after all, vacation, a time to relax and enjoy. The construction workers were hard at work, shoveling rocks (yes, in the direct heat) and doing a lot of hard, manual labor. They don't seem to mind, they are used to it just as we are our lives. I watched the leaf cutter ants on their daily (and non-stop) trek, it was a nice beginning to another day in paradise. I am glad I "beached" when I did, a breeze blew in and clouds drifted ...

... was done with I had the bartender (Elle from Europe) call us a cab. 5 min before cab showed up the clouds let loose and the rain came pouring down. WIth no jackets and only one umbrella the next thing to do was run down the hill. No amount of speed could keep you dry. I was SOAKED, but after the rum punch it was la vida pura and we felt like kids playng in a rain puddle. It's beatiful here and I am really enjoying my time. Hope everything is well in the states.

... to nicaragua over new years and met up with some friends from home, got to stay in a really nice house in san juan del sur that actually belongs to the guy who just was runner up for president of nicaragua, eduardo montealegre, who is somehow related to one of my friends. it was really nice to be somewhere and be waited on hand and food and eat delicious steaks and lobster and live the nice life :) we went to a GIANT new years party on a secluded ...

... rivers. On a whim, Kevin and I decided to go over to Bocas Del Toro in Panama. Our second day in Bocas we ran into Joey and Julia walking down the street. They had just randomly met up as well moments before. We talked about plans to go to the beach the next day, but weren't able to meet up to make more concrete plans for the morning. It was purely by happenstance that we walked to the same boat, at the same time as he and Julia. We were super excited to see them ...

... major milestone today - there have apparently been 3,000 unique visitors to the "garygapyear" blog ... now I figure even allowing for a significant chunk of those "visitors" actually being me reviewing some entries from different internet cafe PC´s , that still leaves a surprisingly large number of readers ... so let me offer a thank you to all the garygapyear readers out there :) ... please keep coming back &amp; reading the updates !