Sandflies and sickness

Trip Start Nov 08, 2008
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Trip End Jun 30, 2009


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Flag of Panama  ,
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

We didn´t wait to recover from our trip in the wild Corcovado and went straight to Panama the next day via various modes of transport. Crossing the border without incident we were bundled into a small air conditioned bus and sped off down a 2 lane highway. How long it´s been since we saw one of these. And, we were actually cold on the bus. Headed straight to David, which is an overnight stop. There is nothing here, not even a decent restaurant. We did however find McPato´s, a classic rip off of McDonalds after one Panamanian couldn´t afford the franchise. So we went there for the novelty value.

It´s a 4 hour bus ride to the port where you pick up a small boat to Bocas Del Toro, the main highlight of Panama and where everyone heads. But when we are told that we ´must´ take a taxi, the old childish mantra of ´you can´t tell me what to do´ kicks in and feeling stubborn we refused to pay the $2 taxi ride from the bus stop to the port reverting to walking instead. I can manage about 15mins with my backpack. Honestly the things we do to save a few quid.

Anyway, lovely boat trip out to the bay. We find an excellent cheap hotel, eat chinese for dinner and then are both promptly sick for the next 4 days. This is after spending a miserable day at the other end of the island being bitten by ferocious sandflies, finding invisible white splinters in our feet and being categorically pissed on by the tropical weather. We once again self-medicate with Dr Paul looking up previously used drugs on the internet, and we march into the pharmacy asking for prescription only antibiotics with no resistance. It´s incredible. Well, we reckon we are experts in Gastro now.

The town of Bocas is actually quite a sweet little higgeldy piggeldy place full of dilapidated wooden shacks as well as brand spanking new hostels and restaurants. Lots of people retire here or come to start a business only to find that the land they´ve bought can be taken away through the loopholes and red-tape of local government. It seems to be the issue of the moment with the foreigners who were moving in and we felt for them. It can only be stopping the progress of this little town as battles over land are fought and lost.

The 5 days that we spent here were saved when we mustered the energry to take a boat trip across to the other islands in the bay. The water here holds some of the most spectacular and colourful coral I have ever seen and we loved it. We also spotted dolphins and relaxed on a wonderful beach called Red Frog Beach where there are indeed tiny little red frogs. However this land has been bought is being developed so who knows how long it will remain an easy day tripper beach to relax on.  
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