Panama Banana Danana

Arrival inPanama was….quite something actually. The bus and boat rides to cross the border and get to my destination were very nice. I am in the Archipelago de BocasdelToro, which are islands on theCaribbeancoast. There is one main island that is pretty big and more “touristy” you could say: lots of restaurants, people have cars, stores, diving centers etc. I am staying on an island called Bastimentos which is a small village, no bank or atm, no cars and barely any tourists. There are some beautiful beaches here as well and so, upon arrival, I asked for directions to the beach which was supposed to be a 20 minute walk. Buuuuutttt, I got lost in my thoughts and follow a path, which ended with mangroves. Seeing a little bridge (that must lead to somewhere right?) I try to get to it, not knowing that I would sink into mud all the way to my knees. What was worst, was that I was terrified of all the little crabs running around everywhere, or if there was something under there that would bite me. I also lost one of my Birkenstocks, so I tried to dig to get it back but never found it, and ditched the other one L.  It was only when I got back to my hostel that I thought: oh crap crocodiles! I didn’t see one, otherwise I would have really panicked ahahaha. So I find this little resort thing and ask them how to get back, and well…options were: go back the way you came from (no fucking way!), wait for a boat to take me across, or swim. There was no boat and all I had was sunscreen and a book in a Ziploc bag. So I put my glasses in there and swam across. It really wasn’t that far so it went really well. I went to the hostel and I was just really angry, I changed and went out to find the freaking beach; which I did. And it was beautiful white sand and turquoise water so at least it was nice. I got back and met this Spanish guy so we chatted and hung out and ended up going to this reggae live show at a bar on the water. At our second beer, we heard screaming and bottles breaking: people were fighting so we got the hell out of there, like everyone else did too, that ended the night! This morning, I was told it was a guy and his ex-wife that were fighting…intense. On the island they speak Spanish but also guri guri (not sure if it is written this way). It is English, cut and stuck together and sounds nothing like English ahahaha. Oh and they have these huge, I mean like 3 inch long grasshoppers here, I got one on my head yesterday while skyping with my brother and then it stayed stuck in my curls. I have never seen a big bug like that! Very welcoming ahahha.

This afternoon I went to the bigger island to the bank and also did two dives which were really fun and met some awesome people too, saw some nice fish, a barracuda, starfish, lobster and lots of nice corals!