Panama: Panama Canal, Boquete, Bocas del Toro

@Krista: dat is te veel eer voor mij denk ik, volgens mij is het vooral iets Latino dat ze zich zo makkelijk aan anderen hechten. Ik ben ook wel benieuwd naar de foto's, ik hoop ze volgende week te kunnen laten ontwikkelen en dan zien of ik ze op een of andere manier kan digitaliseren..
@Paul: ik geloof dat de scheepvaart inderdaad flink wat geld oplevert, ze heffen flinke belastingen. Binnenkort beginnen ze de bouw van nieuwe sluizen. Hier in Nicaragua weer meer vertrouwde beelden van mensen die zich met paard en wagen vervoeren..
 
On the day I was supposed to go to the canal with one of the AIESEC people, it turned out to be closed because of a visit from the Korean president (the visitors' center at least). So we drove around the area, saw a little more nature and then went back to the city. Of course, I couldn't leave Panama City before having seen the canal, so I bought a bus ticket for the next day, instead of the same evening. That evening there was a small goodbye party for me (yes, 3 days after my arrival).
 
The next day we woke up late and tried again to visit the canal, this time successfully. It was very nice to see the huge construction in which the ships go up and down and to see two of the huge ships (although they were not of the hugest kind). Also the museum was quite interesting, it gave a good idea of how huge the project of constructing the canal was. Apart from this visit to the canal, I also learned about how sneaky the Americans have been with their influence on the region by building and administering the canal for a long time. Anyway, after the canal we returned to the city, which is not very far, had lunch, met somebody else, went to a Buddhist meeting that one of the guys had to attend (interesting, but not very Panamanian), had a final drink and then went to the bus station from where I took the bus to David, in the west of Panama. 
In the middle of the night we arrived at a kind of border station and somebody entered the bus to check our passports, so I guessed that I might have taken the wrong bus, or that David was actually in Costa Rica and not in Panama as I had thought, but I was too sleepy to care about it and decided to find out in what country I was at the bus station. Early in the morning after that I arrived at the bus station in David and after seeing all the signs I decided I was still in Panama. I waited a short while and took the bus to Boquete. One hour later I was in Boquete, recommended by the Lonely Planet because of its nature. But before checking out the nature I checked out the hostel that I had reserved and was happy to find out that even though it was 7 in the morning I could already try out the bed. So a few hours later I woke up (the trip was quite tiring) and rented a bike to explore the area. Unfortunately it was quite rainy and cloudy, so the visibility was bad. Trying to think how it would be if the sun shone, I was still a little disappointed by the "beautiful" nature, but I'm afraid I got spoiled in that respect after one year in Central America. I decided to leave the next day already, instead of staying another day as my plan was initially. In the evening I tried to find a place to have dinner in the boring village of Boquete, found it, ate and then went to sleep early.
I woke up early as well, checked out as soon as I could and took the bus back to David, from where I'd have to take a bus in the direction of the Carribean cost, but first I had to watch Holland playing against Brasil. Unfortunately I had to take the bus as soon as possible after the match, so I was forced to watch the match in the waiting room of the bus station, but of course that didn't matter anymore once Holland had won. As soon as the referee finished the match (fortunately there was no extra time, I might have missed the last boat), I took the bus to Almirante, in the northwest of Panama at the Carribean coast. It was a pretty tiring trip through the curvy roads, so I was happy to arrive after 4 hours or so. On the boat station I watched the last crazy minutes of Ghana vs. Uruguay and then took off to Isla Colón, the main island of archipelago Bocas del Toro. When I arrived I immediately saw it was a real Carribean island (I wasn't sure if the islands so close to the mainland would fit my image of a Carribean island), everything looked perfectly Carribean, the people (black, rasta, offering marihuana), the roads (asphalt, but still sandy), the houses (colourful, wooden), the palm trees, maybe just the sea does not fit the picture, it's not crystal clear and light blue. The rest of the day I didn't do much, just walked around, had some dinner and slept early again.

The day after I watched the football matches (with a lot of Germans that stay at the hostel) and just relaxed and read the rest of the day.
 
The next day I took a boat tour to different places close to the island where I stay. On the way I saw dolphins, starfish, a lot of deserted islands, palm trees, ate on a restaurant surrounded by water and returned late in the afternoon.

The following day I rented a bike from "Rent a rasta bike", a rasta man at the corner of the street with a few bikes and a cardboard sign. I biked 18km over hills to the other side of the island, where I rented a boat for myself, with captain, to the "Bay of Stars" where I found a lot of starfish. After a little snorkeling and relaxing "my boat" took me back to where I left my bike and I started the return trip to the village. On the way back I took a sideway that should lead to a cave, but I returned early because I had got too muddy and bloody (animals and trees alike were attacking me), so I never saw the cave.. When I came back I took a cold shower (I would have liked a warm one, but doesn't seem to exist in Panama) and went to an Internet cafe to upload my pictures so far (find them here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11895&id=226700492&l=1cd5229d86 ) and then went to sleep early.
 
On my last day in Panama I checked out the hotel, took the boat to the mainland and from there a bus to David where I looked for TGI Friday's to watch the semi-finals against Uruguay, which was fun, despite the fact that almost everybody supported Uruguay (the people here are not just proud to be Panamanian, but also Latin American), or maybe because of that.. After the game I had to take the bus to San José, Costa Rica where I'd change to the bus to Nicaragua. It was not a regular bus stop and the bus was supposed to pass between 4 and 5 o'clock, so it was exciting to see if I hadn't missed the bus yet or if I'd recognise it, but all went fine and after 45 minutes the bus passed and picked me up. After a short while we arrived at the border and our luggage was checked by a dog (always exciting, you can never be 100% sure that nobody put anything in your bags) and then the border police took the last chance to show me how extremely bad the customer service in Panama is (the worst I've ever seen, hardly any exceptions) by making a line of 25 people wait because they prefer to watch TV.. Then same story on the Costa Rican border.. (except for the TV) and we continued the trip with exception of the people who were denied access to the country (just a few). In Costa Rica it seemed that we arrived in the middle of a hurricane, all roads were flooded, so we tool half an hour for a distance that should normally be covered in 1 minute, but I was happy to be in a bus with big wheels, all passenger cars were waiting for the water to disappear (probably they're still waiting). We arrived to San José at 1 o'clock already, instead of 2-3 o'clock, which meant that I still had to wait 5 hours for my connection to Nicaragua.. So I tried to sleep and at times I could fall asleep for a while using my backpack as pilow, but your sleep isn't worth much in that way, although it does help to pass the time. Anyway, at 6 the bus to Nicaragua left and a few hours later we were at the border, same story again, on both sides, except for the dogs (at the Costa Rican border we could leave the luggage in the bus and at the Nicaraguan border they only looked at the outside of my bag.. strange.. if I were Obama I would say something about this leak on the way to the US..) and in Nicaragua they had a time consuming way of checking passports, I think it took almost 1.5 hour in total.. In addition, it seems that (Central American) border authorities do not understand that the border is the first impression of a visitor to your country, they could at least get rid of the dirt roads and put some asphalt.. Anyway, we went on and soon we arrived in Rivas, Nicaragua, where I got off the bus and watched the last half hour of Germany-Spain. And my next blog will take over from there..