Glad to be back writing again. It was difficult for me because I was so removed from the easy life of the ´west´and because I got sick from a bad jellyfish sting at the end of my stay in Bocas del Toro. Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!! HOPE YOU HAD FUN! I´ll begin where I left off.. Once my first day began in Bocas, I was completely turned off by it. It was overrun with tourists from all over the world, yet it had nothing in common with the outside world. A ¨paradise¨chain of islands that are difficult to get to, filled with mosquitoes that leave 10 day old bites itching as if they had happened a day before, 5 dollar a minute phone calls, the internet cafe´s that exist have an extremely slow connection, etc etc. I could go on forever.. Two of the people I was hanging out with got very sick from the food so
that was another thing I was watching out for. Pretty stressful eh when you´re in paradise? I seemed to think so. Anyway, when I arrived in Bocas, I had met to very sweet and nice British girls (Helen and Emily). They were our (Kirsten, Ryan, Jan and I) roommates in the Casbah hostel because it was a 6 bed floating dorm room if you will. At that place which we could not stop laughing about because it truly smelled like moldy ass and never had running water or any other amenity for that matter. We really got the classic hostel experience when we arrived here. It is run by Panamanian indians (they spoke a strange language most of the time among
themselves) which my travel buddy Ryan kept saying they were gypsies (quoting Borat). I must say, Borat became the theme of the week. Everyone was speaking like Borat by the end of our stay in Doña Hoti´s Casbah Hostel when we left. When I return, you´ll see the video´s and LOVE THEM. Back on track, at night, there wasn´t much to do. A specific bar blasting reggaeton music as loud as you could possibly blast music and so crowded you could not even stand to order a beer. All of us, in consequence, decided to make the party at our hostel every night. Nobody was in a position to spend money and since it was the week of New Year´s and
everyone felt so festive, bottles of Cortez rum were the drink of choice (4 USD a bottle) and a bottle of coca cola (split into 5 of us) mixed with it, gave us good chill evenings with our friends the mosquitoes. Truly, Bocas was incredibly uneventful. I slept one whole day because I was exhausted and travelling for 3 weeks had gotten to me physically. The next day, the 30th, was Emily´s birthday. We made plans and decided to all go out to Mondo Taitu at around 7pm ( another hostel that has a small bar serving beers for .50 cents and mixed drinks for 1 dollar during happy hour) but before that, we went for a birthday lunch. There was a boy where we
were having lunch that was selling the ugliest jewelry you can imagine so since I truly felt bad for him (he wasn´t going to sell much and who knows if he gets smacked if he gets home after a day of no sales) I payed him 5 dollars to dive in the water (the place we were having lunch at like every place in Bocas is over the water like a fake Bora Bora in French Polynesia) and get a starfish for Emily as a birthday present. This boy, with no hesitation, dove and on his first try, grabbed the starfish. Since I was never a sea lover, I don´t know much about its creatures. I didn´t know that a starfish could not survive outside of the water for more than 20 minutes. Tides take a
while to come back and forth in and out of the sea and sometimes you see starfish on rocks exposed from low tide. Anyway, that´s how and why I came to the conclusion that we would keep it out. I was also showing some American kids(like 7 and 8 years old) the bottom of the starfish and how it uses the tentacles hidden behind the little teeth to suction itself onto rocks and the sea floor giving it the ability to ¨walk¨. All I got from them was ¨ew!!! Gross!!!¨ I then immediately said fuck it and returned to eat. Anyway, I killed a starfish and everyone got on my case. When we returned to the hostel I fished for a bit with an American professor from a University in Florida and later
convinced Helen, Emily and Kirsten to swim with me to a sandbank about 40 meters from the deck. As we reached the sand bar and put our feet on the bottom, the texture was like that of cow shit even though I have never stepped on it bare foot. As quickly as we had arrived we began swimming back when halfway I was stung by something on the right side of the middle part of my chest. Oceanic retribution!! I killed a starfish, it´s friend the jellyfish had come to fuck me up. That´s the way of the world.. You give and you take, you win and you lose, you kill and you sting. It was pretty painful but at least it wasn´t the
irakonji of the pacific that actually kill anything they touch. It looked like a rash at first but then began to spread to almost the size of an open palm. It was red, full of bumps and a bit swollen. Normally the jellyfish I had encountered in Puerto Rico just sting you and you get a rash with a few lines burn a bit. This was a whole other demon, man. Anyway, enough whining for now, that evening, we went to the Mondo and had a few drinks and waited for the 31st to arrive because we would celebrate two birthdays. Jan´s birthday was the 31st so it was 3 straight nights of party. Emily the 30th, Jan the 31st and New Years the 1st! Back at the hostel at midnight we
had a semi party with booze and people that lasted a few hours before we all went to bed. The next day, we woke up and decided to go see dolphins.. It was really cool. I had never seen so many in one place. They were wild and did whatever they wanted.. It seemed they were actually scared of people because not once did they come toward us. Too bad.. I wanted to have them pull me around the bay as if I were part of the Sea World show. Unfortunately it is sad for those dolphins to be trained and expected to perform every day with the same people, eating the same gross old dead fish from a bucket. These dolphins were free!!! hahahahah.. Im making myself laugh. Anyway, after the dolphin extravaganza, we returned to the hostel to celebrate new years and Jan´s birthday!! That night was absolutely crazy. This guy from New Jersey decided to get naked and jump in the water and everyone else followed. A bunch of us swam naked at midnight to celebrate the arrival of 2007. I had an amazing time. I was also able to hook up my ipod to someone´s speakers and make some strange connections to
get it to work and it did! We listened to all kinds of music and made our New Years party on Doña Hoti´s deck! Truly amazing! The next morning, I wanted to die. The hangover together with the jellyfish sting and the 12 hour bus ride to Panama City via a city called David took a toll on the last bit of health I had left. I know, I know.. I should have been more careful but hey, there´s only one new years and I really wanted to have a memorable one in Panama. I slept through the whole bus ride and arrived in Panama City at 10pm that night. I went directly to the hostel
called ¨Voyager¨in the center of downtown (El Cangrejo), took a cold shower, took some pills and went straight to bed. By the way, the view from my hostel is INCREDIBLE! It´s on the 8th floor and the city is truly spectacular. The next morning, I woke up AMAZING. Nothing hurt, no fever, no pain, nothing! I went to the Casco Viejo (old town) and took some amazing pictures. I met some locals and saw Cuna Indian women selling woven pillow covers.. It was really interesting and colorful. After that, I went back to the hostel area and walked around. I found this pizza place and had dinner for 4 dollars! Unfortunately, I also bought my ticket out of
Central America and into South America. I´m leaving for Ecuador via Colombia tomorrow (January 4th) and I´m staying in Bogota one night. At least I won´t have to skip any country as I continue south. The ticket was 380 dollars which completely KILLED me and my budget but it was the only and cheapest way to get down there. I´m only praying my backpack doesn´t get lost with Avianca (airlines of Colombia). I will write again once I am in Quito. Im going to walk around do laundry and begin to pack again. Hasta la próxima vez...
Glad to be back writing again. It was difficult for me because I was so removed from the easy life of the ´west´and because I got sick from a bad jellyfish sting at the end of my stay in Bocas del Toro. Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!! HOPE YOU HAD FUN! I´ll begin where I left off.. Once my first day began in Bocas, I was completely turned off by it. It was overrun with tourists from all over the world, yet it had nothing in common with the outside world. A ¨paradise¨chain of islands that are difficult to get to, filled with mosquitoes that leave 10 day old bites itching as if they had happened a day before, 5 dollar a minute phone calls, the internet cafe´s that exist have an extremely slow connection, etc etc. I could go on forever.. Two of the people I was hanging out with got very sick from the food so 
that was another thing I was watching out for. Pretty stressful eh when you´re in paradise? I seemed to think so. Anyway, when I arrived in Bocas, I had met to very sweet and nice British girls (Helen and Emily). They were our (Kirsten, Ryan, Jan and I) roommates in the Casbah hostel because it was a 6 bed floating dorm room if you will. At that place which we could not stop laughing about because it truly smelled like moldy ass and never had running water or any other amenity for that matter. We really got the classic hostel experience when we arrived here. It is run by Panamanian indians (they spoke a strange language most of the time among 
themselves) which my travel buddy Ryan kept saying they were gypsies (quoting Borat). I must say, Borat became the theme of the week. Everyone was speaking like Borat by the end of our stay in Doña Hoti´s Casbah Hostel when we left. When I return, you´ll see the video´s and LOVE THEM. Back on track, at night, there wasn´t much to do. A specific bar blasting reggaeton music as loud as you could possibly blast music and so crowded you could not even stand to order a beer. All of us, in consequence, decided to make the party at our hostel every night. Nobody was in a position to spend money and since it was the week of New Year´s and 
everyone felt so festive, bottles of Cortez rum were the drink of choice (4 USD a bottle) and a bottle of coca cola (split into 5 of us) mixed with it, gave us good chill evenings with our friends the mosquitoes. Truly, Bocas was incredibly uneventful. I slept one whole day because I was exhausted and travelling for 3 weeks had gotten to me physically. The next day, the 30th, was Emily´s birthday. We made plans and decided to all go out to Mondo Taitu at around 7pm ( another hostel that has a small bar serving beers for .50 cents and mixed drinks for 1 dollar during happy hour) but before that, we went for a birthday lunch. There was a boy where we 
were having lunch that was selling the ugliest jewelry you can imagine so since I truly felt bad for him (he wasn´t going to sell much and who knows if he gets smacked if he gets home after a day of no sales) I payed him 5 dollars to dive in the water (the place we were having lunch at like every place in Bocas is over the water like a fake Bora Bora in French Polynesia) and get a starfish for Emily as a birthday present. This boy, with no hesitation, dove and on his first try, grabbed the starfish. Since I was never a sea lover, I don´t know much about its creatures. I didn´t know that a starfish could not survive outside of the water for more than 20 minutes. Tides take a 
while to come back and forth in and out of the sea and sometimes you see starfish on rocks exposed from low tide. Anyway, that´s how and why I came to the conclusion that we would keep it out. I was also showing some American kids(like 7 and 8 years old) the bottom of the starfish and how it uses the tentacles hidden behind the little teeth to suction itself onto rocks and the sea floor giving it the ability to ¨walk¨. All I got from them was ¨ew!!! Gross!!!¨ I then immediately said fuck it and returned to eat. Anyway, I killed a starfish and everyone got on my case. When we returned to the hostel I fished for a bit with an American professor from a University in Florida and later 
convinced Helen, Emily and Kirsten to swim with me to a sandbank about 40 meters from the deck. As we reached the sand bar and put our feet on the bottom, the texture was like that of cow shit even though I have never stepped on it bare foot. As quickly as we had arrived we began swimming back when halfway I was stung by something on the right side of the middle part of my chest. Oceanic retribution!! I killed a starfish, it´s friend the jellyfish had come to fuck me up. That´s the way of the world.. You give and you take, you win and you lose, you kill and you sting. It was pretty painful but at least it wasn´t the 
irakonji of the pacific that actually kill anything they touch. It looked like a rash at first but then began to spread to almost the size of an open palm. It was red, full of bumps and a bit swollen. Normally the jellyfish I had encountered in Puerto Rico just sting you and you get a rash with a few lines burn a bit. This was a whole other demon, man. Anyway, enough whining for now, that evening, we went to the Mondo and had a few drinks and waited for the 31st to arrive because we would celebrate two birthdays. Jan´s birthday was the 31st so it was 3 straight nights of party. Emily the 30th, Jan the 31st and New Years the 1st! Back at the hostel at midnight we 
had a semi party with booze and people that lasted a few hours before we all went to bed. The next day, we woke up and decided to go see dolphins.. It was really cool. I had never seen so many in one place. They were wild and did whatever they wanted.. It seemed they were actually scared of people because not once did they come toward us. Too bad.. I wanted to have them pull me around the bay as if I were part of the Sea World show. Unfortunately it is sad for those dolphins to be trained and expected to perform every day with the same people, eating the same gross old dead fish from a bucket. These dolphins were free!!! hahahahah.. Im making myself laugh. Anyway, after the dolphin extravaganza, we returned to the hostel to celebrate new years and Jan´s birthday!! That night was absolutely crazy. This guy from New Jersey decided to get naked and jump in the water and everyone else followed. A bunch of us swam naked at midnight to celebrate the arrival of 2007. I had an amazing time. I was also able to hook up my ipod to someone´s speakers and make some strange connections to 
get it to work and it did! We listened to all kinds of music and made our New Years party on Doña Hoti´s deck! Truly amazing! The next morning, I wanted to die. The hangover together with the jellyfish sting and the 12 hour bus ride to Panama City via a city called David took a toll on the last bit of health I had left. I know, I know.. I should have been more careful but hey, there´s only one new years and I really wanted to have a memorable one in Panama. I slept through the whole bus ride and arrived in Panama City at 10pm that night. I went directly to the hostel 
called ¨Voyager¨in the center of downtown (El Cangrejo), took a cold shower, took some pills and went straight to bed. By the way, the view from my hostel is INCREDIBLE! It´s on the 8th floor and the city is truly spectacular. The next morning, I woke up AMAZING. Nothing hurt, no fever, no pain, nothing! I went to the Casco Viejo (old town) and took some amazing pictures. I met some locals and saw Cuna Indian women selling woven pillow covers.. It was really interesting and colorful. After that, I went back to the hostel area and walked around. I found this pizza place and had dinner for 4 dollars! Unfortunately, I also bought my ticket out of 
Central America and into South America. I´m leaving for Ecuador via Colombia tomorrow (January 4th) and I´m staying in Bogota one night. At least I won´t have to skip any country as I continue south. The ticket was 380 dollars which completely KILLED me and my budget but it was the only and cheapest way to get down there. I´m only praying my backpack doesn´t get lost with Avianca (airlines of Colombia). I will write again once I am in Quito. Im going to walk around do laundry and begin to pack again. Hasta la próxima vez...
2 comments:
wa wa wee wa! panama city, i liiike!
is ok no clothes in panama? I liiike. Penis is small in panama
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