Reached Sixola and had to walk up a little road and across an old railway bridge with wooden planks over it to get into Panama. Got a shuttle bus to Bocas - a thrilling ride! Water was halfway up the hub of the bus, we had to drive on the sidewalk because the water on the road was too high and the rain was still lashing down! I don´t know how the driver seen out of that window! But he was zooming along! Had to cross another rickrty railway bridge to get to Bocas. Lots of locals were out staring at the river - it was the highest in 15 years and was washing away a lot of the bank. The next day, there was no bridge and no way, by land, to reach Bocas! We couold not get a bus to another city because there wsa no road due to 30 lanslides. We had no choice but go to Bocas and wait out the storm. The speedboat to Bocas as a thrill - smashing over the huge waves and slamming down! Felt like a rollercoaster!

It rained and rained, monsoon style, the whole time we were there, which only short breaks inbetween. We ended up being completely stranded on the island: no boats could travel because of the severe conditions and planes couldn't fly due to clouds! No supplies could get to Bocas, phone lines and Internet were down and no ATMs worked. Luckily, we were ok, due to an emergency stash in our bags, but people were sleeping in churches because they had no access to money!!!!

Anyway, it was a bit of an adventure for us - we made friends, watched movies and entertained ouselves! But it was very sad for a lot of the the Panamanians. We saw homes ruined and people evacuated on local tv channels and, unfortunately, there have been deaths. Thankfully, we ended up getting a flight out of there on a small plane. There was chaos at the airport and reporters filming the madness. People had been stranded there for 5 days. It was our first day waiting; I have no idea how we got on a flight so quickly! It rained heavily for another week. We continued watching Bocas on the news - awful devastation was caused by this natural disaster.