So we left the mountains of Panama and headed south. 2hrs took us to David, we had to check it out to see if it lived up to all those great David's out there, David Hasselhof, Beckham, Bowie, McKeown etc. But, I'm sad to say the best thing about David, is getting a connecting bus outta there. I think all the David's should invest some money to organize the street names and save a lot of tourists a lot of time getting lost! Many of the streets have 2 names or no names.

6hrs down the road took us to Panama City and we managed to check into Hotel Venecia in the early hours of the morning as the hostel was full. We got a few hours kip and then headed to the main tourist sight, the canal. We initially tried to take local transport but that proved a nightmare, with so many buses and people in one mass free-for-all, and in 35C. The bus system through a lot of Central America usually consists of a guy hanging out the door shouting place names at you.

So we got a taxi, about 20mins to the Miraflores Lock, one of 3 locks along the 80Km canal .It was initially planned out by the French in the late 19th Century but wasn't completed until the States stepped in and got the job down in 1914. They also got a sweet deal, controlling the canal until it was recently handed to The Republic of Panama in 2001.We checked out the museum and a film about the construction and then watched a few colossal cargo boats going through the locks with a couple of Balboa cervezas. . Panama city is on the Pacific coast so the boats cruise in and are raised 18m to the Miraflores lake, cruise on and are eventually lowered back down into the Caribbean. The largest boat we saw paid over $400,000 to travel through from the Sates bound for Chile. And the lowest price ever paid was 80cents when a dude swam the canal.

The other sites in the city were done that day, checking out the old town, which is getting rejuvenated but some of the buildings and squares are beautiful. We found some awesome sushi there and a fantastic French ice cream shop. We always manage to find little luxuries like that!

We spent a lot of time researching how to get to Colombia as there are no safe overland routes (without going deep into the Darien Jungle with a GPS and a machete, hoping you avoid any drug tycoons!) So we nearly booked a flight but in the end decided on a boat which travels via the San Blas islands. To cut a long story short the boat was delayed by 3 days due to poor weather but we eventually got it on the 22nd of March.

The boat we choose was the Darien Gapster, a 3 day crossing to Colombia and it was incredible. The boat was a green fiberglass speedboat with 2 200cc engines and could hit 35knots. So while the 6 day sailboats bobbed along we headed straight to the islands. The first journey was however one of the scariest boat journeys we have ever had, with a 4m swell, we were constantly airborne. Not only pitching forwards and backwards but rolling from side to side. The 13 of us constantly got drenched and I was thinking "why didn't we fly?" But, it's this type of journey that makes the destination even more special. We landed on Porvenir which has a tiny airstrip, alongside a beach volley ball court and a restaurant. After lunch we scooted over to another island and stayed in a local village. The people that live in the San Blas are indigenous people, speaking their own language and some Spanish. They own all the 330 plus islands and keep it all between the families and various chiefs. They have schools and medical supplies and do some farming and fishing.

Needless to say the islands were glorious….the pics tell the story. When back on dry land we went to the immigration office in the early morning, actually getting the guy out of bed to stamp us before we got our next boat. No dramas, no bribes, no long queues, welcome to Colombia.