This morning I awoke early in a room full of sleeping Germans (Bocas del Toro should be renamed 'New Frankfurt') and headed out to take one of the first water taxis bound for the neighbouring island of Bastimentos. The population of Bocas del Toro is a melting pot of Castillo Panamanians, the descendants of African slaves, Chinese migrants and native Ngabe indians. Bastimentos is a more rugged version of the main island, Bocas, and although tourism's creeping im...

I'm in Panama! I left Cahuita early on the bus to Sixoala, the border town with Panama. The bus largely doubled up as a local school bus with many local kids getting on and off on their way from jungle hut homes strung out across the border-bound highway to schools in the indigenous city of Bribri. The road was spectacular, swerving through the beautiful, forest (and banana plantation...) draped foothills of the Talamanca Mountains all the way to the border. T...