Three months in, 7 countries, 13 degrees of latitude and over 2500 miles by a range of buses (from amazing first class to crazy chicken buses) We just turned up in Merida, Mexico and successfully made our way south to Panama City.

On the way we have experienced amazing cultures, foods, people and landscapes. All in all a very different world to what we are used to in the UK

So Panama? What do we think...

1) For one, it was very sunny and hot here, getting near the equator now so generally always around 27 to 30 degrees, not dropping much at night. Some rain and quite a lot of overcast skies but nothing like Costa Rican rain!

2) The landscape here is truly amazing. From the Caribbean coast with their own cultures, wooden buildings and landscape, through the continental divide of lush hills and massive mountains, to the lowlands of the Pacific with flat farmland and then the massive skyscrapers of Panama City.

3) Some dodgy instances of customer services, Nicaragua wasn´t great for this but Panama has also had its fair share of dodgy receptionists and terrifying bus drivers. Our last hostel in Panama was very disappointing in that the staff were incompetant, rude, unfriendly and very lazy!

We had lots of hassle when checking in (trying to stitch us up for more money than we had agreed by email) then again trying to stitch us for more money when we checked out. However Emily´s Spanish really stepped up a gear, she got very angry and ended up shouting in Spanish at the rubbish receptionist: was very impressive because they finally backed down (although think Emily lapsed into some angry Portuguese in the middle by mistake!). Bet they didn´t expect that from an English traveller!

4) Bocas Del Toro is amazing. Highly recommended holiday destination.

5) We enjoyed a Mcdonalds and a meal in Hard Rock cafe as we finally got to more developed cities (We held on three months eating local food before caving in.....surely thats a good effort?)

6) The Panama Canal is super impressive, the amazing history and scale of the undertaking is something else. It´s made Panama what it is today: those skyscrapers dont come cheap!

7) Panama is expensive, the budget has taken a hit !!

8) Panama footpaths are pretty much non exisitent. They do have a lot of zebra crossings but no cars will stop for you. So best trick is to wait until a decent number of people arrive to cross, and then walk into the traffic on mass. This works most of the time, but not always!

9) For some reason the guy at the airport check in was convinced we were Chinese and flying to China. Even though we are clearly not Chinese and kept telling him we are going to Peru (as it said on our ticket confirmation). We thought we had finally cleared the matter up, but then he asked again if we wanted our luggage sent to China or Peru! We were very thankful when it did arrive safely in Lima.

So thats it, Bye bye Panama, bye bye Central America, it has been amazing.

Although amazing, we are starting to very much miss certan things. So to finish off the Central American blog we will end with things we are missing from home:

- Family and Friends

- Yofi and Chloe

- A bath!

- Being able to drink water from a tap

- Being able to put used toilet paper in the toilet, rather than in an open bin (which then smells a lot)

- A good old English pub

- A roast dinner!!

- Fish & chips, mushy peas and curry sauce

- Ham and cheese toastie

- A decent chinese take away meal

- Bacon sandwich

- Having no mosquitos to deal with (being able to leave a window open on a hot night)

- Phones that you can actually call people on (we are convinced they are just empty cases here with no electronics inside)

- A supply of water and electricity that you can rely on (only so many times you can flush out a toilet with a bucket in the dark)

(Note : mums can consider the above food list as a order for when we return!!)