Alright Folks, Well this is a sad moment. I am writing my first postcard that does not involve Sharlene. I left Quito and got into Panama on the 9th of May. I had emailed the hotel to see if they could pick me up as they offered a free transfer from the airport. However, when I arrived they were not there so I got a cab instead. I was told it would be 25USD to the hotel and could not be bothered to take a bus. When I got to the hotel the cabbie (in typical cabbie style) wanted 27 instead of 25. I gave him the 25 and told him I had no more. He spouted some Spanish at me and waved his arms around, so I offered him 2 USD from Ecuador. At this he got angry and so I told him in my best Spanish that that was all I had. He attempted to tell me that he was going to call the police and so I agreed and said "bien bien". When he realised that I was serious he started shouting at me so I grabbed my rucksack and made for the hotel. He attempted to stop me by holding onto my bag. At this point I had had enough and pushed him aside and started for the hotel. He did not let this deter him from his path of tring to rob me, and so he pulled out a tire iron. At this point I had dropped my bag into the hotel and come back out. You could say that after leaving Sharlene I was not in the best of moods and was not going to take this from some thieving cabbie and so I threatened him with the Police. From what I could understand he was not happy but quickly put the tire iron away. Welcome to Panama!! All I could think was I have just spent six months in South America without any problems and am only in Central America for less than an hour and I have been threatened by a cabbie. Once I had checked into the hotel I asked them about the free transfer to which they said I was not eligible and they were too busy to email me to let me know. I could not bothered to argue the point of how long an email takes to write and went to me room. That night the GAP tour leader, Dawna, came by and told me that there was only going to be two of us on the tour for the next two weeks and after that there should be more. Talk about a reversal of tours, going from 34 people to 2 people. The other traveller, Kit, is from England and is going all the way to Mexico City. We are meant to pick up another 10 people in San Jose so that should be good. While in Panama City I went to see the Panama Canal which was quite impressive but not very interesting. Once you see one boat go through it is like watching grass grow. I went up to Acon which is where the president lives and has a great view of the city on one side and the Canal on the other. The nest day I went with Kit, the other person on the tour, to the rain forest in the city. Doesn't sound right does it? A rainforest in a city! We spent a few hours walking around sweating and getting bitten by loads of mozzies. From Panama City we went to a small town called El Valle. I was going to do a zip line tour of the forest there but when I saw it I decided against it. It was 40USD (very expensive by the way) and was very small - only 6 lines. We went to a waterfall instead that we were able to swim in called El Macho! It was really pretty but the water was very low so floated rather than swam around. The second day there we went to see some Post Colombian carvings that looked more like graffiti than carvings. From El Valle we took three buses to get to Boquette which is in the mountains. It is a very nice town and nice and cool compared to the heat and humidity of El Valle and Panama City. We are here for another day and than heading to Bocas del Toro which is on the Atlantic Coast. We went on a walk to another waterfall today and saw a family of howler monkeys, although they did not howl. Tomorrow we are going on a coffee tour. Again I was meant to do some adventure sports (White Water Rafting) here but the cost was too much (90USD) and I can do it far cheaper in one of the poorer countries. Sorry for such a short postcard but it has only been a few days and I am only trying to kill time before I can ring Sharlene and wish her Happy Birthday. I am in the only internet office in town and they are building two phone booths so until they finish I can't do anything else. Wow, just this second they dropped a pain of glass of someone using the internet beside the booths - guess that has just pushed back their finish time. Just in case I don't get to phone you Sharlene, I love you so much and hope the next three months will fly by so we can be together again. Oh yeah, Happy Birthday as well!! Until next Time, Em