I have been quite the tourist here in the big city. My first stop, however, was the famous Panama Canal. The museum and facts about this "engineering marvel" are pretty cool but to see it in operation is amazing. My German buddies and I arrived in time to watch a Panamax cargo ship pass through. "Panamax" means a ship designed to barely fit through the canal. The ship I watched was 965 feet long and had about 2 feet of clearance on either side, just squeezing thr...

Well finally, our big social group is starting to go separate ways. I will miss many new friends especially "Team Sweden", a rowdy group of Swedish chix that keep everyone in party mode. Bocas del Toro was a great time and would make a cool vacation spot for those looking to get away for a while. Just make sure you go in the dry season. My efforts to snorkel and do just about anything outside were hampered by a lot of rain. So I left with my two German buddies f...

After a wild time in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, I have ventured further south to the popular and beautiful Bocas del Toro in Panama. The border crossing into Panama was sort of a pain as "escorts", whether you need or want them or not, make themselves available to help you across the border. In the end, they do actually help a little since they have the power to get your passport to the top of the officials´ pile for processing. In exchange, you agree to use ...

San Jose, Costa Rica...I am back in the modern western world ... a place where you can flush the toilet paper, get a hot shower (my first since leaving El Salvador on June 13, not that I'm keeping track or anything) and all the choices of fast food restaurants are here. The streets are full of people shopping for American style clothes, traffic jams, pollution, prostitutes, and everything else a modern city offers. I also think the police are a little dodgy here ...