Woah woah woah BLOGFANS, hang on a second, in a Tazmanian Devil style blur, in the last 7 days since we left that beautiful continent called South America we seemed to have crossed one third of Central America in a desperate search to find THE SLOTHS!!!!!! ooops!!

Yes thats right guys, Panama, done, Costa Rica, well, we crossed virtually the whole country today!! We need to slow down a bit or else we´ll be home by the time midnight strikes on New Years Eve!

And while we take a break, so should you, stop wrapping pressies Mum! Oh, you did that about two months ago! haha! Anyway, let me let you in on a few travelling thoughts..........

So we landed in Panama City after our most expensive flight ever to be greeted by huge multi-storey apartment blocks and sweltering humid heat. After hooking up with some Anglo´s and Americans we hit the mean streets of Panama City....after some ´nice´steak and beers we descended right in the middle of what seemed to be a Panama City nappy night with scantily clad 18 year old girls wandering about.

Needless to say the four girls in tow had me and the other guy in the back of a taxi before we knew what hit us. The jealousy of girl travellers of other girls with dresses and high heels (which they have all left at home!!) is extreme with the potential to be violent.

We should have stayed with those that were scantily clad as a brief liaison with the Panamanian cops is not to be advised especially with six people in a four seater taxi...luckily those cops took a fancy to the four ladies in tow and we managed to avoid being carted off to a Panamanian cell for the night!

More ´local´culture was had by visiting the BIGGEST Americanised shopping mall we have ever seen!! I think those five hours of wandering aimlessly around it were well spent, KFC, tick, Jen´s haircut, tick!! The new barnet did well to last all of four hours before it fell gracefully to a sticky end in the sweltering heat!!

VAMOS A LA PLAYA....(LETS GO TO THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!) And to the beach we did go! To Bocas Del Toro infact, the Mouths of the Bull, of so Jen tells me. To Mondu Taito Hostel, and the stickiest room of the tour so far! And also a pleasant surprise on the ´100 Beer Challenge´photo wall where I see one former school mate who had completed the challenge in five days!! Its only after six or seven of those Panama Beers that you appreciate what a natural feat this is!

Bocas is cool, very cool! Very cool when you think you are James Bond flying between these Caribbean Islands on a super fast speedboat! Yes thats right, Caribbean Islands, I forgot to ask, how is the snow this week?

As is the theme of our trip, itchy feet kick in and want some of Costa Rica in our faces, and we get it by heading to another beach resort just over the border in Puerto Viejo. The highlight of the day was a mammoth 10k trek, just to keep the fitness up, a HUGE downpour and then, probably, the best seafood paella we have ever seen/eaten!!

One night is enough for this town and our whirlwind effect continued today where our 12 hour journey took us from the bottom to the top of Costa Rica taking in some amazing rainforest scenery! Central America is shaping up to be very exciting indeed!!

So thats us then for our pre-Christmas blog thing, we are off to the Costa Rican peninsula to see monkeys swing by at breakfast and for us to carry off our surfer look without actually surfing.

We hope you all have a happy and safe Christmas break, we miss you all, and a small part wishes we were there with you all. My part of choice would definitely be the mouth, ill be missing my roast dinner and mince pies come the 25th!

As im feeling festive, ill let you in on some random thoughts ive gathered in the time we´ve been away.....

You know you´re in Central America when its not a ´deer crossing´ sign you seen, but a ´sloth falling´ sign!

You know you´re in the Costa Rican rainforest when a 22k bus journey takes one and a half hours!

Unilever, please please sell some air freshner in Bolivia. Please.

Yes, that is Brad, as in Brad Pitt. I may be the uglier Brad Pitt, but Im definitely the prettier Bradley Walsh.

A hard days travelling is when it actually hurts the right ass cheek to sit down.

South American beer may be called different names, but it all tastes the same fizz and does not get you drunk. At all.

Theres a reason why a Bolivian meal deal is 2 pound 50. Its because it´s sh*te.

If you never go to the Galapagos, dont panic, just save yourself a few pounds by buying a paddling pool and kidnapping a few dogs, tie their legs up, put black make up on their eyes, and you have a ready made Blue Peter Galapagos sea lion. The resemblence will be remarkable.

If you never meet a Bolivian woman, ask a small child to moan, annoyingly, and you´ll immediately know what they sound like.

Right thats all fans, tomorrow we´re going to head to the cloud forests where apparently you can climb to the top of the highest tree and see the Caribbean sea on one side and see the Pacific sea on the other...before hurling yourself off the tree on a rope screaming like Tarzan, or a girl in my case.

Till next time.......Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx