Departing at 6am from Bocas, we boarded our little boat that ferried us off the islands. It made it halfway through the crossing when the motor cut out and the driver all but kicked it back to life after ten minutes of thinking we´d have to row the rest of the way. Drinking in the fumes from our beautiful motor we arrived back to the mainland and were quickly hearded into a taxi that took us to the bus station. It was here we met up with an Aussie guy, Frenchy, that we met in Guatemala at the Spanish School. Little did we know that he would be our travel buddy for the next couple of weeks.

Our first `5Star`bus almost made everyone sick with a foul smelling bathroom topped up with chemicals that filled the bus for five hours. Apparently the driver must have been informed because we swithched busses only to have a slightly duller smelling bathroom. Eating lunch from the roadside restaurants is apparently a bad idea also as Frenchy later found out... haha. Kate and I opted for a plate of plain rice which we were very grateful for.

Arriving in late on a friday night with no reservation it turns out, is a bad idea. The hostel we wanted to stay at was at capacity... but that did not stop reception from seeing dollar signs on our foreheads! As desperate as we were and must have looked after a ten hour journey, we were shown to the cinema room. The receptionist told us stories about the room that made us shiver but that wouldn`t deter us from putting our bags down and giving in. It had multiple levels, silk covered matresses and the bar right next door... literally! It was also a thoroughfare to other rooms and a hangout for lazing travellers. The only way we were going to sleep that night was with a few beers in our bellies. It was here we met up with a Canadian couple (Brendan and Lauren) from our `trip from hell`and Bocas Del Toro and we made plans with them to take the boat to Columbia together.

Next day, we organised our boat crossing to Columbia and then headed to the first mall we have seen since leaving Australia. It was huge and apparently its Christmas over here too because every family and their dogs were there. Picture `Running of the Bulls`and you might have some idea. We needed to pick up a few things but hours later we left with nothing but sore feet and bad attitudes!That night we just relaxed in our lovely cinema and tried to pretend there wasn`t a massive party going on next door intent on keeping us awake all night.

The next day we checked out the Old Town of the city. We saw many street stalls selling Panama Hats, amazing views of the city skyline, beautiful old buildings, a lot of old ruined buildings that were destroyed in invasion attempts on the city and the entrance to the Panama Canal.

After lunch we caught a taxi out to the Canal at Miraflores Locks. This was a really interesting excursion yet extremely boring! We learnt how the ships are raised and lowered in the three different `locks`along the Canal and we were there to see them passing through. Each ship took roughly half an hour to pass through and as I said it was really interesting to watch the process and to see how it all works but watching one pass through was enough for us! (more so, enough for Kate)

After a little computer time to catch up with our families before making the sea crossing to Columbia we headed back to the hostel. We changed to a private room as they now had some free space and we needed to get some sleep before our 5am start the next morning to head to the San Blass Islands and to our sail boat!

It was good to get to a developed city after travelling through less developed countries for three months, but our three nights here was enough and we were ready to get back to the water.