Had a luxury journey to Puerto Lindo on the northern coast of Panama on 3rd. Was somewhat concerned as nobody seemed to know where this place was so decided not to risk the various chicken buses alone with my backpack and sundry luggage (!) and arranged a private car up there. Got there finally after the driver asked about 5 people. No wonder! It's a tiny village (well, hamlet really) with just a few houses and a tiny marina. Found the hostel that had arranged my...

Arrived in Panama City on Saturday afternoon and I immediately liked it. It really reminded me of a hybrid of Singapore and Dubai - on the water, lots of tall modern buildings and a hell of a lot of construction going on! It's known as the 'Miami of the South' except more English is spoken here! It's the most cosmopolitan and modern city in Central America and a place I reckon I could live (if I were ever to go back into the corporate world - which I don't plan t...

Arrived in Santa Catalina (on the Pacific coast this time) which seems to be over-run by Germans and German-speakers. Not really sure why but every foreigner I spoke to was either German or Austrian! Our hotel (run by Germans!) turned out to be in the middle of nowhere - 2km from the main road and about 10km from the village of Santa Catalina. They had a beat-up van called the 'Flying Sausage' which acted as a shuttle, drive by Christian who seemed to think that ...

So I realised that I'd forgotten to tell you about the wild sloth we saw just as we crossed the border into Panama. Someone was yelling at our van driver and then he must have seen it. It was actually on the ground (very rare seemingly as they only come down to do their business which isn't very often as the rest of the time they appear to be asleep - hard life!). It then crawled (very slowly!) up the tree which was cool to watch. I wouldn't like to get on the wr...

Crossing the border into Panama was a bit of a mission. After going through Costa Rica immigration, we had to cross a bridge that was at last 500m long, rickety, perilous with lots of missing planks a huge drop to the river underneath! We had to walk across with our big backpacks. I couldn't see my feet as my daypack was on my front so it was a case of feeling with my flipflops (not such a good choice of footwear!) and hoping I wouldn't slip through one of the cr...