Hello hello,

I'm just sat on a bus, bound for San Jose, my flight is tomorrow at 14:00 so I am just spending 1 night there before shooting back home.  I'm feeling a little low that it's all coming to an end, I know that it is going to take a while to settle into the norm of being back home which I'm not particularly looking forward to.

I left Pitty, Spinksy, Hilary and Laura in Bocas del Toro - Panama today, I'm pretty sad to have left them to be honest, the last few weeks have been some of the best of the whole trip.  They are an awesome group of people, love them all, they will be sorely missed.  Another group of quality Aussies that I will have to visit as soon as I have the money to shoot over there.

Following on from where I left off, Pitty, Spinksy and myself decided to swim to the island mentioned in my last blog.  The swim was closer than we originally thought, but it was the perfect cure for a monster hangover.

After a swim and a couple of sitings of the White Whale we took the next bus to the Costa Rica, Panama border at Sixoala.  We then took a collectivo minibus to the port, ready to catch the next boat to the island of Bocas del Toro.  We arrived at night with another couple of Australians, Lizzy and John.  Finding a hostel wasn't the easiest as Bocas is a popular party island in Panama.  In the end we managed to find a dorm room that could take us all, at a place called Calypso.  The hostel was pretty nice, we had our own little porch to sit and people watch from and drink rum on of course :)

Once we got settled at our place Hilary and Laura came to meet us, they were staying at a different island across the way.  They had already been on the islands for the past 3 days so they knew the best places to go; we hit a couple of cool bars on the waterfront that night, the first called La Iguana, which sells $1 beer bongs and $2 bottles of Balboa beer, which I reckon is one of the best beers of the trip thus far.

I can't down drink, especially not beer, so I got some banter from the guys for refusing to do a beer bong and rightly so; it would only result in me spewing everywhere.  Sorry not doing the country proud on that front :)  Even the girls managed to skull theirs, but I'm a whoos when it comes to that, I admit it.  We had an awesome time there and then headed to another cool bar called Barco Hundido, also known as  the Wreck.  The bar is really cool, set over different levels.  We spent the remainder of the night here before heading back to the dorm.

The weather on the Caribbean side of Central America has been pretty over cast and rainy believe it or not.  The following day was no different.  We had planned to go to Wizards beach, meant to be the nicest beach around on one of the neighbouring islands.  However it was too wet, definitely not beach weather anyway, so we just chilled on the island.  We hit a cool bagel place in the morning which sells awesome breakfast bagels without a smile haha, the guys would know what I mean, the 2 ladies working there had faces like a pair of smacked arses.

We spent the rest of the day drinking at our hostel, I set up my own bar on our porch, stocked with Flor de Cana rum, Coca Cola, Squirt and some bar snacks, supplied by Pitty.  We had a few names for the bar, The Merry Christmas Bar, Pete's Bar and The Bar of Ron (Rum).  It was a hilarious day, although raining it was one of the best of the trip.  We played frisby across the street all day and drank rum, I can think of worse ways to spend the day.  We were joined by a little local girl at one point too who was trying to play with us which was cool.

After about 3 litres of rum we decided to head for some dinner.  Myself and Hills (Hilary) had been play fighting all day, I say play fighting she had been beating me up all day haha :). Unfortunately after we had eaten I pushed her a little too hard and she hit her head on the pavement.  She wasn't feeling too good after that and decided to head back to her hostel, escorted by Pitty and Laura.  Myself and Spinksy stayed out and followed the same route as the previous night, hitting the same 2 bars.  We were dancing with a load of American Marine Biologist students for ages, but they were a little weird, pretty closed off. 

After this we headed back to the hostel.  Not long after we returned young Mr Pitt turned up, we were all just messing around in the room for ages before closing our eyes, doing press ups and throwing Pitty's knife at the door :) funny times.

The 13th was my last full day with the guys, pretty sad, I have had the best time with all of them since Christmas Eve.  On my last proper day before travelling to San Jose we managed to head to the beach, unfortunately the waves were too large for the boat to approach Wizards so we decided to go to another beach, called the Red Frog Beach.  En route to this beach we managed to spot a few Dolphins which was really cool, a first for me.  It was nice to be back at the beach, myself, Spinksy, Pitty, Hilary and Laura played around in the sea for a good couple of hours, battling the large waves before the heavens decided to open.  Spinksy, Pitty and I still played some coconut rugby in the rain. I wanted to top up the tan before heading home, but the weather wasn't playing ball.

We hit the bar on the beach until the rain passed and tucked into some nachos and beers before the rain subsided.  The sun came out for about half an hour or so before the next bout of rain hit us so we decided to head back to our island.

After getting freshened up after our days activities we all headed out for some awesome fresh King Fish at a really nice restaurant.  After this we headed out to La Iguana bar and took full advantage of $0.50 rum punch.  We headed to the wreck after this before heading across the water to Hills and Laws's place for the rest of the night.  They had a trampoline and swings right on the waterfront, so we all stripped down and played around in the water, before heading back to the hostel.

More of the same knife throwing antics took place in room as per the last night :). This time Pitty didn't have  his knife throwing arm like yesterday, after 3 attempts the loud banging of the blunt end of the knife hitting the door alerted the night security guard, haha hilarious.  I nailed my first shot, the knife was well and truly wedged in that door.

This morning (13th) we rolled out of bed to get another breakfast bagel.  I hadn't really planned on how I was gona get to San Jose, and really wasn't in any fit state to be making decisions, after a heavy night on the lash with the crew.

Anyway I somehow managed to make my way here after 1 boat trip, 2 buses and 1 taxi.  I am writing the remainder of this blog from my hotel room near the airport, I thought that I'd splash out a little and get a double room with a tv and hot water, it is my last night away after all.

See you all soon x