We have just arrived in Nicaragua after a couple of great weeks in Panama. We spent the first few days in Bocas del Toro, the islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama. Bocas is full of backpackers and is quite a tourist spot but good fun. It is all about sunbathing and drinking but as we had a couple of days of rain... (We are learning to allow for at least 1/1.5 days of rain for every 3/4 we spend anywhere). Actually the islands have great deserted beaches and some good snorkelling as well so we did drag ourselves out of the bars to explore that too. From there we took a bus to Panama City with a couple of Australians we met in Bocas. I loved the city - none of the other capitals in Central America are worth visiting as they all have reputations as dangerous and uninteresting places, but Panama city is great. It is a really buzzy place and has so much to see. The first day, Sarah and I couldn't resist going shopping and had to force ourselves out of the shops after a while for fear of having to buy 2nd rucksacks to carry our stuff in. The next day we did the touristy things. We visited the Casco Antiguo, which is the old part of the city. It used to be the city centre but was destroyed by various wars and is now a funny mix of totally rundown colonial buildings, and new attractive ones that they are building up within the ruins. There are modern, trendy bars & restaurants in between crumbling ruins that no-one seems to want to restore. We then went to visit the canal. I actually didn't think it was going to be that interesting but turned out to be really good and we saw a couple of huge cargo ships going through the locks. It's not the kind of thing that sounds very interesting to talk about but still, we enjoyed it!! The nightlife in Panama City was pretty good too and we had a really fun night out where we tried to show off our salsa moves on the dance floor, much to the hilarity of the locals. But we ignored their laughter and carried on regardless. We finally left the club at 5am in time to watch the sunrise over the water and then go to bed to catch a couple of hours sleep before the football started. After the city we went for the biggest contrast possible and took a flight to the San Blas islands, again on the Caribbean side of the country. San Blas is part of the Kuna Yala region of Panama which is an autonomous area run by the Kuna indians, the largest indigenous group of people still around in Central America. They have managed to keep a certain degree of independence and no-one who is non-Kuna is allowed to own land or run a business in Kuna Yala. The Kuna women also still wear traditional dress and many don't speak Spanish, but just their own dialect. The majority of the people live on the islands (San Blas) just of the mainland, although a few also live in the rainforests onland. We landed at the airport in Rio Sidra (when I say airport, I mean empty wooden hut by the sea) where we were met by Mr Robinson, a local Kuna man who was our host for our time there. He took us to 'our island' which was a perfect description of a desert island. It's tiny - we could walk around it in a couple of minutes and was covered in palm trees with a white sand beach all round the edge. Robinson rents the land off a family of Kuna that live there and runs a couple of 'cabañas'where we stayed. It is very very basic. Our cabaña had nothing in it but 2 beds and there is no running water or electricity on the island so you feel completely cut off from everything. The shower was just a bucket of water and a scoop, and going to the loo involved walking along a very rickety walkway to an outhouse hanging over the sea! The first day we were the only people staying there so it was just us and 5/6 Kuna people although a few others arrived the next day. Each day, Robinson would come over to the island in his canoe and cook us our meals - langoustine or fresh fish twice a day every day! In the meantime we had a tough time deciding whether to lie in our hammocks, lie on the beach, snorkel on the reef or just swim. Robinson also took us to the island where he lives - 2000 Kuna people crammed on to a tiny island. There is no space between the houses and in contrast to ours you couldn't even see where the beach/palm trees presumably once were. The islands are so low in the water that apparently because the sea levels are rising from global warming, it won't be that long before all those people find their homes underwater and they have no where to live. It was really interesting to see how they live their lives and how they maintain their traditions & independence despite the rate at which the rest of the country is developing. After 5 very taxing days relaxing there, we were ready to come back to the real world and just to undo any unwinding that we had done we decided to travel straight through Costa Rica from Panama to Nicaragua which involved a flight from the islands, a 15 hour bus journey to Costa Rica including 2 hours getting through imigration at the border, another 10 hour bus journey to Nicaragua and another 2 hours at that border. Not to be repeated but we arrived in Nicaragua yesterday in a sleepy fishing village where we are at the moment. Tomorrow we are leaving for Isla de Ometepe, an island in the middle of Nicaragua's huge lake, which has 2 volcanoes on it so we are going to hike one of those. xxx By the way, I love whoever is rating my journal entries 5/5!!