Hola Again!

I think I left off with the crossing into Panama from the last entry so i�ll go from there.

Having crossed the most crazy border ever we arrived in Panama and got the best stamp so far! (its all about the stamps). As there were 11 of us we couldn't all get in one taxi to get to the boat for Bocas so we ended up in this 4*4 with a load of people and i ended up on the gear nob due to lack of room. This was bad enough but the roads in panama are awful and a combination of this and the bad driving lead to a flat tire in the middle of nowhere! Being Panama of course they had a spare tire but neglected to bother with a jack so we ended up having to blockade the road and make a taxi stop to take us the rest of the way. This all took a bit long and made our boat connection a little tricky in the fact that it was literally leaving as we got there. However luckily for us the crazy Argentinian guy who was with the group managed to persuade them to stay just about 2 secs long enough for us to get on.

Following this mad journey we were glad to arrive in Bocas which is basically a Paradise Island type of place. Unfortunately in the process of becoming westernised but you can still stay for about 9 dollars a night which was great. There are a load of deserted islands there and so you hire a boat to get out to them and you can go snorkeling and just explore the place. Got to see a load of sting rays and one shark which was kinda scary so i just swam the other way promptly.

After Bocas 5 of us decided to go down to Panama city together. This involved a rather long bus ride but we had experience of this in Mexico so we were well prepared this time. Panama city itself is amazing, As you come into the city you drive over the panama canal and down into the biggest bus terminal ever which is also a huge shopping Mal. Mainly due to the revenue from the canal the city is fairly wealthy and in the new part of town there are many high rises and more or less every single international bank there is. As a result of this something like 85% of the country's inhabitants live in and around the city along with a growing number of American and European expats making it a great place to go out at night. There are 2 parts to the city, the new and the old. We decided to venture into the old part which is basically a ghetto but the shopping there is great so i got a load of 2 dollar shirts and other random objects. On the downside its full of dodgy types and as a result Tiarr (an Israeli girl we were travelling with) got here bag snatched. Luckily after a quick chase and a good punch in the back of the head form Ads the guy just gave up and ran off. This was slightly unnerving but traveling in a group of 5 makes it allot safer in those kind of places.
After a few more days of shopping and looking around the place we headed back up to San Jose for Independence day on the 15th. Had a great couple of days there with our Costa Rican friends again again before heading off to Montezuma.
Montezuma is on the Pacific coast of the country on a peninsular making it a fairly cut off place. Although its hard to get to its well worth as the town is a great place to stay and at 3 dollars a night for rooms you cant really go wrong. The surfing in this area of Costa Rica is world renowned with Santa Tresa just 40 Min's away. Having had a little practice on the quite surfing beaches we got a Quad bike and headed over there. This was great although we did have to cross 5 rivers with quad while carrying a surfboard! Definitely worth it though the surf on the point brake is amazing. Got wiped out a few times and got a few good runs in as you can surf the waves right on to the beach. Retired after a couple of hours and watched the locals surf these massive barrels and do jumps off the break.
After a week here we headed back to San Jose one last time to catch our flight to Peru.

Next update from Cuzco where i just arrived yesterday!

Hope all is going well back home.

Ric.