12/12/09 - day 3.

pretty broken nights sleep again and absolutely roasting. the fan in the dorm might as well not be on i thought... i looked up and it wasnt. i turned it on and lay back down on the bed. i was so hot, the fan in the dorm might as well not be on i thought. decided i would go yto isla de tabogo today, got up at half 8, caught the final morning ferry over there at half 10. it took an hour. isla de taboga meaning island of flowers (i think) is a little island 20km of the coast of panama city and many locals go there especialyl of a weekend to escape the city.

taxi driver that took me there was extremely difficult to understand and the conversation mainly consisted of him talking, me saying i didnt understand and if he could repeat maybe more slowly, he would do so then id pretend to understand by just agreeing to whatever the hell he was on about! the was the drill 3 or 4 times but one thing i did get from him was that he despises the skyscrapers that have taken over a part of the city, referring to that area as he did as the USA not panama. this reminded me of a rant an old fella went on about yesterday in the old district yesterday. he was really old, has odd glazed eyes, from what i could tell only 2 teeth and rather bizarrely very good english! he also had som much nasal hair, im sure he must risk asphyxiating himself everytime he closes his mouth. which wasnt often during our brief encounter. anyway, he hated gringos and any american influence on panama in general!

when i got to the island, i went over to the beach grabbing some food en route. stayed there all day (until 5pm when the final ferry left) dipping in and out of the sea when the sun got too much - pat and luke u know the drill - and reading my book "join me".

there was probably 90% locals there with families and its a nice island with an ok beach, no real roads just kind a track to get to the few hotels and restaurants there. i didnt think id burnt myself as id used plenty of cream. i was wrong. when i got back to the hostel, the american owner (ryan) saw me going to what would be a blissfully cold shower and was like "dude! are you kidding me". which translates to english as "wow, arent you red!" my stomach and neck were worst hit but cold shower and aloe vera was the perfect antidote! went to the spuermarket round the corner, got some pasta for dinner.

we watched the movie "american gangster" that night. good though it was, i did nearly fall asleep several times near the end as fatigue set in, when it finished at around 11pm, it was all i could manage to hit the sack.