So! Thank you mosquitoes of Costa Rica, this morning I woke up struggling to open my left eye as I had of course been bitten by mozzies there last night! God is having a good laugh I must say... Best of all, while we're waiting for our shuttle, Sume says "Guys, is anyone sleeping in bed C3K??" And Vicky then realizes that's my bed so we ask why, and Sume points out some graffiti in the hostel chill area that says "Bed C3K has bed bugs"... Amazing!! Hahaha.... Keen to get outta here! Our shuttle arrived around 7:45am and after popping into the police station quick to check if by any chance my purse has been handed in (it hasn't), we made our way to the Costa Rica-Panama border... What a joke! After clearing customs in Costa Rica, we literally had to walk across a bridge (over the natural river border between the 2 countries) - but please try picture me lugging the heaviest most ridiculous suit case across a rickety bridge across a giant river... When we get to the Panama side, we need to show them proof that we will be leaving the country - luckily I had my air ticket confirmation from Colombia to New York on my phone otherwise I would have had to pay $14 to buy a fake flight ticket! Have you ever!! We then had to get into another shuttle on the Panama side which would then take us to a port, where we would catch a boat to Bocas del Toro... Sho wee!! Was such a cool ride though from the border to the boat, the driver pumped some Bob Marley who had been quite absent since Caye Caulker and life was just good! The Panama vegetation is literally thick jungle and there are fortunes of banana plantations as you drive along... We got to the boat, and made our way across what appears to be a Laguna of sorts to get to Bocas del Toro... This whole region is essentially a cluster of islands in Panama, each with their own unique features and beautiful beaches... We chose to stay in Bocas itself as this is the main town island and we would do day trips to other islands... It is so so so hot here! Wow!! And now we still had to drag (well I had to drag) our bags to a hostel... We settled for one called Heiki Hostel and we are staying in a dorm with 2 other people - very friendly English med students also traveling! We settled in and set off immediately to find some food- hadn't eaten all day after our early start so we were insanely hungry! We stopped at this cute little spot right on the water and enjoyed a yum lunch and smoothies while deciding what our plan of action for the next few days was going to be...

After lunch, we took a boat across to an island called Cabenero where our lunch lady told us to go find a nice beach! We walked passed the famous Aqua hostel, but then had to make our way through some poor houses, other hostels, lots of swampy areas before finally finding the beach. We came across these incredible ants that were lining up by the thousand and each carrying these pieces of lime green leaf! So so fascinating to watch... We settled on a dock and ended up having some good naps out on the water... The weather is a bit gloomy but hot and humid nonetheless! We headed back across to Bocas and bought some drinks to go have some sundowners on the rooftop of our hostel! It's a Friday night so the vibe in this town is strong and people are getting ready for a fun night out... Tons of hostels and bars are hosting parties etc so we showered and got ready for our Friday night :) We went up the road for a delicious meal, the live music guy even sang a song where he mentioned South Africa and we just went crazy haha... The party of the night was a Full Moon Party at the one hostel so we jumped into the shuttle taking people there... We were obviously a bit eager as it was clearly way too early- we were the only people there... So we got back onto the shuttle into town and made our way to another hostel party... When that shut down, everyone had gone back to the Full Moon Party haha so off we went again! It was much fuller this time but the music was still way too much electro and long story short we went home... Never mind we checked our watches at this stage and it was 3:15am! Whoops!! Was a fun night regardless of the back and forth... :)

Lesson of the day: Don't start the jol too early!!

Moment of the day: Watching a woman completely naked at the Full Moon Party swim and drink her cocktails... Bare body!! Wtf?!