Day 122 - Thursday 1st July
Jann returned having been 'held hostage' by some Panamanian girls on their boat...
Caught our first 'chicken bus' of the trip, a literal old yellow American school bus, that took us to dive that is Colon city, the 'passage of panama' where the top end of the Panama Canal reaches the Caribbean. We were told it was too dangerous to leave the terminal so we caught a bus straight to Panama City.
Modern, American and High Rise. We checked into a quiet, family run hostel and ate amazing jerk chicken in a restaurant/bar with 14 TVs in sight of the table...
Day 123 - Friday 2nd July
Still waking up early from habits picked up on the boat. Watched Holland beat Brazil in a great game and caught a taxi out to the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal. Actually really impressive, 1000ft long and in two steps the whole thing runs with gravity and no pumps. We watched a combination of a small 30ft yacht and a vast container ship. Quite weird to get your head around something that big lowering before your eyes. Kindof geeky but it was good.
Spent the afternoon exploring thousands of dodgy backstreets before finally finding a Panama football shirt for $6. Made it back in time for the end of the incredible Uruguay Ghana game and found an incredibly expensive western shopping mall next to the bus station. Which takes me up to the overnight bus that I'm on to Bocas Del Toro, some more Caribbean islands near the border of Costa Rica, all set for surfing and snorkelling the next few days...