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hola from panama

// December 22nd, 2004 // Bocas Del Toro, Panama

I’m in panama… boca’s del toro (mouth of the bull) right now… and to be honest, i don’t really like it. it’s like a mini america… granted i’ve only been here for about 2 hours… everything is in dollars as that’s the currency they use… i guess they have their own quarters, nickles, etc… walked into a grocery market and the prices are the same or more than in the states.. i hope i’m not here long.. though it could get better.

I just met a kid from australia who’s cool… it’s me and michael traveling together now… probably till he leaves in january… we also just ran into Martin the kid from switzerland as well… small world i guess… we’re all meeting up again for happy hours…

to get here…. we left cahuita and took a long (~2 hours or so) bus ride to the border… we walked across a richoty bridge to panama after going through emigration or whatever it’s called. had to go through Immagration then;… american’s have to pay $5… no one else (germany, switzerland, australia anyways) didn’t have to pay… what a crock of shit… then we took a taxi/bus from the border to where the boat picks us up to go to boca’s… crazy beautiful boat ride… just amazing… white egrets all over… some small blue herons as well. we went past a few native type people and all the fuckers on the boat start taking pictures… pretty immature if you ask me. the girl from cali & costa rica next to me, just hid her head … i felt the same.

so the boat ride was awesome, then we got an overpriced ($15) hotel… i guess it does have air conditioning… but still… shitty beds and cold water…

thats about it.. .we have no idea / plans as to what we’re doing after this… a day or two here max i figure… then across northern panama through David, then up into costa rica again… who knows… panama city for new years? no idea… time will tell… well the internet is by minute here (though fast, at 2mb per second it’s over 3 times faster than i had in eugene…)

i have a few emails to write… i’ll update some more later!

ahren