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Xmas in the Caribean

// December 26th, 2004 // Bocas Del Toro, Panama

this comes from my diary=

well todeay is eeautiful again… its about 10-11am… and is already super hot… this morning while waiting for the bathroom, i saw a little octopus in the shallow water. it was maybe 3 feet across or so… i never thought i would see an octopus besides in a zoo. neat. Sine it{s nice, we{re going to stay another day. breakfast i had a small bottle of water, and two pieces of cofee caked ($1.35) not too bad

we hired a boat to take us to Wizards Beach … i think there should be a map up by the title of this post… if it worked anyways. i went along with some of the other people from the hotel… in all about 8 guys or so. we first stopped to fill up with gas… we got out of the boat and in the boat next to us was the largest fish i have ever seen…it was honestly the size of a full grown pig if not bigger… 200 lbs or so… i believe it was called a June fish… though i{m not sure. the guy caught without the use of a fishing pole as well… just string his hands and i assume something the string wrapped around… crazy…

we then took the boat to the next island which is called bastillmentos or something … similiar… on the route, we saw two dolphins swimming about 20 feet off the side of the boat… neat.

we got dropped off at the beach… after taking a few pictures of some overgrown structures, i walked up to the top of a small hill… about 30 min walk or so… the view ended up being best from somewhere in the middle. i stepped on something that poked my toe pretty good… i{ll probably die. i walked back down and took the trail to the beach… simply perfect. their were waves that seemed to come from almost every direction while trying to swim… kindea crazy. the salt water makes my eyes hurt a bit.

we built a large sandwoman…. at around 5 we had to start to walk across the island to meet the boat driver.

the boat ride back was one of the absolute most amazing experiences ever… a great end to a beautiful day. i have never seeen a sunset like it… though two are never the same obviously. the boat driver rolled us a joint which i{m sure helped!. there wasw a large blue spike shooting straight up from where the sun was sinking…. the blue stripe gradiated into a matching orange spike on the other side… which had the island we were leaving in the foreground… to top it off, the moon was rising and it{s so damn near full it was insane… the sky honestly looked like it was split open like a coconut… one side was bluish the other half more red toned…

so that was nice… we got back and decided it was time to eat… we wanted to go to a pizza place but it was closed… so we walked and found an italian place… there was a buffet setup and everyone was dressed up… except us of course, we were in beach clothes and flip flops… the waiter told us all they had was a buffet and it was $5… we ate… it was the best food i have had since leaving by far!!! though when the bill came, it was $25 a plate… thank god for VISA!

so that was my christmas! i put up some pictures, though this computer doesnt have photoshop so they are HUGE… too large to post here… though you can see them at

www.osterbrink.org/bocas

if anyone (cough cough ryan) wants to resize them that would be great…

i have to run now to eat… hope you all had a great xmas… i would have traded mine to be with you guys!