Tom´s central-american adventure

These four months have gone so fast.
I feel it was only yesterday i landed in a new country hungry to learn of a new culture and also maybe learn something about myself.
Not only am i thankfull to be in one piece, i´m happy to have met new people, seen wonderful nature and take some time out to just explore and leave everything confortable back home.

So with James Taylor playing in the background and an incredible view of the Pacific ocean from the hostel veranda, here comes my final summary of how life has been as a voulenteer and backpacker.

It started out in San Jose.
The smelly capital became my home with my first month spent in the city.
I worked for a short time in the local zoo after finishing 2 weeks of spanish school.
I should have stayed longer in the zoo before i made up my mind to leave, but voulenteer work for me is far from sweeping leaves.
I wanted to feel like they wanted help and that my skills were needed.
Thats why i packed my bags and headed to Cabo Blanco nacional park on the Península de Nicoya.
It was wonderfull! Finally i was doing something!
Working side by side with other voulenteers, deep in the rainforrest.
No mobile phones, no Internet, no tv, no nothing.
I think this is something we all long for but very seldom find – peace.
Leaving Cabo Blanco i had found that peace.
Returning to San Jose was an instant culture shock.
Back to cars, buses, people running everywhere, constant noise and i didn´t like it at all.
So my next stop on the voulenteer path took me to Panama.

5 weeks in Boquete gave me so much more than i had thought it World.
A small mountain town far from San Jose ( in every way)
I started on a very hands-on type of work that put the animals first and was just what i wanted to do.
Not only did the work go well, the american voulenteers working at Paradise garden welcomed me right from the start.
Semana santa ( easter week) was a reminder of just how nice they were.
Easter Sunday breakfast tasted brilliant!
Far from home, yet spent with new friends and possibly the most memorable breakfeast ever as i found myself eating next to the baby howler monkey (Maisie)
Perfect, just perfect
I will probable remember my time in Boquete the most for all it thought me.
The animals, allthough not 100% wild non the less don´t under estimate them!
Some will bite you!
But they truly are magnificant
I am very happy my help was needed when two new cages had to be put up.
To be part of the workforce and see it finally come into use just before i left was an incredible feeling.
Finally the Major Mitchells had a place of their own.
Feeding the different animals was also something i am happy i did.

The Tamarins or mono titi as they are called in spanish jumped all around me but in the end i managed to get their food in and get out without any nasty bites.
Also how can i forget playing with the two capuchin monkeys alter feeding time.
When something so human-like sits on your shoulders and looks you in the eyes the same way i would do to a good friend , well you can´t help feeling a little sentimental.

The guiding part was interesting to say the least. Alot of different people came in every day with new questions i had to answer.
One american lady asked the most ridiculos question – “ Why does that baby monkey have a diper on, can´t she be potty-trained”
I couldn´t belive it!
This was however the worst example i can think of right now, im sure there are more to come

To want to work for free is not exactly common these days.
Voulenteering is an exotic way of traveling, but maybe you don´t have to go so far to help.
It seems everyone is too busy. Working, family, life in general, but is it really too much to ask for a couple of hours a week, to help someone who needs it?
Can we use our time more efficient…?

Finally my trip to Cuba had come.
A country that still after 50 odd years, runs the same show.
We know it as the home of Fidel, Che Guevara, the cold war, cigars, old chevy´s, beautiful architecture and it´s just like that.
The one thing i wasn´t prepared for was all the tourist´s and how the locals without a steady income, constantly try to sell or show you things to make som extra money.
I was a rich tourist in their eyes and they try´d to get as much Money out of me as posible – bad luck
I was after all a poor voulenteer/backpacker!
Havana was far more expensive then i had thought it to be.
Locals and tourists use different currencies – the tourist one being obviously more expensive.
I felt there was a big gap between us because of the money issues the country has.
Little by little Cuba is changing though. Now, locals are allowed to stay in hotels, they can buy mobile phones and who knows whats next.
Cuba is changing, but not too quick.
Cigar smoke will still rise over Havana tonight and old cars will still be parked next to old buildings.

Coming back from Havana i headed to my hostfamily in San Jose.
Living with a family and getting to know the costa rican culture has been very interesting.
I have learnt a great deal from them and also try´d to help them understand the culture we have back home in Norway/England.
It will be very sad to leave them on Saturday because through them i realised alot more about the country. How close the family´s are. Tradicional food. History and geography throughout central america. Costa rican life is complicated.
I could go on for ever about what i´ve learnt, but that would take another hour, so i´ll leave it for the small talk when im back home again.

After some days in San Jose i got on a bus and headed down to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast.
My first weekend in Costa Rica, i came down to Manuel so i thought it would be nice to Finish my trip down here too.
Back to hostel life one last time.
Every morning i came out on the veranda overlooking the ocean , every evening looking at the sunset with other backpackers.
I went for the cheap option and cooked my beloved spaghetti with some local ingrediences. Ofcourse not every evening.
All the people i´ve met, all the places i´ve stayed during these months on the road – nothing came close to the hostel in Manuel Antonio.
A nice mix of nature, people and different cultures made this the ultimate place i´d stayed at.
We hiked down to a privat beach, it didn´t have the white sand but that was okay.
The adventure in it´s self was more than enough.
Sipped Piña coladas sitting on bar chairs in a swimming pool, watched movies in the evening with the rest of the gang, ate tasty ribs and sweetcorn made on the barbeque and managed to get a big group together and go out dancing salsa or trying toa t least

I am happy i came.
Not only to Manuel Antonio, but Costa Rica, Panama and Cuba.
You learn so much from other backpackers, the different places you visit and stay, different cultures and alot about yourself.

The thing is to always keep on finding new adventures, even if your in the same place for a long time

Go explore – at the end of the day, it´s worth it!

I leave you with a poem i wrote from a hammock

Your paradise

As the sun gently falls down into the ocean
Animals of the night begin to move
An orcherstra of cry´s and whispers fill the air

Around a table, new faces sit and talk
They share pictures and stories of paradise
But i have found it
It´s a simple matter

When words just don´t find their way out
But your eyes smile in the dark
And you heart is filled with tranquillity

You have found your paradise

Arriving late at night i stepped off the plane and in to the terminal that was filled with cigar smoke.
Nice start i thought!

The airport in its self was pretty modern, i was surprised as from the outside it didnt look all that.
No problems going through customs, quickly changed some money and headed for the exit.
Went outside and a new yellow taxi drove me downtown.

Just about when Elton John sang, " Can you feel the love tonight" on the radio, we passed a wall with Fidel Castro painted on followed by a slogan in spanish.

The hotel was okay. My room was tiny with windows looking straight into a wall. Thats what you get as a backpacker i reminded myself.
Next morning i headed up to the top floor where breakfast was being served.
Having not eaten for a while i was super hungry, but im sorry to say the food tasted awfull!
I didnt eat breakfast there again

After breakfast i started the day with a short walk to the grand theatre.
Its here the world famous cuban ballett performs, but only on weekends so i wouldnt be around to see them on home turf! I was really dissapointed by this but not much i could do so i continued my walk around.
Past the capitol building packed with tourists so i just walked on.
Got kinda lost but was interesting to not follow the guide book.
Eventually i found what i had come for, the museum of revolution!
The place was huge, used to be the palace where batista once lived ( i think) but when cubans stormed the palace he fled and never returned to it.
Loads of pics and information about the revolution, but not about Che unfortunatly.
There was however a funny picture of Fidel Castro playing baseball with a cigar in his mouth

I swear walking down the streets i smell cigar smoke EVERYWHERE! i actually like it.
Lunch was eaten at a local cafe. As i entered " Its the final countdown" by Europe blasted out of the speakers.
Enjoyed a cuban national beer called Bucanero Fuerte, not as good as the beer in Panama.

During a walk in the old town i came across these street performers.
A colorful display of acting you might say!

Im not sure what to say, im in Havana, Cuba! and its amazing and weird and a thousand other things that can´t really be explained.
I´ve never seen so many yellow, red, white and black Lada´s in my life.
I even saw a Lada limo!
But then i get abit confused, because on the other side of the street i see a Renault, a Peugot, a Mercedes with dark black windows.
Allready i had second thoughts about the " old Havana" we all think we know.

It´s a beautiful city. Lovely buildings, not too high so you can feel the sun on your back.
Old cars and old people sit side by side in the streets.
Cigar smoke fills the air.
Now it seems like i´ve found the Havana i was looking for.

That´s Havana, full of the new and the old - i liked the old more.

Havana is perfect for walking about, especially the old town, only about 10 minutes from my hotel.
The second day i spent all my time there.
I started down by the harbour, overlooking the old fortress, moved my way past the 27 odd tourist buses and eventually walked around in this giant maze of colorful buildings, restaurants and back alleys.
Yes, there were alot of other people wanting to explore just like me, but only a few times did i bump into a big crowd blocking the entire street.

After lunch i headed over to the Museum of Cuban Art ( MOCA i like to call it)
They housed an impressive collection of both paintings and sculptures.
I really liked what i saw. Many of the paintings show cuban life way back in the days, before all the tourist´s started to visit.
The building in itself was pretty nice too.
A modern place you might find back in Europe or the States.

I could fill in page after page covering all the days spent in Havana, but i just dont have the time right now.
So im just going to jump to the end and if you have any other questions you´ll just have to ask when im back again.

Saturday morning, just before 6 i was picked up at the hotel by a Lada taxi.
Let´s just say driving to the airport, still dark outside and the car full of petrol fumes, passing old run down soviet-like buildings was a scary experience i would never like to do twice.
I thought we would blow up before we even reached the airport!

20 minutes later we made it and i jumped out of the taxi so quick the man thought i wasn´t going to pay for the ride!
I got in to the terminal, checked in, payed the departure tax and went to wait in line to go through customs.
Abit nervous with a 25 packed of cigars in my main luggage bought on the black market, i wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Turns out, they are more than happy to send people out of their country.
It´s just coming in to the country they treat you as a bad person or terrorist or american spy!

On the tarmack were new tupulev´s with Cubana written all over them, glad i didn´t have to fly in one of those!
Waiting for my plane to depart (an airbus 319, european in other words), i looked back on my trip and must admit i was pretty happy how it all turned.
Im happy i went before Cuba changes too much and im happy my hunger for taking pictures in streets with no tourists didn´t get me killed!

Now i´m back in San Jose, staying with my hostfamily.
Allready i´ve managed to attend another family birthday. (must be number 3 or 4 so far)
It seems like every weekend something is going on either with Jorge or Humberto´s family.
I like it, gives me a chance to see how costa rican life really is.

I´ll be heading to the coast soon, with another voulenteer.
Since i dont feel i have enough time to travel up to Nicaragua i´ve opted for a sunny retreat to Manuel Antonio.
Stop by soon to hear how it all went.

Tom

I finally dragged myself out of Boquete & headed towards Bocas Del Toro.
Last time i went there was with the voulenteer crew from spanish school in San jose.
This time i went to meet a friend i worked with in Cabo Blanco national park and her friends.

By luck i bumped into her on the main street & 5 minutes later was booked in the same place they were staying in.
Bocas is the main party place to go for backpackers. Not too expensive & with plenty going on.
Panama city was different.
The main party street called Calle Uruguay was home to most of the clubs in the town.
All of them had a cover fee and you had to be smartly dressed to get in.
It reminded me of a typical saturday night out in Oslo.
Expensive, false and boring.
The only exiting thing i saw was a white Lamborghini and a hooters sign!

Bocas was better, allthough im not a party animal & not only did i find it difficult to adjust to the constant heat it felt more like brits going wild in Ibiza or nowegians in Greece getting foolishly drunk.
I did however find a solution.
While the girls were interested in getting a tan i walked around the main island with my camera and getting to see what it´s really like behind the main street.. fun indeed!
I find walking around much more satisfying than lying on a beach getting brown

I stayed in Bocas for 3 days happy to leave for San jose.
7 hours later i arrived in the capital and realised just why i wanted to leave for the city.
Hardly any museums or other tourist attractions it´s just a place to stop for a night before heading north or south to explore the rest of the country.
After a relaxing weekend at hostel pangea i went by Otec´s office on monday morning to check if they had any families i could stay with before i leave for Cuba.
The following morning i recieved a message that a family had been found and that i would be picked up in 30 minutes.
Packed all my stuff, checked out and was driven to the family by my new hostdad.
His name i s Humberto and he works for Otec in the sales department.
He lives 20 minutes outside the city center in a quiet neighbourhood.
HUmberto lives in a beautifull house with his boyfriend Jorge
It´s a nice change from all the hostels ive stayed in so far.
They both speak good english, but i try my best to make sentences in spanish.

Since i dont work at the moment i help out around the house and basically just chillout.
So far i´ve been to Escazu the posh area just outside town to eat lunch with Humbertos family.
We ate typicall costa rican food consisting of pork soup with rice and salad.
Dessert was a sticky horrible thing traditionally served during semana santa ( Easter)
I wasnt a huge fan but the family was so nice to me i forgot all about the dessert.
I´m fortunate to be learning spanish in Costa Rica because they speak slowly and if you struggle to understand what they are saying they will try really hard to make you understand.

I´ve learnt that spanish spoken in the different countries of central and south america is not the same.
Sometimes it will only be the pronounciation of words, other times you could find yourself saying straw in Costa Rica and muttering the same word in Mexico without being understood.

Puerto Ricans have a problem pronouncing their R´s so when they say " im from Puerto Rico" ( it´s an island in the carribean) it comes out like this - Puellto Llico!

Nicaraguans cut the last s in sentences. This is crazy as the last letter in the sentences often is the most important one !

Argentina is notorious for their south american sloppyness.
They pronounce Ella (She) as Ejsha..

Ok.. enough with the lecture... you get the point

Moving on, homelife with Humberto and Jorge is alot of fun.
Yesterday Humberto arranged a surprise birthday party for Jorge.
All his co workers came to the house and they had hired a band with dancers in colorful outfits ( some were abit short though..)
When Jorge came home the lights went on, the band fired up a saucy show of samba rythms and the dancers danced like it was the carnival in Rio de Janairo!
The living room exploded into a mix of tropical colours, bouncing around. It was amazing to watch!

Costa Rican food was served and the spiderman cake made the day!

I never wrote about my final week in Boquete.
The climax must have been on monday when all the voulenteers showed up for a day of filming.
Paul and Jenny have wanted to make a dvd they can sell on the internet for some time.
Their american friend Jim was the camera man helped by his panamanian girlfriend doing all the lighting.

When i showed up at around noon the place was full of people.
Filming had started at 8 in the morning so by the time i arrived they were almost finished.
I did however make my on screen apperance a cuople of days earlier (with Neimis and Sean)
so maybe my face will pop up on the final dvd.

The previous week was just as eventfull.
Paul took Sean and me to the Lost&found resort an hours drive from Boquete towards Bocas del toro.
Joining us was a good friend of Paul called Steve, originally from South-Africa, but has lived all over the world it seems.
I´ll get back to Steve later.

L&F is run by a nice canadian called Andrew.
He sometimes visits Paradise Garden with visitors.
The L&F is a eco friendly resort 10min from the main road, but you feel like your deep in the jungle.
Everything is pretty basic and it works as people want to experience a new environment and not just stay in boring hostels.
We watched a lovely sunset from the observation deck and later ate shepards pie with chicken and salad.
It was so good!
The beds in our room were crazy.
We had to leave the following morning but i would have liked to stay longer.
The primitive feel to the place was nice and it beats all hostels ive stayed at so far.

Back to Steve:

Steve owns some land in Chorcha, 45 min away and has built a sanctuary where their baby howler monkey, Yahoo now lives before being released into the wild.
Im not 100% sure but i think Yahoo shares the same kind of storie as Maisie at Paradise.
Groups of howlers and white faced monkeys live nearby and the goal has always been to release both Yahoo and Maisie down there.

First to be released however was Hanny a white faced monkey (Capuchin).
He started to attack female voulenteers as well as Neimis, Jenny and Paul.
The plan was to put him in an enclosure with another older cappuchin called Ringo.
Ringo´s previous owner was an alcoholic that used to abuse him when drunk.
Sadly this is a common story in the Panama.
When Paul took off Hanny´s lead to put him in with Ringo he managed to escape!
When i first started at Paradise Garden, i never thought id be chasing monkeys running about, climbing trees, but there you have it
Makes for a good storie though.

Hanny back in his cage again, it was decided that he was to be released down at the sanctuary.
I was told later ut went well and that he dissepeared amongst the trees to find some new friends.

Neimis, Sean and me had planned to go camping, spending the night in the sanctuary , but when Neimis heard that Hanny might be around we decided to go the hotsprings instead.
Craig joined us too and after managing to get the tents up we went to relax in the hotsprings.
Afterwards we lay down on some blanquete´s and watched the stars above.
There must have been millions of them!
We even saw a shooting star
The rest of the night was however less perfect..
Somehow everyone exept me, managed to go to sleep with a blancuete.
During the day its hot, but when the sun goes down and the evening turns into night it gets really cold!
Cold and tired i woke up next morning with a terrible pain in my back.
It was worth it though

The last adventure in Boquete was not a happy one.
Driving back from town in her truck, Neimis was stopped by a local who wanted her to take an injuried animal back to Paradise.
It turned out to be a baby sloth, probably driven over when trying to cross the road.
By the time Neimis got back, the sloth had died in the back of the truck.
With two badly broken legs and probably other serious injuriesit never stod a chance - a reminder of the constant struggle that occurse when humans and animals live side by side.
I helped put the sloth in a bag that would eventually go into a freezer in the basement.
Jenny has a passion for stuffing dead animals and the sloth would be added to the collection of other dead animals such as snakes, lizards and small rodents.
The dead sloth was not a nice sight, but at paradise you dont get to pick the day, it picks you.

Well thats roughly how my final week in Boquete looked like.
Im sad i had to leave but 5 weeks spent in Boquete gave me alot more in terms of experience and also understanding the culture in the country.
I made alot of good friends there and i hope i one day can return to see how Paradise Garden is holding up.

Since i started to write this blog i´ve already been to Havana, Cuba so i´ll update you asap (when the computer is finished uploading some new pictures)

Here are the links for the pictures

Bocas Del Toro

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35805&l=09bf6&id=509299407

Havana

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35811&l=062f4&id=509299407

hello!

i dont really have the time to write much, but i have taken some more pictures that you all can see on the links under.
Im leaving tomorrow for Bocas del toro before i move north to Costa Rica and then Cuba.

hope everyone is fine back home

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32394&l=2956b&id=509299407
new pictures of animals in paradise garden

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33416&l=59b02&id=509299407
pics from the recent trip to the lost & found resort in the cloud forrest

tom

Happy easter to all!

Hope you enjoyed it and got a little break from work, school or anything else that might be happening outside of Panama!

Easter in Boquette was missing the easter hunt, but we made up for it in other ways.
Paradise garden had a tonn of visitors and for the first time mostly all were rich panamanians from Panama city arriving in big american diesel trucks.
All the voulenteers were busy guiding people around however we didn´t need to do much talking as panamanians in general like to poke and pester the animals.
Ironically alot of the animals in Paradise garden come to us because their owners either don´t know how to handle them, abuse them or just get bored with them.
I´m scared to find out exactly how many animals that acctually die or are traumatized for life because of bad owners, but i think the numbers are pretty high.

I´ve heard stories about panamanian children stoning wild animals mostly because thats what their parents would do.
Even around various sorts of plantations snakes are killed.
Not all of them are venemous and would probably flee as soon as they see a human than stick around.
The sad part is that the snakes eat mice, rats and other rodents that again eat farmers crops.
I wonder if panamanians will ever learn?

Good friday, my fellow voulenteer (Sean) and i ate a tasty italian dinner with the owners of Paradise gardens and their daughter.
Towards the end of the meal the street outside was filled with people carrying pictures of Jesus and the virgin Mary.
Some were acctually huge statues with lights powered by a generator.
Panama is catholic and for the first time we really experienced what their religion means to them.

Not much happend saturday exept more visitors of the panamanian sort.
The highlight came sunday morning when we were invited by Donna, an american voulenteer and her husband chef, previously owning and running several restaurants in New Hampshire.
Needless to say we had a very delicious easter sunday with omelettes, belgian waffles, homemade fruit siryp and mango juice to name a few of the dishes
Special for the occation was that we were joined by Maisie, the baby howler monkey soon to be released into the wild.
I´ve been here almost 4 weeks and clocked up $10 dollars in tips, a work offer at a horse ranch in Colorado, recieved bites and cuts from various animals and building cages for them and last but not least, a network of nice americans that drive us down to town after work!
Pretty good for being in a country just by chance!

However, not all days are spent at work.
Last week i went horseriding (special price thanks to new contacts)
Lovely ride, beautifull views and a horse missing the panamanian temper, good news for me
My next adventure was a hike on the famous Quetzal trail, passing the popular Bajo Mono waterfall that is not very impressive if you saw the pictures from the waterfall in La Fortuna
Quetzal´s are birds that tend to be hard to spot.
We were lucky and saw 4, but i only managed to photograph two of them.
Lots of other wildlife to be seen.
Birds, a sloth that actually moved for abit and bumping into 5 cows on one of the trails!

The owners of the hostel left for a easter holiday and the deal was that Wendy, a local in town, Sean and me would help run the place whilst they were gone.
It was unclear waht exactly Sean and me would get out of the deal and this is maybe why we have relaxed more than actually worked

Plans are still 100% ready, but i will be leaving sometime earlie next week and make my way up to Costa Rica, San Jose before my plane takes me to Havana, Cuba!
A Short trip, but i hope to see as much as possible and soak up some true cuban culture and maybe some cuban cigars if health treats me good
Allthough an expensive city to visit i got a good deal on a hotel (!) and plan to take full advantage of hot showers and my very first privat room if you dont count sharing a room with a fellow norwegian voulenteer in San Jose.
Dorm life is finally effecting my sleep and back.
It´s also worth mentioning all the different snoors you hear during a night.
Sometimes you wonder if your in the jungle and not up in the mountains!

My camera is out of batterie (again) so these links below will provide you with the last pictures from Boquette.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32364&l=570e2&id=509299407

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32394&l=2956b&id=509299407

Time is running out in the internet cafe.

take care everyone and send me some news if you have any!
and happy birthday to anyone celebrating as this month comes to a close and also to those who are a year older in April!

Tom

Time goes by and i still find myself in Boquete.

Boquete is small, but not too small and you feel somewhat at home.
To keep living costs down i have 3 options.
The two local supermarkets that sometimes have good food or the 24 hour open Romero situated behind the central park.
Most of the time i´ll walk down to the shope with people from the hostel and cook something together.
This is however the only hostel i´ve wanted to make food as other places i´ve been, seem to have alot of bugs running around the plates or don´t have community kitchens.
I´m staying at Hostel Nomba run by an american (ofcourse), but to be fair he´s done a great job and offers everything from poker night, spicy chicken wings night, hot springs night and at the moment is hiking up a mountain/volcano with a group staying at the hostel.
Friday evening a big bunch of us went down to David, a larger town 45 minutes away that had a fair going. Similar to the Palmares festival in Costa Rica.
We squeezed 12 people in the car and got back around 6 in the morning, but it was a good laugh!

If the american running the place or hís panamanian girlfriend are out of the house and the doorbell rings anyone closest to the door opens it, greets the new travellers and chats with them until the boss arrives to take their money.
Where else in the world of hostels would you find this, probably only a handfull of places.
The place isn´t fool proof though as we discovered durig the weekend.
A crazy columbian showed up late on his motorbike waking the entire hostel.
A "sorry" next morning would have made up for the noise however this man was a nutter and even the panamanians had problems understanding him.
The morning after he went out started up his bike, reved it for 5 minutes and just left it going and went to take a shower!
Everyone woke up and everyone was in a bad mood!
Finally he shut the damn thing off packed his stuff together and drove away.
First time i´ve seen the hostel in such a state of emergency!

I´ve now been working at Paradise gardens for close to 2 weeks and i still love it.
Sean, from Ireland who i met in san jose came down last week and ever since has been helping me with taking visitors around and building cages.
The owners of paradise gardens seem very happy to have us there.
Last night we were invited out for dinner at a local restaurant serving peruvian food. Had a lovely time and might come back after my cuba trip to help them renovate a dove house that will be turned into a voulenteer house.
I also enjoy taking visitors around so hopefully i will be able to be abit of both.

Panama City

Last friday a bunch from the hostel took a bus down to the capital for a long weekend.
7 hours on a bus is so worth it when you see the city infront of you with skyscrapers everywhere.
Getting out of the bus we almost wanted to drive back home again as the humidity was unbelivable!
We checked in to the hostel, situated on the 2nd floor of a "small" skyskraper.
The place was huge and pure luxury. On the top of the building was a pool but we werent allowed to use it. Still managed to get to the top and take some pictures!
We went out in the night. The main street for bars and clubs is called calle uruguay, but was expensive and everyone was tired from the trip down so we went to bed.
Next morning we moved to a different hostel and went later to a huge shopping mall. In the evening we went out to eat and at about 3 in the morning i went with Craig (voulenteer at Paradise gardens) to the airport to pick up his sister who was on holiday.
The cab ride was one of the worst ive ever experienced!
One of the wheels was loose and the whole thing skidded uncontrolable on the road. The one thing that made it even worse was the lack of seatbelts.
Finally we arrived in one piece, met Craig´s sister, got a safe taxi back and my plan was to have a snooze until midday.
I try´d to sleep but it was so warm, even at night that i got up earlie and happen to bump into a guy from nomba that was on his way to the canal.
Got a taxi out, waited in a line with busloads of americans and finally got in.
They have an impressive museum stretching over 4 floors.
The first days when the canal was being built all the way to future plans of expanding the canal.
This is one of the main sources Panama make money.
Panama now handle all aspects of running the canal, but up until year 2000 America did.
Sadly we missed all the ships that morning so we just took some pictures and headed back to town.
Went around the old town. Lovely buildings, nice people and some brilliant pictures!

Im going to cut this abit short. My internet time is over and im celebrating St. Patricks day in about an hours time so must get some beers and food before it starts!

The link for the pictures from panama city is under :

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31126&l=3001f&id=509299407

Take care

tom

Friday to monday i went down to Panama city.
Fun place to stay, but only for a short time!

The pictures can be found on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31126&l=3001f&id=509299407

Don´t have enough time to write anything long, but will try later this week.

enjoy and hope you are all well!

So i´ve uploaded all of my pictures on to my facebook acccunt.

Im sending a link that hopefully makes all of you without facebook able to see my photos.
If you have problems getting on the site let me know asap so i can try and fix it!

Before i leave, happy birthday Sally and Henry and anyone else that has a reason to celebrate in march!

Hasta luego & enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30052&l=839b9&id=509299407

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30198&l=c9fcd&id=509299407

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30204&l=efcdf&id=509299407

i was uploading my pictures in the local internet cafe when the computer died, managed to start uploading again on another one before my camera died so i guess tomorrow i´ll get pic uploaded.

Sorry for the delay, pic are on their way!