User Blogs

 We're back in Panama, and it's a mixed bag. Prices drop like crazy as soon as you get over the border; the quantity of trash goes directly through the roof. The air quality stays good until you get over the hills and start coming down towards David, at which point you can see precisely how disgusting the air really is. This should improve considerably as soon as we head up into the hills towards Santa Fe in our rented Toyota Yaris - what a shitpile. It takes FOREVER to get up in RPMs, and this one has a stick, so it's going to be a complete nightmare to drive.

My lady Anna-Maria ordered some shirts for me, for our trip to Panama, from the eBay user toddd3763. Because of the seller's incompetence, they did not arrive in time.

Sorry i had shipping problems (postage was wrong)and my son was admitted to the ER, my fault. Im sorry and hope you have a great New Year, God Bless

This resulted in negative feedback, as he deserved. But he apparently disagrees:

 Today, we left Hotel Limbo in Bocas Town, Boca del Toro, Panama, and made our way across the border into Costa Rica via boat, taxi, and foot. The bridge is reminiscent of the trestle at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz before the foot bridge was added, but with planks across the outside of the ties for foot and vehicle traffic. Few vehicles actually cross the border, most of them being tractor-trailer rigs.

My last Panamanian blog entry came shortly after our arrival in the city of Panama; since then we've been to Santiago, Las Lajas, David, and Santa Fé; we're now in Bocas city in the province of Bocas Del Toro, and about to cross the water to Bastimiento to see what it's like over there. In addition to many kilometers in buses and taxis, we put about a thousand kilometers on a rental car, and spent a fair amount of time traipsing around a handful of promising farm properties (fincas).

When preparing to go to Panama, I realized I was badly in need of sunglasses which would fit my head. I'm a big guy with a big noggin, and in the past that has meant one of two things; Gargoyles with adjusted frames, or the Oakley Mambo, later renamed M-frame. Unfortunately, Oakley has discontinued the M-frame, so I decided to buy some Gargoyles oversized ANSI classics. This turned out to be a very wrong decision.