Panamaniac

Location: Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Lunch: Sesame Thai Chicken Salad in Spicy Peanut Sauce ($5)
Dinner: Calamari in red sauce, garlic butter Conch with coconut rice, salad and fries. (comp)
Weather: Perfect
Beer: Panama Lager for $0.75... and its pretty damn good.

Dude... Panama rocks! Bocas Del Toro is a small archipelago consisting of 9 large islands and several dozen cayes. The food here is delicious and cheap and there are some of the friendliest people I have ever been around. It´s definitely an island culture out here. Slow taxis, slow food and even slower service.

We chartered a boat to take us on an island tour tomorrow. It was only $15 a person and we have a boat all to ourselves for nine hours. We´re going to check out some of the other islands, do a little snorkelling and find some deserted island to stop for a quick picnic.

I wish I could get some pictures up here, but its a little sketchy in these internet cafes around here. I tried at the place in San Jose and it took about 15 minutes to upload one picture.

Our group is really small... Only six people. Two Irish, one Danish guy, a dutch girl, an English girl, and an older man from North Carolina. Really nice people but holy shit they are boring! They are very outgoing, I mean they love to go out after dinner and have a few drinks so they are not totally deadbeat. It´s just that once we get to the bar its like pulling teeth trying to get a conversation going. Thank god the tour leader that I´m training with is really cool. Angie´s been doing this for about a year now and she´s been pretty fun to hang out with. These people are supposed to be on vacation... Why are they going to let their tour leaders have more fun than them?

On another note, I´m already starting to get pretty good at hustling restaurants for free meals. This is going to come in handy.

And last, a quick recap of my last week... Lots of hammocks, very few airconditioners, drinking above a sunken ship, staring at the mountains of Panama while laying on the beach, great seafood, better reggae, doubts about the Dallas Cowboys, and plenty of starfish.

Hopefully I can post something on Christmas, but if not I wish a happy holiday to everybody in back home!