Bocas del Toro

We crossed the bridge and found ourselves on the other side of the bridge already in Panama, cool feeling.

After some small problems with customs for the departure (fortunately, Luis is Mexican and was able to handle everything well in Spanish), we continued to Bocas del Toro.

We had already reserved our hotel there after our experiences in Costa Rica.

We had a small but nice room (Hotel Olas) with a double bed that the boys shared and a crib for me. We stayed there for three nights.

We wanted to spend the day at the beach of Isla Bastimentos, but unfortunately the boat dropped us off in the town instead of at the beach. We asked for a beach there and we were recommended a 20-minute walk through the jungle.

It had been raining heavily in the days prior, everything was very muddy and slippery, but we thought 20 minutes wouldn't be so difficult.

But we were wrong, the path became steeper and more slippery. Once we fell, we slid down the entire slope and had to start over again. But we were not the only ones, there were more tourists attempting to pass this path. After about 2 hours, we finally reached the beach, we were covered in mud from head to toe, but we had made it and were proud of ourselves.

There were already a few tourists at the beach who unfortunately quickly took away our joy when they told us that there was no other way back and we had to leave soon because it was already getting dark.

So we made the whole muddy climbing hike back after a short break at the beach.

How much we appreciated being able to take a warm shower afterwards.

We also made the most of the nightlife in Bocas del Toro. The three of us took good care of each other, as soon as someone was out of sight, they were searched for and we all returned to the hotel together.

After a beautiful day at Playa Red Frog, I met a Chilean girl in the boat who was also traveling alone.

Unfortunately, she was going in the opposite direction but we still spent a day with the boys at Playa BisBis.

The boys left Bocas after four days and I waited for a colleague of mine from Panama whom I met in a hostel in Barcelona.

I had to wait for two days alone until she arrived with her family. But I didn't stay alone for long, Aqua Lounge hostel had many backpackers.

On the first morning, I met three volunteers from Germany and a guy from Canada, with whom I spent the whole day at Playa BisBis. We opened coconuts with my machete, drank beer, and listened to music, a perfect day in paradise.

But I quickly regretted not spraying myself against mosquitoes. I was covered in bites from head to toe from the so-called chitras, which are very common on this island.

I have never been so covered in bites.

But instead of getting upset about it, I am simply grateful that I am healthy and haven't had any accidents so far. Every time I wanted to scratch myself because these bites really itch, I would say 'gracias a Dios que me siento bien'. And with this mindset, the itching was much more bearable. In general, I have set myself the goal of being much more grateful on this trip instead of asking for things and thanking for everything. With this attitude, I have been able to overlook all the bad things so far and enjoy every moment as it comes, not as I had planned it.

It also happened unexpectedly that my friend from Panama and her family and friends came to Bocas and I was able to move into the most beautiful hotel I could ever dream of.

Her mother runs one of the best restaurants in Panama City, el Caribe.

They brought a whole cooler of food and drinks with them, so we were well supplied with the best food throughout the entire time.

The boat ride to the house was very entertaining because we had so much luggage that we constantly had to change seats in the boat to prevent it from tipping over. We also scattered the Monopoly play money because we didn't close it properly.

Once we arrived at the house, we realized that there were too many people. Two of us had to paddle in a canoe to the next house to sleep. Some people just slept on the sofa or the floor.

To get to the club in the evening, we had to take a 10-minute boat ride across the sea. We visited several clubs and danced all night, we had a lot of fun and I immediately felt comfortable with them.

The next day, we took a tour to Playa Estrella.

Unfortunately, the weather was not very good, it kept raining.

Finally, I saw a sloth up close, poor thing fell from the tree and we helped it get back up.

We had a lot of fun and went looking for coconuts. On the way back, we shook about 6 coconuts to the ground. Maritza cooked us a delicious coconut milk rice in the evening.

The next day, there was a boat tour to various islands planned, but unfortunately it rained heavily again, so we had to reschedule the tour.

We still visited Dolphin Bay and saw dolphins, even with their babies.

Suddenly, the police stopped us in the boat, they were heavily armed, an uncomfortable feeling, but my friends from Panama took it lightly and started taking selfies with the police in the background and made jokes that the police probably stopped us because they thought we were kidnapping la blanca since I was the only white person on our boat. So our captain's ID check went very smoothly. After that, we visited a friend of Maritza's in the jungle in a wooden house.

On the way back, a strong storm came towards us. We were very relieved when we arrived at the house.

There was another delicious dinner, I love the typical food here in Panama!

The next day, we made our way to Panama City by bus. We still had a lot of luggage with us.

First, we took a boat to Almirante and then wanted to take the bus directly to Panama City, but unfortunately, there was no more space. We either had to wait until tomorrow or take a small bus to David and from there to Panama City, which would take about 12 hours.

We took the bus, it was a very nice route, the bus was completely crowded, but I thought it was a cool experience.

When we arrived in David, we had to wait an hour for the bus to Panama. We made sandwiches and accidentally spilled the hot sauce, drawing attention to ourselves once again.

I spent the entire 8-hour bus ride talking to Sohrob, so the time passed quickly.

The air conditioning on the bus was turned up so high that even with long clothes, we felt cold, and to make matters worse, water was dripping on us. We started getting wet, but we managed to improvise and made a makeshift bag with a plastic bag to catch the water.