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This is it, my final blog entry, the end...sob. Suffice to say, I don´t particularly want to leave Central America on Saturday but I don´t think work would take too kindly to me changing my flights, hah. I´m actually missing work, friends and family but it´s hard to tear oneself away from an idyllic Caribbean island. Since my dramas in Costa Rica, the past week has been much more chilled, except for one small incident involving two crazy dogs and moi.
Today is Day 5 in Panama, most of which I´ve spent on an island off an island, called Isla Bastimentos. Famed for its red frogs (of which I saw none, probs my shoddy eyesight), the island is full of deserted golden beaches fringed with palm trees and wild jungle. I´ve been recovering from this throat bug on Red Frog Beach and Turtle Beach, the latter being completely deserted, until last night when we had a big night out on the main Bocas Del Toro island, Isla Colon. Catching a late night boat out to the mainland, we ended up in outdoor club Aqua Lounge and danced the night away to Rihanna and old school classics like Arrested Development´s Everyday People :) A great way to end my travels but it only served to remind me that my time in Central America is really up :(
I managed to squeeze in a one-day tour of Coral Cay, Zapatilla Cays and Dolphin Bay, easily worth the $30. Dolphin Bay did indeed have a bunch of dolphins, as promised, but there were about 15 boats all hounding them everytime they came to the surface for air. I would have been content watching them from a distance but our guide insisted on zooming straight at them at every opportunity. Some of us eventually suggested he give it a rest and, sure enough, the dolphins relaxed around us and we got a better view. Beautiful creatures, perfectly formed and so graceful in their movements, esp when they perform their acrobatics!
Zapatilla Cays - if you had to imagine a deserted Caribbean island, it would probably look something like Zapatilla Cays. White sands, blue waves lapping against the shore, wild green jungle full of coconut trees and wildlife, paradise! I´ve seen so many beautiful beaches on my travels that I´ve almost become complacent, expecting better as I go along. Panama has some of the best beaches I´ve seen, but you do have to go off the beaten track, e.g. Turtle Beach, Zapatilla Cays. Worth the extra effort though ;)
Coral Cay has easily the best coral I´ve ever seen, even better than in beautiful Belize. We literally saw every colour of the rainbow while snorkelling - red, neon green, yellow and blue, black, pink - not to mention huge brain corals, and schools of fish feeding on the corals, The whole place was teeming with marine life! Unfortunately, some of the corals looked bleached and the boatman didn´t seem too bothered where he anchored - some of the brain corals had big chunks missing and at no point were we warned to not touch the coral, as was pretty standard in Belize. Hopefully all this beautiful coral will still be there in 10 years´ time. Earlier, we had snorkelled on a nearby reef and it was mostly dead, not a pretty or heartwarming sight...
At Coral Cay, we stopped on a nearby dock for lunch and a break. Naturally, I went for a wander along the dock to explore my surroundings and saw this really cute old dog, looking all friendly and sweet. I went over to say hello and at first, it looked happy to say hello but then suddenly stopped, growled and ran full pelt at me! I tried telling myself it was a friendly growl but no, it really wasn´t so I did a 180 and ran in the opposite direction. Then, as bad luck would have it, another damn dog came out of nowhere and ran at me! I didn´t fancy being sandwiched between two mad dogs so, screaming at the top of my lungs, jumped into the surrounding shallow waters with the dogs yapping at me from the dock. (For those who remember my quad biking incident circa´99, the jump was v similar...one of the boys in our group said it looked like an action movie stunt hah). I´m fine, other than my grazed knees but it was definitely a dippy moment!
Today Panama was hit by a storm so lashings of rain and gloomy grey skies all day - the first day of my travels which has been a total write-off. Still, I made it over to Isla Colon and am moping in Gran Kahuna hostel ($8-10 per night) til I have to head back to Costa Rica tomorrow for my Sat flight. I wish I could be heading to Panama´s San Blas islands instead but alas, the good times must come to an end.
I want to thank my family for supporting me and staying up all hours to talk to me on Skype (thanks mum!), Sue for going to Central America first and advising me where to go (and where not to go!) and my editor and publisher for giving me the time off. I´d also like to thank Richard Wright at Currenex. Prior to my big trip, Richard took me out for lunch in New York and taught me the invaluable phrase "necessito", meaning "I need" in Spanish. Well Richard, I necessito-ed my way all through Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, so gracias!
I know I will return to Panama one day to continue the adventure and head down to South America but until then gracias, adios and hasta luego! x
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