safe and sound (and with a place to sleep) in Panama

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I pushed up my trip to Bocas del Toro up a day early to try and beat the huge Semana Santa rush to the beaches. I caught a 6:30 AM bus to Panama, where I walked over a rickety bridge into Panama. Once on the other side, I somehow managed to sweet-talk my way past having to purchase a bus ticket back from Panama even though everyone else I was with was forced to buy tickets. (Panama requires proof of exit, so even though I was planning on flying out of Panama for South America, since I didn't yet have a ticket I'd have to buy a bus ticket that I'd never use). I credit my spanish speaking skillz, and of course my charm and wit! (and luck might have had something to do with it too).

Anyways, we got in around noon, and there were still rooms in the hostels. So, I'm safely secured at Mondo Taitu, land of the 75 cent beer happy hour and free pancake breakfast. Looking forward to doing some surfing, snorkeling, and generally chilling in Panama. In the next few days I'll be posting some more entries about my last few days in Costa Rica, and will post again about Panama once I've got something worth writing about.

Pics below:

Me on the rickety bridge to Panama. Note the super-cool backpack-on-front look that I sport while traveling (larger pack is on my back). All the ladies love it! It gets really distracting when they keep on throwing themselves at me and I have to say "please control yourself - I'm just trying to get to Panama!"

At the Costa Rica/Panama border where I did the classic Simpson bit ("look at me boy! I'm in Australia! Now I'm in the USA, now I'm in Australia").