What a week, cont.

The next day, we got up early and rode the chicken bus to David, and then a four-hour bus to Almirante. We arrived in pouring rain and caught a taxi from the bus station to the boat taxi. We took the boat taxi to Bocas town and got some food. It had been a long day of buses, boats, and cars and we were famished! We were trying to figure out where to stay because of course we had no plan, so we walked into a bar overlooking the ocean. I inquired about a good place to stay and it just so happened the bar owners had an apartment for rent above the bar. How lucky, this apartment had a complete kitchen, two bedrooms, AC, a huge patio overlooking the ocean, and a huge patio overlooking the street scene in the front. It rents for $65 per night, but I was able to get them down to $55.


View from our balcony of full moon with the "smoke monster" from the TV show "Lost."


Trying for a free lunch through the stairway of our apartment to the bar below.


View of the hotels from our boat (ours is the short one in the middle).


It rained all night, but was nice the next day. We took a water taxi to an island beach. A group of girls noticed my Milwaukee Brewers hat because one of them was from Milwaukee originally. This is not the first time my hat came in handy. The girls were all on their border run to renew visas from Costa Rica where they work. So we hung out for a good part of the day on the beach. That night, we went out but there wasn't much happening so we went to bed early to be ready for our snorkeling trip the next day.

Drunken Lizard.


Beach.


We woke up, ate breakfast, and went to the tour boat. John and I were the only ones, so it was a private tour. We started by going to Dolphin Bay where we saw dolphins, then snorkeling over soft coral reef, then lunch, then Sloth Island where I saw my first Sloth in Panama (it wasn't doing much), then an island hike, then to Red Frog Beach (where there were lots of people, beer, and music), then more snorkeling. The entire tour took seven hours and cost $25. What a great deal!

Poison Dart frog


Snorkeling


John's view of the boat from the water.


The following day, John and I went SCUBA diving. Again, the rain held out and it was a beautiful day. On the first dive, our group of five dove to about 60 feet. Really cool coral, lots of fish, lobsters, Lion fish. Visibility wasn't the best, but good enough. I let my guide know when I was halfway with my air. We started to ascend when I was getting close to my air warning level (750). At about 30 feet deep, my gauge showed I was at 250 but my air stopped. I quickly grabbed my other demand valve, but no air. My guide was two feet below me, so I swam down to him, gave him a slightly panicked hand signal for "no air," he quickly grabbed his spare demand valve and handed it to me, I pushed the purge valve to clear the water out, but it fell apart in my hands. Air was coming out of the hose, so I shoved it in my mouth. The guide grabbed onto me and inflated his BC, and we shot to the surface. I was pretty freaked out, but not hurt. I was more angry than anything at the equipment failures, and the fact that my tank did not have a sufficient amount of air for a one-hour dive. I contemplated skipping the second dive, but decided to go anyway because we were only going to 30 feet. I'm glad I went because the coral and fish were spectacular, but I found it difficult to relax after what happened. The guide brought a Hawaiian spear and was trying to kill Lion fish which are dangerous and over-populated in Bocas del Toro. When we got back, I got the owner's info and later sent him an email to tell him what happened.

We left Bocas shortly after, and traveled back to Boquete. The following day, I went to David to take care of some business. I also went to the DMV with the lady I am buying a car from to get paperwork in order. The next day, John and I went hiking on the Los Quetzales trail which was pretty cool and strenuous. That night, we went out to a charity event where dancers from all over Panama were demonstrating different styles of Latin dance. It was a lot of fun. My friend Janeth promised me she wouldn't make me try to dance, but once there, she did a good job of guilt-tripping me into it. And the rum helped a little, I guess. John left the following morning.

It is important for me to go on these little excursions so I can make recommendations to visiting clients...right? :)