Panama No. 2.

We have been in Panama for 5 days now - and will be here for another 2 awaiting our boat (15m Cat, named Fritz the Cat) that will take us to Columbia, via the San Blas Islands.

In the meantime we have been seeing a little more of Panama. Yesterday we went for a trip on Lake Gatun, which is the lake in central Panama that was enlarged by flooding the river valley during the construction of the canal. We were dwarfed by the huge container ships that cruised through the lake nearby. We saw the dredging ships dredging the depths and pumping the gravel kms to create new beaches elsewhere. We also sited monkeys, Iguanas, Tucans, beautiful lush jungle, many flowering trees. Today we have been out to the outer island of Taboga in the Pacific , swimming and relaxing and saw all the ships (and one cruise liner) waiting to enter the canal.

And we have covered a few more kilometres of Panama's streets.Some of the features of these walks:

1. Lighting is very poor.

2.At the same time there are many obstacles - man holes uncovered that you could lose yourself into - easily. Cut off galvernised pipes or hooks conveniently sized that your foot fits into nicely as you walk by. Lethal!!! A.J has stopped wearing jandals out at night for one particular reason.

3. 'Few' street names so when you cant find your way, so you have no idea where you are on the map.

4. The traffic is horrendous and noisy but there appear to be few accidents. The buses in particular are amazing - so decorated and colourful with two big exhaust pipes up the back of the bus (I'll take a photo Steve) and a blasting horn!

We've met some interesting travellers each day. Today some S. African's who work in the Cayman Islands and know my cousins son who also works there!!

Petrol is very cheap here - less than $1 a litre, so taxi rides are also very cheap. And of course there are LOTS of taxis. A meal for two can be anything from $10 to $40 depending where you go. Accommodation between $22 and $50 for a double (basic) room.  The U.S. dollar is the currency. We brought U.S. money with us so haven't yet visited a bank (and there are over 100 different banks represented in Panama) or an A.T.M. machine.

Missing Vogel's bread tho!!!!And we have a long way to go before getting  anything like it,  most likely.