Soon after classes ended for the semester, Hollie and I headed off to Panama. We took a bus out of San Jose late Wednesday night, and we arrived in Panama City Thursday afternoon. Yes, that's correct. About 15 hours of travel all together. The three hours that it took to cross the border didn't help any.
But things definitely improved after that. We left the bus station (which is also a giant mall) in taxi for our hostel. We quickly realized how unprepared we were when the taxi driver had never heard of our hostel, and we didn't have the address with us. Ooops. Casco Viejo was the name of our hostel, but also the name of an area of town. So we drove there, the taxi driver asked for directions, and eventually found it. The people there were very nice and helpful, and although at first we had doubts about the surrounding town (it did look pretty sketch) we soon discovered it's charm. Apparently that part of town used to be the ghetto until about five years ago, when US investors saw the potential of the old architecture and the oceanfront property, and bought it all up. It is now a strange mix of swanky restaurants and artsy boutiques scattered between abandoned building and scary looking apartments. We walked around until dark, looking in the funky little stores and taking dusky pictures.
The next morning is when we would begin our real adventures. At 5am we were getting picked up to go to the Kuna Yala (aka San Blas) islands.
Stay tuned for the continuation of our adventures...
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