We got ripped off at the border by the money exchanger, which was more of a problem for Dom (who had a fair bit of cash) than for me, as I had spent the extra stuff on those books in San Jose. We got to Changuinola for the apparently great canal boat ride to Bocas only to be informed that the canals had been flooded from the storms and no longer worked. We asked many people because we dont trust anyone here but they all seemed to confirm it. Shitty so we had to get another bus to Almacite or something like that where there was a $4 boat to the islands. There were seemingly other really bad bridges along the way, like the one at the border. I had concluded that Panamanians can't build bridges in much the same way that Costa Ricans can't tell left from right, Hondurans can't speak their own language and Guatemalans were incapable of telling the truth. We arrived in town and avoided the hawkers to get to the same hostel that Laura was in. We joined the Finns for Inka's birthday and had some drinks out on our balcony with a bunch of surfers. It seemed that conversation was a little on the light side and massive ego posturing and insecurity were on the heavy side. Also I was dead tired at this point. I managed to make it just past midnight, listening to Israeli surfers consistently calling Laura 'ananas'.
In the morning I got up for the free pancake breakfast and realised I had to make it myself. It was naturally really shitty, but happily for me so was Dom's when he attempted it. Those of us who don't eat Yankee pancake breakfasts ever can hardly be expected to make a good fist of making one. Maybe they could just supply us with croissants next time. After this unsatisfying dough mush Tom arrived and we all headed out to some random beach. It was nowhere near as good as the beaches on the islands in the Caribbean (a trait common all through Central America) and was covered in sand flies, so we were massacred by these midget mosquitoes. The beach was also littered with weird crabs and Tom managed to shoot some coconuts out of the trees, which Mika eventually carved open with his knife so we could try some coconut milk. We went to a few bars as we worked our way back to the main island and the Finns departed for an overnight bus to Panama City. It was the first splintering of this good group and it was sad to see them go, but they seem to be having a good time down in Colombia at the moment. Tom went to get some rest as he had not slept on the bus and Dom and I went down to a local beach a Frenchman had recommended the previous day.
This beach was not that pretty, but it did have some psycho dogs and beach volleyball. The dogs were mental as one tried to rape another in the water, they kept stealing stuff to bury and eating each others face and necks. One of them even came crashing through my legs injuring my knee and I thought it had attacked me at first. The other one kept going in the water and then walking next to me and shaking dry. It did this twice. Its hard to describe how retarded these dogs were in words, but trust me they were insane. The locals invited the two of us to play beach volleyball and Dom reinjured himself. He was however a good player from his time on the Barcelona beaches. I on the other hand sucked really badly as it was the first time I had played and the locals kept trying to keep the ball away from me and were explaining I had to hit the ball up and over the next and not down (I think they thought I did not understand the game and did not realise I was just really shit). We got back and grabbed some beers. Had not heard from the Austrian girls but we bumped into them on the way back from the supermarket. We decided to meet them later and set to drinking. On the balcony we had stumbled across some Scousers and Canadians and started playing 'fuck you' and 'fuck the dealer' with some heavyweight rum. Always guaranteed to do you some damage. Anyway you can see where this night was headed. We drank a lot and then headed to another hostel as a ragtag bunch for more drink. There we were told the beer was not free but just cheaper so we took free shots and paid full price for the beer. The Austrians joined us along with a Yankee girl and I don't remember lots from the second bar. Dom informed me I was hammered, but I think I recovered by the end. One of the Canadians disappeared with the Yankee but got nowhere, one of the scousers hooked up with the simple Canadian and Dom, Tom and Regina disappeared. I stopped with Marsha on a wall somewhere in town and talked for ages while my faculties slowly returned. Then Tom passed by. He had left Dom with Regina as he felt like a third wheel and now thought he was interrupting me (which I don't think he was, but you never know for certain). The three of us returned to join Dom and Regina in another bar and drank until about 5 in the morning when they kicked us out. Marsha had told me that Regina had a boyfriend of many years and when i finally got a chance I told Dom that Regina was his Dutch girl in that situation. That didn't cheer him up and he went off for a while. So when Regina returned from the toilet I had to deal with her dagger eyes for wandering into something where I was not welcome, so to clarify (and dig myself a deeper hole) I asked her if she was interested in Dom directly. She said yes but not anything more, so I contented myself that drunk as I was, I was still right. Dom returned and we drank until someone in the bar had to take our chairs so a man who had passed out had somewhere to sleep.
In the morning I struggled to check out, but the others failed completely and lost their key deposits. I met the American girl again and another Canadian girl. We decided to grab lunch with them and Dom while Tom wandered off somewhere. We also met the Austrians again which was a little awkward after the night before but it was good to say adios. Basically we did fuck all that day and wasted the chance to go to Bocas Del Diablo which we had intended. We eventually got a boat across to get the night bus ourselves as we had resolved to shoot for the Darien. An English guy who was one of the wanker surfer crew was in the bus station so we had to tolerate him for the remains of the journey to the capital. Ironically he had said he could easily live without his I-Pod as he was bored of it, then complained when he lost it. Hah that'll learn him I thought, but he found it again on the bus and the irony was lost. I was the only one of the three of us to sleep well on the bus and we rocked into Panama City at 4am in time for the 5am bus to Yaviza in the Darien. Ah coast to coast in 24 hours. Probably a bit stupid, but an achievement nonetheless.
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