Further Travels

OK where did we leave off on the last blog.

I remember we were being lazy in Bocas del Toro. Sadly we had to leave this wonderful place and get the boat back across to the mainland, collect the car and begin the long drive back across the mountains and east along the Pacific coast all the way to Panama City. The drive is about 350 miles or so, no problem on European roads but in Panama and over the mountains it would take 2 days.
The first part was along the Caribbean coast for some 50 miles before heading back over the Continental Divide and dropping down to the Pacific. The weather when we had came over the first time was wet and lots of cloud but this time it was mainly clear and reasonably sunny so the views were gorgeous. The traffic was good with a few large lorries around. The main problem you encounter is the state of the roads, one moment good tarmac or concrete then round the corner huge holes, a dirt track or worse were the places where the road had been washed away completely or pushed down the mountain in one of the many landslides that had happened in the recent rains.
Once down onto the InterAmericana road that runs all along the Central Americas we could speed up a little. That was until the sky became almost black and a torrential tropical storm hit and for the next hour it was down to about 20 miles an hour as you couldnt see anything through the rain.
We stopped for the night in a small coastal town on the Pacific and that enabled us to have swum in the Caribbean and Pacific on the same day. The next day we arrived back in Panama City and returned our little red car that had served us so well for more than two weeks.

The bad news for us then was that we were to be collected at 4.45am the next moning for a flight to the Kuna area of San Blas. This is an autonomous region on the Caribbean run by the indiginous Kuna population. It consists of 1000s of islands just of shore of the
mainland. Some island inhabited some not. We stayed in a private lodge after our flight landed at a tiny airstrip bordered by the sea one end and the forest the other. We travelled to other villages and to many islands some just a tree and a sand dune. A very pretty area with very friendly people who live mainly by fishing and growing and selling coconuts to the passing Colombian boats.
The trip back started at the tiny airstrip with a small shed as the departures. The plane holds 20 maximum and check in we found out was at the finish of the flight back in Panama City. The first time ever that we had to check in after the flight.

Now we are hoping to go the see the Canal today before flying of again tomorrow for what is supposed to be the most hazardous place we shall get to, Darien Province. This is on the border with Colombia and is mainly jungle so the wildlife is some of the best in Panama.

Hoefully some more pictures have been uploaded as well