Everything was going just a bit too smoothly, so we thought… “Can I have your outward flight out of Panamá?” said the air stewardess. I confidently handed my flight from Cancun within the 90 days over. Not accepted. This meant we had 30 minutes to book a flight otherwise we’d miss the plane. Neither of us thinking straight either. Panicked and rushed. In hindsight we should have booked a refundable flight as the plan was to cross the border to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica by land. We looked at flights straight to Guatemala… £350+ each, what! We ended up booking two £120 flights to Costa Rica, looks like our trip has changed.

The flight was short but immigration took forever. Everyone had to go through the declaration section which was very unorganised and ran by three staff. Once we arrived at the airport we got in one of the yellow taxis and was totally ripped off. $25 dollars for what was no more than a 30 minute ride. We knew Panamá was expensive but seriously. The day only got worse…

I suddenly had a look at immigration in Costa Rica and realised we needed our yellow fever certificate. Fuck sake, we both left them at home. After a couple of hours of contemplating what to do we decided we’d just go pay for a booster. We just couldn’t afford to be unlucky again. Anyway only $100 each…

Jabbed up and I decided to take a quick dip in the pool, which was great. Freshened up, we walked into Panamá old town.

The old town was very beautiful but had a strange feel to it. It was quite empty and it didn’t have the hustle and bustle of Cartagena. Perhaps we didn’t really know where we were going. Our hostel was in the business area full of skyscrapers so we didn’t have the local knowledge we’ve had in other stays. I ended up pulling my phone out and looking for the “best bar” and we went to CasaCasco. The rooftop was amazing but the $12 cocktails were not. At least, we went for the strongest alcohol content with a negroni.

By the time we got back to the hostel we were starving and the hanger came. Both of us not thinking straight has the energy to go to the supermarket and rustle up a feast. My body craved ease and this meant a trip to Maccy Ds. It was fantastic. First of all we went to a PopEyes we passed on the way back but Ollie dragged me out due to the fly infestation. We both finished our day with two spicy chicken burgers, fries, and a Diet Coke.

The following day was spent doing literally nothing. I actually spent the majority uploading and proofing my blogs. Ollie spent his time sorting out some life admin including his taxes. The hostel itself is great, really feels like a place to chill and call home for a day. The vibe isn’t as gogo as the others had been and you didn’t feel a pressure forcing you to do a dozen activities. An easy day was topped off by having sunset drinks in the ex trump tower which had an epic panoramic view of the city.

In all honesty, I booked far too many days in Panamá City. It should have just been a layover. Secretly, because it started so wrong I was ready to get going onto the next place. Nonetheless, we smiled and decided we had to do something. I wanted to see the Panamá Canal but $20 per person for a viewpoint seemed steep. As Ollie said, we did see it from the taxi. Instead we went to the metropolitan park for $4 each. All in all it took us around 2hrs as we hiked/walked through jungle right in the middle of the city. We saw tucans, turtles, monkeys, sloths, anteaters and more.

Our day was completed with a homemade BLT. I had to call it a day as I was beginning to feel the worse thing ever, the dreaded beginning of a UTI.

The next morning we were up early ish for our bus to Boquete. Ollie was not amused as he had been up drinking rum with some Brummie lads till around 2.

Time to finally leave (that sounds bad but it was time to go). Off we went to Allbrook bus station to go to Boquete.