Panama, it holds an air of mystery and intrigue. A place where misfits go to disappear or hide their fortune from the inland revenue. It’s hot, humid and sticky. The sort of place where a wave of heat hits you as soon as you step off the aeroplane.

Panama City is slick, clean (relatively) and expensive. We spent a couple of nights there, just enough time to buzz around the city on an open top bus, visit the Panama Canal, hang out at a very cool rooftop bar complete with swimming pool, and hide from the searing midday heat in an air conditioned shopping mall.

From the city we headed up to the cooler highland climes of El Valle De Anton for a few days (see previous post). Then it was back down to sea level to San Carlos on the Pacific coast as a stepping stone for heading further west. San Carlos quite unexpectedly turned out to be a whole load of fun. After a morning of playing on the beach with James we decided that afternoon family surf lessons were in order… No one wants to hit the beaches of Hawaii looking like a complete novice. We all had the most amazing time but is was James who was the star of the show. It only took him a few attempts at body boarding with his instructor Rodriguez before he was up standing unaided. Legend! In James’ own words “The next time we go surfing I will be able to do it on my own”.

Next came our first real test of travelling long distance on local buses with James. It didn’t start well. It turns out that trying to flag down a David bound bus from the side of the Inter American Highway in the searing heat isn’t as easy as the guidebook suggests. Two hours and several full buses later even the local guy who was trying to get to David gave up. To cut a long story short, just as we were starting to discuss evacuation plans a bus stopped. With a quick change of buses in Santiago (a nondescript town about half way) we finally made it to David nearly seven hours later. David is just an overgrown agricultural town so the plan was to stay one night then head up to Boquete on the slopes of Volcan Baru first thing the next morning. However our plans were scuppered by a flower festival being held in Boquete which meant all the accommodation was fully booked until after the weekend. So another day and night in drab David it was.

When we finally got there, Boquete was kind to us. A spring like climate in a beautiful setting surrounded by jungle clad mountains and of course, flowers. Our time there was spent doing a coffee tour at Finca Dos Jefes which was just delightful. James spent the time playing with some of the farm workers’ kids, so everyone had a fab time.

We also headed out on another waterfall hike up into the surrounding cloud forest. Whilst the waterfall itself was nothing special the trail was stunning and we even spotted a Resplendent Quetzal (not massively resplendent to be honest) and a small troupe of Howler monkeys. Once again James was a legend and walked a good 2km to the waterfall, but being a cloud forest it rained on our way back down. Who would have thought that having to put on a rain jacket to stay dry and warm would cause a meltdown?… 3 year old logic!

On our final day Lucy and James went horseback riding whilst I spent the morning chilling by doing my own coffee research tour of the cafes in town.

Since we are planning to hit the islands of Belize later in the trip we decided to skip the paradise islands of Bocas del Toro and head north in to Costa Rica. A decision we found out later was a good one when we met someone who had just spent 5 days there sat looking out from her hostel at the pouring rain. So buoyed by our newfound confidence doing long distance journeys we decided to make a dash for the border by bus.

Overland border crossings can be a bit tricky and time consuming but by usual standards this one was relatively smooth. Passports stamped, next stop Uvita in Costa Rica. Pura Vida!