Panamá

I made it to Bocas de Toro, Panamá. Cool little town. Gonna hang here and work and try to surf for a few days. Gotta wait for my luggage anyway which is still at the airport I flew from in Costa Rica. The plane was full and at maximum weight capacity (the majority of the passengers were from the USA) so we had to leave the luggage behind. All of it.

Something that I'm liking more here than Costa Rica already is that it's decidedly less yankee. Okay, so they were playing baseball in the field at the end of airstrip, they use U.S. dollars as their currency, and the owner of my motel here is a retiree from Denver -- but at least they don't answer me in English when I ask for help in Spanish. That always bugs me and creates distance between the local and myself. It makes me feel like they see me as another tourist they are working for -- instead of a traveler who they are happy to help and might even like to meet.