06.56 From Boquete School here in Panamá, we can hear children laugh and talk. The school is across the river we have outside our accommodation Refugio del Rio. It's almost time for us to travel on and now the school bell rang and a sound was heard from some animal. It sounded like the smacking sound one makes for a horse to start walking.

07.50 Today's breakfast was a little disappointing. Someone had taken our yogurts from the refrigerator. There is not much we can do about it. Now everything is packed. CNN reports that an asteroid will pass Earth today, 12 000 kilometres away.

08.04 It is calm and quiet, not many people around here. Because of this, it is not possible to check out right now. We will go and mail the postcards at the post office and return.

08.32 We walked to the post office at the main square in the centre. The postcards are mailed. Christer´s six cards cost $ 1.80 and my six cards cost $ 2.10 each. One of Christer´s postcards was to the U.S. so he could have paid U.S. postage for those to Europe as well. Now we will find someone to check out of.

08.43 The house had woken up. We had no problems checking out. Now we are sitting on the bus to David. This time, it is much more space on board.

10.00 The breeze from the open windows made it difficult to breathe and to have the eyes open. Our bumpy, yellow bus finally reached David and now we have, after a short pause, switched to a smaller bus going to Changuinola and Almirante. The accommodation in Boquete has clearly been the best this year. We are not the only tourists on board this bus. Here we go!

Traveling north through the beautiful countryside.

10.28 We have left the Pan American Highway and turned north through a hilly landscape. It is really beautiful.

10.50 Suddenly it became very hot inside the bus and there was a burning smell. This is all but good. We stopped at the side of the road. The fellow passengers are chatting, they seem familiar with this. Here we go again, nice. It is unclear what caused the problem.

11.28 We are now driving over a lake and dam. We have reached the Fortuna dam. The surface of the water is still and small streams are flowing down from the mountain sides.

11.51 It was already pretty crowded on the bus but now it's even worse. It is time for the afternoon shift at the local schools and school children enter the bus both here and there. It is packed on the bus with the boys and girls in white school uniforms.

12.20 The pupils have got off the bus and it has stopped in Chiriqui Grande, but the engine is running. There is a ten minute break, a chance to stretch your legs. The tourists we have seen before is still with us.

12.48 We are getting tired of going with this bus. People get off and walk on. A local woman has fallen asleep against Christer´s shoulder. Outside the bus window you can see local people in simple homes, houses built on stilts on upland sites. One can suspect that they want to protect themselves against water.

13.36 We are coming closer to today's final goal and now we can for the first time this year see the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. As the Caribbean Sea is connected to the Atlantic one may well claim both.

13.55 The bus suddenly stopped at a gas station. We have reached the small town of Almirante and here it is time to switch vehicles. You have to keep an eye on road signs. We have not received any information about where we are.

Watertaxi from Almirante to Bocas del Toro.

14.06 An enthusiastic gentleman waved a promotional note from a company that offered water taxi and we switched from our bus to a designated taxi truck which drove us a short distance to the harbour. Now we have registered ourselves on a passenger list with our names and nationalities. With us are some tourists we've seen before.

14.31 We were just settling down in the yellow boat Jenny and had put on the orange life vests. Then we removed the vests and switched to another boat. I, unfortunately, don’t know the name of it.

14.42 First we glided quietly and slowly past the colourful houses on the waterfront, but pretty soon we went out into open water in a breathtaking speed. The engine roars, the wind is blowing and water is spraying. However, we are totally dry here on the boat. The company we go with is called Bocas Marine Tours (http://www.bocasmarinetours.com).

15.10 We have finally reached the island Isla de Colón and the cosy little town of Bocas del Toro in the province with the same name. Now it's off to the next home and accomodation. We choose to walk. There have been enough of sitting on this day.

The nice garden at "The Palmyra", our home for three nights.

Peter is locking the door.

Baseball on the airfield.

15.40 Our last home in Panama is the guest house The Palmyra. The room is new, fresh, fantastic and called Libélula, dragonfly. We have received information from the German owner Felicitas. She has given us excellent information and showed us around here. During the tour, we were out in the garden and saw a mango tree, a lime tree and a tired old dog. Right now Christer is in the shower.

17.05 We walked around a bit in the new hometown. It is a relaxed comfortable atmosphere here. We're at the Caribbean coast and we have again seen the young men with the same life-style, dress and hairstyles like those we met on the Caribbean trip in 2007. Here it is rasta and reggae that apply. By the airport there is a baseball field or is it the other way around. After seeing some more of the quaint wooden houses, we are now at The Lemon Grass Bar & Restaurant for a late lunch or early dinner, who knows?

Welcome to Bocas del Toro!

The main street in Bocas del Toro, 3rd Street.

In Bocas del Toro you do most taxi trips on water.

Peter is waiting for the food at The Lemongrass Bar & Restaurant.

17.46 We had Thai food today. The restaurant offers a superb view of the sea, nearby islands and the local boat traffic. All the music that was played at the restaurant during the meal can be found at Christer´s record collection at home. Has someone stolen it? Let's see some more of the town now.

19.08 After dinner it was a short visit at the internet café Internet Galaxy. Then we bought some "nice to have things" before we went home. The former lodgings on the trip already feel distant.

21.17 We fill up with fluids and have found out that the room is warm and humid, even sauna-like if we turn off the AC. We’ve washed today’s laundry and it has been hung out on our patio.

22.31 We have been sitting on the patio outside our room. We have had an Atlas, a local beer, each. Now we take it easy and enjoy our vacation.

Peter is relaxing.

Tuesday 28th of June

09.06 The night’s sleeping has come to an end. The clothes which we washed and hung out yesterday are almost dry. We are heading for yet another breakfast.

09.31 Today's "desayuno" is at the Golden Grill along the main street. There will be pancakes with ham and to drink some coffee. There is hustle and bustle on the streets today. Bocas del Toro is a major tourist destination and is full of surfers, boat people, backpackers and other tourists. Most are Americans.

10.23 Two small thick pancakes, ham and a little black coffee, this was today's breakfast. For the record, they took 60 cents of postage for the postcards. Some cards are sent and we hope that they reach their destinations. We had intended to book a trip to tomorrow with Transparent Tours but a local man said that the travel agency had closed for renovation. Now I sit and rest on a park bench in front of Hospedaje Four Sisters.

Golden Grill is serving breakfast pancakes.

Near the ferry port in Bocas del Toro.

11.04 "Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Anti-Aging" it says on the tube of sunscreen, which we bought at the pharmacy Rosa Blanca. The apparently protects against the sun and aging, a fine product. Now we are at home in our cool room for a break. There is sun and a murderous heat out there so we quickly become worn.

12.13 We've been sitting at our patio, enjoying, relaxing and reading in our books by Jo Nesbø. Now we're going out into the sunshine to prepare for the future.

13.07 Things are not going that well, sure we have found a company which arranges boat tours, $ 20 per person, but then it was grinding halt. They have closed for lunch. The pizzeria we found for our lunch just closed, we also haven’t found the company with shuttle service to Costa Rica and the internet café Internet Galaxy where we wanted to kill time before we book the tour at 13:30 was unfortunately full. Now at least we found a bench in the shade.

13.20 More adversity! The price of $ 20 per person is only for a company of five people or more otherwise its $ 50 per person. We skipped it all, said thanks but no thanks and walked away. We had just begun to walk as we were called back by an old man with low consumption of toothpaste just to get the same answer again. Not much gain to ask us to come back, they were curious about what the other employee had promised us before. Now it will be pizza at the Golden Grill. Sure, it's boring to go to the same place again, but we want to save time.

Afternoon tour on bikes.

Christer is taking a break close to the sea.

14.35 We're back home for a short while. We are going out on a ride. The idea, I say the idea, is that we should bring ourselves to a beach. Our friendly hostess that we borrowed the bikes from chose to ignore the deposit of 50 dollars.

14.47 Some days everything goes to hell. Our air conditioner is leaking water onto the floor and bed. Something is broken, wrong, hell! The hostess is notified. She will take help of a neighbour and now we cycle away from it all.

14.59 Bicycle tours are wonderful. You get to look around you come close to the locals and sometimes even into the wild. Now we are biking on the streets of Bocas del Toro and the traffic is quiet. We go north.

15.30 There has been a stop in the bike tour. We are standing by the roaring sea and are heading for Playa Bluff.

Playa Bluff

The waves from the Caribbean Sea is coming towards the beach.

Christer on Playa Bluff, Bocas del Toro.

16.07 It was a long way, first on a nice asphalt road, then through the sand and then along a dirt road. We cycled past the beaches, hotels and some kind of plantation where workers cut the grass with machetes. Playa Bluff has finally been reached. The beach is known for its yellow colour and that is true. Here I have given some water to a thirsty dog. Once again, the dogs found us. Now we will find a good place to be on before going out to sea one at a time.

16.45 Well, we should have seen this coming. There were warnings of strong undercurrents. We have given up taking a swim in the ocean and are about to head home with our bikes. I guess that nothing else can go wrong today.

17.05 We made a short stop at a beach for a little feet dipping.

17.55 The feet dipping came to an abrupt end when one of Christer´s beach sandals broke. It was quickly followed by a similar fate for the second one. The salt water has probably dissolved the glue in sandals. Now we are home again. On the small whiteboard at the entrance there was a message from Felicitas, The air conditioner is now fixed and ok.

Land meets sea.

Parking space for bikes, The Palmyra.

19.45 Heat, cycling or what do I know, has made us tired. We are however in need of food and drink. The only question is, where are we going to get it?

20.14 We have been looking for, without success, the place offering shuttle transportation to Costa Rica. It is supposed to be in a small white house on the waterfront. Now we are in the huge restaurant Bocas Bamboo Beach for dinner. Christer has buried, thrown away the tattered beach sandals.

20.41 While we wait for the food we are thinking about how few smokers we have seen in Panamá. There have been some occasional tourists who smoked yes but otherwise no. We wonder if we even have seen cigarettes sold in the shops. It is well done Panamá!

21.51 The food came and was consumed. Various celebrities, including Tracy Chapman, sang on a big screen TV. We then took a closer look after the shuttle office and found a small note about transportation to San José in Costa Rica. At last something positive today. Tomorrow we´ll check the prices for it. Now we are filling up with some drinks. Fresca Toronja is a healthy and tasty soda.

22.16 It has been a strange and contradictory day today. Most things have gone against us, the boat tour wasn´t possible to book, broken air conditioner and broken beach sandals, dangerous currents that stopped us from swimming and some other things. Despite this, we fall asleep with wonderful memories of a glorious day.

Wednesday 29th of June

08.15 We got us a welcome and much needed sleep. Soon another day with more events to write about will start.

10.06 We sat out on the porch and ate the breakfast that we bought yesterday before we went into town. There we arranged with our transportation to Costa Rica. There will be no door to door transport. We will go by boat, and then switch to the various buses that will take us all the way to San José tomorrow. Now we draw homewards.

11.56 We have just been lazy and took it easy. Juice has been drunk and books by Nesbø have been read. Outside someone is mowing the lawn and soon we´ll leave again.

The lunch restaurant La Pirate, Bocas del Toro.

Peter is writing down the latest news and happenings.

13.01 We have sat ourselves at the restaurant La Pirate for lunch. Behind me, the Transparent Tours has their office. They have not closed. They have just moved further into the building. Yesterday's information was false, probably the liar we spoke with hoped that we would go with him instead. It feels a bit sad. If we had found the office a tour may have been arranged after all. Now it's too late.

13.51 Lunch here at La Pirate consisted of chicken, vegetables and rice flavored with coconut milk. Now we are on board a minibus bound for Boca del Drago, which is located further north on the island.

14.46 We arrived in the small village of Boca del Drago. Here it was thought that we would go to a beach with starfish but I forgot the information papers with the map in the room. You can go there by boat but we have little time. It would be foolish to miss the last bus back. Here in the village there is a research station with a few laboratories, some restaurants and hotels but not much more.

We have arrived to Boca del Drago.

Coconut tree, Boca del Drago.

Boca del Drago

Wooden pier in Boca del Drago.

16.28 We found a point where we sat and dried after we swimmed in the salty warm sea. Now we are sitting on a log, waiting for a bus. Now it rains, despite the sunshine, mysterious.

16.50 There was a brief light shower of rain. Now we are back on the minibus that is supposed to leave at 17.00. The lack of space is plentiful. There are many tourists who planned to go back with this particular bus.

A boat on its way to the starfish colony in Boca del Drago.

The rough last part of the road going to Boca del Drago.

17.43 The bus trip went well and now we are at home in our cool room. Ahead of us are the evening chores.

19.05 We talked with the hostess Felicitas before leaving the house. She mentioned that our neighbours had arranged for a shuttle directly to Costa Rica. Can this be true? Are we going with it as well? Now it's time for dinner at Kun-Yes, a Chinese restaurant located next door to the lunch restaurant. We've had beer with lots of ice in. It seems to be an Asian tradition. We were hit by it while traveling in Asia in 2006.

20.53 Hearty food was followed by a visit on the internet. Things are as they used to be in the world. Nothing dramatic has happened. Now let's pack for the trip for the next big crossing of the border and the trip to a new capital.

When darkness arrives we always have company.

Thursday 30th of June

06.13 It's an early morning today. Though it's not the morning in itself that is early we are just up earlier than usual. This is a necessity because we are going far and need to start early.

07.19 Why do you wake up early when you can keep on sleeping some days and so tired when you have to get up early? This is yet another of life's questions.

07.38 We said goodbye to Felicitas before we left. She said hi and good luck. In addition, she said that our neighbours arranged with their shuttle with a completely different company. Now we have reached the office where we could present ourselves as yesterday's instructions. It's time to get things done. It's time to register and pay for our trip. Some were paid yesterday the rest must be paid today. We are also looking for the man that booked us, an energetic middle-aged man with broken glasses. He is supposed to meet us here.

08.33 The man showed up, we and a bunch of other tourists took place in a water taxi (boat) and we left at high speed and with the headwind. The boat trip with Transport Tocas is now over. Now the backpacks are on the roof of a minivan. Soon we will travel on from here Almirante. A young boy who helped with the packing has asked for money twice. The first time he said it he got some of us. More nagging will not be rewarded.

Tourists waiting for the bus in Changuinola.

09.19 Our minivan has reached Changuinola. Here is a change of carrier. I have taken the opportunity to make a small "baños" visit before travelling on. In the minibus we were joined by some Americans, a Welshman who was carrying a rugby ball, an Israeli girl, two Swiss girls, a German and a few others. Christer has been hit by a big cold and like so often in the tropical climate the cause is the temperature fluctuations we expose ourselves to when we go from hot humid weather outdoors to sleeping in the cold air conditioned rooms.

09.30 The backpacks were in the luggage compartment and tip was asked for. All small money I had was $ 5. Not smart of me to leave that much. The man who guarded the baggage told us at least ten times that he didn´t get paid by the bus company but was completely dependent on our gifts. Now we got a bus ticket from our helpful guide. It says "Transportes Bocatoreños, tiquete the Bus" on it. It looks promising. Now we got exit papers for Panamá and the entrance papers for Costa Rica to fill in.

10.24 We arrived at the border town Guabito, the bus turned, tormented itself up on a grassy embankment and then went very slowly up to the river and the Panamanian border.

COSTA RICA

CHANGING TIME ZONE

09.44 We are in a new country, Costa Rica, and a new time zone. The clocks are backed an hour. Border crossing was over the Rio Sixaola and on a long partially broken old railway bridge. We made it over without any major problems. A young lady had bigger problems. She might have been afraid of heights. She stopped again and again and got help to carry on.

09.57 We were let in and stamped in Costa Rica. The passport police wanted to see proof that we would travel out of Costa Rica later. We waved the confirmation of the reservation of the flight from Belize in August and the police were satisfied without having looked at the paper.

10.10 We are now back at the bus, which still stands still and locked. We are in the small border town Sixaola. It's hot!

10.56 Bananas, bananas. Beside the road grows bananas. Bananas are grown along the coast. We´ve also seen industrial facilities owned by various companies handling bananas. It is Dole, Fyffes and Chiquita. Both Panamá and Costa Rica are important countries in the banana industry and it really shows.

11.42 To the left there are trees, trees, and trees. To the right is a flat, grass-covered area and a short distance away is the Caribbean Sea. Here we go into a town. We are, according to a road sign, 9 km from Moin.

12.02 The bus stopped at a restaurant for refreshments. We are in the coastal city of Limón. On the way into town we saw a large cemetery with Chinese characters. The trip has gone well so far. I hope it stays that way.

12.16 Today I really have my head under my arm. I went for a walk to take some photos of a cemetery and almost missed the honking bus. It is just clumsy and stupid. It was fortunate that Christer asked them to wait for me.

Cemetary in Limón.

13.48 A green sign just said "San José 56". We approach today's final destination. A little further back from us on the bus is a young Swiss lady reading aloud in German. It seems to be from a book about some ancient Church Father. It is a weird choice of literature for sure.

14.35 A gray-white fog rolls in and settles comfortably in the green valleys alongside the bus. It is hardly 20 kilometres left. The nature and the view have been impressive for the last hour. We have gone to greater heights ever since we left Limón and the coastline.

15.04 The bus has reached the Costa Rican capital of San José and we are stuck in a traffic jam. There is thunder and pouring rain outside. But the rain doesn't stay outside. It penetrates through a side window and hits Christer.

15.18 The bus spun around and around for a while and stopped at last at an unknown location in the middle of nowhere. Here, each bus company has its own place to stay. Only some will gather at the main bus station. We shot out of the bus and out into the rain. The backpacks were brought and we quickly ran to a taxi. As we were waiting for the backpacks we heard a man shout agua, agua, agua ... Water, water, water. Did he sell the water? Why did he do it in the pouring rain? However, it was "paragua" umbrella that he sold. Paragua actually means "for water" and they are used in the watery weather.

Peter in our room 14 at Costa Rica Backpackers.

No one wants to use a swimmingpool when it´s raining.

15.49 Finally we are where we want to be. We are in Costa Rica Backpackers Hostel (http://www.costaricabackpackers.com) and room 14. In the room a sign of how we should respond to earthquakes is hanging. Everything is clear and paid for. Now we will only bring ourselves together. Once that's done, we need to go back out. We need money and food. We went here with a nice taxi driver who got a Swedish 20 kronor note from us. It wasn't a payment but a gift because he collected notes. We also paid for the taxi ride.

18.23 Some days, everything goes wrong. We tried several times with different amounts of money to get local currency from different ATM:s. Whatever we tried it failed. We did, however, withdraw U.S. dollar instead, and now we'll have dinner at El Alpino. It is a local pizzeria. On our walk here in the city, we saw a stationary police car with flashing blue lights. Suddenly something sounded and the policemen in the car and a patrol officer ran away. We have even seen two locals who smoked. It's been a while since that happened.

21.20 The pizzas were forced down. Not much to the diameter of the pizzas, but a lot when it came to volume, most of it was cheese. We went back home and took it easy. Now we have been surfing on the web here on the hostel and we bought a soft drink each at the front desk. A quick look at Facebook has raised questions. Why do people tell in their status if they are hungry or full? And what drives people to also click "like" in such a post? It seems that inactivity is total home in Sweden.

Pizza dinner at the restaurant El Alpino.