Panama city, the city of tomorrow, but not until the day after tomorrow...

So Bobs and I made it to Panama City, Panama. We hopped a Ticabus from San Jose and enjoyed traveling in style for once. It was hard leaving the Pangaea because its an amazing place and the atmosphere is a must see in Costa Rica. We did however have issue with the cab ride over to the station, Bob and I have an unfortunate habit of getting in cabs of ill-repute and merely getting lucky and arriving safely. This time was more towards the other side of the coin. We arrived two or three minutes later outside Ticabus HQ and expecting to pay two or three dollars in fare as was our past experience, we were shocked to hear the driver say he wanted 23,000 Colones which is about $50. Bob and I having realized we broke the cardinal rule and the other cardinal rule and the other one:

1. We got in an unmarked cab.
2. We got an unmetered cab.
3. We failed to negotiate the fare beforehand.
4. At first sign of trouble I didn't just punch that stupid fool in the throat.

So when we make it known that we refuse to pay his insane price he continues to drive the cab, most likely because it looks like we'll make a run for it. His next move makes us both laugh out loud, he says hes going to drive to the police station and turn us in, as though it wont be evident that there's no amount of driving he could do in a day equaling up to his outrageous fare. So we throw five bucks at him and I sit in his cab while Bob unloads the bags and he curses at us most ungentlemanly like. Now I consider Bob to be a peaceful guy but he got riled up and for the next hour at the bus station we thought of various ways to bring street justice to the corrupt cabbies of San Jose.
Once calmed down and boarded on our bus we relaxed and enjoyed comfortable seating and conditioned air. It was about six hours to the border and we had no trouble getting out of Costa Rica, after walking across to Panama we met with some resistance. We have been told repeatedly that Panama is notoriously hard to get into and the paperwork will make the strongest willed man cry, but after jumping through minimal hoops we get our stamps, tourist visas and immigration forms and were on our way. Another eight hours into Panama and were in the capital, we hail a cab and find out that most of the hostels are full, so after driving around we pull up to the La Luna hostel and although full they let us crash on the couches.
We set out the next morning in search of our recently accosted now in exile friend AJ. After much detective work and some broken Spanish we determine him to be located in a hostel downtown. Finding him not much worse for wear we all return to La Luna and settle in with the intention of planning our escape from Panama where "you'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy".
We look a flights and we look at boats and we briefly debate crossing the Darien gap. Somehow we end up meeting a crazy Italian man who happens to be the first mate on a sailboat headed for the San Blas islands and eventually Colombia so the plan as it stands is to catch a ride with them on Tuesday and sail the high seas in search of treasure and Bobs lost innocence.
Until next time...
-Dean