To Panama!!

After dealing with visas, paying a "gift" and our bus breaking down, we figured our bad luck had to be coming to an end...

We spent only one night in Costa Rica, as it is completely out of our budget, and woke up early to catch a bus to David, Panama, where we would then travel to Bocas del Toro to spend two weeks on the beach at at the Palmer Tent Lodge.

We woke up early and walked to the bus terminal, and quickly bought tickets to David.  We went to our bus, confirmed with the driver that we were on the correct bus, got on the bus with time to spare, and were sitting on the bus, relishing in our good luck of not only getting the exact bus we wanted, but also getting an emergency exit seat, so we had let room to spare...then a woman and her child walked up to us, and informed us that those were her seats.  Erin, so confidently told her that no, they were ours...then the bus driver took a look at our ticket and informed us that we were on the wrong bus, and our bus had already left...is this really happening???

So..we de-boarded yet another bus, gathered or things, and waited.  Finally, after waiting what seemed like forever, the jefe took pity on the gringas and got us on a bus...except, there were no more buses going to David, only to the boarder, so we would be stuck navigating the Panama Boarder ourselves..

After a long and HOT bus ride, 6 hours later we arrived at the Panama boarder, which was complete chaos.  The bus driver dropped us off, gave us our bags, and we were on our own. There were cars, taxis and buses going every way, but we managed to make it the the customs line, only to be informed that we had passed the building to get our Costa Rica exit stamp..so, we hiked back, backpacks in tow, to where we came from...meanwhile, it was HOT and HUMID...a group of travelers summed it up quite well when they saw us...

Traveler 1: Look! Gringas!

Traveler 2: Yeah, sweaty Gringas!

Ugh.

We did however manage to make it across the boarder fairly painlessly, and Erin squealed when we saw a bus for David, just as we walked across the boarder...and it was the most delightful bus ride I have ever had..it was air conditioned, chilly in fact, and played Spanish music videos...I had fallen in love with Panama.