Panama City, Chitre, David, Gorgona Beach, Casco Viejo

Well it was time to renew my visa. One can only be in Costa Rica for up to 90 days and then you have to leave for three days. I went by myself and enjoyed travelling alone, but I missed Adam!!

Day 1: Board bus in San Jose to David. This was not air conditioned first class bus. Luckily I got to sit next to Brice from Orphan Art. He travels around with art supplies to developing countries, gets the kids to draw stuff, he then sells the art and donates the money back to the original village. The day ended in David Panama, with little fanfare, not much happening in David.

Day 2 Hop on luxury bus with AC to Chitre to visit my friend Don who is opening a restaurant. There isn' really much happening there, but apparently there are a lot of nationwide fesitvals that occur in this town. Don's new restaurant is across the street from a bar that shows porno TV. Kind of funny.

Day 3 I hopped the short bus for Panama City. Made it to my hotel and took a short walk.

Day 4 Walked around Casco Viejo and then headed over to the Panama Canal. Check out our photo site were there are a lot of photos of old Panama city and good descriptions of the Panama Canal.

Day 5 I hired a driver to take me around the city. First we went out to Gorgona Beach. By this time I was really questioning my driver. I think there was an exhaust leak in that car. Everytime I got in I fell fast asleep to smells of exhaust. So much for a scenic trip. Next we went back into town, stopped at an artisan market where I bought a bunch of Christmas presents. Next we went to a hill top park and took a bunch of pictures.



Next we went to a large urban nature park, took a 45 minute hike and then went out to some islands on the bay one of which had an aquarium park and a good view of the passing boats.



Don't forget to check out the rest of the photos, cause they took me forever to load.