"Extra! Extra! Panama Overrun by Backpackers!"*

*first off, i need you to picture the little boy on the street corner (in black and white of course) yelling "extra! extra!" holding that days paper. then the paper spins towards the camera (as it would in a movie--usually a superhero movie like old batman flicks or something--and the headline is, ovbiously, "Panama Overrun by Backpackers." you can insert whatever images you want underneith that would go with the headline. alright, if you stayed with me through that one, well done, because i barely understand what i just asked you to do, and i thought of it!

Back on topic. So Bocas Del Toro (or Mouths of the Bull) is a nice town. Except the massive amounts of backpackers--and particularly goddamn americans--the town is great. and dont get me wrong, im all for little backpacker hangouts, but when the town is this small and theres so many americans....ugghhhh. most of them are cool once you meet them, i just cant stand that accent around the hostel and on the streets. but whatever, the good comes with the bad. although the bad doesnt just stop at americans overrunning the place. it rains almost everyday here for at least an hour. its never really sunny and all i wanted was color before coming home, well, i guess not. but theres decent cheap chinese food.

so i got here right away from panama city. i hung for a day not doing much, just loving having a bed after 6 days on a boat and a night on a bus. then tim and caitlin showed up, then the germans, then the brits, and the last couple days weve had the whole crew together with the addition of another british guy who may just be a full-blown alcoholic. the man drinks beer like nobody ive seen, apart maybe from the germans, but they dont have massive beer bellies and man-boobs. anyway, the last few days have been fun, despite the unfortunate weather. yesterday we took a snorkle tour and saw some amazing coral reefs and really cool fish. really cool jelly fish too, but they stung so you had to watch out. ive really never seen any coral like this. it blows away what we saw at playa blanca. every shade of every color you can imagine in the craziest shapes and textures, absolutley amazing. we also went to bahia de los delfines--or bay of dolphines--but after the boat from colombia the dolphines here werent that impressive. then we went to red frog beach, and although we didnt see any red frogs, the beach was quite nice. massive waves, it felt like the pacific they were so big. it wasnt dangerous but they would really knock you over. it was really fun playing out there in them, and we did some good body surfing too. then it was back to town, dinner and drinking.

There is a bar in bocas that has a happy hour from 7-8pm and during that hour the beer is 50 cents. normally they are $1.25. so naturally the six of us were going to buy a round each during that hour. so we each had 6 beers in the hour, and the germans and the british guy had 9 each. and then we had a voucher for a free tequila shot, so naturally that was next. fortunatly it was after dinner so we didnt get too drunk. we then found another bar and then a club, but the clubs in this town play aweful mainstream american rap all night long. i guess its the american traveller prevelence, but i feel like im at a high school dance or something.

The germans and caitlin left this morning, and time and i wanted to go to the beach today, but when we woke up it was raining. and the weather hasnt really improved over the course of midday. so im writing a blog instead. ill be out of this town tomorrow or the next day unless there is a drastic change in weather. check out the photos too, it starts with our second trip to playa blanca, then the mud volcanoe and the historical distirct in cartagena. then the boat to panama, and then, for some reason, it jumps back to venezuela. i dont know why. but there you have it.