Week 13 – Bocas del Toro to Panama City
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Well, the final week of visiting Panama in July was a little eventful, to say the least. We started by navigating the border and local buses to reach David. A town that can be missed or a town that is a good place to break up the journey.
The David Hostel in Panama
We decided last minute that we wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to Bocas del Toro in one day. There were no hostels/hotels near the ferry port to the island, therefore, we opted to stay in David. That meant making a snap decision on the hostel before our phone signal stopped working. what a decision we made. We panicked and ended up booking the crazy cat ladies’ hostel/home.
This was my worse nightmare. Also, we are both allergic to them. We luckily were able to keep them out of our room. However, the cats and dogs that were free to roam around weren’t the only strange thing about this place.
Anyway, we went to explore the city of David mainly to grab food. I would say walking around this city had me on edge. I don’t know why but I didn’t get a great feeling from this place. Yet, we made it safely around. There is Uber here which we did use as the evening was starting to draw in.
The biggest something isn’t right feeling came from the hostel. When I woke in the morning to about 15 people staying on thin mattresses in the garden. It was a covered part but we were not expecting that. It didn’t feel safe. To top it off two men stopped by asking to use the shower which was strange. The lady did refuse at first but then let them in. We ordered an Uber and got out of there.
Well Our Experiences Didn’t Stop Here
Our Bocas del Toro hostel had bed bugs. The roads in Panama were now shut due to protests. We were on an island with no bus/boat out of there. Flying was the only option as no one could say how long the protests would last. In fact, Pamanain people protested nationwide for one month blocking every major road. This is disastrous as people couldn’t get medical help, food went to waste and petrol stations dried up. Anyway, to leave the island we booked a flight for Sunday… it was Tuesday. We had to book it as we had international flights we couldn’t miss.
The airline said we could turn up at the airport for each scheduled flight and see if anyone doesn’t turn up. This would be perfect as staying at that hostel was our unfavourable option due to the bed bugs. We did this three times on a Tuesday and finally, we got lucky. That meant we had to sprint back to the hostel, find a taxi (we did), grab our stuff, and get back to the airport in 20 minutes.
We made it. We went through the mini security and forgot about all our liquids in our bags. I lost my gin. Oh well, we made it off the island which was quickly losing supplies.
Visiting Panama in July Was Stressful
The last stop was Panama City. The protests had somewhat stopped here but there was the occasional one or two that popped up in and around the airport. This meant that on my final night here I had to treat myself to the airport hostel. I could risk missing my flight back to Costa Rica and then home.
This is the final entry from an eventful, beautiful, and incredible journey through Central America. Please feel free to browse my website for other travel inspiration.
