We still have the wind here, but this morning we woke to blue sky. Excellent start to the day and a great opportunity for more pictures. At this point though we have already grabbed all the photos we need from this place, so a few more with blue sky might be overkill. We had our breakfast and while checking email i ran across a note suggesting I had some work to do.
A couple hours of document editing in the darkness of our room, with occasional internet connectivity, and we both needed to get out and see some of that blue sky. We still had some details to figure out, like confirming travel to Panama and how to pay for it. Lucky for us, next to the stand that sells bus tickets was one of the many vendors in town selling return tickets to Bocas del Toro via their discounted shuttle service.
This one was a tough call. We could do the bus, border, bus, ferry our way over. The price of handing over the reins to someone else that will ease the process both to and from Bocas del Toro seemed worth it at this point. It has been a whole lot of travel coordination and setting up the two and from reduces the planning exercise to almost zero. We need that now.
We headed to the Megasuper in town and pulled out USD from the Scotiabank machine, then gave the guy cash in exchange for a ticket and couple of neon orange wristbands. When we are on the other end of this route, we can inquire as to what we should do with the wristbands. With that complete, we crossed the street for a couple smoothies and empanadas. Not near as tasty as yesterday, but an inexpensive and greasy lunch that will probably be digesting in our guts for days to come.
More window shopping in the afternoon. A dip in the ocean with me getting into some pretty big waves. Waves frisky enough to nearly strip my shorts off, which Melanie found to be quite amusing. I was 50 feet away and I could see she was nearly doubled over with laughter at seeing my white butt in broad daylight…with another big wave headed towards me.
It did seem like there were more people around than normal. It is only Friday, so maybe a few more bodies are in town for the weekend. Those cars all seem to park in a tiny lot at the tip of town. The occupants of those vehicles spilled out on onto the narrow strip of sheltered sand. One lady was laying in the sandy parking lot trying to get some browning underway. Why were these people not heading down to the black beach just a 5 minute stroll westward? Almost nobody over there, nicer sand…no trees for shelter, but there is a beach. Many things that we will never understand in these parts.
After some intense sun exposure while watching the pelicans dive for fish in the afternoon daylight, we headed back. Fine black sand will likely be travelling home with us now as it seems to be stuck to everything. With the sky almost clear today, it also gave us the opportunity potentially for a sunset. We dried off, changed and headed back out to a windy spot to wait out the end of the daylight…watching the pelicans continue to dive and feed on small fish brave enough to hang around the surface.
Dinner was again at the Bikini Restaurant. The staff now recognizes us and smile when we walk in the door. Another blended mojito and green curry for Melanie. A passion fruit daiquiri and what they considered to be chicken fajitas in some mango cream sauce. Interesting, sweet and tart…very nice with the rice. After that…a walk back through town and some window shopping before calling it a night.
Not much more to report. Should be an early start tomorrow and by noon we will be in hopefully a very new place. A place without a faint hint of sewer in the windy air.