Big City Time

Throughout the rest of Central America, I had avoided all the other capitals as they are pretty dangerous (some more so than others). So I was half excited to get a taste for city life again and half apprehensive to be visiting Panama City, even though it is known to be considerably safer. Actually the laws and police presence throughout Panama are more strike than elsewhere e.g. Taxis wont pile in 9 people and you cannot ride on the back of any trucks.

Regardless, the stop was a necessity on our route to South America as we had to arrange our sail boat trip over to Cartagena in Colombia.

We actually even managed to get a night bus from David to Panama City, whereas in the rest of central (apart from Mexico) night buses either don't exist or are a very bad idea!

We left Boquete for David at 7pm on Sunday evening, the last service of the night. The chicken bus was named the 'special bus' and had this painted on the side, along with a giant transfer of the drivers baby taking up most of the back! It was completely pimped out including black patent padding and disco lights! We even think there was a karaoke machine and the driver was singing the whole way to David!

What really topped off the bus was that one of the passengers was carrying a crate of chickens - our first chicken bus with actual chickens inside!

After a few hours wait in David, we successfully got on the night bus and arrived in Panama City by 6am, just in time for sunrise.

xxx