Day 127 - Tuesday 24th January 2006

After catching a water taxi to the mainland of Panama, on the way passing through what looked like a shanty town on stilts, I caught a bus to the town of David, Panama’s third largest city. It proudly boats that it is the hottest place in Panama, however after being there for about an hour I could not see how that was a attraction.

The British are known for moaning about the weather, in winter its always to cold, and in summer its always too hot. I usually try to refrain from doing this as I like both hot and cold, I just don’t like it when its windy. However I will make an exception for David. Hot and humid, it didn’t really have much to do as a tourist, it was just a convenient stopping point for the towns in the highlands from where I wanted to do a few hikes.

I found myself staying at the Purple House hostel, which was totally purple. Everything, even the cups and plates were purple. I think too much purple can make you go a little nuerotic, and it had certainly happened to the owner, a middle aged American woman. If she told me one rule of the house, she told me a hundred. Every two minutes she came n and reminded me of this, or said not to do that. In the end I went to an air conditioned internet cafe to get out of the heat, and away from all the hot air she was spouting.

I had met an American guy on the bus ride down and we decided to go out in the evening, so we bought a bottle of rum, drank half of it and went to one of the many casino’s in town. The last casino I was in was in Vegas, and this didn’t compare a patch to that. Not really wanting to gamble away my budget for the day I was content to have a few beers in the bar and watch the sports on the big screen. Not much else was going on in town and I didn¡t fancy going back to the hostel, so I stayed there until it was time for bed, when I had to return to the Purple House.