Day 137 – Friday 3rd February 2006

I invited Yami out for the day to Portobelo, but she already had plans, so we arranged to meet up in the evening instead. When I got to the bus station and boarded the bus I was sat next to a screaming kid.

Whilst waiting for the bus to leave I sat there while this kid continued to scream. The parents of this screaming kid didn’t seem to hear him, but I did. After two minutes I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and left the bus.

I went and asked what time the next departure for Portobelo was and was told about an hour, so I decided to see if there were any buses to any other places I could go to. 5 minutes later I was on a bus headed to the town of El Valle. I had planned to visit both towns anyway so it was more of an itinerary swap than a change.

El Valle is about two hours from Panama City. It is a town in the mountains that lies in an enormous crater valley. As it is in the mountains it is also a little cooler than Panama City, so I had a little respite from the humidity of the city for the afternoon.

On my arrival in El Valle I left the bus and walked along the high street for a while. It was good to get out of the noisy city and into the country where the only sounds were the occasional bicycle and the birds singing. After walking for about half hour I ended up at a mountain side hot thermal baths resort. For US$1 I entered and was informed of the different things available in the resort.

That didnt take long as there was basically a mud treatment and two thermal swimming pools. I didn’t have my swimming shorts with me, so I stripped down to my boxers and doused myself in the mud on offer. After allowing the mud to dry in the sun for about half an hour I washed it all off and took a dip in the thermal baths.

After I got bored I got changed and was suprised to find that I had actually been in the place for a couple of hours. All the bathing had left me with an appetite, which was hardly filled by the spagetti I order from a restuarasnt on the highway.

Having walked back along the towns only road I felt I had seen all that El Valle had to offer, so after a quick look around the market I caught a bus back to Panama City.

On arrival I finalised the evenings arrangements with Yami. I had a few hours to kill before we met up for dinner, so what better way to pass them than by sitting on the balcony of my hostel with a few lads, beer in hand, watching the girls walk by.

Soon enough it was time to go out. Yami and I had a cool meal and ended up going to a few bars afterwards. A few beers turned into a few more and another late night ensued.