Back to Panama City

Now were back in Panama City for one day and then we fly home ... Still bloody hot and humid out here ...

I've posted a pic of a lovely spiral building ... Called the F&F Building ... That's completely empty!!!!

Bocas Del Drago, Starfish beach & Playa Bluff

Bocas Del Drago is the beach on the northwest corner of Isla Colon ... Nice beaches and then a 20min walk along the beach to Starfish beach

We had coconut water from coconuts (duh!!!!) and Maya had hers opened up so she could eat the coconut meat. The guy cut the edge of the coconut to create a thin wedge about 2" x 4" to create a scoop/spoon

Then we went to Playa Bluff to see the big waves ... Where they hold surfing competitions in September

Then a pic of Maya dipping the sandals in the water on the dock at the Tropical Suites to wash out the sand

Bocas Del Toro

Bocas Del Toro is beautiful ... Incredible clear water ... A complete tropical paradise ... With our new wonderful hotel Tropical Suites ... The owners (Chip and Jamie) ... We are absolutely living it out here. Getting plenty of R&R

Being in town is great ... So many places to eat just a short walk away ... Music out here is great too ... Mixture of Reggae and Latin and Ska

Bye bye Ecuador ... Hello Panama

We are now in Panama City ... Here for one day then off to Bocas Del Toro

We did visit the Panama Canal (Miraflores Locks) and watched a ship go through the locks going from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The ship had only 2' gap on either side to the edge of the dock!!! What an amazing feat of engineering!!!!

Incredibly hot and humid out here ...

Fire fire!!!!!! Wot, no hotel?

So while we were settling in at the Hacienda Pinsaqui in Otovalo, Ecuador ... We get an email from our tour operator that they had some bad news ... The hotel that we had booked 8 days at in Bocas Del Toro called Playa Tortuga had a fire (on May 24) and are now closed until June 26 (our reservation was from June 1 - 9)

All the color drained out of our faces (including our newly acquired tan) and we started calling around to find a new hotel (with just few days notice)!!!!

We managed to find Tropical Suites in Bocas Del Toro that had some rooms available ... We were really relieved ... Especially when we found out that the Playa Tortuga is the largest hotel in Bocas Del Toro with 120 rooms ... The next largest is the Tropical Suites with 16 rooms. Needless to say rooms were being booked up quickly ... We found out later that a lot of people were not informed in time ... They made the trek to the Playa Tortuga hotel to find it closed and then they had to trek back to Bocas Del Toro to find any accommodation ... The manager at the Tropical Suites had to turn away a couple on their honeymoon because they were completely booked up by then ... We were pretty lucky ... Phew!!!!

Otovalo

In Otovalo the largest market forms on a Saturday ... We were visiting it on a Wednesday ... It is still a large market. We went to the local produce market and tried Sweet Cucumber ... It tasted really sweet with a hint of cucumber!!!

The middle of the world, Bizcochos, weaving and Crater Lake

On our way to Cotopaxi we stopped off at the Equator line ... Didn't get time to do a scientific experiment trying to flush a toilet in the southern and northern hemisphere to see which way the water spins :)

On the way back from Cotopaxi, we stopped off at a place to have Bizcochos (flakey pastry made with pork fat) and hot chocolate.

We were eventually heading to Otovalo (famous for its market). During the Spanish occupation, they created towns that were schooled in certain skills (I.e. weaving, leather work, wood carving, etc). We stopped off at one of the weaving places.

Our last stop was Crater Lake