We woke up still in the hell hole of Almirante and packed ASAP. I was of course extremely sick, so doing any task took a lot of effort. We hailed a taxi at 9:20 thinking that we could make the 9:30 boat. We did get there in time but of course the boat still didn't leave until 10:00. I was just happy not to see the men from the night before who clearly worked at the dock, although we did spot them as our boat pulled out.
It wasn't too long of a ride over to Bocas (maybe 30 minutes) but it was a good way to see the town of Alimante from the water. I was dismayed at how run down their homes were and Alyssa was terrified that each house had an outhouse that emptied directly into the water.
As we neared Bocas, the buildings and changed dramatically and we began to see a lot of tourists walking about. Although I am not always a fan of overly touristy areas, after one night in Almirante I was thrilled to see tons of other white people.
Once we landed, we went in search of a hostel. We found one quite easily off of the main street called "Hostel Hansi". Since we are staying here at least 4 nights, we got the nicer room with hot water and balcony for $28USD/night.
It is nice that Panama uses US currency (makes it easy for those of us using a different currency every week) although they often slip in one of their own coins and confuse me. We grabbed some coffee while we waited for our room to be ready and did some research on things to do in Bocas. It's not much of a scuba destination, so I think I will do some snorkeling with Alyssa. Bocas is comprised of a few different islands, so we are going to try to make it to at least three.
After this much movement, I was absolutely exhausted and needed to rest. This is the second day I haven't been able to eat much and I just had no energy. Finally I mustered the strength to walk around town with my sister. The town appears nice at first glance, although there is quite a lot of trash always strewn about. The more annoying thing though is that the local people here just hassle us constantly. I had gotten into the habit of being so friendly with the local people but now in Panama I either ignore them or pretend I don't speak English or Spanish because once you engage in conversation they will not let you go until you yell at them or buy something. It's really unfortunate.
After the walk, I was completely drained and had to lay down for the rest of the day. I felt really bad leaving Alyssa with nothing to do, especially because it was such a beautiful, sunny day, but I just could not move. Luckily, this hostel had a tv with one America channel that plays the WB shows so I was able to relax like I would have at home if I was sick. While I was dying in the room, Alyssa went to a local art show on the beach.
I finally convinced myself that I had to eat something although everything sounded awful. I ended up at the little market across the street and settled on making Mac and cheese since it was cheap and I knew I wouldn't eat much of it. The kitchen at our hostel is immaculate which always makes me happy. As I was cooking, I met a very nice girl from Costa Rica who is here on vacation with her boyfriend before she moves to China for a year to study tourism. It's funny how no matter where you are in the world, people and situations are actually relatively similar.
After eating about 2 bites of mac and cheese, I decided the best course of action at this point was to take an Ambien and pray I feel better in the morning.
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