Panama but no cigar!

So, as visitors to Costa Rica, we are only allowed to stay for 3 months before we have to leave for 3 days, in order to be able to re-enter for another 3 months...and so on. There is no official visa renewal procedure in place. So we went to Panama for 3 days, to the Islands just off Panama to a place called Bocas Del Toro. It's a small group of islands just off the coast and they are pretty and very tropical. We are told it's where they film the series Survivor. Anyway we hired a hotel for 3 days and explored on our pink bikes, see picture! Rene didn't choose that colour by the way, it came with our hotel booking but he didn't seem to mind too much! It's very similar to Costa Rica, pace-wise and culture, except a bit cheaper.

The journey there was interesting. We took a bus, then a walk across the border bridge along with 100's of others, then another bus and then a boat. All of these vehicles/forms of transport were very cheap, but overloaded and at various times had randoms almost sitting on us! It certainly was an adventure. We were happy to get off the boat at the port of Bocas Del Toro, hungry and tired, and a bit lost, and ended up having lunch...in a bar on a boat! Most of the town is based around waterside properties on jetties over the sea, a cross between Venice and Florida Keys.

So we are back now in Costa Rica and have moved right into a new place...a house sitting job for seven weeks in a very nice house/villa for an American couple who have returned to the US for Christmas. It's too good to be true, but we have volunteered in various places doing good things and have met good people, and we were put forward to some friends of friends. So from good things... comes good things I guess (does that make sense?!). We are very grateful and treating the place like a palace as it certainly is by Costa Rican standards. We are in the jungle, about 10 minutes from the town and it's pretty remote and very detached. Our neighbours are US expats and they are near enough to hear us scream but not in sight. It's lovely. Photo's will follow.

It's been raining pretty heavily for two days so we are waiting until it stops to take some nice pictures outside. Anyway, back to work tomorrow at the animal rescue centre, so we are having an early night...the only thing is, we have got 290 satellite TV channels and it's a bit of a novelty as we have been withdrawing from it (the tv) for the last three months, so hopefully will be able to drag ourselves away! So you all keep warm back in England, we have seen pictures of the snow and it looks pretty deep. bye for now xx