9th post.

Yes, i had some lovely days in Quito. But although the capital of Ecuador isn´t the largest city, but because of its location in a valley between fairly high mountains it certainly seems so. That´s why i didn´t get to do by far all the activities available, but we did go to one of these surrounding mountains, "Teleférico". This we did by cable car, taking us from the general city altitude of 2800 ms to 4200 ms. Great view!

Some of the other things we did included sitting in the nice roof terrace of the incredible Secret Garden hostel, go to watch champions league games and also experiencing the night life. We´d heard that warnings about not walking around in the wrong areas at wrong times were to be taken more seriously here than elsewhere, but we were still pretty safe sticking together as a group. I should also maybe mention that we went to eat at mcdonalds on wednesday (9/28). After getting home, my stomach started feeling sort of funny. This feeling soon turned into bottomless ache, forcing me to spend the rest of the evening in traffic between bed and the toilet. In addition to the 5 hours i slept this afternoon, i also slept through the whole night, but still felt very funny in the morning, at which point i decided to stay in the whole day. The next decent meal i had was a very nice veggie dish with different legumes, mushrooms and cheese, but i could only eat half of it. The day after was more or less the same story. But i just had to get out of bed, so i spent the evening on the roof terrace. When the night came, my fever had went away, which was a good thing for my flight the next day. Didn´t feel much better then, but my flight wasn´t until 4 pm, so i figured i´d be ok.

I did although go to the airport at 12, because my travel partner Ane, who i was going to meet at the final destination of my flight, Panama City, told me that the check-in guy had told her that in order to fly into Panama, you need to present proof that you are also flying out of Panama to the immigration officials. This was of course a problem, because we intended to cross the border to Costa Rica by bus. After discussing the clumsy nature of this rule with the check-in guy, she eventually managed to make him give her a fake plane ticket. But in case of any trouble, i was there early. The check-in guy at Quito airport did although not know anything about this rule, so it was now all up to the officials in Cali, Colombia - the destination through which my flight was connecting.

The flight arrived 15 minutes early to Cali, giving me 1,5 hours to pick up my luggage, check in and get to my new gate. One could only hope for a quick immigration session. But no. Leaving the gate, i was soon confronted with one long line for final arrivals and one for connecting arrivals. This differed from what one of the "lane managers" told me, who only nodded when i asked if i had to get into the long one if i had a connecting flight. 20 minutes later, i learned that this girl didnt speak a word of english, which meant that she had answered my question firmly without having any clue what i was talking about (much like me talking spanish in bus terminals, but whatever). Some nice colombians told me to get into the other line, and after having stood there for 20 mins, i was still only half way through it. it was now 45 minutes to departure time of my next flight when a nice lady picked up on my "light" anxiousness, and let me sneak into the express line. After a little while she told me that my luggage had already been checked into the next plane, but there were still quite a number of obstacles i had to pass. After doing the immigration into Colombia, i ran down to the arrivals area where another nice girl was waiting with my boarding pass. She guided me back into departures and to the desk of copa airlines. The lady behind the counter asked me if i had a plane ticket out of Panama. Heere we goo.. But it turned out that my plane ticket from San Jose to Havana would do. Wow. After another lady had searched my hand luggage, and i had showed my passport for the 4th time, i was ready to board the plane, 10 mins before take-off. Certainly makes me want to put Colombia on my travel map!

Arriving in Panama City at 8 pm, i knew that i could get a shared cab for $11 to the reception of Trump Hotel where my travel partners were located, so that i did. After meeting with Ane and her friend Odd Einar who had come in from New York to travel with us for two weeks, we went to our first hostel. The room had A/C, thank god, because the outside temperature was about 30 degrees. At night. And the humidity, my gawd, the humidity! So this is what the last two months has in store for me? Bring it on! I was still not feeling well, though, but the excitement to meet these two good people, and not least being able to speak norwegian again, somewhat made me forget about the whole thing.

On the next day, we decided to get the late evening night bus to Bocas del Toro, a group of Islands in the northwest of Panama, not far away from the border of Costa Rica. So, after getting the ticket, and getting rid of our luggage at the storage room in the bus terminal, we hit the Panama Canal at what was called the "Miraflores Locks", which was quite a mansion. Seeing the descent and elevation of the water with the giant ships in it was a cool sight while having a marvellous buffet. Finishing of with a little museum tour, we went to the old town, so Ane could get her shots at a bunch of great motives. Very nice area! After this, we took another taxi back to the bus terminal, to go shopping for food and water for the bus ride at the super market, and of course to charge our phones in case of wi-fi on the bus. (Kidding, just to have that music..).

After about 9,5 hours on the bus, we were woken up by a very enthusiastic bocas del toro-guy who brought us straight in the back of a taxi pick-up, in the rain, with our luggage. What a kodak moment. After this, a boat waited to take us to the main island of Bocas del toro. After about 45 minutes, we entered Keike hostel at 7 am. After a short breakfast, we all went to bed and slept till noon. My stomach was again very bad, so the others went to the pharmacy to get some colorful pills for me. My body was also at this point in very much lack of nutrition, so today i purchased some vitamins as well. And with yesterdays wonderful dinner of pasta, chicken and legumes, i was for the first time able to hold a meal in my system for more than 10 minutes since thursday..whoohoo(!)

Today, i took it quite easy, while the others went to check out the diving facilities of , which were apparently ok. I still feel very lazy, and the stomach ache varies greatly through the day. Might hit the doctor tomorrow to get rid of this shit (literally) once and for all.

For now; so long!