First days in Panama

Alright. well you´ll have to excuse the layout of hte blog. I am still triyng to get used to the whole thing, and havent quite figured out how to include photos, and caption them, and line em up and all that. So much to write about. I got in Friday afternoon, and wrote a little about the flight, and the thoughts and what not. Things have been going great. I got settled into the hostel, and hung out for a bit, did some internet, and then Aaron and I took a walk around the part of town where we´re staying. Its called Casco Viejo. Its a part of town that is apparently in the midst of being gentrified, so there are many buildings that are mere fascades, with absolutely no intertior at all. Others have squatters living in them, and others have been completely remodeled and house hotels, and apartments, and some great restaurants. Walking around, and checking things out, it was amazing. It is so much different than anywhere I have ever been. I found myself liking it almost immediately. Walking around, it was great to check things out, and catch up with Aaron. The conversation wasnt much more than basic, how are you type of stuff. When we got back to the hostel later that night, we took out some maps, and started plotting out the trip. Aaron showed me the route he had planned for us to take, and we started talking about it. Up until this point, I hadnt done anything as far as research and looking at where we were going. It was all starting to hit me just what an undertaking this thing was. The trip is going to be a blast. On one particular stop, we´re actually going to be right near a set of islands that we may be able to go and hang out on for a day or two. We totalled up the miles and everyhitng, and it was actually more than I had originally posted. Rather than doing the 230 miles that I thought at first, I am going to be covering 312 miles. OVER 300 Miles!!! WOW! hahaha. I couldnt believe it. For each stop, I have started reading a bit about the places in the Lonely Planet book that Aaron had. Its going to be great. From what I have seen so far of the city, and everything, I can only imagine how beautiful the country side and small towns are going to be. Looking at it on the map, highlighted and plotted out was a trip for sure. I cant believe I´m doing this, I think to myself sometimes, but then I smile. After that we cooked up some fajitas in the kitchen for dinner, it was really good. Fresh tomato and onion chopped up and put in tortillas with some steak, and cheese. MMMMM. Good stuff. Later that night we walked down to this club maybe a block or two away. It was in what looked to be an old church. They had all kinds of differnt art on the walls, and it was not modern, or state of the art by a long shot. It looks like they just took the bottome floor, threw some bences in there. Built a really rag tag bar, and got acouple speakers and an amp, and voila! A club. It was a lot of fun though. They had a Brazilian capoeira performance, a brazilian dancer, and a drum show. It was bad ass. After that it was just dancing, and hanging out. I am not sure how late we stayed out, but it was a great start to the trip.