Panama

I am feeling particularly blessed to be in Panama at the moment. The weather is perfect, the people especially friendly and helpful and it is an increadibly beautiful country. Wow.

So, I have been staying at Luna's castle whilst in Panama city. It is in the old city, in a colonial mansion near to the presidential palace, and the view from my room over Panama bay are amazing. It is a gorgeous city, very similar to Havana. A photographers dream, and although many of the buildings have run into disrepair as people left to the more modern area of downtown, they still hold a beauty and style that is magical.

After 2 nights here initially, I headed off to the San Blas archipelago. What can I say? Without doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. A collection of around 350 idyllic carribean islands. really, whatever image is in your head of paradise, I challenge you to create one more beautiful that these perfectly formed, coconut palm covered, white sand fringed islandets. The sea was also to die for. Crystal clear. Surprisingly, there wasn't as much sea life as I had expected, except for on one of the further islands - Holandes, where I was fortunate enough to swim with manta rays and an amazing beutiful, as yet unidentified shark. The sand around the island was literally teaming with sea stars. Unbelievably perfect. I am soooooooooo lucky!

Fron there I headed straight to the Northern highlands with the idea of walking to the highest point in Panama. Volcano Baru. However, I couldn't find anyone to accompany me, and the sensible side of me kicked in, so decided instead to walk the Quetzel trail. Whilst I didn't get the views I'd hoped for, this itself was an amazing trek, made all the more interesting by the fact that the path had been totally wiped out by a landslide at one point so we had to do a rather precarious scramble across a muddied and scarily unstable landslide site. Not the sort of thing I'd have mentioned in advance, but having survived and completed one of the most beautiful jungle treks I've ever done feel now it is safe to do so. The sign at the end of the walk had a warning and said the track was closed. Typical! Still, very glad we did it.

It was a good 8 hour warm up for my next challenge, the Inca trail. I fly to Peru this afternoon. I'm very excited. I really can't describe how lucky I feel to be having these amazing experiences. I can only hope the rest of my trip is as enjoyable and easy as this first stretch has been. Love to you all, Anne x