David, Tuesday night

Photos of David, the springs today and the first batch of Panama City photos are now uploaded: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45804996@N03/sets/

I will presumably be adding more photos to the Panama City set once I return. I did wonder about just shoving the spring photos into the David set, but since I am not putting descriptions on individual photos it seemed a better idea to separate them, if only for my own convenience when I use the uploaded ones as a guide to organising the entire set of photos on my return to the UK.

Writing this out on the hostel terrace with a beer. It's quite pleasant. Beer at 1USD a bottle on the honour system is not bad, not as cheap as e.g. Cervantes, but hardly unreasonable and you can't beat the convenience.

I just saw something crawling along the wall above my room (which is right at the front), it looked too long and thin to be a spider but I suspected it might be a cockroach. Turns out it was actually a small lizard when I went to look, which was quite cool. I tried to take a photo but didn't like to use flash and I don't think it will come out. This is the first time I've seen anything like this, I half hoped to when I was in Mexico but I never did. I gather at least some of these things eat spiders, so, yay. :-)

I was quite chuffed with myself for not getting worked up about the lack of a bus earlier. I was getting a little bit concerned that something would have to be done but I just didn't seem all that worried.

Have found another cruise company for Panama Canal tours (sadly it looks as though the monthly full transit with the incommunicative people was last Saturday, but no major loss and I did try, so it's a partial transit only whoever I go with, unless there is a third company which seems unlikely based on my web search). Unfortunately their online booking seems to be encrypted with an invalid SSL certificate or something which causes Firefox to scream loudly. I may try to call them tomorrow. Some review I found online while trying to check they are a valid company not some scammers suggests their boats are better than the ones for the "recommended" but uncommunicative company as they have viewing platforms at both ends. The price is about the same so I think I will go with them if they are not fully booked. I may try their web site again tomorrow morning, time permitting, but even if I have to call I'm no worse off than with the other company and I haven't built up a grudge against this company yet, though the invalid SSL certificate isn't exactly encouraging. At least they are trying to allow online booking.

I tried to book a hotel in Panama City but expedia.co.uk are still giving that "you tried to go to an invalid page" when you search for hotels there. I have e-mailed them, I may try again tomorrow (it looks like I will be booking last minute again, sigh) and failing that I will just try to book somewhere half-decent on hostelworld.com. From my brief perusal of some listings in those tourist papers/brochures I saw at The Londoner, it looks as though serviced apartments may be very pricey there anyway.