My phone keyboard is playing up again. I woke up not knowing the time and found that the Alt key had stuck down somehow, making it very difficult to turn the thing on properly to see the time. That seems to have fixed itself now but the g key is playing up slightly.
12:15. Just got here (to Cafe Ruiz). Couldn't get a cab in the town centre so walked, it was no big deal but just far enough that it was annoying against time and when I wasn't sure I wasn't wasting time and energy walking miles in the wrong direction. USD30 for the tour, my guide book says 20 if memory serves (no, I just looked, it says 14!), that seems a steep increase in about three years. Maybe they charge more for the 1pm excursion, though I doubt it.
Oh, they didn't ask me my name when I said I'd reserved a place on the tour. (I didn't literally say that, I am unable to determine the translation of 'place' in this sense from the unhelpful definitions in my electronic dictionary.) So I might guess there was no need to phone first. But I suppose if the tour was full then they might have asked me. No big deal.
Looking at the guide book, it says the last bus to David goes at 6:30pm. One of those women yesterday looked in the same guide book I have, though maybe a different edition, to check and said the last was at 9pm. Maybe it's changed, but I think she was looking at the David-Boquete route, which my guide book says runs til 9:30pm. (It seems odd that it's not symmetrical, given the same buses probably go both ways.) So maybe it's a particularly good job I didn't share their taxi, though I would probably have been at the bus terminal by 6:30 anyway.
I hope to have time to eat something here before I have to go back.
It is nearly 1pm now, I have this horrible vision of missing the tour, but all I can do is sit here, I haven't been told to go anywhere else. I hope I'm not the only person on it - there are very few people at the cafe itself, possibly none, even just as regular customers - though I suspect a lot of people will be being picked up from their accommodation.
Oh no, it's cool, some guy just came up and said there are two other people coming - so a bit of a small group, but at least it's not just me - and we will be leaving in five minutes. I hope at least one of the other people is not a native Spanish speaker. I want to do the tour in Spanish if possible, but if the group is too 'native' I worry the guide will give free reign to his tongue and not try to speak it clearly.
There is quite a nice view of mist over the mountains from here. It looks (maybe just because my mind is running on such lines) like the sort of picture you might see on a coffee jar.
It is overcast, I hope it doesn't rain, or at least not heavily. I have no waterproof jacket with me on the trip, and not even an un-waterproof one on my person. I think it should be OK though.
16:40. Just got a bus as it was leaving. Tour finished about 4 and I walked back into town and had something to eat at El Sabróson, as recommended by the guide when we happened to pass it. I had rice, frijoles and a slice of probably beef in some thin gravy. Quite acceptable and a bit over USD2.
The tour was pretty cool, though it was a private tour in the end as the other two people didn't show up. I did it in Spanish, the guide (Carlos) asked me if I wanted it in English or Spanish, and since he was able to clarify the odd difficult word in English I managed pretty well.
I was suddenly struck as we were going round the processing plant with a certain "O Lucky Man!" quality. Fortunately the subsequent tasting didn't end as in the film. :-)
I will probably go straight back to the hostel when I get back to David, I can have a few beers there as last night and I need to book accommodation (and ideally the damn canal tour) so I don't want to go out and be tempted to stay late.
I got an e-mail from expedia.co.uk with huge chunks of irrelevant boilerplate text telling me stuff I aready knew and hadn't asked about. The first paragraph basically said 'it works for me, there are vacancies showing for the date range you used'. I replied (which will probably bounce) saying that Panama City, Florida worked for me but Panama City, Panama didn't, thereby hinting that the support guy had got the wrong city (even though I was clear about which one I meant in my original support request). But I think they basically don't care. Maybe this is some obscure Firefox-only issue, I have to assume someone would notice if no one could book in Panama City, Panama, via them.
18:40. Got back to the hostel OK, after stopping off for a slightly pricey bit of chicken and chips at a different restaurant at the bus terminal. My taxi driver was a little uncertain as to where the hostel was but then seemed to know and said it would be USD1.50. When we arrived, with me offering him no help at all, he changed his mind and said it would be USD2. I would have given him 2 anyway (I am not tipping taxi drivers here on the advice of the guide book, but I am not waiting around for him to change a dollar and look tight) but a bit of a cheek. Still, even he wasn't that bad, and I have generally had no problems with the cab drivers here.
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