After enjoying more than 2 weeks in Costa Rica, we headed for Panama.
This was to be our first land border crossing since leaving North America and we opted for the DIY option as opposed to a tour operator that would chain together the 3 busses and 1 boat ride required to get to our next destination, an island off the coast of Panama.
We caught a very basic local bus to the border and piled off. It was then a case of hanging back and letting some other tourists pay a guide to lead them to the border crossing and across, and following them.
The border was a river which reminded me of the Murray at Albury and it was straddled by a rickety old bridge that was in somewhat disrepair. It was the coolest border crossing ive done. We crossed on foot and were soon joined by a local trying to guess where we were headed so he could drive us there.
We saw an unfortunate aussie backpacker step where a missing plank was and land groin deep in the hole with one foot dangling below the bridge. Ouch!
It turns out the bridge is much stronger than it looks as we had to hug the sides to let a huge semi trailer pass.
We ended up striking a bargain with the bus driver, half way between the price in our outdated lonely planet guide, and his asking price. We felt quite pleased with our efforts when the rest of the tourists paid the asking price.
