The journey was a pleasant one, which started with a 90-minute bus ride through seemingly endless banana plantations to Sixaola. From the bus, it was interesting to see the workers haul massive hands of green bananas onto hooks on a conveyor belt which took the fruit to a processing factory.
If you're not involved in tourism round here, your involved in bananas and small villages made up of basic huts have sprung up as fast as the banana plantations.
From Sixaola, we walked across a rather rickety disused railway bridge to get to Panama, where we got a pretty stamp in our passports. The first of many we hope.
We've got a pretty basic hotel here, but it's only $15 a night and seems safe and secure. Over the road, to the right there is a building site and to the left there are two Indians playing pan-pipes - I suppose the two cancel each other out.
Whilst in Bocas, we're going to spend some time helping our new friend Ian Usher bring some comfort to a little island he recently bought. But fear not, we'll also have plenty of time for drinking beer, snorkelling and lounging about on the beach.
After spending a few days enjoying Puerto Viejo, it's nice to get 'on the road' again and we're both looking forward to seeing what Panama has to offer.
And no, we haven't seen anyone wearing a Panama hat yet.
W&Sx