Por fin.. ¡el caribe!

Yes, finally, finally, finally I am on the Caribbean. Clear, clear water; white, white sand. I'm in Bocas del Toro, a province in northeastern Panama, on Isla Colón. I have yet to see much of the island (urgent laundry needs and evil freezing night bus from Panama City and epic journeys yesterday on bumping diabolically painted former US school buses). I spent part of Carnaval in Panama City; it's not extensively celebrated there but the city does block of part of a major road that is lined with food and beer vendors, blaring awful reggaeton in competition for one's business (how this is meant to attract anyone is a little beyond me), where little and not-so-little kids throw confetti and spray silly string in your face. Fun for awhile but old very quickly. Next I went to Portobelo, on the Caribbean coast. It was pretty awful to get there: in an effort to avoid Colón, I got off the stop before, Sabanitas, in order to catch the bus from Colón to Portobelo. Brilliant, if every other panameño hadn't also been trying to go from Sabanitas up the coast. After missing 2 buses by not shoving children out of the way fast enough--as everyone else seemed to be doing--I got on the bus. In the midst of a very intense argument between two women about the shoving, I believe. It quickly degenerated into personal insults about each other and their mothers, while everyone waited for them to calm down. The bus ride was fairly awful as it was one of the brightly painted former school buses, and me wearing my huge bag in the midst of a pushing crowd on a crammed bus. Eventually it cleared enough for me to set the millstone on the floor. I met some Canadians who were headed to Isla Grande, a little further up the coast. I arrived in Portobelo to trash everywhere and pounding reggaeton (f'ing everywhere) por todos lados. Emily and I had reserved a room but it was about 2 feet from the main square with the music and we had to shout even in the room. Fortunately, there was another hostal away from the music. Portobelo would probably be a nice place to visit not during Carnaval, with ruins from the colonial fort. We had planned to go to Isla Grande for the day but was told (mostly incorrectly) by a Swiss guy at the hostal that the last bus returned at 1pm. Decisions decisions: to return directly to Panama City or hope to find lodging on the isla. Swiss guy said go to the isla, which is what we ended up doing. Isla Grande was picturesque, with tons of Panamanian families on vacation. There were very few white people, the exact opposite of my current location. We met up with the Canadians, who all attend McGill University in Montreal, who all then convinced me not only to visit them there but also to attend grad school there. This entry is going nowhere fast so I hope to move on to a slightly less touristed island tomorrow, perhaps. I did not make a fool of myself during Carnaval, for the record.