The photo shows a fuzzy beige patch with a brown stripe in a tree. According to our guide at the Tortuguero Canal in Costa Rica, said fuzzy patch was a 2-toed sloth. Right. I was actually more entranced by a flock of little black bats asleep on a palm tree. They looked like black ravioli pasted in a vertical line on the trunk.

Our tour driver was a real pro at avoiding the millions of potholes that the government has decided there is not money to repair...this in a rain forest area that gets 250-350 inches of rain per year (and it didn’t rain a drop while we were ashore!). Off the main road, there was far more hole than pot, and a one-bus-wide bridge that I would not have gone over by myself given any kind of choice!

We have just pulled up next to the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama, so I’ve got to get ready to go ashore and get my share of molas!

- - - So I’m back on board, cooled off, cleaned up, and we’re rolling (literally) back up the coast to the Panama Canal which we will traverse tomorrow. And for the first time, I came back from the San Blas Islands with less than $40 worth of molas instead of my usual $200 dollars worth. Of course there’s still plenty of opportunity to change that total before we leave Panama...

Now we are in the middle of the Pedro Miguel locks at the Panama Canal.This was the first time I have seen the Centennial Bridge over the canal...a lovely construction.