After 37 days of public transport, yesterday I rented a car for what should have been an easy day trip. Famous last words.

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Pedasí is a small town with some serious fish around it. I have never been fishing before, but I came in to this town with a friend who told me I absolutely had to go out with her. Up for a new experience, I agreed and at 5am the next morning I was in her jeep heading for the dock. There we met our fishermen—Avidel—who not looking all so great from a late night of drinking.  Apparently, this is pretty typical. So it took him a while to get his little boat ready, especially considering the tides had essentially parked it on the concrete.

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I write this blog entry having just emerged from the Darien, the great unknown province of Panama. Perhaps best known as the end of the road, the Darien Gap is the only gap in the entire Transamerican highway from northern Alaska to Tierra Del Fueg; it's a huge expanse of primary rainforest penetrable only on foot or in dugout canoe. It is sparsely populated by the few traditional Embera and Wounaan, who manage to live comfortably in the inhospitable environment. They know the terrain with amazing accuracy--they are to the Darien what Sherpas are to the Himalayas. Traveling in the Darien  is not for everyone: its wet, hot, itchy and generally uncomfortable, but its one hell of an adventure.

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Playa de Muerto  ("beach of death") is a hidden gem of Panama. Mountainous jungles surround the sparsely populated Ember village on three sides, opening up to the expansive Pacific Ocean. But getting to this little paradise is no walk in the park. The easiest option is to get a boat, but unless you have the money to shell out for a private trip, you'll need to hop on the public ferry. It only comes once a week and is loaded with everything the village needs for the week, namely propane, gasoline and other highly hazardous items. The trip only take 1.5 hours from the nearest town with a fast motor, but  large swells and harrowing waves of the open seas make it a bumpy ride. By the time I got inland my butt was seriously sore,  so I was happy to arrive at this beach paradise and crawl up in a thatched hut for the night.

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There are definitely poisonous snakes here—I saw one on the path. Though you probably won't die if you get to a medical clinic fast enough.