Rafting down Rio Picuare was absolutely amazing.  There were many class 3 and class 4 rapids.  I sat in the front of the boat which bubbled up and down quite a lot.  There were other rafts behind my boat where everyone got tossed out of the raft.  Everyone except for one in my raft stayed in the raft.  We rafted 20 miles over close to 3 hours.  It had just been raining a few days earlier so we got quite good water levels and flow.

  Yesterday I got to Panama City, which is the closest thing to a first world country I have seen so far this trip other than Puerto Rico.  Lots of cars and buses with psychedelic lights roam the streets.  Of course, I went by to see the Canal.  From far, I could see stacks of cargos, which I thought were just being stored by the canal.  When I came close, I realized they were actually sitting on a massive cargo boat that was going through.  It was 13 cargos wide, 18 cargos long and many cargoes high.  Because some of them are stored in the boat itself, I could not see them from the outside.  The guide there said boats can carry something up to 5000 cargos!!  Just imagine the size of that - 13 Mac trucks by 18 Mac trucks.  That´s probably a few football fields big.  Panama is in the process of constructing another canal which can accomodate up to 9000 cargos. 

  Tomorrow I fly to Cartagena and start S. America part of my trip.  I am super excited to see that part of the world, especially Cali for some salsa!