I recently turned 24 but it doesn’t really feel like it. Besides the date on a passport, your age doesn’t seem to matter here as much as your willingness to leave your comfort zone.

I celebrated my birthday with friends in Jamaica and flew to Costa Rica the day after. Now I’m on an island in Panama and to say the least, I didn’t know I’d be here.

My 4-year-old laptop’s screen is damaged; there’s literally a bar in the middle with no pixel display. It doesn’t look like it’s going to improve which is unfortunate both for the web projects I am supposed to work on as well as my sanity. It seems a fitting reflection of my attitude since being here. And really, my attitude for the past year or so.

It’s 10 am and overcast, starting to sprinkle. Doesn’t really matter because I am shaded by the covered balcony at Hostel Heike, looking down the main drag of Isla Colón. Across the street is the city park named for Simon Bolívar where old men sit on the benches shooting the shit, women carrying toddlers. Taxis bump their horns at the newly-arrived tourists hauling their backpacks. Queen plays on a blaring AM/FM radio below me. A few minutes ago it was “Africa” by Toto.

After getting the low-down from a couple hippie-types in Puerto Viejo, my new travel buddies I met in Costa Rica and I decided to head to Bocas del Toro for the weekend. Thursday night, we booked the Friday 6 am shuttle to the border, in which we crossed the bridge by foot, paid  departure and entrance fees (probably got ripped off), and took the boat from Almirante on the mainland to Bocas.

We dropped our bags off at the closest hostel we could find and immediately headed to the first stop on and island-hopping pub crawl, Filthy Friday. I lasted until 5 pm before I passed out in a hammock. So I’m tired. I’ve been binging for the past 48 hours, taking it all in, so I wasn’t able to sleep until about 8 am today. The power went out which meant the air conditioning went out, so no sleep was to be had. I decided to finally start blogging.

I’m fucking 24! My memory is pretty terrible, so I’m going to give this a shot. We’ll see how it goes.

P.S. Power (and water) may have gone out, but the radio – now Tom Jones – keeps on!