Panama day 52 Feb. 29

We cleared out of David this morning at about 9 a.m. (or what we thought was 9 a.m.) Turns out there was a clock at the bus station that told us we were out by an hour as it was closer to 10.
We boarded the old school bus for the one hour drive to Boquete. I think it cost $1.50 each. The drive was mostly uphill all the way and the bus stopped wherever anyone wanted to board it. At one point it pulled over under a orange or lemon tree and as it pulled away a branch flew in the upper half of the windows. As it passed me I was treated with some fresh fruit that got knocked off. We disembarked at the town square which is only two blocks from where we'd made reservations so it was no hike to get here. The place is beautiful! Our room is close to the river which passes by our balcony. There are flowers everywhere and the river flows at quite a clip. It's also cooler (in the 70's) and very windy. We went for a walk after settling in. Lots of art and souvenir shops. We also saw some huge cactii. Stopping for lunch we had a great meal of a B.L.T on pumpernickle bread. We then found a wireless internet about a block away which is free. Tied the skype but no one was around. We also bought a 26'er of rum for $7.50! Yeehaw. I've died and gone to heaven. Beer is $1.00 a bottle.
When we got back to the room I turned on the mac to download the days pictures and lo and behold we've got free wireless here! Now I can have a cold one while I type.
Tomorrow we're going to a coffee plantation (so I can boost some coffee beans to bring home). Then maybe a hike up the hill across the river. We've also heard there's a bus that will take us near a waterfall which we want to see and it's only a 4 km. walk downhill to get back. That's it for today. This is THE place!
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29520&l=ba8d9&id=680056043

Panama day 51 Feb. 28

Well David isn't much more than a big noisy city. Other than the city park across the street there are countless clothing and shoe stores. We were able to find a bank that would accept my m/card so we got enough U.S. funds to last us through our next stop and get us back to Costa Rica. We've booked a place in a small village East of here called Boquete. The population is only around 1500 which will be quite a change from here.
We took a cab to the bus station this afternoon and picked up our tickets for Monday morning. The bus leaves at 8:30 a.m. so we have to leave Boquete very early in order to catch it. That will be a long day for sure. We'll probably stay in San Jose again and then take another bus to Liberia where we'll catch another one in the direction of Punta Islita where our third bag has been stored at Jim and Patty's.
There was another concert in the city park across the street tonight. We missed a bunch of little girls all dressed up in traditional clothes. They must have been dancing. There was also a young guy about 17 singing. He had an incredible voice like that of an opera singer which you'd never figure coming from such a young man. During the concert we were standing down on the sidewalk with parked vans behind us on the street when all of a sudden they started letting off fireworks on the street side of the van. These were skyrockets and going off right over our heads which was a little unnerving to say the least.
You'd think that would be the excitement for the day but as we lay here listening to the audio book on the computer there was an earth tremor! We were shaking and vibrating for several minutes. Hopefully that's over with. I thought someone was under the bed for a minute there.
That's about our day. Looking forward to leaving in the morning as this is just another big noisy city. Every driver is in love with his horn and the car alarms only work when someone is singing in the park. When we made our reservations this morning for the next three days Jo talked to an American who was on the other end and he described it as a beautiful place with a veranda facing the river and very quiet. There's also a lot of jungle trails with wildlife according to the travel book which is our constant companion. It will be nice to get back to the piece and quiet of a small village. Guess we're still hicks at heart.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29514&l=6af3b&id=680056043

Panama day 50 Feb. 27

Well last night was an experience to say the least. Our room was nicely equipped with 3 bunkbeds. period. We both took a bottom bunk and after covering the windows with blankets we listened to another 10 chapters of an audio book I have on my computer. That usually puts us to sleep (and then we have to replay the last 3 chapters the next night).
Jo was the first to wake up freezing as it gets cold in San Jose at night. She grabbed an unused blanket and I toughed it out with the sheet which still had three threads to the inch left in it. The next wake up was when someone turned on a light in the hall and it illuminated the whole room. I thought someone had come in but if they did they found it was too cold to spend time robbing us and left to find a warmer room.
We got up just before 6 and skipped the breakfast and headed with our packs to the bus station which the travel guide book said was just three blocks away. Well they got that part right but the bus we needed had moved to a new facility 2 km. away so we cabbed it. Nice new facility and we got our tickets and left promptly at 7:30 after picking up a sandwich and some drinks for the ride. We stopped around 9:30 for a pee break and then hit the road again. The bus wasn't full and because they gave out claim tickets for baggage we'd stowed our packs underneath which gave us some leg room for a change. We stopped again around noon at a nice place and had a pork chop, rice and salad for lunch. We left there after about a half an hour only to stop about 15 minutes down the road. We waited for another 20 minutes while the yahoo who'd missed the bus leaving caught up to us by cab.
The Pan American Highway climbs for the first two hours of the trip out of San Jose through beautiful country with a good highway, pullouts for slower traffic, and many switchbacks and hairpins. It's hard to get pictures while speeding along and invariably there'd be a blurry tree in the middle of every picture. We were on the wrong side of the bus to get pictures of the clouds below us and the river we followed. We went through a cloud forest and dense jungle and on up to where the trees were very low to the ground and scrubby. This was all a protected game reserve which is really nice to see that land has been set aside to be saved as is.
As we neared the border the trucks began piling up beside the road. It also began to thunderstorm very heavily. Fortunately the exit to Costa Rica was under cover and all we had to do was get our passports (which we now know the number to) stamped. I think that cost about $2.00. We then piled back in and headed to the Panamanian side. First we got our passports signed and turned in our lies about not bringing any plant material into the country. Then we went to another wicket to pay the $10.00. Then we retrieved our bags to be inspected. When I picked up our packs there was a guy sitting in the baggage compartment who wanted a dollar. I asked him what that was for and he said for watching our bags. So much for needing a baggage claim check as he didn't know me from his illigetimate kids. I told him to see my business manager who was still getting something stamped. Next we took our bags into an inspection area where he did a less than thorough job like pulling out Jo's emergency toilet paper and dirty laundry. (It's all dirty at this point). Then the guy who showed us how to fill out the entry forms wanted a dollar for not robbing us. Jo's a soft touch and paid them both. I'd have just played dumb and told them I'm American and don't savvy the lingo.
At last we were back on the road after they finished spraying down the bus to kill the Northern roaches, soon to be replaced with Southern ones. The first thing we noticed in Panama was how clean and well kept everything was. It was obvious that they are a lot better off than either the Nics or the Ticos. It took about an hour or so to reach David (that's pronounced Duh veed not David.) That's so they can tell the tourists from the Latinos but we fooled them by practicing earlier on. We caught a cab right away for $1.00 who brought us as close as he could get to the Hotel. It's across from the central park which was blocked off due to a bunch of local garbage trucks who were having a parade with all their equipment. Really! This was accompanied by lots of horn honking and fireworks. After they all left there were some singers and dancers in the park which we watched from the balcony of our hotel. It was quite entertaining and the singers were really good. My favorite was La Bomba and I think Ritchie Valens is alive and well.
We checked out another hotel for tomorrow which is just around the corner and $10 cheaper. This room has two single beds and the one I'm on creaks if you look at it. It's a nice clean room though and has a/c which will probably give Jo a cold again if we leave it on. Her cold by the way has gone thanks to the antihistimine we got in San Jose. We picked up some more before we left just in case. Actually I think it's draino in a tablet form as it sure worked fast on her.
We have hot water in this place so it was a great long shower for both of us. This is a very modern high tech city. The internet in the foyer only requires you to insert a dollar and then your good to go for an hour. Tomorrow we may look for a wireless place. That's it for today. We're looking forward to seeing the downtown core but other than that I don't think there's a heck of a lot else to see so our days here are numbered and then it's on to Boquete which is East of here and higher up and thus cooler.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29513&l=a981c&id=680056043

Al Cotton

Costa Rica day 49Feb. 26

What a day! We took a cab from the central park to the Transnica bus station. The cabs here will pick you up even if they have passengers so we stopped off at two schools to drop some kids off and then off to the depot. That was like driving in a demolition derby. Bicycles either have the right of way or a death wish as they ignore the horn completely. We got there at 7 a.m. and I went to get some orange juice for the drive. We already had 3 large sandwiches which we bought yesterday and they sure came in handy. The bus left promptly at 8:30 a.m. and two hours later we were at the Nicaraguan border. The bus drivers helper took our $8.00 each along with our passports and headed to wherever they stamp them. We had to wait outside the bus in the dust and wind and the beggars (buggers) until he came back and then we were able to board (1 hour gone). We then headed across the border to the Costa Rican side. Everybody off along with our packs while we waited in line for an hour to get them stamped again. How could it take so long to get your passport stamped when the guy doesn't even look at your face? There were at least 150 and probably more, people standing outside waiting there turn to go in. We then went back to the bus to be told we had to get in another line to have our baggage inspected. Great but there was no one there to check the bags. The inspection area consisted of two long benches that we threw our bags on and waited for a half an hour for the guy to show up. When he saw we were Canadians by the flags on our packs he waved us through. Thank you God! We finally got under way at 12:30 only to be stopped at 1:00 pm for a roadside check where we again had to show our passports. You've never seen a border crossing like either one of these and it's a major deterrent to stay out of Nicaragua.
I noticed when we boarded the bus that it had music and movies. Yahoo. Ever watched the same Claude Van DAMN movie three times in a row? Geez by the third time I new the lines. The music was old 60's stuff from much music which beat the hell out of C.V.D. We gradually began to climb over the mountains only to get stuck behind every tractor trailer in Central America which were having a helluva time making it up the hills. The bus seats were becoming like cement blocks as were our asses. We stopped for 15 minutes to let the blood begin to circulate in out butts again. Jo went to the can which was a good thing as the bus didn't have a bathroom. Fortunately I'm like a camel but the thought did cross my mind "what if?".
When we arrived at 6:30 we found that this bus station was only about 4 or 5 blocks from the B&B we'd booked last night by email. Same old story. They didn't get it so there was no vacancy but then he offered us a backpackers room in the rear. It has three bunkbeds and a shared bathroom and shower. For sound effects we have to people on either side of the building coughing up chunks of lung. Fortunately we have the room to ourselves so we have lots of room. We'll both pass on having a shower here. The room is $10 each and the tv doesn't work and there's no fan or a/c but that's ok. We had to make the beds up ourselves so we got to pick the best mattresses. ha. We also had to cover the windows with the blankets or we may as well have slept on the sidewalk. I'll have to take a picture of the room with the blankets adding the ambience. It's a good thing I've lost some weight or my butt would be touching the floor on this mattress.
We'll skip breakfast tomorrow and get over to the other bus station as early as possible to hopefully get a ticket to Panama. It was too late today to go over there and get a ticket so we'll see how that goes. That's it for today. Another long day coming up and hopefully the border crossing will go better.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29511&l=3f2bc&id=680056043

Nicaragua day 48 Feb. 25

A rest day. We had breakfast and then went to the bank to get enough U.S. to get us to Panama. We also went to the farmacia to get Jo some more antihistamine and then went looking for the post office. Bought a set of stamps for the Nic. album and we have a few of their coins to be included as well. We also went to a new internet called the Garden Cafe which was wireless and free! Brought the blog and facebook up to date and then tried out Skype again. Talked to Lance, Tony, and Jo's mom and her sister in Hawaii. I'm going to like this cheap calling. We talked for over an hour and think we used just over $1.00. I had hoped to catch up with Lance again around 3 pm to see how the Skype computer to computer worked but the two wireless internet places were both closed by 3. Bummer.
We have to be at the bus station tomorrow by 7:30 a.m. which leaves at 8 for the 10 hour trip to San Jose. Two of those will be messing around at the border I imagine. We're using the transnica busline for the first time so we'll see how that goes. At least we have reserved seats. If the bus isn't full maybe we can put our packs on another seat instead of on our laps.
We also picked up 3 sandwiches to tide us over until we reach S.J. Jo sent the B&B there an email to reserve a room for us. This is the same place we've stayed twice before. Hopefully they get it as it's close to the other bus station we need to get to Panama. I think that may be a long trip to and so far we don't have a place to stay down there so we may have to wing it.
There are some street entertainers here every night. One is dressed like an 8' tall lady and a little guy dressed llike a dwarf man. They're accompanied by two small kids who can really beat out a tune on their drums. I got a video of them the first night and was hoping to get a photo tonight before we leave but wouldn't you know it, they're not out today for the first time.
Well that's a wrap from Nicaragua.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29510&l=b133b&id=680056043