The rest of my time in Costa Rica was awesome and a little dried than before, thank goodness! And to update you... I didn't have any problems with my ATM cards, turns out it was all of the three machines in Monteverde which apparently don't accept mastercard even though the banks say they do! Crisis averted :) I spent my birthday on a bus and a boat gtting to Montezuma. Montezuma was soo cute, and small. The atomsphere was fabulous. I headed to the beach as soon as I arrived and met some French Canadians who were throwing a frisbee. We went out to dinner and they treated me to my bday dinner. After, I hung out with an Aussie I met in my hostel and the bar made sure to play their cheesy "feliz cumpleanos" song and some free shots of Casique.. the Costa Rican sugar cane rum.. Which is quite rough, kind of like rubbing alcohol. The days after that I enjoyed a waterfall hike with Adam, the Aussie, days on the beach, and a snorkeling tour.
After Montezuma, I headed back to San Jose stayed at a Radisson for free for a night and didn't fit in at all! However it was so nice to use the gym, have an awesome breakfast, a hot shower, and a mirror, some airconditioning, and an awesome bed.
The following morning I headed towards Panama. I heard the border crossing was scary and could take a while... but I thought this border crossing was really simple. My vietnam border crossing still tops all of them as the worst. The bus was stopping all the time for breaks and the people sitting behind me were very annoyed with this. I had prepared everything to cross the border but hearing the guy behind the desk was very difficult as it was torrentially downpouring rain and it was very hard to hear. But I had a receipt from the ATM proving I had 500$ in a bank account, a flight out of Panama (fully refundable), an address in Panama, and everything was fine. When I went to the immigration area to have my bag searched she just asked if I was with the tracopa bus and then she didn't search my bag.
Boquete is a beautiful small town in the mountains where a lot of expats from Europe and the states have chosen to reside. It has really great weather and a lot of charm. The married women are all wearing their traditional dresses, and sometimes the little girls too. I did a "waterfall" hike.. which a taxi driver lead us astray. We were trying to do lost land waterfall hike, but he dropped us off at a smaller, super lame "lost land waterfall" belonging to someone in his family i'm assuming. They charge an admission fee because it is on private property.. There was a small dribble of water coming down. Something similar happened the next day when a Candian, Australian girls and I tried to visit the hot springs. We took the bus, got off the bus and immediately a Canadian retired couple offered us a ride. They were also heading that way. They were incredibly well traveled, lived and raise kids in Thailand, Philippines, Indiana, & Canada. This was also on private property where goats roamed freely, and th actual "hot spring" was a little rock pool they had built.. We continued walking and found an awesome river to hang out and swim in because it was so hot after our walk hot didn't even sound great. Then we discovered there were also hot water pools in the river.. Pretty strange. The Canadians left and we decided to hang out longer and take the bus back instead of getting a ride with them back into town. It started raining but because we found rocks to put our stuff under we just chilled in the hot spring during the rain.
The next morning I took a bus to Panama City where I was picked up by my couch surfing host at the bus terminal. He took me out in Casco Antigo that night where we met some of his friends and enjoyed drinks on the street. Saturday morning he dropped me off at Panama Canal. The canal was really interesting for me. I had no idea it was so intricate and costs big shipping boats so much money to go through but it saves them so much time. So for the big cargo ships like in my pictures, the cost is by weight but one of them that went by when I was watching is $300,000. The ships go from Pacific to Atlantic for a few hours in the morning and the opposite way in the afternoon. It takes about 8 hours to get from one side to the other. There are three "locks" which are kind of like water elevators because certain portions of the lake are different heights than others. So in these locks the boats are pulled through and water is emptied to the other side and then boat continues. This is the slowest process in the crossing. It saves boats 10.000 miles to go through the Panama canal. Boats sometimes must wait 3-4 days for their turn to go through. When the boats are going through the Panama canal, they must surrender their captioning to the Panama Canal staff! Cool stuff right?
After that I explored Casco Antigo again the Tamir, my couch surfing host. We had ceviche and fish at the fish market. Sunday I booked my trip to SaN Blas Islands and stayed in a hostel because we would leave at 5am. San Blas was absolutely incredible. The island I stayed at, called Senidup had such simple accomodation with a toilet and a shower made of pvc pipe. The floor was sand and the roof were palm trees. Food was included in the cost of the accomodation and very simple. Fish, or chicken, some sort of carb like french fries, or patacones, (fried green plaintains) and then a few vegetables sometimes in the form of a salad, and rice. Absolutely no fruit! I was really glad I had a banana however the birds and ants got to all my snacks soo had to toss them. Spent both days swimming, relaxing, and reading on the beach. Absolutely paradise.
Returned from paradise and met two other cuoch surfing girls at the bus terminal to get to our ferry across the country (the narrowest part) in Colon. It was one hour or so. We arrived and they hadn't even started check in or anything so spent the afternoon and most of the night in the terminal just hanging out. The ferry was delayed a little bit. We booked a cabin so had a shower and bathroom. We enjoyed the night drinking some beers on the top deck and meeting a band who plays on the boat, the crew, and some other travelers. The ferry service just started so it was pretty empty but it was kind of like a mini version of the NCL cruise I took with my family. Pretty big with lots of ammenities. The crew and the boat were italian so talking with them was interesting because they are still working on their spanish and english soo it was tough to figure out which language was better to speak in. But we had so much fun and some really good conversations. The next day our cabin was so dark we slept until about 12:30pm. Then we were allowed to exit the boat at 3pm. Immigration was a breeze, she pretty much looked at my American passport, asked me my job, why I'm here, and where I'm staying then off I went. Again, didn't have to have my bag checked or anything :)
Cartagena is such a beautiful city and so far everyday has been a clear blue sky. The next morning I went with an Italian guy and a girl from Philly to a castle in the city, then walking around the old city which has a very old and european feel and is just adorable. Ladies are selling fruit on their head wearing Carribean dresses, horse drawn carriages take people around the city, people selling coconuts, and lots of snacks, and others just living their life :) Bocas del grande was the beach where we headed next and it wasn't a super awesome beach but was fun to sit on the beach, buy ceviche, fresh juice, or really anything on the beach. It was mostly all locals enjoying their saturday. it's funny to think how people from different countries enjoy the beach.
Friday night out in Cartagena I joined some people from the hostel and went to a salsa club where it was a tiny corner bar but everyone was dancing and having a great time. Immediately people were buying drinks for us. After that we were going to head to a club but decided to join the banter on the street instead. The Colombian guys paid for the group of guys on the street to serenade us. We danced while they sang at the top of their lungs and danced. I noticied there was a gringo in the background taking a video of this scene and so happy I asked him to email it to me. I have to post this soon! Then we met an adorable couple from Bogota who were on their honeymoon. After we failed at getting into the club, we decided to head to a restaurant to get some beers. Before you know it was the sunrise and time to get some sleep! What a night out in Cartagena. Saturday night I enjoyed some drinks in Plaza \Trinidad where everyone is drinking, chatting, listening to music, boys are playing soccer, girls are rollerblading.. such a cool sight. Sunday I headed to meet up with the Brazilian girls again and couch surf with their host, we mostly just hung out and cooked meals together. I'm trying really hard to work on my spanish but it's difficult because they use some portugese when they speak sooo it's difficult but it's getting better and better everyday! This afternoon we are headed to Playa Blanca. I plan to stay there overnight and then visit Totumo Volcano before I leave Cartagena as well. The next stop after that is Santa Marta, Taganga, Parque Tyrona & Palomino. Colombia has already been such a gem.Con mucho amor de Colombia,
Nicole :)
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