Costa Rica and Panama

So, I´m currently sitting in an internet cafe in Cusco, Peru so have fallen a bit behind with the old updates. Loving being back, all very familiar but really excited for Loretta to see the highlights too!

Anyway...

Our original plan was to skip through Costa Rica with one overnight stay in San Jose, but we decided to take in a few days of sunshine in the coastal villages of Cahuita and Puerto Viaje and maybe fit in a bit of surfing. Costa Rica is a lot more touristy (and hence expensive) than many of the other places we´ve stayed and although Loretta was very excited by the promise of lovely modern hostels, me not so much. My stereotypical view of the brash, semi drunken, young, holidaying, american was reinforced within thirty seconds of arriving in San Jose, the hostel was stunning but the fellow travellers, not so much.

We were keen to get to the coast so pleaded with the bus driver to let us sit on the floor, he generously gave us the steps and it was a really nice ride with a lovely view of the extensive banana plantations and the spectacular rivers and mountains. Costa Rica is beautiful.

Cahuita is a gorgeous little village on the Caribbean (northern) coast in the far east, we stayed there for a night. The surf was great, shame these surfers didn´t have the skills to match the waves - that´ll teach us for using semi professional boards, bring on the styrofoam boats next time. Although I did manage to stand up twice in around two hours and both times Loretta was looking in the other direction...

Puerto Viaje was a half hour bus ride closer to Panama, which, when we started didn´t seem like it was going to be anything special but each reading of the lonely planet was increasing our excitement at the prospect of lush coffee plantations, new year in Bocas del Toro and Panama city itself.

Anyway, Puerto Viaje is a lovely beachy type place which we thoroughly enjoyed. The next day we headed closer to the border on a local bus which left us on a road somewhere closer to the border... handy, given that we didn´t have a clue where we were. Anyway, a Costa Rican wide boy with his souped up green toyota supra saved the day answering the call of my raised thumb and took us to the border at great speed.

This was a bit of a quality ride compared to most taxis in Central America, which are pretty much consistent with those across Asia and Africa. Window winders are rare and if you want to be ventilated then it requires pulling over and the driver pushing the glass down from the outside. I tend to step out of most taxis having accidentally sent the car slightly closer to its inevitable end on the scrap heap. Pulling out my rucksac from the green supra (obviously his pride and joy) I noticed that part of the door trim had come with me, I hastily put it back and slammed the door - only for the window to come part out of its frame... thankfully he didn´t notice.

The border crossing to Panama bears a striking resemblance to the Bridge over the River Kwai, so a quick check for trains (and explosives) and we were in no mans land. Getting into Panama was a little tricker as we had to prove that we weren´t going to stay there forever, once we´d found an Internet cafe and printed off our e-ticket from Panama City to peru they let us in.

One dodgy exchange rate later and we were on our way to Bocas del Toro in Panama. This being New Year´s Eve our travelling companions cracked open the beers and shared them around the bus.

A few hours later (bus rides are beginning to merge into three categories - quick skips in chicken buses which generally last up to three hours, middle distance which range from the minging to the bearable up to eight hours, and the longer ones that slowly destroy the nerves between your knees and lower back with every bump and sway) we were on the boat to Bocas del Toro, the island archipelago off the coast of north western Panama.

New Year´s Eve is quite busy, everywhere and after an hours search (while Loretta sat in a cafe exercising amazing self control by not eating my share of the chips she´d ordered) we (I) found a decent hostel. We managed to stay up until midnight but had both been in bed for a few hours by then watching a film. Rock and roll. The next morning we felt a bit bad as we really ahdn´t made the most out of the festive period... oh well, there´s always next year.

New Year´s Day involved a trip out into the sea to spot dolphins and we were really lucky, a dozen or so were in playful mood and we got a few good snaps - really brilliant as I´ve never seen dolphins in the wild before...

After Bocas, we headed to the lovely mountain town of Boquete which is world famous for its coffee so a coffee tour, the next day followed by an afternoon on the river sunning ourselves really chilled us out.

Actually mentioning the river, many of Panama´s roads, coffee plantations and houses have been completely wiped out in the last few months by a massive flood. The river had obviously burst its banks a few weeks earlier and people were only just coming to terms with the devastation. In the buses there are dozens of scarred hillsides where the land has collapsed and wiped out homes, roads, and acres of tropical forest. It was a real reminder to me that the consumerism in the ´developed´world is driving us towards an unsustainable future where our demand for cheap commodites and levels of pollution is literally destroying people´s lives in far off places. In the UK, we won´t suffer until the oil, water, cheap wood, coffee, sugar, etc run out but people are suffering right now meeting the demands of our greed and are suffering as the climate changes irrevocably. (steps down from the soap box)

Panama city is amazing, we stayed in Casco Viejo (the old quarter) which is now a UNESCO heritage site and, despite being boxed in by very dangerous areas where tourists shouldn´t venture during the day, nevermind the night, it´ll be amazing in four or five years.

Any trip to Panama isn´t complete without a ride on the crazy diablos rojos buses (red devils) although they didn´t seem any more crazy than the other central american buses! We used these to get around while we were here and took them to Panama´s other unmissable sight - the canal. Brilliant seeing a massive oil tanker going through the Miraflores Locks (although somewhat ironically it had a huge green banner emblazoned on it saying ¿¡´protect the environment´?!) Hmmm.

Flying out of Panama City the next morning marked the end of our speedy trip through Central America - it´s been fun and although we´ve been going pretty quickly we´ve got a really good taste of the region and have had loads of amazing moments. We´re both really excited about the main event which, of course, is South America. We´ve booked our flights and having realised (sadly) that Colombia and venezuela will have to wait for our next visit, we´re going to Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina to be in Rio for Carnival before heading to the Pantanal and Iguazu for a few weeks before heading home in around two months time.

And photos - they´re coming soon... I promise!!