The Ticos and The Britgirl (Costa Rica and Panama)

17th March 2008

Yes ....I'm here in Costa Rica FINALLY.
I arrived a day later than Karl thanks to an overbooked flight and greed on my part :)
AA offered me $800 voucher and upgrades to fly one hour later.
However, the kicker is it was through LA (not direct) so instead of arriving at 11pm like Karl I did´t hit Costa Rica soil until 6am. Missing my first night in a hotel room in San Jose ;(

Poor Karl looked so forlorn as I waved him off at the airport.
He was clutching the hotel details and "Spanish for Dummies", whilst I held the AA voucher tight, trying not to jump up and down in glee :)
It was¨t so bad really...the business upgrade made my night flight more pleasant.
I got delayed in La though due to another oversold flight(yes I was tempted to volunteer again but thought Karl would kill me!!)
After landing in Costa Rica I got a taxi straight to the hotel only with time to see the room Karl had enjoyed the night before...Then checkout and it was straight to the bus station and onto the public bus (standing room only)
North to La Fortuna..6 hours and many stops !!

La Fortuna is a small mountain town at the base of Arenal Volcano (the reason we came)
Its got a handful of restaurants, a handful of bars and a million travel agent/tour companies. Pretty much all the outdoorsy, adventure stuff can be done from here.
Its typical in that its full of Granola crunchers and hiking types as well as more adventurous college kids.
The Volcano towers over the town.

VOLCANO FACTS

Its one of the 10 most active in the world !!
Its one of the most dangerous in the world...no gentle lava flows here (chunks of rocks blown out on a regular basis !!)
You can¨t climb too high due to previous (RECENT) deaths...damn rules !

Right now Arenal is on Yellow alert meaning its been more active of late and could erupt ...hmmmmmmmm. What I love it the car parks close by tell you to park your car facing out in case of sudden evacuation
So...um...well...if I'm not back at work on 24Th you know what happened !!??

Its also pretty rare to actually see the full volcano as, for the most part, it is shrouded in clouds...but the day we arrived the sky was clear blue and we saw Arenal and all her glory (has to be HER right with all that unpredictability right ;))

Yesterday (17Th) we spent the whole day doing tours in the area....The hanging bridges at the rain forest (it did rain), swimming in a giant waterfall (it was cold)









Then later in the day we took a hike up Arenal (as far as we were allowed to go)
Clouds covered the top so we couldn¨t see the bright red exploding rocks which sucked but we could see the red hot boulders being flung down the mountain side.

It was pretty spooky with the sounds of the eruption going on behind the mist and then just BOOM BOOM red rocks coming into sight.

The day ended at Baldi Hot springs which is a super nice (IE expensive) hotel with 25 pools/thermal baths fed by water heated by the volcano...some were too hot to even set foot in (another sign that the volcano is at an active level. It was fun though and we met a couple of travelling Canadians who helped us down a few drinks later ;)


I tried the mega slide there which was friggin ridiculously fast and flung me upside down and round and round before dumping me into the biggest pool with a sore head and split lip (lip healing nicely thanks !!)
NEVER AGAIN...It was Megan's idea (crazy Canadian) to do the slide (the boys didn't) and was probably fueled by the Pura vidas we had downed prior

Today we woke to amazing storms so decided to catch up on mail etc and wait for the sun to show (it is now actually)

TO BE CONTINUED.....

19th March 2008
Today we leave Costa Rica to head to Panama.


Yesterday we spent the whole Day with our new Canadian friends; Bo and Megan.
They had a jeep making it much easier to get around.
Costa Rica is much more geared towards tour travel and a little more difficult for backpackers regarding public transport
Having a rental car is pretty much necessary for exploring the surrounding countryside, unless you want to stick with tour groups all the time.
However cars are expensive and are more prone to crime, so this worked out really well for us :)
First we tried to go Zip lining (which me and Karl had done prior in Honduras) but it was crazy busy with hoards of bus tours so we bailed and drove around the area sightseeing instead.

We ended up at the Volcano Observatory Lodge where we proceeded to down Margaritas.
One hike trail was closed, but whilst the boys played chess me and Megan took off to explore it...The hike was grueling, but fueled by tequila we made good progress ;)

As night approached the views from the Lodge Observatory were stunning.
Sucks that it was dark and the camera couldn't capture what I experienced; but to give you a visual.....it was red hot lava boulders being thrown down the volcano side.
Now this volcano is nothing like Pacaya (see Guatemala pics) so you cant get close at all.
The boulders I speak of are the size of cars...so understand we are at a decent distance ;) Being on Pacaya (prior) I had been in awe at how close we were to the Lava (touching distance)
However, here I was just as spellbound at what I was seeing.....An explosive, erupting, dangerous Volcano which if she decided to blow (it will happen) we would be gone. Pooof.

Our night of merriment ended a little premature with Megan getting sick...Food or Tequila? We may never know. lol


Thursday 20th March
Panama

Here we are now in Bocas del Toro...An island cluster in the very north of Panama.
Getting here was quite an adventure on Nature air.
The Fortuna airport was little more than a corrugated iron shed. They weighed our bags and then they weighed us !!!!
Our plane to San Jose (first flight) was a four seater. As it was oversold ??? I got to sit alongside the pilot. In the co pilot seat....!!!!!!!

It seems crazy not to have a co pilot...I was looking at our sweaty, older pilot thinking please please don't have a heart attack today.
As we took off I made sure to not exactly what he was doing and figured out where the landing gear button was just in case ..........
Of course we landed safe and switched to the second flight from San Jose to Bocas.

Bocas Del Toro is a pretty little Caribbean village with all the buildings along the waters edge on stilts. There is no town beach but water taxis run all day long to any beach you care to visit (there are many)
We headed straight to Red Frog beach and stayed until the sun went down. The local kids run up with the poinsonous (tiny) frogs on palm leaves !!
Apparently this beach is private land so the (water) taxi dropped us at the opposite side and we had to walk through the jungle to the other side in order to get to the beach...it was wild. I kept reminding Karl we were wandering through the Panamanian jungle alone. As we cleared the trees the most pretty beach came into sight

There were very few people there; as its more of a surf beach that a snorkel/dive place so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves.
Its also not the typical White sand like many here, but more yellow and overgrown....but stunning all the same. We stayed until the sun set and the sand flies came out in force to eat from the gringo Buffet we were providing!

Nightlife here is MELLOW...bars and restaurants.
Lots of music but more Reggae style and less Techno...I'll survive I guess ;)
The people are super friendly and mostly black Afro Caribbean like in The Belize Cayes.
There are tourists but more younger of the surfer/dreadlocks kind..."The unwashed" as my dad used to call them.
It all makes for a relaxed, chill (safe) vibe.
Last night storms came through and its still raining now so I figured I would catch up on the blog whilst we wait for the sun to return.
Poor Karl who doesn't like boats or small planes is having to suffer through this second leg of the adventure....Hey he got plenty of Volcano excitement at least ;)

March 21st 2008

Today we wanted to head to the beach that Panama Survivor was filmed on.
We found a water taxi who would take us there, via a few good beachs/snorkelspots first.

The day proved quite an adventure when a huge storm moved in and we got pelted with rain part way into the day.....making us detour to a different beach and pretty much get stranded there until a lull !!!
I felt like Castaway with my "Wilson" Coconut in hand :)
Sorry.......photos to follow, as I ruined yet another camera !!

Karl was hating life (IE me !!!) with the storm waves + rain + small boat !!!
Still we really did feel like Survivor Panama for part of the day... so I say be careful what you wish for :)
All in all the snorkeling was great; as the coral was all live...I found fire coral the hard way :(
The best part was we got followed by dolphins AND saw a huge sea horse whilst snorkeling which was amazing to watch

Its Good Friday today and they take their religious holidays pretty serious here. Last night the supermarkets were full of tourists stocking up their alcohol supplies. Today we found out why.....No alcohol sales of any kind
Therefore we took dinner at an Indian (Hindu) restaurant where the liquor was free flowing. Even there it was funny that they "hid" the TajTINI (yes that was the real name) in a metal cup so as not to offend anyone.

Tomorrow there's time for one more beach before flying back to San Jose (Costa Rica)

March 22nd 2008

Today dawned bright and clear so we took another water taxi (same guy who incidently was an "extra" on Survivor Panama) to Starfish beach. The name became pretty obvious as we pulled up to the beach and saw tons of Starfish all over, all sizes. I couldn't believe how many there were

The beach itself was gorgeous...Long narrow and almost empty.

I now love starfish !!!!

They were fascinating to hold their little vibrating bodies....Their "teeth" are on the very bottom but it seems maybe they don't bite?!?? I don't know ....but I did stick my fingers right where the mouth is and I still have all my digits !!!

The boat driver says they do have teeth and infact a second stomach which extends out their bodies to eat bigger prey. Ok..Maybe they are not quite so cute !

From Starfish beach we went to a busier place called Bocas de Drago...but there were plenty of quite spots for snorkeling. The Boccas Del Torro area of Panama is SO undeveloped still.

The beaches are all backed by forest and palm trees.....some white sand and some yellow but all overgrown and stunning.

I hear that so many developers are jumping on the "Panama bandwagon" and in just a few years there are some huge planned resorts.

Later we had to fly back into Costa Rica back on Nature Air (Costa Ricas Safest airline apparently !!) We had to divert through Limon so landed late in San Jose.

In a full circle we are back at the same hotel we (well...really just Karl) started out at. The Don Carlos in downtown San Jose. The area is pretty sketchy as we just found out when wandering looking for dinner and a supermarket for cheap souvenir shopping :) We are in the Barrios which does seem more iffy but at the same time its prettier than the high rise downtown (chain hotels) . The Barrios is more old, old neighbourhoods with pastel run down buildings but also nicer B&B type places

March 25th 2008

Im back in the Big D now. Another adventure returning home involving delays, storms and another flight voucher :)