Road to Cahuita

Tried to get up early so I could be as productive as possible before I had to leave; even though the first part was successful, the second one failed. It was almost check out time (11 am) and still I was trying to decide what goes in the backpack, with me, and what stays in the duffle bag at the hotel; I was so late in fact, that by 11 I simply dragged all my stuff in the middle of the hotel hallway and continued to divide up things. I knew I had until 2 pm to make my way to the airport, so I was in no rush. Eventually I asked the lady at the hotel to call a cab, since it would only be a 2 or 3 dollar ride to the airport. The car showed up almost immediately, and I got in and to my luck, I had a very chatty driver, which made me realize how little I had been using my Spanish for the last few weeks. He really seemed to like Canada and Canadians, and had only positive words to say about the country – in his younger days he was a sailor, so he had been to Montreal and Vancouver many times before. I enjoyed our little chat, gave him a tip though he dropped me off at departures, not arrivals, then made my way downstairs with the elevator. As soon as got off, I hear Donna’s voice and I realized I was late, though a more correct way of putting it was that her plane was early. We had a quick smoke then went back into the airport building, heading to the Budget counter to fill in the paperwork for the rental car. This was definitely going to be ten days of seeing the country from a different perspective, as I had relied solely on buses (or Brendan’s van) until this point. We got everything set, including passport photocopies that the guy at the desk was happy to accommodate, and then we went outside to wait for the shuttle bus. We were told that it would be there within five minutes, but I already knew those to be 5 Costa Rican minutes, so we settled in for a while. Eventually the shuttle arrived and even the driver apologized for the delay, which was not a big deal by any means – we took the short ride on the Inter-Americana and then off it, to get to darling Toyota Yaris that would be our white mechanical horse that would take us across the country. We did the usual inspection, after which we were just about to leave the parking lot without as much as a map. I went inside and got a map, though it was a basic one, it was better than nothing.

So finally we drove off onto the highway, already feeling the adrenaline of being in control of our fates and going wherever we pleased. We drove towards San Jose, only to run into a big stumbling block: we didn’t know how to find the caratera Limon. We ended up driving in circles, hitting dead ends, and just overall becoming frustrated. Often times we thought we were heading in the right direction, only to see the road turn in front of us. We eventually got out of San Jose into Guadalupe, only to hit another dead end, have to turn around, drive past the central park and return back to the capital. That’s when I decided that enough was enough; I stopped by the University of Costa Rica, at one of its campuses, and took the bold step in asking for directions. As a group of men were debating amongst themselves what the best way to the highway was, a young student ran back inside of the building, and returned a few minutes later with a piece of paper and a pen. He proceeded to draw me what ended up being a very good and detailed map, complete with points of reference, which happen to be the only way that I can orientate myself. It was excellent, and though he asked me several times if I understand, and I nodded and said ‘si’ as convincingly as possible, I still had doubts, until we hit the highway to Guadalupe again, though at least going in the right direction. We found all of the landmarks he had marked on the map, and within fifteen minutes we were on the caratera Limon, getting out of San Jose and towards the mountains.

What a relief! It had taken us over two hours to get out of San Jose – it was about time to see the rest of the country. As soon as we got out of the central valley, we drove through Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo, a fantastic drive as it was getting dark; at some points we hit cloud patches where I could barely see the road. After passing through a pretty long tunnel cutting across and through a mountain, we ended of drive through the national park and headed towards Guapiles. It was already dark and the bus station was about to close as we parked the car and bought a phone card. After a brief break and phone call, we were back in the car and willing to get as far as Puerto Limon before stopping for the night; I was concerned that if we were going to push to Puerto Viejo it may be too late to get a room for the night. So after driving down the mountain and through the banana fields (we couldn’t see them but knew they were there), as well as avoiding all the potholes in the road, we eventually arrived in Puerto Limon. This is where the road became unknown since the bus promptly veered to the right when I was here last going to Puerto Viejo. We ended up driving through the town only to see prostitutes and drug dealers at every corner, as well as by-the-hour-hotels - certainly not the type of image Costa Rica would want to project, but it is a port city after all, so what can one expect? After a drive through town the decision was unanimous: we’re gonna keep on driving, not matter how long it takes – too bad that the drive further south from Puerto Limon is really beautiful, we just had to do it at night.

We continued on and didn’t get into Cahuita until after 9:30 pm; the town does close down very early, so by the time we found a cabina to rent for the night, we had to wake up the owners, or at least disturb them from their activities, so that we can get a room for the night. The girl took one look at us and said, in Spanish, you guys are so tired – we knew it but didn’t want to be reminded of it, but we still smiled politely and admitted the state we were in, and of course we took the room. Once we moved our stuff inside, we got back in the car and headed to the super, the only one in town that was still open. Luckily for us, we were its last customers, and they promptly closed the metal door after us. We headed back to the room to plan the rest of our time together and all the places we wanted to cover and see over the next week or so

Manuel Antonio National Park

We wanted to go to the National Park early in the morning, since those are the best chances to see the animals, but we weren’t sure if the park opens at 7 or 8, so we decided to wake up by 7 and aimed to be at the park by 8. Kellie had us fall for an april fool’s joke, as she claimed with a serious and freaked out expression that she had found a snake in the room. We had a quick breakfast and stopped by the bakery to get some pastries and sandwiches for lunch, as well as picking up water, since there are no facilities in the park. My bus was leaving in the afternoon, so I knew I only had half a day in the park itself, but I had already been there two months prior. We walked on the beach, crossed the small stream, then continued walking on the path for only a few minutes before we arrived at the entrance. While waiting in line to pay the admission fee, an iguana passed right by our feet, spooked by the tourists on the beach and their flashes (who uses a flash on a sunny day???), and then ran off into the forest for some peace and quiet. Once we entered the park, we followed the path until we reached a fork in the road. I stopped along the way to take some pictures (no flash, lol) and to read the plaques to learn about the trees and the fauna in the park. We took the path towards the main beach, the one with the leaning palm tree that is seen in almost every postcard from here. We didn’t see any monkeys, though there was a sloth high up in the trees at one point, no doubt sleeping as it does for the vast majority of every day. Even though we didn’t pay for a profession guide in the park, it is easy to identify where the animals based on where the groups are huddled.

Off the main path, we headed towards Punto Escondido, stopping along the way at what I dubbed ‘crab beach’, though the official name escapes me now. Last time I was here there were so many hermit crabs that I tried my best not to step on them, but this time, though the holes were there, they were nowhere to be seen. We did see a few iguanas, who didn’t mind us getting closer to them to take pictures. After a walk over the rocks to an even smaller beach, with yet another iguana, we got back on the path and continued through the forest. Along the way, we saw a few capuchin monkeys, and stopped for a while to admire as they were jumping from branch to branch. We got to the mirador point, and after a brief break and much needed water, we retraced our steps back to the fork in the road. Here is where our group split up, with most going towards mirador playa Escondido, while we few of us deciding to return to Playa Manuel Antonio for a much needed dip in the water. One our way back, we deer crossed our path, and all of us exclaimed ‘awww, it’s Bamby’, which kinda spooked its mother who split up from the little one. I managed to take a picture of the baby, but then we decided to move on so that they can be reunited. We also saw a few more sloths and a group of howler monkeys, but these were further up in the trees. We picked a spot on the beach, and promptly jumped in the water, which was warm as soup and very clear – definitely a good snorkeling spot. We were soon joined by the rest and spent our last few hours together hanging by the beach.

Eric found himself a pair of swimming goggles, and we each took turns trying them on, but we had little luck in seeing a lot of fish – for good snorkeling you have to go further out from where all the people are swimming. We returned to the beach and found some shade to get away from the direct sunlight, and settled down to read. About ten minutes later, a guy stopped by to inform us that we were under a Manchineel tree, one of the most poisonous ones in the country, where not only its fruit and leaves are toxic, even the sap from it can irritate the skin. I did see these trees at the entrance of the park and I had read the warnings, but it didn’t even cross my mind to think about that when we settled in. We thanked him and promptly moved away; after another swim, I found a spot where I could sit on a tree trunk and continued reading. Next thing I know a capuchin monkey is right beside me, and walking even closer. I snuck away to grab my camera, and then realized what brought it over – Kellie had just finished eating an apple, and threw away the core. It is organic ‘trash’ so no harm done to the environment, but for the monkey, that was lunch. After grabbing the apple core, it moved further up in a tree to savour its meal; I soon realized that this is the decoy monkey, whose role is distract the tourists so that the others can sneak up and start searching bags. What followed was a good twenty minutes or half an hour of what I can only describe as a ‘nature paparazzi frenzy’. A whole group of us followed the monkeys, taking pictures and videos, and amusing ourselves as the occasional tourist got into a tug-of-war with one of them over a t-shirt or beach towel. Monkeys here are very used to people, and they are experts at opening zippers and ruffling through our belongings; I was even cautioned to keep my bag close to me – I replied that there was no food in there, but I learned that since the bag itself came from the bakery Musanni, the monkeys had learned to recognize the logo. In the process of following the monkeys, we managed to spook an iguana, who started running away from the group, and in returned spooked people as it made its way further down on the beach. Once their ‘attack’ was over, the group of monkeys disappeared into the trees almost as fast as their entrance. We returned to our beach spot and needless to say the conversation revolved around what we had just seen an on how lucky we were to see them so close up.

As the saying goes, ‘all good things must come to an end’, so as it went past 1 o’clock, I started the painful goodbyes… I have been traveling with Dana and Paula for almost two weeks, as for Kellie and Eric, I have been with them off and on through three different countries and we have known each other for over a month, a lifetime when it comes to travel. With hugs and kisses, we promised to keep in touch and share pictures whenever we got back. They were still spending another day in Manuel Antonio, while I had a bus to catch to return to Alajuela that evening. I took the walk towards the exit to the park, all the time reflecting on how much time I had actually spent with these friends and how I will be missing them. I went through the exit and headed back to Costa Linda, running half the time (which is surprisingly difficult in flip flops), and got there in time to finish packing and go to the bus stop. One thing I can say is that buses in Costa Rica, especially the direct ones, respect their schedules; not only that, but I had an assigned seat, this time much closer to the front than my trip to Puerto Viejo. We left right on time, passed through Quepos and Parrita, by which point the bus filled up. I read most of the ride to Alajuela, though I stopped for a while to admire the scenery as we approached Jaco, but seeing the high rise condominiums and hotels, I was instantly reminded why I never liked this place to begin with. After a quick stop at a soda to grab a bite to eat or something cold to drink, the driver made the sign of the cross and then we headed into the mountains. I was racing to finish my book by the time I arrived at the airport, and managed to do it just in time. I wasn’t the only one to get off there, grabbed my bag and then patiently waited for the bus to take me into town. It was already getting dark, and I was anxious to get back to the hotel, since I had so many things with me (trying to avoid traveling at night as much as possible). I got back to Hotel Paradise Alajuela, met a nice dutch couple who were at the end of the trip, and chatted with them for a bit as I was checking in. I was able to get my ‘usual’ room, grabbed my duffle bag, and made a quick trip into town before it got too late. Once reunited with my laptop, I spent the evening typing up blog entries and chatting on skype. I called my friend Donna, who was arriving to visit the next afternoon, and decided to play my own april fool’s joke. I pretended that I missed my bus, that I was still in Manuel Antonio, and would not return until the evening the following day. Despite the prospect of being in a new country and waiting at the airport for several hours, she was un-phased by that, so I had to admit that my joke failed miserably. I spent the rest of the evening wasting time on the internet, which always happens when you are free access to it, and started getting ready for the road trip the following day.

Manuel Antonio

As the backpacking days of most of the friends I was traveling with were coming to an end, we decided to spend the next few days by the beach, making the most of the sun and the water. mosSot of us just stayed on the beach at Manuel Antonio, though Paula and Danne did take a trip into the National Park. We stayed fairly close to the van, taking turns watching it or going into the water, even Suzie got a bit more used to the hot sand and ventured out of the van for a while. Aaron and Brendan were busy for a while putting up the hammocks, debating whether they had enough rope for both, but eventually the decision was made that there wasn’t enough. Still one hammock was all that we really needed, since the rest of us had a place to stay. I took a few breaks from the beach, mainly to go use the internet, but by now I had learned that if I went to use one of the computers at the hotels, versus using the internet café, the price would be much more affordable. Upon my return from the café, I ran into Eric and Kellie, for whom I had booked a room at Costa Linda once we arrived there the day before. Paula and Danne returned early in the afternoon, thrilled with the national park and all that they got to see and do there. The rest of us planned on visiting it in two days, since the park is closed on Mondays. Danne was leaving on the 5:30 bus back to San Jose, since his flight departed early the next morning for Peru, so he had to go back and gather his bags. To pass the time until the bus came, we chose two tables at Marlin’s restaurant, just in time for happy hour and 2 X 1 drinks. We barely got to sip our first drinks when it started dripping; not a big deal, especially in such a humid place, but it soon turned into a downpour. It was so heavy in fact that we had to relocate to another table inside the restaurant.

And this is when the sad goodbyes started – we had all been traveling together for at least a week, though for most people it was two, as for Kellie, Eric and I it had been more than a month since we met at Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua. Danne was the first one of our group to leave, and we all wished him well on his continued adventures. He was really nice and even got bracelets for all of us, all different colours that he thought were fitting; and he was absolutely right: he picked a dark blue one for me since most of my clothes and my backpack are all the same shade. The toughest goodbye was between Paula and Danne, and even though they had their private farewell at the bus stop, it was really hard to lift up her spirits when she returned. It was a bit of a downer experience for all of us, though we did try to joke around and bring the situation around. We all reflected on how the rainy season was looming over us, and how it arrived a few days early, but with vengeance. We really had been lucky with the weather these last few months.

After is got dark, we returned to Costa Linda, where we had a small dinner, and then walked to the van, where the fire was already going. The machetes that Aaron and Brendan bought really did come in handy for chopping up the wood. We took turns adding to the fire and fanning it to keep it alive (which brought about more jokes, many made at Dana’s expense – though she was a willing participant). We played a few drinking games, but mainly we used the evening to reflect on the times we had together, as our group was about to be disbanded even more after this day. Even the cops showed up at some point, all of us thinking that we would get into trouble for having a fire on the beach; however they just came in to check up on us, to make sure that we would be keeping the fire under control, and telling us to be careful as there had been a number of thefts reported in the area. We had already had first hand knowledge of this from David, but we thanked them for their attention and then they were on their way. As the wood supply was diminishing, the fire started to dwindle and so did the party for the night. We headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep, knowing the next day would bring more hugs and tears.

We woke up as Aaron, Brendan and Audrey came by our hotel – they wanted to use the showers and bathrooms before continuing their road trip, and we had one more breakfast together. We started to refer to these as our ‘last dinner’ or ‘last breakfast’, losing sight that most of us were to continue traveling, just in separate directions. Once they were ready to go, we asked to accompany them to Quepos since the rest of us needed to buy bus tickets for our return to San Jose in the next few days. That’s where we said goodbye to Aaron, Audrey, Brendan and of course Suzie, who were first going to meet a friend of Audrey’s in Jaco, their destination being playa Herradura. They were planning on continuing to make their way up north, wanting to leave Costa Rica as soon as possible (by now we had all realized how much more expensive it is to be here than, say, Panama or Nicaragua). Their ultimate destination is California, and I still hold out some hope that I may run into them when I return to Central America. After a few hugs and well wishes, Dana, Paula, Eric, Kellie and I were left at the side of the road, looking as the van drove off into the distance. Those were great memories that we created together…

Though Quepos is not much of a big town, we spent a bit of time walking around, stopping at a bank machine, and looking at some shops before buying our tickets to San Jose. Paula and Dana stayed behind, since they wanted to do more shopping, while the three of us briefly stopped at an internet café before catching the bus back to Manuel Antonio. Eric and I returned to Marlin’s and had lunch, an expensive but really big and really good burger, then we joined Kellie on the beach. She had splurged on beach chairs (I think this was the first time I had used them since the beginning of my trip), but unfortunately it wasn’t much of a beach day. The sky was overcast, and after about an hour or so, it started to drip, so we took refuge at Costa Linda. Luckily it was just a quick shower, so we did return to the beach afterward, but our hopes for a nice sunset were all but dashed. I took a walk with Eric to what we thought was a book exchange not to far from the village – I was wrong on both accounts: it was neither close nor a book exchange: just a book store, and the walk there seemed so long that we were ready to turn around as we got to it. He did manage to buy a book and we retraced our steps to where the girls were on the beach. We still stayed out, and in the end we got to see a few rays before it got dark, but nowhere near the sunset I had experienced there before. I should have remembered this from before as well, since Manuel Antonio’s slowest day is Monday, when the park is closed, many restaurants and bars also take the night off, including the one at Costa Linda, the one affordable place in town. That’s when I recalled that I had the same dilemma last time as I was there, and we solved it by going to this little Soda right on the main street that I always used to pass by. It was eerily similar to the same night months before… we even pulled the same three tables together, dined outside with the waves within an earshot, I even ordered the same casado as last time – the similarities can go on and on. We were also joined by another Canadian couple, who work for the fisheries ministry and RCMP, if I remember correctly (my friends will have to help me out with names), so we were again a group of seven. Well, this group of seven had so much food to deal with that for the first time on this trip I have seen Eric not being able to lick his plate clean (let alone that often we finishes Kellie’s meals too). The poor RCMP woman ordered nachos from the ‘snacks’ section and received a plate bigger than her head, filled with so many vegetables that we are all asking – are there nachos under there? By the end, we carted the rest of the food, and more difficultly ourselves back to Costa Linda, where we were too tired and full to even sit and hang out, so almost everyone went to sleep right away. We knew the next day we would still have to wake up early, to go (re) visit Manuel Antonio National Park.

Dominical

Considering how late we stayed up the night before, it was no wonder that we slept in the following morning. Not to worry, all we had to do is cross the dirt road to make it onto the beach. Eventually we all gathered together and formed a base camp in one section of the beach, close enough to the van, in case we ever needed anything. A new addition to our group was Jorge, a student from San Jose, spending his holidays in Dominical. Our day was spent like many others, consisting of sitting in the sun, reading, swimming and/or surfing, depending on one’s preference. Audrey and I had to take a trip to the bank, which entailed crossing the entire village and walking over one kilometer, but we shouldn’t complain since at least there is a bank machine in town. We started complaining when the bank machine was not working. Brendan wanted to go inside of the bank to figure things out, but he couldn’t get in since he didn’t have a t-shirt, so Jorge lent him his. I joined him inside, but not before being frisked by the security guard and checked with a metal detector – they are serious about the security here… at least in banks. Brendan still couldn’t do anything inside the office, since he didn’t have his passport on him, but luckily as we came outside again, the bank machine was working, so our problems were solved.

On our way back to the beach we stopped by the merchants’ stalls and looked at all the bracelets, sarongs, earrings and other jewelry. Once we were back on the beach, there was only one thought to carry through – let’s jump in the water. We quickly understood what Danne was referring to when he told us his broken surf board story the night before. These were by far the biggest waves I had seen in my life, some at least twice my height if not more. There were times when I couldn’t control which was I would be tossed around, simply making sure that I had my arms in front of my so that I wouldn’t hit the ground head first. The current was so strong that every few minutes we had to make an effort to return to the area close to the lifeguards, just to make sure that we were safe. The lifeguards even had a jet sky at their disposal, in case someone got sucked out by the current. I was also told by a surfing instructor, who happened to be paying special attention to one of his students who was surfing topless, that the previous week two people drowned as they were sucked out by the current and panicked. We all received our fair warning.

After all the effort of fighting the current, I got back to the beach, and though I tried to immerse myself in the book I was reading, I promptly fell asleep for a while. As I was trying to wake up, still have dozing off, I opened one eye and looked towards the street. I know that walk, I said to myself, then quickly computed what I was observing: that was Kellie walking down right in front of our hotel, I was sure of it! I snuck up behind her and surprised both her and Eric, since they thought that I would have headed back to Puerto Viejo after Bocas. Stranger things have happened, but this is yet another chance encounter of which I have had so many so far on this trip. Both of them check in to the same hotel we were staying, and after the normal introductions, our group grew to nine (ten if you count Suzie, who should be counted! Lol).

By this point in the afternoon, the little headache had turned into one massive problem; I first suspected being a bit hung-over, progressing to sunstroke and dehydration. What mattered was getting some painkillers to take it all away. Luckily Kellie gave me a few prescription pain killers, and about 20 minutes after taking them I began to feel some relief. So much so in fact that I suggested that we go out to dinner, since I really needed to fill my stomach with something. So Eric, Kellie and I went over to the restaurant, but by the time we got there I already started to feel nauseated. Doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure our that taking strong painkillers on an empty stomach is not a good idea, yet here I was dealing with the consequences. I could barely touch a few fries, then got my sandwich to go, apologizing to Eric and Kellie for being such a bad company for the evening, then needed to retreat back to the room for a nap, which I thought it would be the best thing for me considering the circumstances. I asked a number of friends for wake up calls, and even though it was in spurts, I managed to get a good hour and a half of sleep, waking up refreshed and renewed, and most of all hungry. I devoured that sandwich in no time, impressed with how good it was even though it was cold.

I made my way onto the beach, where the bonfire was in full swing, and everyone was gathered around the fire, either sitting on stools or chairs or air mattresses, and there was the perfect party atmosphere – people broke off in smaller groups, but always migrating from one to the other, so the cohesiveness of the group was always maintained. We had the mac cranked up with music from iTunes, and spent the night listening to tunes while feeding the fire, having a few drinks and telling humorous stories. Even in the silence between songs or jokes, we could hear the huge waves breaking off not too far from us.

We decided to stay in Dominical for another day, since Jorge had told us about the possibility of whales making their way up the coast the following evening. Had fresh breakfast from the previous night’s dinner leftovers, but the curry rice tasted even better the next day. After we eat, I headed up with Brendan and Audrey to the internet café, where I found out the exorbitant price of $4 for an hour of internet. Needless to say that I was very quick, and spent the rest of my time looking for the phone number of Costa Linda, the hostel in Manuel Antonio, and though I found it, we still couldn’t get through. We had forgotten that as of Mar 20, a number 2 would have to be added to every phone number in Costa Rica. We again spent most of the day at the beach, and once Kellie brought out her waterproof camera, we went into the waves and clowned around like we were little kids, taking videos and pictures of us acting silly. Towards the end of the afternoon, I joined Dana, Paula, Kellie and Eric at the happy hour of one of the Mexican restaurants in town. Aside from the happy hour drinks, this is where we had the famous exploding hot sauce incident… I feel the need to elaborate…This plastic bottle of really hot chilly pepper sauce had been baking in the sun for quite a while, and as Paula reaches to open it, we hear a muffled sound followed almost immediately by a shower of wet, spicy, burning particles. By this point I had read way too many action novels, so I automatically pictured being the character next to the victim, who gets to experience the splatter of the blood. While the victim was Paula, this was only an attack with hot sauce, though it did burn severely on burnt skin and open bug bites. Poor Paula had to run the the washroom to wash off the spicy sauce, but like a true sport, she returned to finish her taco. I caved in and got a taco as well (despite the previous experience), though Dana and I were both very cautious about opening that bottle again. After our late lunch, we split up, as Dana and Paula went back to the camp, Eric and Kellie stayed to play ping pong, and I headed back up to the internet café for a very quick stop.

As I made my way back to the beach, I ran into Brendan and Aaron, both of whom were the proud new owners of machetes, which will come in really handy in cutting off wood for the first. Excited to try the new toys, we went back to the camp, and set up a fire and had one of the best meals I have had on this trip. We all pooled together resources and made a buffet dinner, complete with fresh fruit, and everything your heard desires. We were in awe of the meal we were able to pull together, and for a while there was absolute silence as everyone was devouring their dinner. What better ending to such a good dinner? Soon after we finished, we started seeing fireworks on the beach, not far away from us at all – we already knew that the was a birthday party on the beach first then moving to a club (the Mexican restaurant we were at in the afternoon) but we never expected fireworks! What followed was about a half an hour of constant fireworks, so close we could see them exploding right over our heads. Much better as any Festival of Fire where you see them from at least 1km away. We were right in the middle of things. Luckily Aaron had his camera with him, and I will have to bug him for some pictures and videos so I can place some up here. Overall, it was a great way to sign off our visit to Dominical. We retreated back to our fire, where we continued our party, with jokes, drinking games, and Dana talking not only about her famous ‘double clicking the mouse’ but also making up acronyms for the strangest sayings… I have to remember what they were!). As usual, as one by one everyone went to sleep, I was the last one out, so I grabbed my reading light and my book and sat on the patio by the hotel reading for a while. All this time I was watching the traffic stumbling its way back from the clubs and bars throughout Dominical.

David

There was some debate about whether Suzie was going to spend the night in the van or inside with the rest of us. The problem was that Andrea also had a dog, an ugly mutt named Fluffy, complete with a purple dot in its forehead (you cannot make this stuff up!), and she was afraid that it might get territorial with it knew Suzie was around. So we had to sneak her in when Fluffy was distracted, so there were really eight of us in that room that night. Danne took a great picture of the purple room, with the purple walls, purple sheets, purple drapes, and of course, our Suzie drinking a gin and tonic out of a purple cup – priceless! By the time we got settled we were starving, so Andrea gave us directions to a good and affordable Chinese restaurant, and we took the short trip towards it. We took Suzie along with us for the walk, and every single dog on that street was barking at us as we passed by, and it seemed every house had at least one guard dog.

We reached the main street as Brendan made the joke about wanting to eat at a ‘top place’, pointing towards the restaurant aptly named ‘The Top Place’ since it was on the second floor of the building. We decided to keep on walking to Mr. Cheng’s, an appropriate name for a Panamanian Chinese restaurant. We all went through the menu, and ordered way too much food that we could have possibly consumed. After we placed our orders we saw the waitress delivering someone else’s half portion, which was bigger than most plates we have seen in the last months. Right away we knew most of that stuff will have to be taken to go, and placed in the fridge at the purple house. I did manage to eat half a portion of noodles, taking away a full order of shrimp rice that became my sustenance for the next day. It took as much longer to walk back to the hostel, stomachs full and all, making frequent stops at the stores and the payphones. Eventually we got back, hoping to watch a movie (we saw No Country for Old Men on the list of DVDs), but another group of people at the hostel were already in the midst of a movie, so we ended up hanging out in the backyard for a while. Though right at 11pm, the security night guard gave us the lights out signal, which we didn’t want to obey, so in protest we moved across the street, hanging out in the van for the next few hours, listening to music and having good ‘guy talk’ with Aaron and Brendan. It was late in the night by the time we decided to wrap things up and we went to sleep.

The following morning, we woke with some unsettling news from Andrea – apparently someone tried to break in to the security guard’s car the night before, and he managed to scare them off in time. Brendan checked the van to make an even worse discovery; the same person had broken into the van as well, though there wasn’t much to take since most of our stuff was inside the hostel. They did manage to steal his toiletries set, and a sweatshirt, so he was not too pleased about the whole ordeal – either way at least him and Audrey were not in the van when this took place. Later on in the morning, Dana, Paula and Danne made the decision to head back to Costa Rica, since they were winding down their time in the country before having to leave to various destinations. Brendan, Aaron and I stayed behind since Audrey’s passport had not come in yet from Panama City. So it came time to say goodbye to half of our group, though knowing that we will get together again on the western coast of Costa Rica. Before they left, Angela was nice enough to take group pictures of us, the group of seven in front of the purple house.

The three of them left, not before Danne got a picture of myself and Aaron being ‘trapped’ in the Purple House, and then they were gone. The four of us settled in for a day of relaxation; after using the computer and the internet connection for a while, I asked Andrea if she had a skype headset, to which she replied that it is a personal item that should would not share; luckily another tourist staying at the hotel overhead the conversation and lent me his set, so I could make a few phone calls. Later on in the afternoon, I took a walk with Aaron through the city, which only reinforced my perception of David being a big and dusty city. We stopped along the way at a few battery shops, since we needed to do something with the van. We returned having gathered information, and Brendan decided to get a new battery for the van, since the old one was about clunked out. Him and Aaron returned with the guys from the shop in their truck, and they got the battery installed in about half an hour. Most of my day was split between reading my book and writing in the blog, though I got a healthy dose of both. There was a funny moment when Suzie and Fluffy met, smelled each other, then they got along, at least for a while – even Andrea was impressed (a tough thing to accomplish). Since we had changed to a four person room after the others left, we were ‘allowed’ to stay out past our 11pm bedtime, so the four of us (then three as Audrey went to sleep) stayed up and played YouTube videos for hours on end. It must have been past 3:30 in the morning by the time we turned in – even the security guard was asleep in front of the TV.

Road back to Costa Rica

Considering the late night we had, it was no wonder we also woke up late… all of a sudden, Andrea was up to her old tricks, insisting that we had to be out the door before 11am. By 10:55 we had everything piled up in the van in the courtyard (we did park the van behind the fence considering the incidents of the night before, plus even the night guard got a ride instead of having his own car parked after the attempted break in). Aaron got a bit annoyed as he couldn’t even have one purple cup of coffee before taking off. We were even joking with taking the van outside and continue on partying, but I think we all just wanted to leave the purple madness behind us. We loaded the van, and carefully drove out of the backyard, though running over one of the purple rocks on the lawn. We headed towards the downtown of David, frantically looking for an elusive address – good thing that Brendan stopped and asked for directions a few times; otherwise we would have never found that place. While Audrey went to get her passport, finally, Aaron and I went off to explore the streets of David, looking for cigarettes but running into tables that sold anything but: watches, DVDs, Cds, wallets, batteries, everything you could think of… It was easy to get lost in that madness of things, and we returned to the van empty handed. Luckily, Audrey fared much better than us, she had a brand new passport and that meant that we were on our way back to Costa Rica.

We drove out of David on the Inter Americana. Because Brendan was told when he entered Panama that he needed to be there for three months (? Why I don’t know?), he rightly didn’t want to pass through Paso Canoas, one of the busiest of all border crossings in Central America. Instead we drove north, veering off the Inter Americana towards Volcan, the closest town to the Rio Senero – Sabalito crossing in the mountains. After a quick stop at a convenience store for some refreshments, we made the drive up into the mountains until we reached Volcan, close to the Costa Rican border. We quickly realized that there wasn’t much to do around town, unless we wanted to engage on a six or eight hour hike to one of the peaks. We made our last shopping trip in Panama, knowing things were much cheap than in Costa Rica, and then we started down the road towards the border crossing. Along the way we saw a sign for the Acropolis restaurant, what the guidebook said was the best Greek food outside of Greece, anywhere. We chatted with the really nice owner, and admired all the pristine pictures of Glorious Greece on the walls. We continued on our journey, passing coffee fields as we climbed into the mountains. The Panamanian side of the border is Rio Sereno, while Sabalito is in Costa Rica, though you’d be hard pressed to tell where one ends and the other begins. This has to be the most laid back border crossing I have even been through.

Upon leaving Panama we had to show our tourist visas – though I was never given one when entering the country. As for Audrey, she didn’t have hers since her passport had gotten stolen and was traveling with a replacement. Both of us had to pay ‘fines’ for not having visas, and then the customs agent started to ask our professions – he got to Aaron and he stopped and gave him a long look. He had said that he buys and sells guitars, stared at the customs agent trying to figure out what triggered such a reaction. After a moment of silence, he then revealed that he was also a guitar collector – and shared a good laugh with him. On the Costa Rican side, things were very relaxed and laid back as well; the agent had to call in our names and passport numbers since they didn’t have computers there. We needed photocopies of the van documentation, so we walked across the street back into Panama to find the only convenience store that had a photocopier. Then back into Costa Rica… I have never gone back and forth so often across a border without anyone saying anything. We left the border behind us and suddenly we were reminded we were in a different country – the road condition right away told us we were in Costa Rica. We continued along the bumpy road, having to stop several times for directions so we can retrace our way back to the interamericana. We had to cross more mountains before descending on Neily, and we took a break towards the summit so that we can admire then entire valley below us and the cloud cover above. Just before that we drove right through the cloud forest, sometimes not seeing more than a few meters in front, barely enough to keep turning with the road. But here at the top the view was much clearer: we could see all the way to the Pacific, as the last rays of sunshine disappeared beneath a cloud. Not just one cloud actually, and soon after it started pouring rain. We were able to make our way down the mountain by following other cars right in front of us, so we would at least have a ‘heads up’ about which way the road would be turning.

Eventually we arrived in Neily, and after dealing with the narrow streets and even ending up the wrong direction on a one way street. We wanted to stop somewhere in town to get a bite to eat, but we settled on a Marisco restaurant right outside of the city. I was a place frequented mainly by locals, which was already a good indication of the quality and value of the food – and we were not disappointed. We had dinner while Brendan was chatting up with some of the locals, getting the inside scoop on the latest road conditions and closures. By the time we left it was already getting dark, so we were worried about the fact the van was popeyed, especially once we reached a checkpoint and got pulled over. Brendan started already justifying the problem to the officer, who really just wanted to see our passports to make sure we had the proper documentation (in the past the Costa Rican police has arrested people for not carrying their passports, or at least copies of, on them while around town). Of course we conveniently forgot to mention Suzie, and she did a very good job of staying quiet. To pass the time along the way to Dominical, we started playing road trip games, to keep ourselves entertained and to make sure we were all wake – I stumped everyone when I picked Slash for the guessing game.

After a fairly long road trip day, we strolled into Dominical after 8 in the evening; not knowing where the rest of our crew was staying, we decided to cruise around the two main streets, looking into restaurants since it was dinner hour. At about our third try, we saw the trio jump out from their table, we stopped the van and got out. We had a reunion as if we were separated for weeks and not just one day, an all around positive vibe. After catching up on our separate previous day adventures, we moved the van by the hotel, where I would be sharing a room with Dana, Paula and Danne, while Brendan and Audrey would be sharing the van, and Aaron camped out on the beach. We all settled in and then got together on the patio of the hotel, where we had a few drinks, shared stories and took pictures. Danne told us about his misfortune while surfing; a 12 ft. came down and crashed on his rental board, breaking it in half – he even brought the board out and posed for pictures to prove his point. He was dealing with it fairly well, considering how much he had to pay for a supposed ‘unbreakable’ surf board, but it made for one hell of a story.

Later on in the evening, we all wanted to take the party to the next level, so we headed to one of the bars in town, which was hosting a reggae party. We navigated the dark alleys in Dominical without a problem, and spent a few hours listening to good music, dancing and meeting people at the bar. Amongst the most interesting was a guy who felt compelled to share his whole tragic life story with us. That in itself would not be a problem, but he had had way too much to drink and it became too emotional, to the point where he broke down crying; my knowledge of soothing Spanish words is still in its infancy, so I couldn’t do much else but offer a few words of support. With that overwhelming experience behind us, we decided it would be best to return to the hotel. While most went to sleep right away, I spent some time on the beach, staring up at the stars, and watching the huge waves against the light given off by the almost full moon.

Road trip through Panama

So it finally came time to say goodbye to Bocas; having spent about two weeks there, I felt especially attached to the place. And so was Rohman of us, giving each of us big hugs, passing out business cards and giving everyone his phone number – I think he really grew to like us and he hung out like he was part of our group. It was an emotional goodbye. I had to make sure I printed a copy of my plane ticket, since I had to show that to the customs authorities upon reentering Costa Rica. I also stopped at the post office and finally mailed out postcards that have been waiting to be sent since before the long weekend. We eventually left the hostel and headed down towards the boat docks. Since I felt I didn’t take enough pictures of Bocas while I was there, I took pictures all the way down the main street towards the boats. As I was taking one of the last pictures, I didn’t realize that Rohman was cruising by on his bike. He came for one last farewell. Even though the schedule said the boats to Almirante run every half an hour, we had to wait until noon before we got on, at which time we should have already been on the mainland, meeting with Brendan. We killed some time sitting in the sun on the dock, and reading either our books or guidebooks about the rest of Panama. We got in the boat, and before we knew it, we left Bocas behind and headed towards the mainland.

About half an hour later, we were pulling in the boat into the port of Almirante, a small fishing community. As the boat approached the dock, we noticed the van and we all broke out into a cheer – our road adventure was about to begin. We were reunited with Brendan, Audrey and Suzie, and I finally had a sense of the great GMC Safari that was going to take us across Panama. It took us at least another half an hour to get organized, then I realized what was happening; Audrey, much like Dana but on separate occasions, had her passport stolen and couldn’t leave the country until a replacement was being produced. Right away it kicked in that we couldn’t leave the country until this issue was settled. After a few phone calls, we decided to head towards David, as her passport would be sent there, and then we could return to Costa Rica. We packed the van (which was a lot considering there were seven of us plus dog and all our backpacks) and then headed into Almirante… Since the van had battery problems, we had to keep it running all the time for the fear of stalling and not having anyone give us a boost. We made a few stops (with the engine running) at a bank machine, and an internet café, then filled up the gas tank (with the engine still running!) and headed towards the mountains. In order to get to David, which is much closer to the Pacific side, we had to cross a mountain range and go through what is affectionately known as the ‘devil’s jaw’. Every now and then the engine would head up, and we were forced to take a break and let the van cool off…We kept on refueling the engine coolant, though it took a while for us to turn on the heat inside the van to alleviate the head in the engine. At one point we passed a pick up truck where the people in the back pointed out the liquid spilling on the side of the car. We eventually stopped to realize that we were still spewing coolant fluid; by the time we tinkered with the car, with a shudder, it stalled and turned itself off. By this time Danne, Aaron and Audrey went for a jog along the road and passing by the waterfall; Brendon, Dana, Paula and I, were shocked when the van died, picturing a ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ moment, us having to push the van and then jump while it was in motion.

Luckily we managed to get it started again, and rushed past the group of joggers, parking the car (still running) further up the hill. We took a few pictures and took in the scenery all around us as the rest joined our group. By the level of the clouds hiding the forest above us, we realized that we were not far away from the top, and that the rest of the trip would go much better once we were heading downhill. And things did improve, though the speed that we were picking up going downhill often made Dana and I dig into our armrests as we heard the tires squealing on the pavement. All this time, in the back seat, Paula, Danne and Aaron were sliding from left to right as the seat was coming off its grooves. We could help but laugh out loud at our predicament. And that’s how we passed through the ‘Devil’s jaw’ and the huge water dam that we crossed. Eventually the terrain leveled off and we left the mountains behind. As we headed more towards the Pacific side, we were starting to get hungry and decided to stop somewhere for lunch. By the time we made that decision, however, we were already entering David, the second biggest city in Panama, so we changed our minds and set out to find a place to spend the night before going for food. We had done our research and settled on a hostel named “The Purple House”… after a bit of maneuvering on the tiny, one way streets in David, and after asking a few people for directions, we came upon a sight that was unmistakable – a Purple Wonderland of sorts, with all its quirks.

We drove up to the purple gate, and parked the van across the street from the purple wall. We right away met Andrea, who was at times our best friend while staying there, though most of the time our worst enemy. Apparently she has a fixation of everything purple, and that became evident as we walked through the house. Dishes, cutlery, furniture, anywhere and everywhere there was purple – of course Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ was proudly on display in one of the hallways. We had a great laugh seeing Andrea’s reaction as Aaron came in; you see, he was carrying a purple coloured book, coincidently titled ‘Deep Purple’. The look on Andrea’s face was priceless – she would have been willing to give her first born for that book, though luckily she did not have kids. Poor Aaron had to justify that he just started the book and didn’t know when he was going to finish it. So we got a room big enough to fit all seven of us, after some debate about Brendan and Audrey sleeping in the van, though Andrea still wanted to charge them $5 to use the house facilities, so after some debating we all moved out stuff into the biggest bedroom of the house, with one bed for each of us (Suzie excluded).