The Longest Day

Trip to Bocas

The goal: San Jose to Isla Bastimentos in 1 day.

We got on the bus Thursday morning at 9, all our luggage including the surfboards fitting just fine in the cargo, for a 6-hour ride from San Jose to Changuinola, on the coast in Panama. We crossed the border easily but never actually got to Changuinola: stormy weather (uh oh!) was preventing the boats from leaving Changuinola to the islands of Bocas so a shuttle brought us to another harbor, Almirante, where we got on the boat.

The boat, a wood with fiberglass motorboat meant to fit about 16 people, was packed with 20 people and their luggage. And so we embarked… on a Disney ride that painfully lasted a little over a half an hour… the motor of the boat was very powerful, and the sea VERY choppy. About midway through the ride, the guys in the back were getting so wet that the tarp protections had to be brought down around us from the canopy… so we did the rest of the rollercoaster ride enclosed in the dark!! It’s really lucky that no one got sick in that musty atmosphere…

We arrived safe and sound on Isla Colon – the main island – but we still needed to get to our final destination: Isla Bastimentos. By then, it was dark already and I wasn’t all that keen on doing the rollercoaster ride in the pitch black night but Paul didn’t want to lug our stuff around another day… so back on the rollercoaster we were, in fresh air this time, and only for 10 minutes…
The only slight issue remaining was that the storm had damaged the underwater electric cable linking Bastimentos to Colon and so the island was pitch black with the exception of a couple of stores with generators. So we found our hostel and room at the light of a key chain flashlight!! (and if it weren’t for Paul’s all around readiness, I would have been crawling on all fours up the stairs to find the place! :D)

But we made it! Ten hours after leaving San Jose we were on Isla Bastimentos, from the capital city to the island with no cars….

San Jose

Before moving on to the Pacific side of the country, we decided to spend a few days in San Jose. Enough time to see some of the major sights of the city, receive the new lens that Paul got shipped from the U.S. (one of his older lenses did not withstand the muggy weather of Tamarindo and grew mold on the inside… everything we had seemed to have sprung mold actually by the time we left… clothes, bags, books, wallets, belts…), and figure out how we were going to make our way down to the coast.

First nice surprise: the hotel… impressive! I have never seen so much effort put into the decoration of a place… it was like a dollhouse with feminine touches in every corner! The place was run by a single mother of three and was kept in neat order; but it was especially amazing for the explosion of colors on all the walls, hanging decorations, mosaics, etc…

...lots of colors...

The place was also run like someone’s house, and the rules were strict and plentiful! “no noise between 8pm and 8am, no serving yourself at the breakfast table until it is completely ready, no slamming the doors, no putting your luggage on the bed, no using towels to remove make-up”… the list goes on! I thought the mixture of personal touches and conduct reminders all over gave the place a really nice homey feel!

our shower

So for a couple of days we wandered the streets of San Jose, the older neighborhoods with some really nice looking houses left from the colonial era, the pedestrian center of town always busy and great for people-watching, museums, and mercados. The museo nacional was inside an old fort and had plenty of historical info on the country as well as a little butterfly garden… great for photos!!

The Museo nacional fortress

Precolumbian gold

Museo Nacional butterfly garden

The Mercado Central was probably the most fun place to visit: the market is inside one city block and is made up of meandering narrow alleyways between all sorts of shops and food places from butchers and spice shops to shoe stores, tourist souvenirs… You could probably find just about anything in there! The Mercado is also famous for pickpockets but with our unfashionable semi-grungy looks we didn’t have a problem with that!

on the wall of a colonial house

Bringing Paul’s lens into Costa Rica ended up being a bit more complex than we had first anticipated. On Tuesday, FedEx left us a note letting us know that we could either pay an extra $75 to get it delivered at our hotel or go pick it up at the shipping agent near the airport directly and only pay $7… Since we have more time than money, we decided to go pick it up ourselves…

More mosaic art in the street

So we got on a bus to the airport on Wednesday noon… 15 minutes later, the bus ran into an SUV, smashing in the rear bumper, trunk, and rear window of the car, and loosing its own bumper in the ordeal… uh oh… bad start…
Well the bus wasn’t going to go much farther in that condition so we got herded to another bus and made it to the airport, then a cab to the international shipping Co. Over there, it was explained to us by an other customer in a mixture of English and Spanish (the lady working at the shipping company did not speak a word of English) that we were to return to the airport, get to customs, find Mr. Joaquin Arrieta, get registered in the computer, then come back but hurry up because the place closes in 2 hours. So back on the cab to customs, got made by the $&^%$! driver: the usual “I have no change” scam, found Joaquin, got registered, got back to the shipping place without getting scammed (hehe, learning!), waited around while people stamped away at paperwork while nice English-speaking customers let us know what was going on and… got the lens before closing time!! Stressful day and mostly Spanish-speaking with the authorities so my rudimentary Spanish lessons back in Hawaii really paid off!...

Our last day in San Jose, we were not about to look for more trouble so we just took it easy before the trip to Bocas del Toro.

Road Trip End - Volcan Arenal

During the last couple of days of our road trip bringing us back from Tamarindo to San Jose, we went on the road through the mountains and around Lake Arenal instead of taking the highway back into the city. Once past the "30km Monteverde road" that we had to pass on the way into Santa Elena already, the rest of the way was actually on a well paved road.


Stunning views all the way from Santa Elena to La Fortuna - Rolling lush hills, hills covered with coffee plantations (did i mention the coffee here is reaaaallly good!), Lake Arenal... the artifical lake is huge, at the foot of Volcan Arenal and you have to go around it to get to La Fortuna.


Too bad the clouds covered the volcano during our drive to La Fortuna but, when we got up in the morning, the perfectly shaped volcano was visible again.


After some more driving in hills covered with coffee plantations and other cultures, we got into San Jose's suburbs and then San Jose proper... driving in San Jose is like driving in downtown Honolulu except streets are not as well marked and drivers have no patience.... ugh!! hardly any 2-way streets so we end up going in circles quite a bit to get to our hotel and then to return the car!! but it all happened without incidents!...

Road Trip - Monteverde Region

Wednesday morning, off to Santa Elena. The first half of the road trip was on paved roads and went quite fast. The landscape changed slowly from semi-dry land to lush hills. Along the way, we did notice that Costa Rica seems to be doing well with renewable energy: two big hydroelectric plants and one wind farm… Pretty cool.
Once we hit the town of Tilaran, the road took a turn for the worse: the last 30 km to Santa Elena and the Monteverde area was a rough dirt, mud, and rock road winding around the hills… definitely, the 4x4 wasn’t superfluous! By the end of it, Paul’s mood had taken a turn for the worse as well because of the stress of driving in such conditions… but I must say, the passenger did get an awesome view though! The landscape reminded me a lot of New Zealand with rolling green hills spotted with cows and horses, and lush forests; it was really stunning.
By the time we got to Santa Elena, we were in the clouds and in the rain (expectable from a cloud forest region). In contrast to the very sparsely populated hills we had just passed, Santa Elena was a surprisingly busy little tourist town. That many people would be interested in doing rainy ecotourism??
So the next morning we set out to see what all the buzz was about. In order to avoid the crowds, we went to the Santa Elena reserve instead of the more popular Monteverde Reserve. When we arrived, we were virtually alone. We rented rubber boots and set out into the forest.


In addition to the cloudy/rainy weather, what sets cloud forests apart is the epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants and trees but not as parasites, like moss and orchids - that strive there because of all the water present in the clouds. The result is stunning, magnificent, unreal!... It is like the perfection of the enchanted or haunted forest from children's books...


Everything about it is both eerie and wondrous somehow... each tree is entirely covered in mosses, orchids, ferns etc. which also grow on top of each other, and the mist gives the whole scene a supernatural glow.

Plenty of wildlife - met a pig on the trail

To complete the picture, even the bird songs have a strange metallic tonality. Really amazing.

...find Paul...

Road Trip – Rincon de la Vieja

Coati

On Tuesday morning, we set out bright and early on the road to Liberia: we had a long day ahead and a car upgrade to a 4x4, which we did not want to see reverted back to the mini we paid for… ☺ As it turned out, the 4x4 ended up being rather handy.

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel in Liberia, it’s time to set off for Parque Volcan Rincon de la Vieja, an active volcano in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, about 25 miles away from Liberia. 5 miles of the way are on a highway, and the remaining 20 are on an unpaved rocky road going through alternating landscapes of tropical dry forests and prairies with cattle and horses. So many horses! And usually looking so healthy… apparently, no shortage of grass!
So after the bumpy car ride, a nice long hike sounded like a good idea. We started on a 4-hour trek to a waterfall. The first part of the hike was through a rainforest; the trail resembled Hawaii hikes like those in the Pali or Maunawili, crossing rivers and meandering through the forest. Some differences from the Hawaiian trails: the cool butterflies (the big blue one with black fringes that you always see in the books), the agoutis (dry land mini-muskrats), coatis (look sort of like pig-nosed lemurs), and the river water was crystal clear and smelled of sulfur.

About midway along the trail, we exited the forest and started in a drier, rockier landscape of tall grasses, shrubs, and aloes… and that is where we started climbing… The view as we were going was awesome, but I didn’t think I was going to make it to the falls!


The more we went, the steeper it got and the dryer the hillside looked… no gurgling noise to indicate we were nearing water and to encourage us… but we did it! At the top of the hill, there was a canyon that separated it from a taller hill, and a waterfall in between. We could have walked down to the bottom of the canyon but by then I didn’t think my legs would take me back up if we went all the way down; besides, the view was definitely more breathtaking than the waterfall! ☺




Nice hike! That night, we went to sleep before 9pm!!

Leaving Tamarindo

That's it for Tamarindo. The last night is tonight. It's been an interesting love-hate relationship with this place: the hotel where we stayed at was really great despite the noisy mornings; the "pans de chocolate" at the bakery will be sorely missed (at least till France?); the waves were good at least half of the time (for me! i.e. no larger than shoulder high and light winds... mid-day onshore winds though, which turned the waves to mush were a bit frustrating at times...) and the daily routine definitely helped me get much better; the slow rythm is definitely very pleasant as well once you get used to it.... but we never really got used to the rampant construction that is disfiguring the town so rapidly (the residents apparently are just as appalled as we are and cannot believe how fast it is happening), and the daily whistles from the construction workers... All in all though, I think it was a very good way to get into the rythm...
Now we are off into the mountains and cloud forests for a few days on our way back to San Jose before we go on to the Caribbean coast of Panama for our next "extended" stay.
Stay Tuned!

All better

So we're all better... Paul, the weather, and I.... I did have a chance to take a couple photos of the torrential rains before they calmed down a bit... it's nice to see the ocean ocean-color again! so we are back to our daily surfing/reading/drawing/interneting routine...

mud river outside the hotel
rain in the trees

We have made new friends, with the local cat, who whined every day in the kitchen of the hotel until finally he cracked everyone and got milk and food. So now he's become the hotel cat and has his assigned bowl, and sleeps on the chair on our balcony... I guess we feel familiar since we've been there so long. The other night he fiercely protected us (and especially his kitchen territory) against a healthy-looking racoon (raton laveur)... the racoon was easily 1 and 1/2 times the size of the cat but he hardly put up a fight...

sunset surf session

In other news, we got our mosquitoe-repellent coil stolen the other night from our lanai... probably some hotel guest who was too lazy to go to the store himself.... our grungy rash guards were hanging outside to dry that same night, but somehow, the coil seemed more valuable.... (OK people, you paid for a trip all the way here, I'm sure you can afford the mosquitoe repellent)