Some of you might know that I have been traveling for the last week - hence the delay on the blog post. Matty and I met a couple staying at Villa Las Tecas who were traveling all over Central and South America. They had purchased two one-way tickets to Bocas Del Toro, Panama that they were unable to use. They're weren't able to get them refunded but they were able to change the names - so, they graciously gave them to me and Matty! We ended up making a plan to fly to Bocas, stay for a few days, and slowly make our way back up the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Here's how the story goes...
The night before our travels was hectic to say the least. Not only did we have to pack for a vacation, but we had to move out of our apartment. We procrastinated for as long as humanly possible and quickly regretted it. That said, we were packed and ready on the morning of the 31st for our journey! We got to the Nosara Airport about an hour and a half early for our 10AM flight, which seemed normal... the gate attendant told us to come back at 9:45AM.
The ride to Bocas was on a plane just as small as the one before and just as awesome. The windows were the size of bus windows, you could see everything! We landed, stood in a line for an hour waiting to get our stamps, were informed that my bag did not make it, and headed on our way. We were met at the door by a little Panamanian named Tony who asked us where we were going. When we told him, he said it's a 30 minute walk, or a 5 minute drive for $2 a head, so, we piled into his van with our fellow flight mates. After stacking almost 15 people into the 9 person van, we went on one of the wildest "5 minute" drives of my life. There were multiple points along the way where I thought we were going to crush someone, luckily, the only thing we ran over was a bicycle. It was quite comical, however. The Bocas del Toro District itself is maybe two blocks larger than Telluride, and we got the full tour. They took everyone in the van to their respective hotels, which were all within spitting distance of each other. The driver even took Tony BACK to the airport before we got dropped off. The 5 minute drive (which could've been a 7 minute walk) turned into 15 minutes of chaos. It was definitely worth the experience.
We stayed in the coolest little hippy shack called Panama's Paradise. We were greeted by little naked children playing in what looked like a pool of pee, as well as two complimentary 750ML beers. The first night, we rode bicycles into the main heart of Bocas and had some sushi, followed by an early night in curled up next to the television. We haven't had TV since we've been here, we were practically like cave-men with fire.
We ended up planning a horseback tour during our stay - we figured it would be appropriate to ride some broncos before we watched the Broncos in the Super Bowl. The deal was we could either take a 45 minute bike ride to Playa Bluff or we could take a taxi - we opted for the drive. The morning of the horseback ride, we waited and waited for our taxi to come. When we finally realized that it probably wasn't set up for us, we decided to just go flag one down ourselves. We were staying next door to a young couple, Nathan and Emma, from England/Wales (it's NOT the same thing) who agreed to split a taxi with us so that he could go surf at Bluff. We all jumped in a cab together and took a 30 minute cab ride, which would've been an hour bike ride, as far away from civilization as possible until there was not a soul in sight. When we asked the driver to take us to Ron's Horseback Tours he said he had no idea where that was. He ended up dropping the four of us at this beach in the middle of nowhere. The waves were so large and breaking right on the shore that Nathan decided he was not getting in the water. The four of us started walking up the road hoping to run into someone that could tell us where we were and what to do from here. We never ended up finding Ron's Horseback Tours, but we did run into a few horses with a couple of gringos on them - mind you we were already over an hour late to our ride. We found a restaurant, had some breakfast, and flagged down the first and only taxi we saw to go back. I told Matty that our horseback fail was foreshadowing the fail of the Bronco game... turns out I was right.
Later that afternoon we went to a bar called Toro Bravo to watch the Super Bowl. Luckily we got there early enough to get two seats at the bar right in front of the TV. The place filled up with people by the time the game started, literally, there were close to 20 people sitting on the floor. For those of you who watched the game, you know how pathetic of a performance it was by the Broncos. We left at 3rd quarter hoping that we were the bad luck and that they could make a comeback - didn't work...
The next morning we got up early to go on a boat tour to the different Boca Islands. Tony found us on the street a few nights before and got us to sign up for it. The only boat tours I've ever been on were a pirate ship in Aruba and a catamaran in Tamarindo... this was nothing like those. We were all packed onto a little 20 person motorboat like a bunch of sardines. Our first stop was at Dolphin Bay. We saw probably 6 or more dolphins swimming around, they were so pretty! Then we cruised over to a little vacant restaurant/hotel on the water where we pre-ordered our lunch. This was also where our alleged captain and guide got themselves a fat rum drink. After ordering our lunch and sucking down some pipa water, we jumped back onto our little tug boat to go snorkeling. They drove us out to this reef in the middle of the ocean - I was quite terrified. Nonetheless, I tied a lifejacket to my foot, strapped my goggles and snorkel to my face, and gingerly jumped into the water trying not to sink the boat as I hopped in. The reef was really cool, not very colorful but definitely full of life. We swam around for about an hour when we realized we were the last ones in the water. They fired up the boat and drove right over to us. The only tool they had for getting back into the boat was a latter made of PVC pipe. After our lunch and a few more cocktails for the "guides," we drove over to this deserted island. Tony had described this place as survivor island, and he was right. The only other people on the island were a couple other gringos from other boat tours. We walked around the entire thing in about an hour and a half, but it could've been done in 30 minutes had we not continuously stopped for swim breaks. We went and sat in the jungle in front of where the boat was anchored while we waited for everyone to come back. Whilst climbing a tree, Matty got stung on the ankle by a scorpion. I guess it took him killing 21 of them before one finally got revenge. The sting definitely made him loopy and weird. When we got back to town, he couldn't remember his pin number at the ATM... and still doesn't. We went to bed early that day and left the next morning.
Our shuttle (Caribe Shuttle) to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica departed at 8:30AM. We took a water taxi from Bocas Del Toro to Almirante where we got on a shuttle to the border. At the border, we had to get out with our luggage, go get our departure stamp in one spot, then go pay our departure tax in another spot, then walk across a long bridge into Costa Rica where we got our entry stamp, then back onto the shuttle. The drive from the border to Puerto Viejo was only about an hour.
It felt so good to be back in Costa. Bocas del Toro was a fun vacation but it was much different from where we've been. It was very busy, very dirty and pretty exhausting. We checked into our little hotel where our receptionist, Danilo, had a joint in one hand and our room key in the other. After dropping our stuff, we went for a walk around the town. The Caribbean side is different then the Pacific side in all aspects. The people are more Rasta as opposed to the Yogi/Hippie's we have here. The drug scene was much more lax there as well. EVERYONE was a drug dealer - no matter where you went. But not the sketchy "I'll stab you if you don't buy my drugs" drug dealers, more the "one love, Jah provides" type of drug dealers. The water is much different obviously, very clear and a little bit colder. During our walk about, we ran into a little two-toed sloth in a bush. It was one of the most interesting animals I've ever seen. He would only move upside down. When Matty touched him, he slowly grabbed Matty's hand and started pulling it to his mouth. I don't know how these things survive out here! They move too slow to defend themselves. After the excitement from the sloth, we went for a nice swim in the ocean and watched the surfers. On our way back to our hotel, we stumbled upon this hostel called Rocking J's. For any of you who read this blog and like to travel hostel style, I totally recommend checking this place out. The entire property was a piece of art located right on the beach. You could rent a hammock, a bed, a room, or a spot on the floor. There was a great bar with great music and great bar food. "Cool" is the only word I can think to perfectly describe it.
We were only in Viejo for one full day which we spent in Punta Uva, a 20 minute bike ride away. This is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. We bought a soccer ball and spent the day on the beach alternating between kicking the ball, swimming in the ocean and napping - rough life ;)
The following day, we got on the Interbus at 6:30AM to head to San Jose (Capitol of CR). I was particularly excited for San Jose for a couple of reasons - one, I was getting my laptop fixed and two, I was excited to see a city! The drive was about 4 hours putting us at our hotel around 11AM. We stayed at The Palm House Inn which was by far the nicest place we stayed all trip. We were on the top floor, had our own balcony and another TV (insert drool). The main mission for San Jose was getting the computer fixed. I had been emailing with this guy Adrian who worked for Servicio Tecnico iLab. I pulled up his place on my iPhone and asked our reception about how to get there. These guys, bless their hearts, were hopeless. They didn't know the difference between up and down or left and right. They sent us to the Apple Store which was just a few city blocks away. This was a fun little journey. We walked into the main heart of downtown San Jose where there was a big courtyard full of pigeons, children and gypsy musicians. The gentleman at the Apple Store said they didn't fix hard drives, but gave us a card for the iCon Servicio Tecnico - so I obviously thought it was the right place. We asked 4 different cab drivers if they knew of this place and not a single one of them did. After that fail, we walked back to our hotel, dragging our feet, hoping that just maybe our receptionists could help us... and they did! They gave us the address of the iCon Servicio Tecnico, and we handed it straight to the cab driver. We watched our GPS's on our phones as we headed in the right direction. Eventually, the right direction turned into the wrong direction... The iCon Servicio Tecnico was not in the same location that the GPS said, but we kept our mouths shut and let the cab driver do his thing. We show up at iCon which is about 10 minutes east of where we were supposed to be. Nonetheless, we went inside and made an attempt. I set my computer down in front of the receptionist and did my best to tell her in Spanish what the problem was. She said great and slowly started to pull the computer away from me as she added that in 3 days they will contact me with the diagnosis. I quickly snatched it back from her and told her thanks but I didn't have three days... I had one day... another fail. I was ready to give up, didn't even care to fix my computer anymore. It was almost 3 o'clock and I had had enough. With one last effort, I picked up my phone and called this guy Adrian. I told him we had been running around San Jose trying to find his place. It turns out that he used to work for the iCon Apple Company, but branched off to start his own thing. He texted us his address and we got into ANOTHER cab to go on our way. As we got closer to our destination (which was the original destination 3 hours ago) we realized that the neighborhood was residential, not commercial. Each house had massive locking gates in front of them, and anything that didn't was covered in graffiti. We pull up to this bright yellow house and the cab stops. No, I think, this is not the right spot. Sure enough, a sweet woman comes to the gate and waves us in - we must've both looked very confused because the cab driver had to somewhat shuffle us out. We walked into a living room that looked like Kitty and Red's from
That 70's Show and smelled like cigarettes. All I could picture was us getting knocked out and waking up in the street with no phones, computer, or cash. Then Adrian walked out, this massive building of a man with a tight T-shirt and tatted up arms. He turned out to be one of the friendliest giants I have ever met. He ended up fixing my computer in a matter of 10 minutes for $100. We got in our 3rd cab of the day and went back to the hotel.
That night we had an early dinner and moseyed back to the room to lay low. By 6 o'clock, we realized we hadn't really planned our trip back to Nosara for the following day. We could rent a car, but there is a 3-day minimum rental - $400. We could fly - $400. We could take a shuttle - $250. We decided to take the Tico way home... the local bus.
On the morning of the 7th, we woke up at 4AM to catch the 5:30AM departure. We only had a slight idea of where to find the bus. We got a cab around 4:45AM and asked to take us to the Old Coca Cola Station. He sort of understood but we were all three very confused. Finally he stopped by some buses and asked where we were going, we told him Nosara. He got on his little taxi radio and found out that we were needing the Alfaro bus. We got out of the taxi and walked into a little bus station with about a 30 people outside, and 4 people sitting inside on a bench - none of the ticket windows were open yet. As soon as we got close enough read what was going on, the 4 people jumped up from the bench and aggressively threw their bags in front of our feet... we almost tripped right into them. We really had no idea what we were doing, but even if we did, we wouldn't have tried to cut them in line... I guess thats what we get for being the clueless gringos. The ticket window opened around 5:20AM and we bought our passes, roughly $8 a person. As we began to load the bus I noticed that the seats were numbered like an airplane, and so were our tickets - somehow we got seats 1 and 2. I pointed to my ticket and showed the woman sitting in our seats. Thank goodness she was an honest person because had she not gotten up I would've assumed that it was a free for all. This bus ride was the most cultural experience we've had since we've lived here. They filled the seats at the bus station and stopped periodically to let people on. By the time we got to Nicoya (5 hours later) there were roughly 150 people on this 59 capacity bus. It was a hot, sweaty, stinky and long trip. At Nicoya, the majority of them got off. We stayed on in hopes that we would somehow get to Nosara. About an hour later we arrived in Samara where we stopped for some gas. Whilst filling up, the driver realized we had a flat tire. We spent ANOTHER hour in the sun at the gas station while they worked on the bus. You know you're in Guanacaste when you get a flat tire from the poorly managed roads. Note to anyone visiting - get a vehicle that can handle these dirt roads, they're brutal. After about another hour of driving, we started to recognize where we were... home. We got off the bus at 5 points and walked about 7 minutes to Villa Las Tecas. This little walk was the first time that Nosara has felt like home for me. This trip was so amazing and so fun! I'm fortunate to have been traveling with someone like Matty who goes with the flow, has a great sense of humor, and sees the good in any situation. This was definitely a trip for the adventurous and low maintenance. That said, we were both so relieved and so excited to be back.
We were greeted at Las Tecas by our friend Johnny and my pup Reagan! She was beyond excited to know that we didn't leave her, even a little dramatic. She started crying and throwing herself onto the floor like a 2-year-old having a tantrum. Even though we were home, our traveling wasn't quite done yet... we still had to move into our new house! After a failed attempt on the bank's part for a cash advance to pay rent, we got the keys, gave our landlord, Alexa, the cash we had, and began our move. It took one trip with the moto and one trip in a Tuk Tuk, after all, we only brought down 6 months worth of stuff. By the time we had settled in it was about 5:30PM - that's 12 hours in motion. This new house is amazing and we cannot wait for you all to come visit us!
Yesterday was my first day back at work in 7 days. It was a lot to take in as I had a lot of catching up to do, but still, it felt very good to be back.
Now it is time for me to enjoy my day off with my dog, my Matty and my beach.
Until next time...
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