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Good day all. As the sun shines brightly and life is good in jolly old Columbia I'll take a moment to reminisce about old times. My last mail ended with crazy leaps into muddy pools from crazy heights. No more of that I think.
The next leg of our journey took us to the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. It was a fairly uneventful ride if you ignore the fact that a monkey, yes folks a monkey, got on with us. After many screams, much laughing and a couple of miles he is finally shooed out of the back door. I don't even think he paid! San Jose itself is a city. Not sure what else to say about it. Its big, smelly and noisy. Much like all other central American cities so far. Its not the best but also isn't the worst. To relax after a long day on the road we decided to chill out and watch a film. Charlie's Angels two. Hmmm. Funny coz its bad. After a few days in the city exploring we head to the beautiful town of Orosi. Its a town set in the mountains and is occupied by some really friendly people. We spent most of our time there exploring. There are some natural hot springs and also amazing views to be seen from the top of the nearby hills. There is also the infamous Yellow Church. This building can be seen from the town and is one of the recommended hikes. Its hard! A lot of uphill in scorching heat. It could be worse though - there is a school at the top of the hill and town kids have to walk up this (almost) cliff face everyday.
From Orosi we briefly stop in San Jose again. A sad day. This is where we part with Zach after a sterling five weeks of traveling together. Lorelli and I jump on a bus that takes us to the lovely seaside town of Puerto Limon. It is our last stop in Costa Rica and turns out to be a little disappointing. All it does is rain while we are there. Still the place was a bustling port town big on fruit - namely bananas. After only one night we decide to scarper and get into Panama. The border crossing was kinda cool. The bus there seems like its taking you nowhere except deeper into banana plantations on a really bad road. The border itself is a dodgy old rail bridge across a river. All very nice.
Welcome to Panama. Our first stop in this glorious country is the island paradise of Bocas del Toro. A small set of islands just off the NW coast of the country. Three nights are spent here. Good food, good snorkeling and a nice relaxing feel made this a nice spot to be. We did a day trip around the different islands which, after the good snorkeling, took us to red frog beach. Yes, there are indeed miniature red frogs everywhere. All very cool. This beach also had the best body surfing waves I have had. Its a shame Zach wasn't with us! Once again the sea was the eventual winner. Its was on Bocas that I bumped into a couple of French Canadian girls that I had met for the first time in Nicaragua. More about them later.
Back on the mainland it was off to the town of Boquete. It was in this nice little town that I spent my last days with Lorelli. We did a nice 7k hike around the town. This includes a stop at Mi Jardin es su Jardin (my garden is your garden) which, as the name clearly suggests, is a free garden. Its (and this is a bit of speculation) owned by a rich local eccentric. Its beautiful in there but there a few too many giant metal animals for my taste. We also passed the president of Panama's house (one of them anyway). Unfortunately he didn't ask us in for tea and scones! After a couple of nights here Lorelli then left to head of to Panama City to fly home - she will be sadly missed. Having peaked at an entourage of four Canadians at one point I was down to none. Or was I?
Nope, not just yet. Before leaving Boquete I met up with with Marie-Jo and Myriam (mentioned earlier) and we headed off together to the Boquete like town of Cerro Punta. Here we managed to find the coldest hotel in the world. Its not a good sign when the owner comes to the door in a wooly hat and gloves. It does get chilly up at these altitudes - try turning on the heating! More hiking in the national park and more searching for the (mythical?) Quetzal - its called the most beautiful bird in the world (by those who have actually seen it). They are in the park but again were a no show. I will see one dammit!
To break up the mammoth journey to Panama City we opted on a nights stay at the beach town of Santa Clara. We stayed in a really expensive (for backpackers) resort which was frequented by the cities rich elite. We didn't really fit in. Still the beach was lovely and the sea nice to swim in. After only one night there we zoom off to Panama City for the start what was going to be a week there for me. We find a cheap, but very seedy, place to stay and head out for a look around. Just to give you a feel of the place we stayed in....you can book rooms by the hour! Enough said?
Panama City is like no other place in Central America. It could easily be mistaken for an US city. There is a lot of money in this place. It was quite nice to be in civilisation for a while. There main reason for the wealth here is canal. This was one of the obvious sightseeing spots. I know its just a canal, but it is huge and is fascinating. The politics, struggles and sheer scale make this one of my favourite spots. Without boring you too much with the history, Panama gained its independence from Columbia with the US's help purely so the US could finish building the canal. I mention it as its Panama's 100th year as an independent country - and a big deal they are making of it. I ended up going twice to the Miraflores docks. Once with the girls and then with some folks I met in the hostel I moved to after the girls left for home. The other main sights in PC are Mi Pueblito, a reconstruction of a native indian settlement (where they flog their overpriced arty stuff) and Panama Viejo (Old Panama) which is the ruins left behind an attack by yet another naughty Englishman. The old part of town is well worth a visit as well with its colonial buildings.
Like I said before, after the Canadians left for home, I moved to the only hostel in the City. Here I met more cool people and ended up doing all the sights again with them - almost as a tour guide.
This was to be my last stage of central America. I bought myself a ticket to Cartagena, Columbia, and jumped on a plane. As I'm still in Columbia (I never thought I would stay a month!) I will write about it later.
A quick note to those who expressed concern about my safety after seeing the news about the kidnapping in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. I wasn't (obviously) one of the Brits taken. I was indeed there two weeks ago. I did the very tour they did - I think it was the one after ours that got taken. Makes you think doesn't it! Thanks though to those who were worried - I appreciate it.
That's your lot. I'm in a whole new continent now and will have a vast array of stuff to bore you with (if you bother to read all this junk of course). Take care all, I have to go and watch more Cali girls,
Rob.
xxx
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