Pura Vida, Costa Rica!

Crossing the "border" into Costa Rica.

We got to Puerto Viejo and checked into Rocking J’s Hostel. This hostel was very interesting. First of all it is completely covered in sparkling ceramic tiles, and this hostel is HUGE. There is a massive sleeping porch that resembles something out of a freshmen year in a frat house. The porch is covered wall to wall with about 50 tents where guests can sleep for $6. There is another similar room that is wall to wall with hammocks that you can sleep in for $4. Trev and I opted for a room with actual beds, we know we’re spoiled. Being rainy season in Costa Rica, the weather was kind of crappy. Had the weather allowed it, we probably would have spent a few days lounging on the beach getting a tan before heading back to the equally rainy Pacific Northwest, but instead we walked around town and spent a lot of time looking at the seemingly endless rows of Rasta men selling bracelets, jewelry, and other touristy goods. For dinner we made one of our hostel specialties, Mexican Food! We then hung out in the hostel and talked with some other travelers about their experiences. We then made it to bed pretty early in preparation for our early morning bus to San Jose. We ended up missing the 7:30am bus. The next bus left at 9 so we sat at a coffee shop near the beach. We ordered egg sandwiches with pesto and some café con leche. We then took the 4 hour bus to San Jose to find out that all the busses were either full or the roads were destroyed by land slides. So, we and our new Argentine friends were forced to book a taxi for the 4 hour drive. This set us back another 30 bucks a person. But, we made it to the highland town of La Fortuna and checked into a random hotel at around 6pm. We went out for pasta and then went back to our room to watch the food network and go to sleep. The next morning we checked into a cute little hostel called Gringo Pete’s, and quickly booked a tour to the nearby Venado Caves. The caves were amazing! They did have the same scary cave spiders as the last caves we tried to tour, but our experienced guide assured us that they were not dangerous or poisonous. We made our way into the first room of the cave. A cool river ran through us and hundreds of bats slept overhead, that is until our guide shinned the flashlight at them and they all frantically flew into other darker rooms of the cavern. Our guide led us through rivers, down into small tunnels, up slippery waterfall faces, and into more and more rooms of the caves. Every room had more interesting stalagmite/stalactite formations than the last. We were also shown huge walls of coral that developed millions of years ago when the entire cave was underwater. Some of the massive rock walls were completely made of shell fossils. We wondered through the seemingly endless maze of tunnels that required us to walk, slide, crawl, climb, and swim to get through to the end. I am still not sure how Trev managed to fit through some of these small tunnels in which we literally had to slide feet first through these tiny openings in the rocks, in the dark. Our guide admitted that Trev was one of the largest people to ever make it through these tiny tunnels. He also pointed out all the interesting rock formations and the endless number of scary cave scorpion spiders. After about an hour of making our way through the cave, we finally scaled an underground waterfall and made it to the outside. We also learned that these caves were privately owned by a Costa Rican farmer who ran a small dairy farm on the lands surrounding the caves. On the drive back to the hostel our guide pointed out a toucan, howler monkeys, iguanas, and a sloth. His ability to see animals from the road was really impressive. He dropped us back at Gringo Pete’s where we got into warmer clothes, made an omelet, and blogged about our adventures. We also met some people from Canada, Germany, and Maine and decided to go on a 7pm night tour of a nearby active volcano.  

Last day on the Caribbean coast!

Halloween in Panama City!

Panama Canal

We finally docked in Panama and made our way to Panama City. If a few days on choppy waters wasn’t enough, the Panamanian taxi drivers will make sure you are not robbed of your chance to feel nauseous. Our driver sped around sharp turns and blind curves for about two hours, until we reached our Luna’s Castle Hostel in Casco Viejo. Thankful to be on land with no plans of returning to boat or taxi for a while, we checked in and prepared for the Halloween festivities. Luna’s Castle is a massive hostel that doubles as a night club. As you can imagine, you don’t check into Luna’s for a relaxing city getaway or with any intentions of getting a good nights sleep. We quickly got in touch with my friend Mara and her boyfriend Justin, our tour guides for the next few days. Mara and Justin moved to Panama City about a year and a half ago and started up a company called Panama Lens. Their business focuses on real estate around the Panama City area, and gives detailed and professional video tours of new developments and old properties for sale. Anyways, we met up with them and they took us on a walking tour of Casco. We saw the waterfront, many Kuna ladies selling various artisan goods, and tons of vacant buildings that were all for sale. We also stopped at a cute little smoothie place right below their awesome apartment. After our tour, they informed us that they were going to rest up and prepare for Halloween. We made plans with them to meet up after dinner for a party at their apartment followed by some bar hopping in the city. Trev and I returned to the hostel, made way too much pasta, and frantically drank coffee to try and energize after four nights of very limited sleep on Fritz’s boat. After our caffeine fix we walked over to Mara’s house. Upon arrival we noticed that we were VERY unprepared for the night’s events. Mara and Justin quickly pulled out some of their old Halloween costumes and clothes and we threw together our costumes. Mara’s roommate Diane loaned me her awesome Robbin Hood costume while Trevor threw something together that came out looking like a white trash bearded transvestite. But, everything worked out and once we were in costume the booze started pouring. Before we knew it we were partying with gringos from all over the US. This gringo-fest went on until we ran out of drinks. Once this occurred we headed out to the streets of Casco Viejo for a good ol’ fashioned Panamanian Halloween. We went to a few small bars and a few garages that we turned into dance parties. Mara and Justin seemed to know every club owner or bar tender in town so the drinks were cheap and plentiful. After a few hours of this we all ended up back at Relic, the dance club connected to our hostel. There we ordered more drinks and set up at a table near the bar. We were even lucky enough to share some drinks with Jaime Aleman, who was kind enough to grace us with his presence. We all caught up and reminisced about our travels from three years earlier. Both Mara and Jaime are friends I met in 2007 on a summer voyage of Semester At Sea. After a sufficient amount of alcohol had been consumed, and a lot of ludicrous dance parties, we eventually all made our ways back to our perspective beds and slept.

The next morning we woke up in pain and enjoyed some free coffee, bananas, and pancakes provided by the hostel. Due to the very nature of the hostel, everyone had partied late into the night and everyone was paying for it today. We sat at a very long table and slowly ate our meal surrounded by our many hostel mates who had suffered the same fate. However, after breakfast we made our way back to Mara and Justin’s house to see what they had on the agenda for today. They were in similar shape, and moving very slowly. But Mara had some great news. Instead of dragging us to some cultural museums or taking us on a historical tour of the newly announced UNESCO World Heritage Site, she told us that we were going to sneak into a fancy hotel in the city and sit by a pool. Trev and I could not have been happier by this news.  We got in a cab and made our way to Hotel Riu. We parked on some lawn chairs and ordered some pretty good poolside food from the bar. After consuming another meal, our friends insisted that we start the day early and begin ordering some beers to postpone the hangover. We happily abided. After a little while, it became obvious to security that we were not exactly “guests” of the snazzy hotel. They were not happy that we had snuck in, and told us that they were going to charge us 27 bucks to use the pool. We said no. In response, they told us that we could in fact stay there, but that we would no longer be able to use the pool. We were however, allowed to continue ordering drinks. We stayed there for a few more hours and racked up the bar tab. Eventually, as it always does during the rainy season in Central America, it began to rain. We quickly moved under cover for a while, but then decided to head back to Casco for Halloween night. Instead of staying at our loud hostel, Mara and Justin offered us a spare bedroom in their house. We happily agreed. We went over there with all the best intentions of going out for Halloween Round 2, but we unanimously came to the decision that none of us had the energy for that. We ended up ordering pizza and making drinks at Mara’s house.

Sloth!

The next morning Mara and Justin were off to the beach to house-sit, so we said our goodbyes and thank you’s. We then went to the bus station and booked an overnight bus to Bocas Del Toro. After this we discovered that we had about 10 hours to kill before yet another terrible overnight bus. Being the sophisticated and cultured beings that we are, we decided to check out the Panama Canal. We got there. Looked at the canal. Saw a boat go through it. Took some photos and left. We then went out to lunch with Mara’s roommates Alex and Diane at a nice hotel in town. Still paying for our two nights of drinking, we went back to their place and caught up on the newest episodes of Dexter and Weeds. After half a day of sitting on the couch, Alex and Diane drove us to a Mexican restaurant downtown for dinner. After dinner we said goodbye to our second set of tour guides, and went to the bus station. At 9:30 we boarded the most uncomfortable long distance bus of the trip. After tossing and turning until 8am, we arrived in Bocas del Toro and checked into Mondu Taitu, a hostel owned by the same guys as Luna’s Castle. We got our room, that we’re pretty sure used to be a small shed, and got settled. We then got on a bus to the other side of Isla Colon to go to a beach called Bocas del Drago. We walked along the beach for a while until we came to a little cove called Playa Estrella (Star Beach). It gets its name by the huge starfish that live there. We snorkled, played with starfish the size of our heads, and then relaxed on the beach for a few hours. Trev read his book and I passed out. We then spent the rest of the day exploring Bocas. Oh, I forgot to mention that a little restaurant near the hostel served BAGLES! This was a very exciting discovery. That night we went out to dinner at a place called Café Om for some awesome Indian food. We then chilled at the hostel bar and went to sleep in our shed room. The few days we took a water taxi to Red Frog Beach and explored more of what this Caribbean island had to offer. We rented bikes one morning and attempted to go to some bat caves 8km down the road. However, we got there and realized that we had no flashlights. We walked back to the road and asked a local woman if she had one we could borrow. She did! She nicely gave us her flashlight and we headed back to the caverns. We were there for a while, but we were really turned off by the huge spiders that were crawling all over the walls. We made it to the first cavern and then turned around. Cave spiders are really scary. That evening we took a boat taxi over to a neighboring island and met up with our friends Ryan and Claudio from the catamaran. We hung out over there, had some beers, and watched the tons of rich local Panamanians celebrate their Independence Day. Panamanians know how to party. The next day we got on a water taxi that took us to a bus that took us to the boarder where we walked across a railroad bridge to Costa Rica, got our passports stamped, got in another bus and made it to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. 

An Austrian Experience in the San Blas Islands

The first two days of the trip were to be spent sailing and seeing nothing but the open ocean.  This would have been true, but the wind didn’t cooperate, so we were under power of the dual inboard motors for the entire trip.  We both became sea sick, Julia got the worst of it.  Although we were all offered cabins, five of the fifteen of us spent the night curled up on various surfaces within the enclosed deck.  It rained every night, but was usually sunny by breakfast. 

We were happy to see the first set of San Blas Islands on the morning of the third day.  Before breakfast on the third day we made the 100 yard swim from the boat to the island.  We walked around the circumference of the entire island in less than 30 minutes.  On the island we saw huge conch shells larger than the size of coconuts.  We were also appalled by the amount of litter that was on these beautiful white sand beaches.  According to our Captain the trash had drifted over from Europe into the Caribbean Sea.  It became more apparent as the trip went on that the European’s were indeed the culprits, but in a different way than Fritz had originally explained.  We were all a little appalled when Fritz instructed us to dispose of absolutely everything by throwing it overboard when we were finished with it.  This included but was not limited to cigarette butts, beer cans, all left over food, cardboard, etc.  We were promised the best food on the sea but we were not overly impressed.  Each morning for breakfast we had freshly cooked Austrian bread with sandwich fixings. For lunch and dinner we pretty much always had a form of pasta or pancakes.  There was always freshly made lemonade to drink and tea in the mornings. Fresh fruit also lined the width of the boat in hanging baskets.  All in all the food was pretty good for being on sea.  The best part of the trip was definitely spent on the islands snorkeling.  The water was easily the clearest I have ever seen and maybe even the warmest saltwater I have ever been in.  We even got to go on a guided lobster gathering trip one afternoon with a descendent of the Kuna Indians.  The man took 13 of us in a small wooden boat with an outboard motor to a reef near by.  We were under the assumption going into it that the man we explain to us tactical ways to find and gather the lobsters.  This was not the case.  We dropped the anchor near the reef and before we knew it the Indian was in the water swimming away from the boat.  Realizing that Indian was nearly impossible to keep up with we stayed in small groups and experienced some amazing coral reefs and beautiful fish.  We kept a look out for lobster, but saw very few and gathered even less.  We were surprised when the Indian came back to the boat with a goody bag full of eleven large lobsters.  We made our way back to the catamaran and enjoyed some very tasty grilled lobster in garlic and butter.  Our Captain / Chef also made some paella (white rice, onion, and bell pepper dish) to accompany the lobster feast.  After spending three days island hopping around San Blas we were taken to the main land and driven to Panama City.  We were mostly happy to be off the small confined boat, but the island hopping portion of the trip was amazing.  We literally felt like we were in paradise.    

Spa experience # 2.

We woke up early and decided that we needed to do something besides lay by a pool or a beach so we booked a tour to a nearby mud volcano called Volcan Tutomo. This "volcano" is a 200 meter high hill that is full of spa-grade mud. We were led up a slippery staircase and ushered into the top of the volcano. The mud is so thick you  practically float on the surface. Trying to submerge yourself into the thick goo is very difficult. The mud bath held about 25 mud-covered tourists. We relaxed in the warm mud and tried not to bump into anyone, which was very difficult because the pool was not very large.  We were also bombarded by a group of, also mud-covered, Colombian men who sort of forced massages on you weather you liked it or not. Saying no didn't seem to be an option. Our cameras were left with another guy who snapped pictures of the whole event. We met some fellow Americans who were teaching in an international school in Venezuela. After about 30 minutes of "relaxation" we climbed out and made our way to a nearby lake to wash off. There we were met by a group of Colombian women who insisted on helping us wash off. The entire group was led into the water as these women continuously rinsed us off and scrubbed the mud from our bodies.  The women were very thorough, they ripped our bathing suits off and continued with the scrubbing.  Luckily the water was so filthy with mud that nothing could be seen by our fellow "spa" attendees.  After we were sufficiently clean we went back to the bus, "tipped" our "spa therapists" and headed to a small beach town to get lunch.  On the bus we made plans with some Irish guys to get on a party bus, which would take us around town and promised all you can drink rum.  On the party bus we saw the sights, listened to a live band, where forced to dance, and enjoyed some cheap Colombian rum.  We ended at a night club with overpriced drinks and loud music, so we headed back to the hostel just in time to miss a down pour.  This was the first hint of rain we had seen in Cartagena.  We ordered some beers at the terrace bar and snuck up to the roof top to enjoy some lightning and a 360 degree view of the city.

Caribbean Getaway

Media Luna Hostel

Cartagena is everything Lonely Planet promised.  The city is beautiful, the hostels are amazing, and the beaches are calm and equally as beautiful.  We are having an amazing time.  We arrived in town late on Tuesday night and made our way to the Media Luna hostel. The three hour bus ride quickly turned into a six hour one and we strongly regretted skipping lunch. But we finally arrived, tired, hungry, but ready to see a new place. The hostel was full, so we settled on a less fun one down the street for the first night. We checked in and jumped into the first pizza place we could find. We were accompanied by a fellow traveler from Japan who was making his way around the world from the US to South America to Africa, Europe, Australia, and then back home. After dinner we stopped in at another hostel and inquired about the infamous catamaran tours from here to Panama. After checking out a few boats we decided on the one we wanted. It would be a 15 meter long catamaran run by a friendly Austrian expat named Fritz who gladly boasts to have the best food in the area. After planning our departure for the 26^th we went back to the hostel and quickly fell asleep in the very humid room. The next morning we checked in to the Media Luna and were very glad to see a nice cool pool situated in the courtyard. We claimed our bunks, parked ourselves by the pool, and frivolously read our new John Grisham books we picked up at the hostel book exchange. Quite content at our new residence, we continued this pattern for the next few days. We ventured out sporadically to check out the colonial city and visit the local Exito.

 

View of Cartagena from Tallabamba Island

The third day in Cartagena we met with Captain Fritz and got a tour of the catamaran we would be taking to Panama and met three of our future boat mates.  We were pleased with the boat and the fact that they greeted us with beers.  The spacious vessel and the promise of gourmet Austrian cuisine sold us on the trip.  We then took a break from sunbathing at the hostel to doing the exact same thing at a nearby island.  After a few hours of laying on the beach with John Grisham and enjoying some overpriced fish we headed back to the hostel and made burritos.  That night we heard about a concert in Old Town, so we walked over and watched the band for a while.  We grew tired of the Colombian music and being the only ones unable to salsa dance, so we continued our walk to the wall that surrounds the city.  The wall was constructed to keep out the Spaniards from invading during Colonization.  Much of the architecture also from this era is still well preserved and beautiful to walk through.  We made our way back to the hostel and called it an early night.

Ciudad Perdida

Trekin through Colombia!

The first official hotel of the trip and were happy to have A/C to save us from the coastal heat.  We woke u and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and met the owner and family friend Oswaldo. He quickly helped us book a trek and gave us some pointers about what to do/see in the city. After talking to him for a while, he thought we would have more fun in one of his apartments that overlooked the bay in Rodadero. We got settled there, in our three bedroom apartment, that was a full ten steps from the bay. That evening we walked arounWe made it to the Hotel Bahia Plaza in Santa Marta late after a short flight and a bus ride afterward.  We check into td and ate at a few street food vendors on the beach. We had some gyro’s, sandwiches, kebobs, and ceviche. The food on the beach was amazing and at a fraction of the cost of anything we would have had in town. We walked around looking at various bracelets, ceramics, and other random artisan stands set up only to entice travelers anxious to take home a souvenir from their holiday in the Caribbean. We then enjoyed some drinks on the beach with our feet in the ocean. The beach is literally crawling with partying Colombians well into the night. We got to sleep long before most of the locals called it a night.  The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and got on a bus to Playa Los Angeles, a local beach about an hour away. The long strip of beach was basically deserted except for a group of Canadian travelers who had driven a van down from Canada and were camping there. We pretty much had the entire beach to ourselves. We laid on the sand, read some John Grisham, and attempted to swim in the really strong waves. A few brave souls dared to surf in the violent shore break, but we were not about to try it. After a few hours of soaking up the Caribbean rays we went back to our apartment and made another batch of gormet grilled cheese sandwiches. We walked around the beach again until it got dark. Again, ate some street food and had a few drinks. We called it another early night in preparation for our 5 day 4 night Ciudad Perdida Trek.  We were picked up at the hotel and driven to the agency where we would meet our fellow trekers. We met an American guy named John, some Aussies named Andy, Rowen, and Reece, and a lot of Irish girls with very complicatedly spelled names. In all we were 14 and ready for the long trek. Or were we? About an hour or so into the first day a monsoon like rain started to pour, and showed no sign of letting up. We climbed up slippery hills of red clay for a good three or four hours, stopping for the occasional fruit break. A few of the group members had some falls, but overall we did pretty well. We crossed a few rivers that came up to our hips and continued towards our first stop. That evening we arrived at our site. It was a few small houses with a long covered area wall to wall with soaking wet clothes, an action that would prove to be very pointless over the next few days. Our cooks prepared us a small Colombian feast and we stayed up until the outrageous hour of 9pm. 

The next morning we awoke to our guide’s voice saying “vamos a la playa!” Literally translated as “lets go to the beach.” Not surprisingly there was no beach in sight, nor would there be for the duration of the trek. However, after a terrible night’s sleep in the hammocks, we slowly made our way to the breakfast table, ate, packed up our soaking wet clothes, and moved out. That day we would walk for another four hours or so until we reached our second site. The second day was much dryer than the first, which made hiking over clay a bit easier. We took a few fruit breaks and were able to swim in the river along the way. This day we passed a few indigenous communities of the Tayrona people. As we passed them some said hi, some ignored us, and some stared at us like we were from another planet. To a community which up until 1977 had seen very little presence of white people, a group of backpack clad gringos probably did look a bit strange. However, after half a day of trekking through rivers and sloshing through very wet and very deep mud we arrived at our destination. We again, played some poker (with rocks and sugar packets as our chips), swam in the river, and once again hung up our soaking clothes with false hopes that they would be any dryer by morning.  Our cooks prepared lunch upon arrival, and dinner a few hours later. After enjoying more of the finest Colombian cuisine that could be made under such circumstances, we played more card games and went to sleep, in bunk beds this time. The next day was the same drill. Groggy morning, long hike through the jungle, then arrived at our destination. Apparently our group made some good progress because we arrived at our next camp an hour ahead of schedule. Because of our hasty journey, we made the unanimous decision to continue the extra hour to the Ciudad Perdida, instead of venturing up the next morning. After lunch we made the short journey to the 2000+ steps that led up to the lost city of the Tayronas. The ruins were kind of amazing. We made our way up the long flight of stairs to see a few dozen stone circles, intricately placed around the grounds. We were told all these circle structures were once that foundations of houses from the time when the Tayrona lived freely up there, and before the Spanish discovered the sacred ground and forced the evacuation of its people. Up at the very top we were greeted by some Colombian soldiers who were quote unquote, “protecting” the ruins. We took a few pictures with the nice young men carrying really big guns, while our guide gave them some chocolates and suckers. 

Ciudad Perdida

The group.

Honestly, they looked extremely bored with their assignment that most likely meant little more than posing with tourists and camping in the Colombian rainforest. After a few hours walking around the ruins, we made the walk back to our site. Where, as you probably guessed, we played cards and ate dinner. This night dinner happened to be a delicious yet simple meal of spaghetti with crackers. And the next day we were off. With ambitious intentions of walking the 7 hours back to our first site, we were full of energy. However, once we made it to site number two for lunch the torrential downpour started again with no signs of slowing down. We were then advised by our guide that continuing in that weather would not be a good idea, so we did everything we could do to pass the time until our long journey home the next day. We once again swam in the river and played a few intense games of rock poker. We were also given a full, and VERY detailed, history of the Tayronas. After our intense, and exhausting history lesson we were off to bed in our bunk beds one last time. On day 5 we woke up and made the final journey back to Santa Marta. Having long forgotten what it felt like to take a shower, sleep in past six, or to feel dry clothes, we made our way back to modern civilization. We had one last meal of typical Colombian fried fish, meat, or chicken, and then, after a few hour drive, we were back in the hotel. We said our goodbyes and exchanged contact information with our new friends and then hurried up to the room to take showers that were much needed, much deserved, and far too long. That night we relaxed, scratched our hundreds of bites, and enjoyed the refreshing feeling of a nice clean bed and AC. The next day we would pack up our things and leave for Cartagena, Colombia’s “most beautiful city,” according to Lonely Planet, and soon by ourselves as well.