Friday, February 3, 2012

Made it to Panama

Okay I guess I need to do this entry all over as the blogger app ate my first attempt.  This app is great when it works and terrible when it doesn´t.  Also, it ate some of the pics the second time even when I was at a real pc in an internet cafe.  So this will have to do for now.

I left San Jose Monday on the 8am bus bound for the Caribbean coast.  My destination was the town of  Cahuita where they were reported to have excellant Caribbean cooking.  I am so tired of the bland "typical" Costa Rican meals.  Any way, I arrived in Cahuita about 1pm but I needed to go to four hotels to find an acceptable room.  As it was, my room at the Smith Cabinas looked much better than it was.  The A/C didn't work right, the hot water wasn't hot and the bed had seen better days.  Still, it was only for one night so I made do...

On Tuesday morning, I took another 8am bus - this time I was headed towards to Puerto Viejo.  I had previously arranged to rent a room there from fellow Americans (Chris and her husband John) who I met on the bus to Cahuita the day before.  They are in my age bracket and had rented in Puerto Viejo a 2 bedroom - 2 bath house ' sight unseen from the Internet and now the other couple decided not to come.

So Chris and John met me at the bus and we all went to the house.  The day before I discoved they were from the Philadelphia area but I was to learn many more common threads between us.  First off John's last name is Riley.  While that isn't the same spelling it is close.  Then Chris asked where I grew up.  She not only knew where Bedford was but it was her mother's hometown.  It turns out that Chris's grandfather was the minister in the church my family attended.  Although he died before I was born, I do remember being told about him.  Then finally, Chris' uncle (who is still living) was my family's doctor during all my childhood.  All in all, I thought these coincidences were amazing.

Any way I spent Tuesday and Wednesday mainly with them.  While Chris was taking a morning Spanish class, John and I looked around.  While there are nice beaches several miles east, Puerto Viejo is not one of them.  Neither of us could understand why it became the town and center to the beach area. 
On Wednesday morning we went to the local Jaguar Rescue Center.  While the name is misleading as they have no jaguars there, it is a very interesting place.  All the animals there were injuried or abandoned.  They have sloths (both 2&3 toe varieties with babies), holler monkeys, falcons, snakes, birds of various sort including 2 falcons and 2 owls, spiders and one wildcat (ocelot).  The center also had a nice tour where the guide had lots of stories about the animals.

On Friday morning I left Chris, John and Puerto Viejo to enter Panama.  The local bus got me to the border in a little over an hour.  After getting Costa Rica to stamp my passport (fortunately no line as when I entered), I had to walk across a steel bridge build in Philadelphia in 1908.  This bridge has seen much better days as it now appears to be holding together by rust.   Hard to believe that an occasional big truck is allowed to go over it.

Getting into Panama offered me a new wrinkle.  They make everyone show a ticket or confirmation of a ticket to leave Panama before they allow you to entry.  Failure to produce this requires you to buy a $12 bus ticket from there to San Jose. I'm sure this is good for bus ticket sales.  Fortunately - although I didn't have a copy of return flight from Panama City, I did have the email confirmation on my handy smartphone.  So I was good to go after I bought their $3 entry stamp.

From there, I was talked into a $10 pooled van ride to the ferry to Bocas.This turned out to be an hour ride even though LoneyPlanet thinks it is only half that long.  Then we got a high speed boat ride for $4 into Bocas town.  This was 20 minutes compared to the LonelyPlanets estimate of 45 minutes.  Bocas town is much nicer than the Caribbean towns I visited on Costa Rica.  Still there isn't much for me to do here.  The butterfly farm which I was planning to visit today is apparently closed for 'maintenance'.  So I'm using the day to get my laundry done and caught up on this blog.  BTW, so far I find the food of Panama maybe not much better but at least a third less expensive than Costa Rica.

Tomorrow, I plan to head to David City.  Accordingly to LonelyPlanet, it is a 4 1/2 hour ride from the bus terminal back on the mainland.  Of course I now know the boat ride is about 20 minutes but I still have no idea how far the bus station is from the marina.  Of course that is all part of the fun of independent traveling.

The Rescue Center Guide waving at something or other
The rocky beach in Cahuita.  Beach in Puerto Viejo isn´t much better
Baby 2 Toe Sloth
Adult 2 Toe Sloth who is afraid to go high up in the trees
Smith Cabinas in Cahita
Nice beach east of Puerto Viejo
Baby 3 Toe Sloth

The Cat at the Rescue Center
The Rented House at Puerto Viejo
The Famous Costa Rican Frog
Tour Folks playing with the holler monkeys
I ever saw a tree that grew together like this

Hotel Los Dalfines in Bocas, Panama

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