Costa Rica

7 February 2008
Peñas Blancas/San Jose, Costa Rica
                Leaving the immigration office our friend said the secret to getting away from the border was to catch a Nicabus (fancy bus).  They run a lot faster and more comfortable than the chicken buses, but the rub is that we didn’t have tickets for a Nicabus.  She guided us over to a Nicabus and asked the driver if he had room for us.  He initially said it would be $30 USD for each of us to go to San Jose.  While our friend was translating he reconsidered his offer and changed it to $20 USD total…sold.
                Doug ran off to change Nicaragua money to Costa Rican money.  Thankfully there was a bank right there and they did a very good exchange with no haggling required.
                We got on the bus and were directed to our seats.  We weren’t able to sit together, but Doug got the Assistant Driver seat with about twice the leg room and there nobody sitting behind him so he could lean all the way back.
                The bus stopped about 2 hours into our bus ride for dinner at a restaurant.  We had our staple of chicken and rice.  It was pretty good; this was the first chicken breast we’ve had in awhile.  Then it was back on the road.
                At one of the stops the person next to Anna got off and we were able to sit together again.  While we were in the home stretch one of the bus crew came back with two tickets that we would have to hand over when we got off the bus since we were technically smuggled on.  Both of our tickets were tickets of other passengers and both said we were from Nicaragua.
                The bus arrived in San Jose on schedule.  When we got off there was a gentleman collecting the tickets.  Doug handed him the ticket and quickly tried to walk away.  The guy stopped Doug and started pointing at the ticket and speaking rapidly in Spanish.  Doug apologized for not speaking better Spanish and the guy immediately switched to English.  He said that this particular ticket costs $30 and was a multi-stop ticket.  Doug looked at the ticket and saw that it only had $6 written on it.  Doug started to worry that he was going to have to shell out some more money.  Then the guy said, “You need to hold on to this ticket for when you travel back to Nicaragua because you won’t have to pay as much.”  THANK YOU!
                We went to get our bags and everyone had claim tickets to get their bags…we didn’t.  When we he grabbed our bags he asked for our tickets.  We just looked at him like we didn’t understand and after a moment he didn’t seem to care.
                We walked down to the Coca-Cola Bus Station and saw that our bus for the next day leaves at 6 am tomorrow.  We went around the corner to a hotel and got a room.  The only room available with a bathroom had 5 beds in it.  We went to go look at the room, it looked fine so we took it.  Then it was up the room to catch up on journals and go to bed.

8 February 2008
San Jose/Uvita, Costa Rica
                The alarm went off at 5:30, and we were up.  The bus station was right around the corner, so there was no need for a lot of time to race to the station.  There was a line to get on the bus, so we waited for a few minutes.  Doug went to get some snacks for the ride.  Fortunately we were able to put our bags underneath the bus.  The bus left promptly at 6:00AM.
                This bus ride was to be about 7 hours.  During the first 2 hours we were both able to get a little nap in.  The bus then stopped for a short break at a restaurant on the side of the highway.  Anna got a fruit cup, with a variety of fruit.  Then back on the bus.  About 3 hours later the bus stopped in a city called Quepos.  Here we found out that we were to change buses. 
                The previous bus wasn’t the most fancy of buses, but comfortable.  The next bus was not as comfortable, and was very dirty.  As the bus left Quepos the road soon went from asphalt, to dirt.  It was really hot outside so all the windows were down and every time another vehicle went by our bus filled with dust.  This was probably the dirtiest ride we had been on.  The dirt road lasted about an hour and a half.  Then the road turned into asphalt again.  Doug’s response to asphalt road was “Halleluiah for pavement”.
                    Arriving in Uvita, the bus dropped us off at a convenience store.  The book we have recommended a hotel called the “Tucan hotel.”  We knew right where it was.  Walking down the road off the highway, sure enough there was the Tucan hotel.  We walked in inquiring about a room for the night.  The lady at the reception desk’s response was that they were full, and we needed a reservation.  We had been traveling for 5 weeks, and never really needed a reservation.  Well, we were off to find another place to stay.  We walked down that same road about a half a mile, and then turned around.  It was very hot, and sticky.  We were both not excited about walking around. 
                Arriving back at the highway, the book said there would be a place 200 meters from where the bus stop is.  Well we walked about 400 meters, a no place to stay.  Then we walked the other way.  (A couple of girls we had walked by earlier said there were some placed off the highway closer to the National park entrance).  After walking another half mile, we ran into a cute little place right on the highway.   Doug asked the price for the hotel, and the guy said $30US.  This wasn’t too bad, since we were expecting to pay $25 anyways.  This little hotel was brand new, with air conditioning.  Not too bad.
                After we unloaded our stuff, changed into our swimming suits we went down to the beach to cool off.  The beach was about half mile from our hotel.  The road to the beach was nice and dusty.  Along the way we found a Mercado (supermarket), and treated ourselves to a Popsicle, ice cream, and a large orange fanta.  The beach was not much further down the road.  To enter the beach was a National Park entrance fee of $6 each. 
                We walked out to see the calm Pacific Ocean waiting for us to soak in.  To our amazement the water was very warm.  This was the warmest water the both of us had ever been in.  It was nice to relax in the water, and soak in the sun.  After hanging out at the beach for a couple of hours we decided to get some food.  This would be the first meal of the day.  Because of the long hours of traveling we didn’t have a chance to have a meal, only small snacks. 
                First we went to a restaurant/bar who advertised fajitas for $1000 corlones ($2US).  We sat down and ordered a couple of beers.  After being served our beers, the bartender came over to us to let us know there would be no comida (food), because the cook was mas tarde (very late).  She directed us to the place next door.  So we finished our beers, paid, and went next door.
                The restaurant next door was cute.  The place was run by one woman, and her son.  She took our order.  Doug ordered a chicken sandwich, and Anna ordered what she thought would be a chicken kabob.  The woman then went back to make our food.  To Doug’s surprise his chicken sandwich was very well made, with a toasted bun.  Anna’s food was a little bit different.  She was able to eat the salad, rice, and part of the chicken.  Now it was time to walk back to the hotel, and clean up.  We were both very sticky not only from the dirty bus ride, but from the fresh salt water.

9 February 2008
Uvita, Costa Rica
                At 6:30 we were up to catch a tour we booked the day before.  The guy running the front desk said he would drive us down to the tour company at 7:30.  At 7:15 he knocked on the door to remind us and then at 7:29 he started honking.  We were out the door and loaded up into his car, he drove us down to the beach to meet the captain. 
                We paid for the tour and went down to the beach to wait for them to get the boat ready.  A beat up old 4x4 came down to the beach with a boat on the trailer about 30 minutes later.  They performed a highly technical procedure for inserting the boat into the water.  First they turned the vehicle around so that the vehicle could back up to insert the boat into the water.  Next the cable was disconnected.  The cable keeps the boat from sliding off the trailer during towing.  Then they put the vehicle in reverse and hit the gas.  Flying backwards as fast as possible the trailer and 4x4 slam into the water.  At this point they quickly throw the vehicle into to drive and stomp on the gas again so the boat keeps going towards the water and the vehicle goes back onto land.  Apparently you get style points for making changes in direction of more than 90 degrees while backing up at full speed as well.
                Shortly after the boat was in the water a group of tourists were guided by the Captain down to the water.  We joined them and were brought aboard the boat.  The boat had 5 French people (two older couples and their guide) a couple from Venezuela, and another gentleman. 
                Our first stop was to look at some pelicans and do a bit of snorkeling.  After getting our gear on and jumping in we were treated to a few tropical fish.  The highlight of our snorkeling was being able to see a small (about 1 foot long) eel, and some starfish.
                The next stop was out to sea looking for whales.  We spent about an hour with no luck and then we were finally treated to seeing our first surfacing.  As we followed along we saw the whale/s a few more times before moving on.  At one point the Venezuelan guy jumped into the water, put his head underwater so he could hear the whales.  We were both intrigued by this, and decided to jump into the water to hear the sounds.  This was exciting, and scary at the same time. 
                Dolphins were next on the menu as we came across a large pod of around 20 plus dolphins.  They were playing around the surface, occasionally jumping.  It was like SeaWorld around our boat.  (Unfortunately the camera battery was wasted on the whales watching so there are no dolphin, or cave photos.)
                The boat headed to a cave next.  It was more of an arc than a cave and the boat surprisingly went through the small arc.  On the way back to the beach we came across the dolphins again and they got even closer to the boat than they did the first time with dolphins within inches of the boat.  The driver then gave us some watermelon shortly after before heading to shore to drop us off.
                We began to walk back to our hotel and we were offered a ride to the top of the road which we accepted.  We grabbed our bags and headed up to a supermarket to wait for the bus.  Anna bought some snacks and a big thing of orange juice for lunch. 
                A woman and her son were waiting at the bus stop with us.  We had about hour to kill so Doug began juggling rocks to pass the time.  Anna noticed that the kid waiting with his mom was fascinated by the juggling so Doug tried his best to teach him how to juggle in Spanish.  Although Doug tried to emphasize the importance of juggling one rock in order to establish comfort of throwing and catching with both hands, the kid jumped right into throwing two rocks.  Despite the kid only throwing with his right hand and only catching with his left he was doing well.  Shortly after, the kid was trying to throw rocks between his legs and behind his back occasionally successful. 
                The bus arrived and we said our goodbyes.  The bus was fairly empty but not for long.  Within a few stops the seats had all filled up and it was standing room only.  The bus ride took about 2 hours for us to get to San Isidro. 
                We had a lead on a good hotel but it turned out to be full.  We headed to another nearby hotel that was correctly described by our guide book as feeling like a psychiatric ward, only to find out it was also full.  Apparently there was some large party happening somewhere in town tonight.  We tried another hotel across the park and had an opening. 
                Getting cleaned up we were in heaven because for the first time in two weeks we had a hot shower.  With the weather as hot as it is down here people don’t bother heating their water and so our showers the last two weeks have been very cold, and brief.
                There was nice little Chinese place across the way and we were treated to some very good food for change.  We’ve had Chinese a couple times usually with disappointing results, this place was decent though.
                Back in our room we discovered that if you sat on the corner of the bed and didn’t move much, we had access to wireless.  Despite the poor reception, the bandwidth was strong and we were able to upload our Nicaragua photos before going to sleep.

10 February 2008
San Isidro, Costa Rica
                The book said there was a direct bus to David, Panama that leaves everyday at 10:30.  We got up, and went to the bus stop to make sure the bus schedule was correct.  Leaving out of San Jose there was no need to buy tickets; we assumed this would be the case out of San Isidro, well it wasn’t.   Arriving at the bus station, there was a ticket office.  The guy at the ticket counter told us the bus to David was all sold out.  All he could offer us was a ticket at 12:30 to a city called Neily.  From Neily we would need to then catch a bus to the border.  We bought our tickets around 7:30, and had almost 5 hours to kill.  Luckily the check out time at our hotel was 1:00.
                Walking around San Isidro was not as exciting as we would have hoped.  Because it was Sunday, most of the businesses were closed.  So we went back to the hotel room to completely updat the website, and relax before our lengthy bus rides. 
                At 11:30 we packed all of our stuff, and checked out of the room.  The bus station was not too exciting.  There were a lot of people waiting with us while the various buses came and went to their destinations.  Our bus arrived around 12:15, it was loaded up, and we were off.
                Luckily the 5 hour bus ride only took 4 hours.  It is nice when the book, or what we like to call “Manuel” is incorrect once in a while.  Arriving in Neily, we boarded a bus to the border (Paso Canoas).  It was only another 30 minutes to the boarder. 
                Arriving at the border the bus dropped us off after the Costa Rica immigration office.  We didn’t find this out until about 10 minutes later when went to the Panama immigration.  Well a young guy with a Tica Bus shirt came, and asked if we needed assistance.  He took us to the Panama immigration.  Where we found out we had to go about 300 feet back, to the Costa Rican immigration to get our stamp out of the country.  (We felt kind of stupid)
                After getting our exit stamp out of Costa Rica, we then went back to the same guy at the Panama immigration office for out entrance stamp in Panama.  He then directed us to another building so we could pay $5 each for the tourist visa.  Once we received our tourist visa, (the Tica Bus guy still with us directing us around).  We went back to the same counter to get our entrance stamp on our passports.  Finally getting our entrance stamp into Panama the Tica guy directed us to a bus that would take us to David Panama.  He then said he does this for tips, we gladly gave him $5.  We also deduced that he wears the Tica Bus shirt to look a little more official.

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