We've uploaded more photos from The Lost and Found. We're still trying to catch up and will be adding more soon...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Lost and Found Photos
Videos From the Road
Here are some videos we managed to upload from the road:
A video of Margarita and Nilka singing while we waited for the bus, and a video of Andrew's kinkaju at Lost and Found.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Calendar February 2008
Some of what was going on during our last month in the states. We´ve been away a few weeks now, but it feels like no time at all. Before we know it we´ll be back in the states, three months goes by fast.
More photos and interesting tales to come, for instance Mike went hunting for camarones the other night -imagine traipsing through the jungle in the middle of the night with things splashing in the water behind you and only a pointed stick for protection...
Monday, March 10, 2008
Moving on..
Our "plan" was to get up really early and catch a bus back to David where we would catch the express bus to San Jose. We figured we could make it by 4pm to meet our friends in town. Hahahaha!
We waited for about 2 1/2 hours for a bus to stop for us (they were full again). We missed the one express bus for the day, so we had to bus it to the Costa Rican border to wait for another bus. We met a nice couple from Arizona on the ride there.
The border crossing was very chaotic, I think it was designed to be confusing. There was a group of kids waiting to direct us to the proper windows to get our passports stamped. They were all over us trying to help us with the forms and everything. A good way to make a buck. The ticketing place for the bus we needed was hidden around the corner from a pile of rubble in a building that looked like it should have been condemned, we never would have found it on our own. There was a friendly guy who helped us figure that out as well. He seemed like a character out of a movie. He looked pretty down and out and we figured that he was an American as he spoke fluent English with no accent, but he was very upbeat and seemed pretty happy and friendly, We wondered what his story was and why he landed at the border.
The next bus to San Jose wasn't scheduled to arrive until 4:30pm so we had to hang at the border for several hours. A concerned grandmotherly woman who we bought some toast and coffee from spent several minutes trying to explain to us the bus station in San Jose (at which we were scheduled to arrive at about 1 AM) was very dangerous. The guidebook said the same thing so we weren't sure what to expect when we got there.
It was another long bus ride (about 8 hours). We didn't get air conditioning or movies this time, but it wasn't too horrible. When we got to the bus station we grabbed a cab and headed to a hotel we found in the Lonely Planet. It was called the Nueve Johnson and the guidebook said "if this is the new Johnson we shudder to think of what the old Johnson was like". This place was nasty. We chose it because it was cheap and close to the bus we needed the next morning. The neighborhood was sketchy, there were prostitutes on the corners and a lot of creepy looking buildings. Not somewhere you'd want to walk around at night. The hotel itself seemed somewhat secure as the entrance was behind a couple of layers of bars (they buzzed you in). The rooms were really dingy, the floors were coated with what looked like a years worth of dirt, and the sheets had some holes in them and didn't look clean, This was the first time we whipped out the clean sheets we brought with us. We waited to shower until morning as we thought we'd need it after a night in this place. luckily the shower was the one place that wasn't too dirty.
The Lost and Found
We went to the bus station in David prepared to hop on a bus and head to "The Lost and Found" a really cool eco-hostel we'd run across on the web. When we got the station we were told that the buses were all full and we would be waiting for hours to get there. A friendly local hooked us up with a ride with a friend of his. We had some trouble communicating to our driver exactly where we were going, which made the ride interesting. At a certain point we weren't sure we were going to make it. I think he thought we had no idea where we were going so he was afraid to follow our directions (which probably didn't make sense to him anyway). But we finally worked it out and made it. Another transportation adventure!
The Lost and Found was up the side of a mountain. It was exhausting dragging our packs up the steep switchbacks, but it was worth the trip. The place was absolutely awesome as were the people we met there. Our host, Andrew is a great guy, and his family was there. It was a lot of fun hanging our and getting to know everyone. Willie had someone his age to play with too. Even with the language barrier they were able to play fussball, dominos, and uno. When it got dark several animals came out and ate fruit that Andrew put out for them. There were Kinkajus, and other animals, and beatles with glowing spots on their backs. Andrew also has a pet Kinkaju (rescued from someone) named Rocky that we all got to play around with.
The next day we hiked to the river and to a viewpoint where you could see all the way to the ocean. It was a steep hike, the trees came in handy to pull ourselves up with. It was nice to end the workout at the river where we swam and hung out for hours. We also met several interesting folks at the hostel, they were all on trips similar to ours. They were traveling for months. One guy had ridden his motorcycle all the way from Canada. After three days we were ready to head to Costa Rica where we would meet our friends at Verdenergia.
To David via Panama City
Getting out of El Valle was a challenge. We spent five hours waiting at the bus stop watching buses passing us by. Apparently it was the weekend after payday and the last week of summer vacation for the kids, so all the buses were full. It's funny, in Portland people get really mad when they wait an extra 10 minutes for the bus, but people in Panama don't seem to know the concept of "impatience". There were a bunch of people patiently waiting for hours. I was happy that we were able to roll with it as well. We were with our new friends, Margarite & Nilka who entertained us with some songs.
We ended up taking a bus all the way back to Panama City to take a bus to David. Margarite and Nilka took good care of us, they were very helpful and we could tell it made them feel good to help the clueless gringos get through the chaotic bus station and on our way. We had an 8 hour bus ride to David. The air conditioning was broken but there were bootleg movies to watch on the ride. We finally made it to David at about 1:30AM. We checked into a cheap hotel, complete with the TV's already on and set to a porn station. The room could have been worse (see our San Jose experience) and we were able to get a few hours of sleep.
El Valle II
El Valle was a beautiful little town. We stayed with relatives of one of our Portland friends. They were very hospitable and made us feel right at home. We checked out some local sights; a small zoo and gardens, thermal baths, and went on a nice hike up the mountain. There were all kinds of tropical plants that we hadn't seen before. We also saw our first leaf-cutter ants which were fun to watch. At one point we were up really high with scary drop-offs on either side with the wind beating us hard. We'd already heard a story about a man who fell and ended up stuck in a tree for days near there so we chickened out and turned back.
We also met two very sweet local girls (Margarita & Nilka) who John and Sharon (our hosts) had met while setting up a medical clinic in the Chiriqui Frontera of Panama. They didn't speak English but Mike was able to communicate all right. We all got along and they felt like friends even if we didn't understand each other most of the time. We ended up traveling with them out of El Valle to David.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
We met up with Joshua in Puriscal where we picked up some groceries for the farm. The town of Puriscal is a cool little town. It reminds me of a Latino version of Jerome, a town in Arizona. Small, scenic, and crumbling a bit. The trip to the farm was about an hour and a half on some rural dirt roads. The place is pretty secluded and in the middle of the jungle. It was a fun ride. When we got to the farm it took about 5 minutes before everyone was in the swimming pool. There's nothing like a nice cool pool in the warm tropical environment.
The farm is totally awesome! The house is sweet, there's a garden, a couple of streams/rivers, and lots to see and do. There are several projects going on and we've been spending the first few days doing miscellaneous work around the place, chilling out, walking, and getting to know the people here. It's been great and I think we could get used to living in a tropical paradise.