Aymi’s Adventures

Sunset in Santa Teresa – and the photo doesnt do it justice! 

I cant believe how different every country I visit is.  I thought South and Central America would be similar, but they are completely different, and indead each country within South and Central America is so very different from the next.

Costa Rica is like one huge tropical Jungle, at least thats what I first thought when in Puerto Viejo and on the way to San Jose, but on arriving in San Jose I realised this capital city is much like any other, big, unfriendly, everybody just going about their daily business.  I wasnt bothered about staying in San Jose so just used it as a pit stop to go to the bank and post office (finally my backpack is a little lighter now I have got rid of the shoes and some more books)!!  I was happily suprised at how easy it was to post my stuff home though, the easiest place yet, but I think Costa Rica is lot more used to tourists than many of the places I have been to so far.  In fact I think Central America is a lot more travelled by backpackers than South America which makes it very easy to travel alone as you are never actually alone! Also because it is much smaller than South America, so you bump intyo the same travellers time and time again.

Puerto Viejo was even better than Bocas De Toro, it had a very Jamaican feel to it, full of rastas and bikes.  I think the bikes actually outnumbered the cars in the town and it was definately the way to get around and see the area.  So apart from bike rides to nearby beaches and sunset snorkelling most of my time here was spent drinking with the locals until rediculous hours in the morning and sleeping on the beaches in the day.  I didnt really need to pay for my room here as I hardly ever used it, but Rockin J’s was definately the place to stay, I have never seen so many hammocks in one place before – and they were definately put to use.  And the kitchen with the twisty pan provided me with nightly entertainment!!

Hanging out with the locals at Playa Coclees

   

After the pit stop in San Jose I tried to get to Santa Teresa with another English girl, but with the real helpful information we were given in San jose we ended up at the wrong bus stop, with no map to explain where we wanted to get to, so we took the first bus to anywhere which took us to Montezuma.  On this journey we met with a couple from Hawaii and three English guys who we then ended up travelling with for the next week or so.  The highlight of Montezuma was the three level waterfalls just a short walk out of the town.  When I say walk I actually mean scramble, the steepness, mud, trees and humidity didnt make it easy – especially in flip flops (thongs / slippers for you guys who dont speak proper English!) but it was worth it when we got there.  We arrived at the top waterfall first – dont ask how we managed that one, I think everyone who goes there ends up taking a different route up.  It was beautiful, and there was only us there to enjoy it.  After playing on the rope swing, swimming and sunbathing for a while more people had arrived there and it was time for jumping from the top waterfall to the middle one which was about 60 feet down.  I wish I could say I did it, but I actually chickened out of that one. Eric said it was fun, but his arms looked pretty sore to me from the way he had landed! 

Hanah, Leslie & I chillin at the waterfall, playin around on the ropeswing at the waterfall.

   

If anyone is thinking of visiting Cabo Blanco National park, just a short ride from Montezuma then dont be fooled into thinking like us that it will be a nice 2 hour nature trail to get to a spectacular beach at the other side and then another nice 2 hour walk back.  It was pretty hard going, (in Peru it would have been called Peruvian flat) again flip flops not making it easy, we did see lots of monkeys, crabs, bats and a snake on the way but getting to the beach was a bit dissapointing, I think we deserved a tropical white sand beach with beautiful water for swimming in, not the brown pebbly beach that was so shallow you couldnt even swim, and you couldnt walk out any further because of all the rocks!  Oh well at least the cheese, tomato and advocado sandwiches were well deserved and enjoyed by all, even if the bread did stick to the roof of our mouths cos it was so warm!

Hot and sweaty on the nature trail, finally we see the path leading to the beach, and there it was, the pebbly sandy beach, oh well, time for a picnic!

      

Then we met up with three Canadians and the 10 of us headed to Santa Teresa (so we did manage to get to our ultimate destination in the end!) and took over a dorm in the cool Casa Del Mar Hostel.  The beach was fab, it seemed to go on forever and the sunset on the first night was the best I have ever seen.  Santa Teresa is all about surfing, smoking and beaches, kinda on a par with the rest of Costa Rica really.

Santa Teresa beach by day, Rob, Rob, Ben & Eric – wanabe surfers!, Eric & board in the sunset, and the sunset just getting better & better. 

   

   

After Santa Teresa I had to split up from our little family to go back to San Jose to pick up my big backpack (which I’d had to leave behind for a while due to drunken back injuries!) ended up getting stuck there for 2 nights trying to change my flight ticket (unsucessfully), but did enjoy going to see Mission Impossible 3 at the cinema – the one plus point to San Jose, feels like years ago since I last went to the cinema!!  Eventually made my way to La Fortuna to see Volcan Arenal which was pretty impressive, to actually see lava rocks crashing down the side of a volcano felt pretty awesome even though they were quite distant – im sure with Adobe Photoshop I can make it look WELL impressive!  The hot springs were amazing too, much better than any other hot springs I have been to so far.  The hot pools are definately the best way to enjoy a VERY cold beer (or three)!!  From there I changed my plans and instead of going to Nicaragua alone I got talked into going to Monteverde, originally for 1 night which quickly turned into three as we had the worlds best shithead and asshole team going, well hey it would have fallen apart without me!!! I also tried my first ever Falloffel here (no idea how that is spelt) and think I will be having a lot more of those in the future – thanks Dor!  Along with some more canopy swings – zip wires basically – the longes and the highest in the world – Wowowo!

  

Eventually leaving Costa Rica with my border crossing buddy Riley, after a 12 hour journey beginning at 4.30am, we eventually arrived into Grenada, Nicaragua, ready for our next adventure.

View of Panama from the Causeway 

Panama City was a lot bigger and more westernised than I had origionally thought. The only country so far where you can flush your toilet paper down the toilet, and you can drink the tap water. Looks like the Americans did some pretty good stuff for the country while they were here – for once (sorry guys!)!!

The Panama Canal was pretty amazing, the only thing I knew about Panama was its canal and Panama Hats (which actually come from somewhere else – cant remember where though!) and I soon found out I actually knew nothing about the canal either.  How long it took to build, how difficult a job it was, it was actually the French who started it but had to give up and sell the contract to the Americans who managed to complete it about 10 years later.  About 22000 people died – mainly of Malaria and yellow fever.  Pretty interesting stuff all in all.  Watched 2 boats go through the locks having to take some of the cargo off in order for the boat to raise up enough to make it through the lock.  It cost the boat $150,000,000 in cash just to go through the lock, and overall that is still less than what it would cost if they had to go all around South America instead of using the canal!

       

Went to Plaza Cinco de Mayo, on the 5th May, so there were loads of celebrations going on, most of which I didnt understand and I was pretty dissapointed with the plaza, it was sooo small, not quite what I expected, so we didnt stay for very long.

Casco Antiguo full of ruins and churches made for an interesting morning walk on a Sunday morning

  

Albrook shopping mall was actually pretty cool as far as shopping centers go.  I wanted to go to the national park but as it was p*ssing it down I though the shopping mall sounded like a good idea.  After sweet and sour chicken, noodles and rice and buying a pair of shoes I though maybe it wasnt such a good idea – more stuff to lug around in my backpack and less money for the rest of the year!

 

Causeway

   

Headed up to David and went to La Amistad National Park & Cerro Punto, it was absolutely gorgeous there, I can see why all the Panamanians want to go there to retire.  The small houses and greenery, plants and streems everywhere were like something out of a Lewis Carroll Novel.  Some local guy gave us a tree tomato to try, it was sooo sour, had to try and eat it so as not to be rude, but as soon as we were out of distance it got chucked!

 

Next and final stop in Panama was Bocas de Toro, a group of Islands on the Carribean coast of North Panama.  It was amazing, the main town was really small, with one main club Shipwreck (which actually has a shipwreck in the middle of it where the floor is open and you can just look down into the sea and see the wreck and fish swimming around it – dependant on how much alcohol you´ve had of course!), and lots of bars and restaurants so there was always somewhere to go.  Went on a boat trip around some of the Islands, it really was like paradise, there was just us on them swimming and snorkelling in the clear blue carribean sea and lounging around on the hot soft white sand, either staring out into the ocean, or into the tropical palm tree filled inland.

    

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