MARCH 30 UPDATE

LOCATION: MANUAL ANTOINIO NAT’L PARK AND QUEPOS. COSTA RICA
DAVID FAIR

Note: Bunny Cows - they are generally very gentle and we were entranced with their affection, rubbing their heads and noses is like petting a dog - they bow their heads, push into your hand and appear to be in bliss. It is both thrillng and terrifying sitting between 2 2-ton bulls when both of them want attention. While I was fully focussed petting one, the other head-butted me in ... my butt - pushing me nearly head first into the hay! I cannot even remember HOW I got out of there - one giant leap and the great escape! We saw one make an escape, and wow seeing a 2 ton bull running through the crowd got everyone's attention. His owner managed to get him under control, but people definately scattered in every direction.

The Fair: Huge and goes for 10 days. We attended the rodeo, ate, visited lots of bunny cows, ate, looked at tons of exhibits, ate, attended an auction, didn't eat, visited the border patrol (Army we think)where we were given our own private history lesson and tour and after 8 hours sat down and listened to live music while drinking beer. Spent 10 hours there and went back the next day for a couple more hours. The fair goes to 3 AM, and at midnight the temperature is upper 70's with a light breeze and nobody was thinking about leaving yet. Outside the fair grounds are literally thousands of little food stands with mini casinos spaced in between.Never seen a craps tables, roulette or black jack tables outside in the open before. Thousands of people everywhere and not sure if we saw even 1 North American.

GUADALUPE, PANAMA

A one hour bus ride from David with a 40 deg. difference in temperature (need blankets at night). Beautiful 'ecolodge' and the first thing we encountered was about 50 humming birds of various sizes and colors drinking at the bird feeders around our veranda. They were literally buzzing around our heads as if we were somehow invisable.
The area is a cloud forest (we think its jungle minus some - not all of - the heat and humidity). The mountains are very steep and planted with onions, coffee, tomatoes and cabbage. The hillsides are sporatically dotted with small Swiss chalet-like structures. Our tour had 10 of us piled into a wagon, then pulled by a tractor up a steep boulder strewn riverbed. Very rough and bouncy. 1/2 hour later we did a 3 hour hike up the jungle mountain and .....spotted more of the rarely seen Quetzels.
Evenings in the Great Room of our lodge: playing dominoes, reading next to a blazing indoor fire, and playing table tennis. Found a great little restaurant just next door with delicious and cheap food. Dessert was at a roadside stand serving up fresh strawberries and (real) cream. It was so good we bought a homemade Strawberry Loaf - same as Banana Bread only strawberry - for the next day's bus trip to Costa Rica.

BORDER CROSSING PANAMA TO COSTA RICA

We take the road and border ‘less travelled’, with the merits of continuing through Panama’s mountains, rather than back tracking to David. We understand from The Lonely Planet and Moon this route is remote and rarely used by overseas travelers, stating ‘ensure BOTH Panama exit stamp and Costa Rica’s entry stamp is obtained…’ We soon find out how one may be missed!

1.5 gawking hours from Guadalupe to the Rio Sereno border crossing: rolling hills, winding narrow roads, mountains, ranchlands, remote and a stunningly beautiful drive. Rio Sereno, is a smallish town but we are compeletely disoriented - where is the border crossing? The bus stops - everyone disembarks, including us. Asked busker ‘donde es emigration, donde es Costa Rica? (duh) We were hussled back on the bus in 2 seconds flat, including wheely beasts and driven 3 kms – and our personal bus driver and busker deliver us to a stop sign marking the crossing. Offers of extra money are firmly refused with a wave and ‘good luck’.

Panama’s nicely paved road ends at said stop sign, and Costa Rica’s potted, rocky, dusty, and DESERTED back road stretches in front of us. Panama’s flag clearly indicates immigration, and the Customs Officer lounges in a solitary state of relaxation crooning along with a love ballad. Jim and our guy chuckle and hum in mutual appreciation of the 1970’s hit ‘I Will Always Love You’ together singing base rather than Tenor as both feel it’s meant to be. He needs a copy of our passport to keep for his records. He checks the length of our stay and we tell him we love Panama. He offers us an immediate renewal for an additional 90 Day visa. He repeats our names ‘James’ and ‘Sherry’, smiling and nodding his head at the shear joy of our presence! He tells Jim we have a 1 km walk to Costa Rica’s immigration office. Jim does NOT tell Sherry.

We start pulling 50+ lb wheelies over stones, big rocks, pot holes - twisting ankles and pulling arm sockets (Sherry’s) with no shade and in raging heat. The whining and complaining commences within 10 feet. Looking ahead we see a straight, deserted and dismal road with NO indication of Costa Rica whatsoever, only one small house to our right. Sherry starts looking for a taxi, a bus, a horse – anything that may give hope of rescue, the tough Canadian is desperate and has no pride. The American keeps his secret, rightly believing the best course of action is to refrain from upsetting partner Canadian more. We continue past the little house heading in the only direction there is.
Suddenly Jim hears ‘Senor, Senor …’ we turn and behind us, in front of the little house, is Costa Rica Customs waving us to come back, come back! Once again we are treated like celebrates, for certain we are an entertaining story for la espousa y ninos tonight! Our passports are stamped with firm approval and a smile of welcome, and a large boquet of bright pink flowers placed on the desk for a photo shoot! There are NO other travelers, cars, trucks, or livestock our entire time here. With handshakes, smiles, pats on our backs and ‘good luck, be safe, God go With You’ A very unique border and a unforgettable, fun experience for us. We need to stay tough for Canada and US Customs…’ don’t forget procedures, laws, restrictions, don’t smile, laugh or hug your Customs Officer (just Imagine!!!!)

There is a bus after all, and we start to learn the difference between Panama and Costa Rica. We have been pampered and spoiled. Bus Driver tries to ignore us and our large bags. Bus Driver does not eagerly grab our Big Beasties for loading. Bus Driver does not ensure we get off at the right stop. Also, Costa Rican buses have NO air conditioning!! Jeez. We stay in San Vito, and the adjustment continues:
- Accommodation is 30% higher for 50% less
- Food is yummy but expensive – a Tipica Café (local Costa Rican food) lunch $7 each
- Costa Ricans want to help and are very polite. Unfortunatly this means they cannot tell you they don’t know, so are obligated to just tell you anything. 4 different inquires (Where is the Bus Stop for Neily?) with 4 different people in a very small town, equals 4 entirely different answers. We end up on a bus that takes us 10 kms from the border crossing we were at the day before and 1.5 hours vs 30 min. bus route PUERTO JIMENEZ (AKA Port Jim) OSA PENNISULA
One day bus trip San Vito to Puerto Jimenez. Translate into ‘hellish trip’ for a fragile motion sick, C-spine weak traveler. The Bus from Hell not only has NO Air Con but hard plastic seats with zero lumbar support, no arm rests, and very few water/pee stops. Costa Rican's had sweat rolling down their faces just like us...there is some consulation that we are not the only ones suffering terribly! The road progressively worsened, becoming more narrow, pot-holed, gravel/dust, sharp corners…. Thoughts when we see a distant marker: We’ve only travelled 20 kms in 45 minutes??!!!

The bridges had everyone of us holding our breath- 2 are rusted out with holes clear to the river below. The busses and trucks crawl across, gently tippy-toeing.
note; our return trip from Osa is by 1-hour early morning water taxi. What a great decision THIS was.

Cabanas Jimenze - cool vibe, nice little pool, free kayaks and bikes... was fun to kayak, but is so hot our endurance is very poor and we fade fast and cower in the pool.
Before arriving we were told to get out of Puerto Jimanze asap as it was just a dusty hole of a town. We expected the worse, and were happily surprised. Parrots and Macaws hang out in town,butterflies, various other birds singing constantly, and the town itself is reasonabally affluent, meaning people are happy and proud.

Our day trip here with Will, personal guide: Sloths - one mom and babe; Red Poison Dart Frogs, Green/Black Poison Dart Frog, Jesus Christ Lizard (runs on water), Squirrel Monkeys (FYI the very cutest, sweet faced monkeys EVER), and Black Monkeys.
Grilled Tuna: Best ever prepared and cooked to perfection! The weather is extremely hot and our rooms a/c unit is on a 1 hour timer and all night long we have to reset it - every hour! No problem the heat and humidity wakes us within minutes of the a/c shutting down.

QUEPOS & MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK

We start our travel day from P.J. with water tax and all-day bus ride to Quepos. Same ol' story: Very hot and sweaty trip. In Quepos we discover our internet found condo is rented to someone else. We find solice in the nearest restaurant, order cold beer and find another internet shelter. Turns out perfect with a/c and pool which we are in (and remains our refuge throughout our time here) within minutes of arrival. Unfortunately this is a huge tourist destination and prices are terrible, a meal for 2 of us is $20-$30. Save in Panama - go into remorse and debt in Costa Rica! Our Shangri La IS nice so we bite the bullet and stay for 5 days.

We find Wacky Wanda's - a cafe/bar with Polish Chef who prepares wonderful meals, AND pleases us to no end when his stir fries veggies and makes us huge salads - special order! This is one place we get great food and (more) reasonable prices.So with a drink and dinner we get by for $35.

This is very much a typical ex-pat town, with heavy drinking in American/Canadian owned bars, which seems a universal trend, Mexico, South and Central America and South Sea Islands. Not sure if it's boredom or just the social atmosphere. We have tons of fun a couple of nights, especially at the Wednesday night party at Dos Locos Restaurant and Bar, the band which includes a Women Studies Prof from University of Toronto plays a mean base and the 'lead singer' rocks with his guitar playing and singing Santana, Pink Floyd, and others. We totally enjoy meeting some great people including Tug Boat Bobby from Cortez Island, and I find out his wife is a Sherry Freake, A NAME I KNOW FROM LIVING IN GOLDEN 25 YEARS AGO!!! Her home town is Golden! Fun, fun and more fun :).

It is our pleasure to meet a new friend at Manual Antonio, from California - Megan and spend some good hours together at the park, in the pool and out to dinner.... one of the best things about travelling, she expects to visit Vancouver in September!

We take the bus to Manual Antonio pay our $10 each and start our unguided trek through the steamiest damn jungle you can imagine.An hour and a half and 10 lbs. of sweat later we are overheated, tired and pissed because we haven't seen any monkeys etc.We give-in and say "the hell with it,let 'em find us" and sit down to try and find some relief from the heat.Within 10 min. believe it or not they do just that.Not only do they find us but we follow them and before long they lead us to the beach where there are now at least 40 monkeys playing tag napping or just plain running circles around us.From then on we spend the rest of the day mingling with monkeys,sloths,coatis and 1 huge iguana.We swim in the 70 deg. plus water and enjoy the lunch we wisely packed.Then its back to the hotel and the pool.

Tomorrow

April 2 we head for Santa Elena and another cloud forest.We're getting ready to enter Nicaragua within the next 5 days or so.