Traveling to Costa Rica and Panama – {It’s a Jungle out There}

I had some super looooong layovers in a variety of airports, but it seems like Salt Lake City was bound and determined to make sure I stayed there the longest. I was bored and tired (it was late in the evening) so I situated myself behind some plants and 1) watched travelers run up this ramp, and 2) watched airport employees race wheelchairs down the ramp. Amusing stuff. On the right is an image of the Costa Rican mountains. Pretty pretty. (That’s a frowned-upon iphone snap by the way. I managed to sneak it past the flight attendants…)

When I arrived in San Jose it was fairly overcast and warm, but not roasting hot. After checking myself into the hostel (Hostel Urbano) I decided to venture around the neighborhood and see what it had to offer. (Left) a crocodile (alligator?) playing a baby grand, (Top Right) a pink university building, (Bottom Right) a plant whose name I am unsure of, but one whose leaves I love. In the US I’ve only seen these as tiny houseplants – here they were giant bushes!

I just kind of loved how the tree’s roots followed the pavers so well. This was in the University area near Hostel Urbano in Costa Rica.

They love their mosaics in Central America. This one was just incredible. While I was taking this photo, there was some kind of traditional dance class going on inside this building. Girls were dancing while balancing soft weights on their heads, which I’m assuming was to keep their posture perfect. (top right) Amusing little sculptures near one of the university buildings. There was even a sculpture of a couple in a passionate kiss.

Jamey and his friend Timothy finally arrived into Costa Rica. They had visited Cuba previously and wanted to smoke some of the cigars they’d gotten there. I’m not a smoker by any means, but these cigars actually smelled quite good. (bottom right) One of the university buildings and trees lit up at night.

Our hostel had some interesting touches to it. (at top) That’s a peace sign made out of army men stuck to the wall.

Costa Rican money (colones) is ridiculously pretty.

The next day we decided to check out downtown San Jose and went to wander around a local mercado (market) which was located in what the British refer to as an “arcade.” I’m not sure if they refer to it that way in Costa Rica, too. But it was indoors, and full of winding little passageways. There was no shortage of canaries in cages. (at right) Did you know that frosted flakes are called Zucapitas in Costa Rica?

Let’s all pretend that’s not me in this photo, ok? I’m mainly including this image because it summed up our energy level on our LOOONG, hot, no AC bus ride from San Jose to David (pronounced Da-VEED), which is in southwestern Panama (we didn’t have AC on the bus, but thankfully the windows opened, which for the most part did the trick before the temps started hitting the 90s). We were a bit tired, and let me tell you – getting into Panama was a trip in itself. Talk about long lines in hot humid weather. Hoooo boy. (at right) The Costa Rican landscape.

Those aren’t logs you’re looking at…..there was quite a traffic backup to see these guys sunning themselves. Anyone know if they are crocodiles or alligators? I’m a landlocked girl, so I haven’t a clue.

I am not quite sure whether this is Costa Rica or Panama. It was definitely getting warmer at this point as we were descending from the mountains of Costa Rica into the lowlands of Panama.

(at left) A terrible snapshot through the quickly moving bus window of a farm full of some kind of palm tree. There were TONS of farms that looked exactly like this.

Woo hoo! They let us off the bus to get food and use the baños. Thank goodness. I’m still amazed they only stop once during this 8 hour long trip, excluding the stop at customs, which also doesn’t allow for food consumption or baño use. (at left) That’s some friggin’ good fresh pineapple. (at right) We’ve arrived into David and that’s me as we wander the streets in search of our hostel. Did I mention the streets are unnamed? And that two early-twenties Panamanian guys giggled and called Jamey a “Boy Escout!” as we walked to our hostel. Pretty funny.

Hostel time. (top) This is what our room at the hostel looked out onto (which is sort of a mini courtyard surrounded by rooms). I should rephrase though – our room WOULD have looked out onto this if the windows opened. That’s something I noticed right away – almost everyone in hot, humid climates keeps their blinds shut to keep the hot sun from heating up their abodes even more than normal. (bottom left) Our room with a lovely fluorescent ambiance. I kid, but this place was actually very nice. (bottom right) An electric shower. Yes, you read that right. Electric. Shower. Say what? Water and electricity don’t mix? But apparently in Central America they do…just don’t touch the showerhead or you’ll get zapped….

Iphone snaps of David as we wander through it.

My favorite little buddy, Rainbow the Toucan! And his pals the green parrots who speak Spanish and say “Hola!” in the cutest little bird voices you’ve ever heard. Have I mentioned how much I love birds? I couldn’t get enough of these dudes…and they were just chilling at our hostel in David.

More pretty sidewalk mosaics not far from our hostel in David. (at right) A banana salesman. We discovered that the best fruit came out of the back of farmers’ trucks. And was ridiculously cheap. At one point we were on the search for oranges (which are green, go figure), and we asked the gentleman how many we could get for a dollar. We thought we’d get five, but apparently misheard him, as he started loading us up with TWENTY-FIVE oranges for a dollar. We stopped him and said, oh wait, we only want 50 cents worth. So he gave us 15, I gave him a dollar and told him to keep the change, and he looked at me like I was a complete lunatic. By the way, Panama uses U.S. dollars as currency, in addition to their Balboa.

The fruit, especially the pineapple, was just out of this world. Jamey had rum from Cuba, so we attempted some tasty adult beverages in the hostel’s open-air kitchen with fresh, fresh, fresh ingredients. By the way, that’s an orange slice on the side of the glass…notice the not-orange skin?

We liked visiting lots of little street vendors. Jamey got a papaya here that seriously about bowled him over it was so good. The little boy in the bottom photo was sucking down coconut water like there was no tomorrow. He ran up to his dad asking for another, so his dad whipped out a machete, whacked it into the top, lifted open a “lid” and threw in a straw. The little boy was content.

Views of our hostel in David. Lots and lots of bright colors here. Speaking of which: in my opinion, the US really needs to embrace more color. It’s so beautiful!

Cocoa the parrot and Rainbow the Toucan. Such cool birds.

One of Jamey’s dinners he made out of fresh veggies and some really bizarre cheese.

Having fun with reflections…and I liked this wall, so I asked for a portrait of me to record that I actually attended this trip, too. I got the dress in David, from a very helpful store clerk who was doing her best to understand my broken Spanish. And let me tell you – you think it’s hot outside? It’s even hotter in a dressing room. Holy moly. I’m so glad I got the dress though. Cool and breezy – check.

After spending a day in David, we took a minibus up to Guadalupe (pronounced Guad-ah-LEW-pay), which is in the northern part of Panama. There are lots of farms up there, and they aren’t kidding about their farming. Even though the region is very hilly, they farm as high as they can up the steep slopes. Our trip to Guadalupe was pretty interesting….our driver and fare-taker certainly weren’t interested in arriving anywhere in a timely fashion since we ended up going with them on some of their various errands – picking up drycleaning, lunch, hardware items (a giant metal pole which they threaded into the bus through the windows) and one of their friend’s houses. It’s a good thing we also didn’t particularly care about the time either.

Bright colors, how I love thee! (at left) Old tires used for flower pots along the street in Guadalupe. (right) A bus stop.

Inside the Los Quetzales lodge we stayed at in Guadalupe. I love their “jeep” available for rent. And the manzanas (apples) in the blue bowl just appeased my taste for color again.

There were hummingbirds everywhere at this place! This little guy and I became friends. I was *so* close to touching him…he’d fly so close to my face and I could feel the whir of his wings. So cool. This was right outside our room.

Inside our room at the lodge. There was a pond with a fountain outside and there was a skylight in the room. I slept SO well that night. Plus, it wasn’t roasting hot or humid. Our bathroom was interesting. In so many places that had the electric showers, you’d get a trickle of water, albeit warm water (most of the time, though I seem to have bad luck on the heated water front.) This shower in this room was insane, though. The water pressure about blasted our skin off. A huge change from the weak electric showers. But I wasn’t complaining.

The other side of that bus stop in Guadalupe. That’s a painted quetzal on the side.

We wandered around Guadalupe, which is a tiny town. Their big thing is selling “fresas con crema” (strawberries with cream). So we tried some. And it was delicious, though different. Because the cream they were referring to is somewhat like marshmallow cream. However, it all still tasted good to us.

Spiderweb in good light.

A random little shop off the road. Again, bright colors, be still my heart. I love it.

Many houses had “wrapped” their front doors as presents for Christmas. A lot of them still had their decorations up, even though it was the middle of January.

I like walls with signs.

“Yes, there are strawberries with cream”

It was so pastoral here.

Fresh fruits and veggies (plantains and lettuce).

There was a beautiful little flower garden (er, wait…not so little) that was selling all sorts of plants and flowers and would just let anyone walk through it. The lilies were beautiful.

He humored me for this photo, which just cracks me up to no end.

For my Wisconsin friends….if you’re ever in need of a flower pot, just use a beer can.

Flores, flores, y mas flores!

Pretty darn gorgeous.

We visited a local grocery store. This cat was hanging out by the cat food. I was amused. Apparently very easily. On our way out, we saw two dogs greeting one another in the street.

Pastoral perfection.

See – I told you they were serious about their hillside farming. The white dots on the hillside are farmhands because I highly doubt machinery would survive the steep slopes.

Those are cabbages on the hillside…they looked like they were about ready to tumble off.

The evening of the day we arrived in Guadalupe, off we ventured into the nearby jungle in search of a waterfall. We never did find it, but we found lots of other pretty things.

Obligatory jungle sign shot.

Jungle jungle jungle! Cloud forest! Happiness!

These are some tall trees.

So much lush green.

Yes, I do exist!

Ferns. HUGE ferns.

I saw this sweet light teasing me and I went running to catch it. I’m SO glad I did because it disappeared minutes after I made the following images.

This is a panorama of what we were seeing. Gorgeous juxtaposition.

The little boys in the left part of this frame couldn’t get enough of me walking around with my camera. So we played a little game of “I’d casually swing the camera around at them” and “they’d run screaming and laughing uproariously.” What a fun game. Such cuties.

Such sweet light. If you look closely, you can see all the water droplets in the air.

A farmer and his dog.

Flowers and light.

I have a thing for lone trees.

Jamey walking into the sunset.

Rainbow! I must’ve looked like a fool running around like a mad person getting these shots.

Our dinner that evening: porkchop at left; steak at right – so. freaking. delicious. Even if it was kind of expensive.

The next day we prepped ourselves to hike the “Sendero de los Quetzales” (trail of the Quetzals) from just outside of Guadalupe to Boquete (pronounced Boh-KET-ay) with all of our belongings on our backs. The trail goes through the jungle. It was a STEEP, STEEP hike up to the start of the trail, and this kind farmer offered to drive us as far as his 4WD would allow. So we hopped in the back of his jeep and went for a bumpy ride up the hillside until the road was blocked off by a mudslide. It was so nice of him to do this for us.

Our view from where we started our hike.

The ranger station (la cabaña) at the start of the hike. So pretty up there.

The map….little did we know what we’d be in for later on…

The flora and fauna here was just stunning.

It was magical.

My eyes couldn’t get enough of everything.

Seriously?! Seriously.

We tried our darndest to see a quetzal, but alas, it was not to be.

I’d love to know where this ladder was going…

So many vines on everything.

Check out the size of all these plants!

Colors, colors, colors!

As we climbed lower, the palms started showing up more. The majority of our hike was VERY, VERY steep downhill. And the uphill parts were VERY, VERY steep, too. I was incredibly grateful we chose to go downhill rather than uphill, even though our legs were exhausted afterwards. If we had gone uphill, there is a good chance I would not be here writing this.

More vines. I couldn’t help but think of Tarzan and how much fun that would be….

Hey, I exist again!

The clouds and mist like to roll in during the afternoon.

(at left) A vertical panorama of one of the jungle trees.

So much to look at. (at right) This sign totally lied to us. The trail’s end was a heckuva lot farther than that.

Frog! And he was tiny – I almost stepped on him.

Really neat flowers that remind me of squash blossoms. And a whole load of mushrooms.

Gorgeous bamboo.

Aren’t those mushrooms cool?

More vines. It’s starting to get kind of dusky now.

You just can’t stop looking here.

It’s starting to rain now…

Giant leaves. I start thinking to myself that I’d fit under one of these….

A sweet old bench.

And then there’s a total lack of photos because I am having a complete and utter breakdown for several hours after we learn that we have been given bad info and are nowhere even CLOSE to the final ranger station. It is dark and raining at this point. Jamey insists he knows how to get us to a safe place, but I am FREAKING. OUT. This is my first time in a jungle. I was not planning on spending the night in it. My legs are beyond exhausted at this point. I can barely stand up because we’ve been treading so heavily downhill and exhausting our quads all day long. I can’t move any longer. Jamey rushes off into the black night to see how far away the ranger station is. I am sitting in the dark of the jungle, hiding under branches to try to stay dry, without a light since my headlamp has died, and listening to the frogs peep their chorus amongst the trees. I see glowing eyes light up at me. And I am trying hard to tell myself I will be safe. Jamey comes back, he tells me he’s run into a farmer who tells him the ranger station isn’t that far away. We continue on. I can barely move. It is more uphill and I. Am. Spent. But we make it to the station, which has closed at this point. I huddle up against the wall outside, wait for Jamey again as he runs off into the night to find cell service. And then I see a little black thing moving at me in the night. So I take this terrible photo, thinking it may be the last one of me alive. (Have I mentioned I have a runaway imagination?) Jamey comes back. The little black thing comes at us again, and……it’s a housecat. Oh, silly imagination. We laugh a bit and relax when we know that we won’t have to walk into town another 15 miles or so. A taxi is coming to rescue us. Whew. And on the way to Boquete he tells us about the big jungle cats that occasionally like to roam where we just were….go thing we’re in a cab at this point!

After we got to our hostel in Boquete, we collapsed and this was our view, one which we were very glad to be seeing that night.

The next day we wandered around Boquete. There were pretty churches with beautiful tolling bells and horses right next door.

I love walls and colors.

I call this, “Attack of the Cacti.”

Jamey’s a coffee aficionado, so we walked over to the coffee farm and got ourselves some drinks. And apparently sampled some of the best coffee in the world.

In case you’re wondering what the best coffee in the world looks like, it’s in the cup on the right.

(at left) Pink bananas!

We were walking around the village and I heard what I swore was the sound of a peacock cry. So I started following the sound and found this beautiful guy strutting his stuff around the backyard of this house. (at right) They had at least 4 or 5 peacocks just hanging out near their garage.

Downtown Boquete. The women in this photo are natives and are dressed in native dresses, which are brightly colored and are large and shapeless for the most part. As we were traveling around Panama, we saw many native women dressed in this garb digging out of garbage bins or bags, scrounging for food. It appears that the natives are very poor, which is such a shame.

I. Love. Color.

Another little indoor mercado in Boquete. (bottom left) We picked up some tomates de arboles (tree tomatoes) from this vendor as well as some passion fruits and avocado. The tree tomatoes are truly unique. They feel almost like a plum and have a dark juice that stains your hands red like blood.

Boquete had just finished their major flower festival a few days before we got there, but there were still some remnants that we got to see.

This house made me happy. At the far left there’s a little girl doing laundry outside. She is smiling at me.

Belated flower festival.

They are also very proud of their fresas here. And I just thought it was so funny how all of their strawberries were made to dance in their advertisements.

More dancing fresas!

ColorColorColor.

Various things on the festival grounds. (bottom left) I took this photo because the sink was going to nowhere.

Talk about gorgeous.

¡Fresa bailando!

Mas flores bonitas. And a happy statue.

Wall gecko (I think?) back at our hostel in David! These geckos were very territorial and would yell and scream at each other…as loud as tiny geckos yell and scream.

Probably one of my favorite and most amusing parts of our trip. We were on this minibus headed to Boca Chica (which is on the southern coast of Panama), and we kept stopping to cram more and more people into the bus. The ticket-taker guy was definitely imbibing on some spirits he had hidden away in his pocket, so that was amusing in and of itself, but then we encountered a guy who had 100 pollitos (baby chickens) that he wanted to take onto the bus. So, we traveled a while with 100 pollitos peeping. Hilarious. At one point, one woman said in spanish, “You should take them out and hand one out to everybody to hold onto for the trip!” So funny.

This was on our way to Boca Chica – we stopped off to get a view of this spectacular scenery. (at left) A cashew tree. I was warned that I’d better be careful for snakes while walking in the grass. I’m glad to say I did not encounter any.

We arrived to Boca Chica, which was just hot hot hot and humid humid humid. We’d been hoping to grab some almuerzo (lunch), but no place opened until much later in the afternoon. So we rested in the shade at this place and sipped on terrible drinks to quench our thirst and discomfort. The drink’s name: Big Roja (red). It tasted like liquid bubblegum. Ewwww.

After traveling by boat, we arrived to the Pacific Bay Resort, which was gorrrrrgeous! This was our view every day at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not bad, eh?

Where we ate all our meals. It was nice because we could catch a breeze up here, which was oftentimes not that easy to come by.

(at left) One of the pathways leading to our cabin. We’d often see howler monkeys working their way through the treetops, one time with a wee little baby in tow! (top right) Our cabin. We had lots of little ant friends. PBR (Pacific Bay Resort) is off the grid. All their power comes from solar and wind energy, so we didn’t have much in the way of electricity or hot water while we were here. But we were still treated very nicely considering. (bottom right) Our porch. If we had enough bugspray on we could hang out in this hammock comfortably.

Oh, paradise found!

This beach (they called it south beach here) was absolutely incredible. The water was warm and beautiful and the waves were so much fun to play in. We went exploring and swam over around to the next beach over and had a great time watching crabs run across the rocks and throw themselves into the water as we came close to them. The next day we also went kayaking and explored some of the nearby islands. And Jamey went snorkeling and saw lobsters, sea turtles and a variety of colorful fish. (bottom right) Hermit crab trails crisscrossed the beach everywhere. They were most active in the evenings and it was pretty awesome to watch them running around everywhere, homes in tow.

After getting burnt to a crisp, I gave myself a break out of the sun and took to the hammock for a good read – wind softly kissing the palm leaves, listening to the waves lap the shore. It was perfect.

When we had gone kayaking we’d stopped off at another beach that was full of colorful finds. How pretty are these?

We eventually had to leave Boca Chica, and headed back to David again. There, in a search for another mercado, we found this amusing salon. And on our way back to Costa Rica from Panama the day after, we found these Chis Wis thingamijiggers being sold.

We stayed in Almuhueana (spelling is way off there) in Costa Rica the night before we flew back to the states. Our hostel was nice and the owner was friendly. (top right) The view from the window. Someone was hanging their laundry out there on the roof.

We decided to treat ourselves to some ice cream the night before we left. I couldn’t get over how gigantic and frou frou this was. It was really good, too. Its name: Copa Cupido.

Jamey couldn’t have evidence of his Cuban rum, so I photographed it before he had to ditch the bottle.

Goodbye Costa Rica!

Birds get a pretty darn good view, dontcha think?

I believe this is somewhere over Nicaragua. The end!