Panama.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a very happy New Year!

Yes. This blog post is WAY overdue and I am fully aware of that. I have fewer excuses than I would like, but the excuses that I do have are at least legitimate.

Excuse number one: Internet. That is necessary to upload, well, anything. It is something that I have not had consistent access to in over a month—more on that later.

Excuse number two: Travelling. I really have been bouncing everywhere recently.

Excuse number three: I’ve had more fun things to do. Which is truly my favorite reason. (:

Since my last blog post, so much has happened that I feel I don’t even have any way to dedicate enough of an explanation to each of the happenings, but I’ll do my best.

First happening:

Panama. Due to the Visa system that I have here in Costa Rica, I have to leave the country for at least 4 days every 3 months.  My three months was up by the end of November, and so Krystal, Kenton and I did some research and decided to travel to a little island in Panama called Bocas del Toro.

On November 22^nd Krystal and I travelled to join Kenton in Cartago, and on the 24^th we had the very exciting opportunity to travel alone from one country to another.

While I say very exciting, I also meant terrifying, panic-attack inducing, and all around exhausting. We had woken up at 4 in the morning in order to make it to San Jose early enough to find the correct bus to Panama. As it turns out, the bus station that we needed to be at was in a very, very sketchy part of town—especially before the sun had fully come up. All three of us looked like full-fledged tourists with our luggage for the trip, and we nervously wove through homeless men and women passed out on the street, praying that we would find the right place to be as soon as possible. With the help of a street vendor (who was probably an angel), we found out that the bus didn't leave until 9am, so we were a couple of hours early. We grabbed the nearest taxi and went straight to a McDonalds in a safer part of town to wait it out.

Once the city woke up, it was far less threatening, and we got onto a lovely air-conditioned bus and rode it all the way to the Panama/Costa Rica border.

Leaving Costa Rica was the easy part. Once we had done that, we literally had to WALK across the border between the two countries, which happened to be on this wooden, rotting bridge.

And once we were on the other side, we had NO idea where to go. It turns out we had actually walked so far in the wrong direction that we had illegally entered Panama! Finally, some other tourists who had been on the bus with us pointed us in the right direction, and we found the immigration office.What they had to tell us was not as reassuring as we had hoped it would be.

Turns out, to enter Panama, you have to have proof with you that you don’t intend to STAY in Panama. A bus ticket wouldn't do; no, it had to be proof of a purchased PLANE TICKET to leave Central America within the next year.

Which, thankfully, we had! Right?

Wrong.

The panic set in. Our phones didn’t even work, because we weren’t even in Costa Rica anymore. SO, in the blazing heat, we had to go to this little closet-sized location with a computer from the 80s to try our hardest to find proof of our exit-itinerary. Krystal found hers. Kenton found his. AND then there was me—who had apparently been forgotten, and had never had her exit flight date changed. I only had a ticket out of Costa Rica--for two days previously.

I could not imagine what we could do. I started to have a panic attack, crying, the whole bit. It was rather embarrassing. Regardless, my level-headed man kept everything under control and printed out my missed plane ticket anyways. We then went back to the immigration office.

Krystal? Fine, she could enter.

Kenton? Absolutely! Have a great stay!

And… this blubbering girl with you? What’s wrong with her?

Kenton was kind enough to explain the situation, and the woman on the opposite side of the counter didn’t even look at my plane ticket. She simply asked Kenton one question:

“Ella está su novia?”

“This is your girlfriend?”

Kenton quickly nodded, and the woman laughed and smiled, and stamped my passport. I was free to go into Panama.

Young love triumphs again.

We then shared a taxi-van with 5 other tourists and made our way to the boat taxi station, about 30 minutes away. We then got on our very first boat taxi and made our way to the little island of Bocas del Toro.

It was paradise. Literally. I had such a fantastic time. The first day we were there, we slept in, walked all around the little island town, and found this wonderful 3$ breakfast place (which we faithfully returned to every single day.) 

The second day we went to a beach called Playa Estrella, or Star Fish Beach. It was the most tranquil, beautiful, relaxing beach I have ever had the pleasure of knowing in my entire life. The water was SO clear, that we could see all the way to the bottom even up to 12ft.

We saw starfish on Starfish beach!!

On the way back, we had the misfortune to share a taxi with at least 10 Costa Rican women who all LOVED Kenton. One in particular—literally—would not stop flirting with him. She kept encouraging him to leave me to spend the next day with her, to teach her English privately, to vote for her when she fought me for him. Did I mention she was OLD? Kenton was beyond awkward, and from the backseat where I was, I would respond to her comments in turn. It went somewhat like this:

50+ year old woman: “Mañana, voy a una parque muy linda. Quieres ir conmigo?” or, “Tomorrow, I’m going to this beautiful park. Want to go with me?”

Me: “Lo siento, pero creo que el esta ocupado.” Or, “Sorry, but I think he’s busy.”

Woman: “Amor, puedes ensenarme Ingles? Quiero aprender.” Or, “Love, can you teach me English? I want to learn.”

Me: “Claro, puedo ensenar!” Or, “Sure, I can teach you!”

My responses delighted the other old women in the van, and every time I would speak they would cackle with delight. Here’s a picture of Kenton looking horrified:

The next day, we went to a beach called Red Frog, or playa rana roja. This beach was more typical; it had waves and was a lot bigger than Estrella. 

We played in the waves for a while, and then walked up the beach to find a restaurant because we were hungry. I never could have fathomed that what happened next was possible, but sure enough, sitting on a park bench were at least five of the women from the van the day before. They saw us first, and were unbelieving as well, calling, “…Kenton? En serio?”

Fortunately, the real cougar was out frolicking in the waves, and even as the women started to call her in to behold the spectacle of their precious Kenton returned, we started walking away.

It was a pleasure to run into you, but we were just heading out! Enjoy your time!

Kenton, Krystal and I could not believe that they had actually been on the same beach as us. Regardless, we found a yummy restaurant and had some delicious food:

And then we returned to the beach for a while, just sitting on the sand and relaxing.  Some little kids, hoping for tips, ran up to us and procured a red frog—what the beach was named after.

We didn’t have any money to give them, but we played with them for a while and they seemed content.

We left on the latest possible taxi, and returned to the main island, where we were staying in a cute little hostel called ‘Spanish by the Sea’. It was actually a Spanish-School, which turned out to be PERFECT because they had a strict no-drug, no partying policy. They locked their gate every night at 7, and everyone was SUPER friendly and nice. They even had hammocks available to relax on, which we did whenever they were free.

In short, it was a perfect weekend. The next day we got up early, got on another boat taxi, and made it to the mainland in Panama. We found another van-taxi driver who was so excited that we talked Spanish that he took only us three, and was willing to wait for us as we did a little shopping in this place called Changinola. Kenton and I each got a hammock (SO COMFY) and I got a purse. We then returned to the taxi, and made it back to the border. We crossed the bridge again, re-entered Costa Rica, and…

Had missed our bus back to San Jose.

The always honest and ever helpful taxi drivers insisted that there was another one heading out from Puerto Viejo, and that he’d only charge us each 10$ to drive the whole way! What a deal!

Until his taxi ran out of gas half-way there, he called and there was no bus from Puerto Viejo, and he charged us each 10$ anyways.

I haven’t been so mad in my life.

Anyways, after begrudgingly paying him, we walked across the street in the rain to a little bus stop and made our way to Limon. There, we finally found a bus that would take us to San Jose, and we got back to Cartago safe and sound after hours and hours of travelling and being stressed.

Oh, and it was Thanksgiving day.

Exhausted out of our brains, we threw our luggage down and went out to eat our thanksgiving meal at…

Pizza Hut.

Which was delicious, but not quite our typical Thanksgiving.

And that was the conclusion to our Panamanian adventure.

I know I have lots more to catch up on, but this trip deserved a full blog post that I had been unable to give it until this moment in time. So, subsequent catching up will happen soon, I promise. But in order to avoid over-blogging, I’ll wrap this one up.

Soon to come:

Second Happening: Living in Cartago for a month!

Third Happening: Christmas day and Limon Trip!

Fourth Happening: Returning to MonteVerde!

Stay tuned!

Pura Vida.

With love,

Kayla