Panama City, Panama
got into Panama about 6am this morning after about a 16 hour bus ride from San Jose, Costa Rico.
A quick re-cap:
after 4 relaxing days in San Juan del Sur, i took a bus to the border. from there boarded another bus to Liberia, Costa Rica, & from there to Nicoya. On the ride to Nicoya met an up and coming boxer named Marito who turns professional in December. Nicoya to Nosara (in a rickety "chicken bus", 1-1/2 hours of which was over a bumpity-bumpity pothole infested dirt road) where i got off in Nosara. Remote countryside, though according to my map, close to Ostional. my plan was to visit the Ostional Wildlife Refuge, the place where 4 species of pregnant sea turtles go to lay their eggs. after some walking back and forth, asking different people for directions, i was told that just down the rode a bit was a supermarket where i could catch a cab to Ostional. so i walked to the entrance of the store and asked the bagger about a taxi, he called over to a moderately heavy set guy, about my height, in spectacles, slacks & a beige short sleeved shirt. he quoted me a price to Ostional, i ran it thru my mental money conversion calculator and told him "OK, esta bien." turned out the "cab" was a jeep. so, as the sun gently set, we drove the dark, dusty, bumpy road to Ostional. awhen we came to the first river crossing, i realized why the cab was a jeep. at the second river crossing, wider and deeper than the 1st, Walter looks over at me and says confidently "No hay problema!". in about 30 minutes, we arrive in Ostional. He drops me off at the Cabina Ostional where i get a room for about $5US.
Ostional Costa Rica
well, turns out i missed la arriaba (the arrival of the turtles (las tortugas)) by 2 weeks!
but got to relax on the beach. and the following morning an Aussie chick named Sarah came by the cabin next to mine where i was talking to the folks who worked with the Refuge organization whose task was to protect the egg nests or relocate the eggs to a hatchery just up the beach a bit. i heard "monkeys howling this morning" (speaking of "howling in the morning", i had a rooster Cock-A-Doodle-Doo Championship going on near my cabin. Started at about 3:30am with the rooster across the road competing against about 10 other roosters in the general vicinity. I guess the way the contest worked is that the rooster across the road would start with the 1st Cock-A-Doodle-Doo as loud and as forceful as his little rooster vocal cords & lungs could muster, then the nearest rooster would try to top that, and so on down the line, and I guess a rooster or chicken somewhere would keep score, because after the last distant Cock-A-Doodle-Doo ended, Mr. Rooster across the road would go again. Must have been like a best of 10 play-off or maybe even the World Series of Cock-A-Doodle-Doodling because the next morning i didn´t hear a peep out of ém) so i asked her if i heard her say "monkeys", and she said yes, that they were in the trees behind where she was staying. so i get all excited like a little kid (like i´m prone to do now & again) and say "can we walk there?". and she says "sure". so off we go, me, her & this dude Chris (by the way Chris is a New Zealander & you should have heard him & Sarah get into it after i asked them "so what is this thing i hear about between Aussies & New Zealanders?, and her explanation begins by getting on him because he calls flop flops "shandles", and she calls them "thongs", and he says "thongs" are little skimpy bikini bottoms, and she says, well if "thongs" are "shandles", then points to his shorts, does that me those are "shants"? and she was getting a bit agitated and it was very funny how serious they were about the names of things) to Sarah´s. And yes, there in her yard up in the trees were about 10 or 15 Howler Monkeys including 2 babies, one of which was climbing around up high in the branches, and the other baby had a very tight, snuggly embrace around his mommy.
quick Ostional Costa Rica cultural observation:
i´m at a "Soda", their word for a small "Mom & Pop Restaurant". i'm sitting at the outdoor counter eating, facing the kitchen where the proprieter Oscar is washing dishes. to my right, a teenager about 15 or 16 swoops up on his mountain bike, parks it, romps into the kitchen, and just as he passes his father whose back is to him, bends over and gives him a kiss on the cheek!
got into Panama about 6am this morning after about a 16 hour bus ride from San Jose, Costa Rico.
A quick re-cap:
after 4 relaxing days in San Juan del Sur, i took a bus to the border. from there boarded another bus to Liberia, Costa Rica, & from there to Nicoya. On the ride to Nicoya met an up and coming boxer named Marito who turns professional in December. Nicoya to Nosara (in a rickety "chicken bus", 1-1/2 hours of which was over a bumpity-bumpity pothole infested dirt road) where i got off in Nosara. Remote countryside, though according to my map, close to Ostional. my plan was to visit the Ostional Wildlife Refuge, the place where 4 species of pregnant sea turtles go to lay their eggs. after some walking back and forth, asking different people for directions, i was told that just down the rode a bit was a supermarket where i could catch a cab to Ostional. so i walked to the entrance of the store and asked the bagger about a taxi, he called over to a moderately heavy set guy, about my height, in spectacles, slacks & a beige short sleeved shirt. he quoted me a price to Ostional, i ran it thru my mental money conversion calculator and told him "OK, esta bien." turned out the "cab" was a jeep. so, as the sun gently set, we drove the dark, dusty, bumpy road to Ostional. awhen we came to the first river crossing, i realized why the cab was a jeep. at the second river crossing, wider and deeper than the 1st, Walter looks over at me and says confidently "No hay problema!". in about 30 minutes, we arrive in Ostional. He drops me off at the Cabina Ostional where i get a room for about $5US.
Ostional Costa Rica
well, turns out i missed la arriaba (the arrival of the turtles (las tortugas)) by 2 weeks!
but got to relax on the beach. and the following morning an Aussie chick named Sarah came by the cabin next to mine where i was talking to the folks who worked with the Refuge organization whose task was to protect the egg nests or relocate the eggs to a hatchery just up the beach a bit. i heard "monkeys howling this morning" (speaking of "howling in the morning", i had a rooster Cock-A-Doodle-Doo Championship going on near my cabin. Started at about 3:30am with the rooster across the road competing against about 10 other roosters in the general vicinity. I guess the way the contest worked is that the rooster across the road would start with the 1st Cock-A-Doodle-Doo as loud and as forceful as his little rooster vocal cords & lungs could muster, then the nearest rooster would try to top that, and so on down the line, and I guess a rooster or chicken somewhere would keep score, because after the last distant Cock-A-Doodle-Doo ended, Mr. Rooster across the road would go again. Must have been like a best of 10 play-off or maybe even the World Series of Cock-A-Doodle-Doodling because the next morning i didn´t hear a peep out of ém) so i asked her if i heard her say "monkeys", and she said yes, that they were in the trees behind where she was staying. so i get all excited like a little kid (like i´m prone to do now & again) and say "can we walk there?". and she says "sure". so off we go, me, her & this dude Chris (by the way Chris is a New Zealander & you should have heard him & Sarah get into it after i asked them "so what is this thing i hear about between Aussies & New Zealanders?, and her explanation begins by getting on him because he calls flop flops "shandles", and she calls them "thongs", and he says "thongs" are little skimpy bikini bottoms, and she says, well if "thongs" are "shandles", then points to his shorts, does that me those are "shants"? and she was getting a bit agitated and it was very funny how serious they were about the names of things) to Sarah´s. And yes, there in her yard up in the trees were about 10 or 15 Howler Monkeys including 2 babies, one of which was climbing around up high in the branches, and the other baby had a very tight, snuggly embrace around his mommy.
quick Ostional Costa Rica cultural observation:
i´m at a "Soda", their word for a small "Mom & Pop Restaurant". i'm sitting at the outdoor counter eating, facing the kitchen where the proprieter Oscar is washing dishes. to my right, a teenager about 15 or 16 swoops up on his mountain bike, parks it, romps into the kitchen, and just as he passes his father whose back is to him, bends over and gives him a kiss on the cheek!
they also have a creature called an "iguana", which in english means "gigantic prehistoric genetically mutated lizard".
I am a 5-day boat ride away from South America (Cartagena, Columbia).
