Have Itch, Will Travel

I met up with Nini in Granada after a whole day of travel and we stayed a night at Hostal Mochilas which had hot, stuffy dorms and far too quiet a vibe for the impending New Year's Eve celebrations. We agreed to go to the hostel Oasis instead. Oasis was a large hostel near the local markets. It was far better than the last one. With open common areas where hammocks were strung up, it even had a swimming pool. And for those lazy afternoons, DVDs entertained half a dozen people who pulled rocking chairs around the tiny tv. There was a breakfast bar, a laundry wash tub on the roof and loads of bus information to the most popular tourist sights. The dim dorms had a dozen beds in them and the flyscreen doors were not particularly secure or private, but the place was airy and cool. And that was important. Hot Granada It was so hot in Granada it wasn't funny. It reminded me of Cartagena in this way, but also in that the city was really cute and full of character. Old school t...

It was strange and confusing. I caught a bus from Liberia in Costa Rica to the north border and got my stamp out easily enough, but there were no clear directions to the other side. Was it far? Could I walk or did I need to take a cab there? I learned to walk along the road past the truck stop. It led to a bus terminal on the Nicaraguan side a few hundred meters away, but the migration offices were less obvious. After a few minutes, I found them on the other side of the bank building, little booths on the outside. It was handy to have some small US dollars on hand for the entrance fee. At the terminal, I met a man who told me his NICA bus was going to Granada for a 20USD, which I learned was a normal price for a coach. I handed over my cash but got no ticket, only a baggage claim stub. Worried that I got ripped off, I asked him for it, but he said that was all I needed. It was a long wait while the other passengers crossing with the bus had their passports processed together and I h...

The only reason I went to Santa Elena was to do a canopy tour . I'd never done anything like it before and was keen to try it in one of the best places to do it in the world, Costa Rica. There were many operators, each offering different kinds of experiences like rappeling, abseiling down waterfalls, hanging bridges and whatnot. I went with 100% Aventura which was pretty good. We sailed over valleys and fast through the tree tops. There was also a rope bridge and 10m drop on the rappel which produced the best reaction from one of the Dakotan guys: "Gaaahh!" Classic. The features of the tour though, were the Tarzan Swing and the Superman cable. The Superman cable was a superlong, superfast cable from mountain to mountain while suspended face down. Unfortunately, I wasn't heavy enough in the high winds and showers that day, so I had to tandem with someone else who was too light. It was still brilliant though. The pulleys screamed all the way down and the views f...

When Nini arrived at Tamarindo from Santa Elena / Monteverde, she recounted the difficulties of the trip since there was no direct service. So I had an idea what I would encounter during the reverse trip. The route I took was Tamarindo - Liberia - Cañas - Tilarán - Santa Elena . Notes and some recommendations: Tamarindo to Liberia - Take the earliest bus . It leaves at about 5 or 5:30am. Any later and you will miss the connecting bus in Tilaran like I did. Liberia to Cañas - It's easy to find a bus to Cañas from the Liberia terminal as they are very frequent. But ask if they stop at the Cañas terminal or you might just go straight through the little town. My bus dropped me off about two blocks from the terminal, which was not easy to find since the streets were fairly deserted and there was no one to ask directions from. Also, Cañas is a bit dodgy, evidenced by my experience in being chatted up by some scary looking guy who looked like he just escaped from prison, having served t...

It isn't a bad place, but Tamarindo offers nothing particularly wonderful to ensure its place in your fond memories box. It's a tourist town, not altogether unattractive, the beach is average, as is the night life. I stayed in Chocolate Hotel which is an apartment block converted into a hostel, so each airconditioned dorm has its own bathroom, kitchen and cable tv. It's a pretty awesome place; modern, a pool, hammocks and palms. The location is a little walk up a hill from the main drag which makes it a quiet place, but it's quite cumbersome when it is so hot in Tamarindo, and the passing cars seem to enjoy kicking up the dust from the roads. The people I met there made my stay interesting though, including two NY photographers who act totally gay but never admit it, and a young Australian couple who seemed to have scheduled arguments every night when they got drunk. I probably should've gone somewhere else on the Nicoya Peninsula, but honestly, I just didn...

Nini and I spent just one day in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca since it didn't interest either of us very much, and parted ways after one night in San José. I was more keen to use the nearby town of Alajuela as my base to explore the surrounding areas of Costa Rica than a big city. It turned out a disappointment at first, as I was expecting a town, not a busy place that was more like a suburb of San José. You couldn't tell where either ended or began on the bus ride between. And most places I wanted to visit were as easily, or more easily, arranged from San José anyway! I found Cortéz Azul Hostel by accident and was glad to have stayed in a quiet homely place like it. Belonging to an artist, it was decorated with his personal work including sculptures, paintings and cute mosaic tiling in the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen was basic but more than adequate and located in a cute backyard patio, the perfect kind of place I was looking to chill out in. I had limited time to s...

I arrived in San José in the early evening and set about walking to a hostel named in my guidebook. To aid my navigation, I had in my hand a map from the last hostel I had stayed in in San José. It was dark and starting to look a bit dodgy, but the map told me it was only another block away. It wasn't. I decided to go one more in case the map was off by a block, but it wasn't there either. Looking to my right, I saw a small building with Pensión marked across the top and thought I might as well stay there since it would only be a night. It would probably be cheaper than a hostel as pensiones usually are. I wandered in, expecting to find some kind of an administration desk, but the first room I encountered was full of scantily clad women waiting on chairs. Needless to say, this was no pensión I wanted to be in, and I double-backed outside where I surprised two men. One of them seemed to be the bouncer who I somehow skirted past on my way in, and he looked at me, confused, ...

Well, there wasn't exactly much stuff to do while it rained there. Fortunately, there was a bit of a night scene in the place, so every other night was a trip to Mondo Taitu for drinking starters or costume nights and then someplace else to dance. But there were too many reggae joints that were not very conducive to actual dancing. I stayed at Mondo Taitu's sister hostel, Hostal Heike , which was a great choice. A wooden building with comfortable dorms, loads of fans, internet, pancake breakfast and coffee, super-friendly staff... I recommend this place for anyone going to Bocas. I met Nini at the Hostal Heike reception, and she was to be my new traveling partner on and off from Panama to Guatemala. She had actually stayed at the same hostel in Panama City, and thanks to guidebooks and hostel recommendations, we recognized many of the same people along the way. Apart from hanging out with some random people we just met, including Pierre who got a photo of the best-sandwich-on...

There was nothing direct from Panama to Almirante , the town on the coast closest to the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago . I caught one to the town of David instead, and in the middle of the night, in the middle of the almost deserted terminal, I couldn't find a sign anywhere indicating a bus to Almirante. I really should've asked one of the shady characters hanging about but I was tired and kind of creeped out by the place that I didn't feel up to showing strangers I was a bit lost, let alone try to defend myself if they decided to mug me. Instead, I caught a cab to a nearby pensión mentioned in my guidebook. It was old and dodgy and I would've been happier with some cable tv, but the bed was surprisingly comfortable and I had a great night's sleep. In the morning, I returned to the terminal and was faced with the same problem. Finally I asked and learned that the ones labelled Changuinola were the ones I wanted. I piled into the already chock-full minibus and nodded of...

With Ed, who I met the previous night playing ping pong at the hostel, and a German guy, I went to visit the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal . The most I remember was that it was really hot out there on the viewing deck. Though it was cool to see cargo boats carrying hundreds of containers come through the locks with barely a meter of clearance either side, I had already seen and traveled through bigger and more impressive locks in China. Don't bother seeing the film or the museum. Neither was worthwhile or free from propaganda. The most interesting things I found in the museum were the model machines and a history of sanitation development during the building of the canal. I'm serious. It's the nurse in me. Another day, I caught the local bus to the ruins of Panama Viejo and spent nearly three hours there just wandering around at my own pace. It was quiet and shady in some places, so I treated it like a park and used it to relax a little to escape the heat and people...

Most travelers with lots of time and little money travel across Latin America overland, taking long distance buses and chicken buses. But to travel between Colombia to Panama overland is nearly impossible due to the thick jungle in the area and the rebel guerrilla presence there. That leaves two choices; by land and by air. To go by air costs roughly 260USD which sounds a little bit cheaper than sailing, at just under 400USD. But factor the five days involved and the all inclusive package of sailing and consider this. It only takes five nights of accommodation at 12USD/night and a food budget of 16USD/day to make up the difference, nevermind the three day excursion in San Blas and the experience of a sea adventure. The Route From Cartagena, it is a straight two day sail to the San Blas Archipelagio. With a decent constant wind and waves behind us, we did it in an excellent 32 hours, arriving in San Blas at about midnight on the second day. The next two and a half days involved visi...

Jacob and Louise could've made money selling cigarettes. How many times did we hear from him, "Could ya pack me a Belmont, Lou?" while the cigarettes were nearby and Lou someplace else? And how many times did we see Lou dutifully tapping the cigarette with a practised death-look pointed at him, though softened with an edge of amusement? Sure, sometimes they mixed it up a bit. There was a bit of "Lou, could ya pack me a Belmont?" and "Could ya light it for me too?" once in a while. Tap tap tap . I swear they could've sold cigarettes, because after my days spent with them on the sailboat, I would walk past a Belmont ad and those words would resound in my head, and the image of Lou tapping the cigarette would float back in my mind's eye. Not that Lou didn't try her hand at selling things. I refer to her attempts at selling second-hand burritos with whiskey shots on the dodgy streets of Casco Viejo outside our Panama hostel. Maybe she should...

When I arrived in Cartagena in the middle of the night, I met a Chilean guy named Rodrigo who was also planning on doing a sailboat trip across the Darien Gap and to the San Blas Archipelagio. He spoke no English and a heavily accented Spanish, so it was slow going with conversation, but at least he knew which chicken bus to catch into town. I would've otherwise have paid for a cab. The chicken bus was more disco than chicken, with frills and other paraphernalia hanging about, swinging to the doof-doof music from cheap speakers while black lights hummed under the dash and colorful disco lights danced inside the cabin. It's driver was a cheery type, dancing as much as one can while seated behind the wheel, and he seemed more interested in enjoying the drive and the music, honking and waving at his bus driver friends, than picking up new passengers. Though I enjoyed the experience, in retrospect I would've been better off paying for a cab by myself. Rodrigo turned out to be ...

What could be more appealing than a cute colonial city of colorful bouganvilleas, pastel colored houses with wrought iron balconies on cobblestone streets? Than a turquiose Caribbean sea sighing against white coral beaches reflecting the heat of a tropical sun? Than a history of pirate attacks, for which a great fortified wall and cannons between the ramparts were built, and a treacherous manmade reef sunk at the mouth of the bay? Cartagena was everything a beautiful colonial city by the sea that I expected. Along the coast was the modern city and at its shore, a long white beach . It was the kind of beach I thought was nice enough to be packed on weekends, but today it was quiet, with swimmers and sun-worshippers spread sparsely along it. There was no esplanade of restaurants or cafes as I expected there to be, but lunch at a sandy kitchenette was more than satisfactory, if a little expensive. Outside of Cartagena was Volcan de Totumo , one of the most popular tourist sights to visit...