I am still in Costa Rica and have been enjoying the ever present Puerto Viejo party scene. I have progressed with my Dive Master although not as quickly as I could have. At the end of August I went to San José and completed my Emergency First Response course in Spanish. I have also since completed my Rescue Diver course. I am on the last course now and have completed some of the Dive Master course but am waiting for better diving conditions and the shop to fix the boat engine before I can complete the course. I hope to get the completed in January.
My house as an island in all the rain.
October saw me take a trip to Panama to renew my visa again. My friend Karen from the states joined me and we spent 10 days in Panama. It took us a full day of bus trips (3 buses) to get to Boquette which is up in the mountains. The region is famous for its coffee and we took a tour of a coffee finca (farm) and stocked up on good coffee. The town is also popular with retirees from the States so the level of English spoken was really good. The region looked beautiful and we had high hopes to go trekking but unfortunately the weather was against us. We had originally planned to stay 3 nights but it rained constantly for 2 days so we decided to leave early and head down to Panama City.
Panama City was an 8 hour bus journey and we arrived quite late into the biggest bus terminal I have ever seen! Backing onto a huge mall the terminal has nearly 70 platforms. It certainly felt more USA than Central America. We stayed in Casco Viejo, the old town, an area they are slowly renovating. With narrow streets and tall, balcony lined buildings the area was very reminiscent of Old Havana in Cuba. Travelling in and out of the old town we passed by some very poor and dangerous neighbourhoods. With armed guards on the streets it was not an area you would want to look around. The shame of it is that only a few miles away the neighbourhoods are rich, elegant and very American.
We ended up spending a week in and around Panama City taking day trips, usually beginning or ending with a trip to the mall to stock up on cheaper goods than Costa Rica. It was way too easy to go shopping at the mall given its proximity to the bus terminal. One day we took a ferry across to an island to get a bit of beach time. Another day we took the passenger train to Colón. Panama City is on the Pacific Coast and is the Pacific entrance for the Panama Canal. Colón is the Caribbean canal entrance and the train line follows the route of the canal. The train trip was only an hour but it went through rain forest along the lakes and trenches of the canal. Colón unfortunately is not a nice city and has got a bad reputation for being very dangerous. This was impressed on us by our taxi driver who pulls out his revolver which he says is for his, and his passengers’ protection. So we got straight on a bus back to Panama City and then took another bus to see Miraflores locks. Wow, what an impressive operation! As most of you know, I have a timeshare on a canal boat and what is so interesting is that the logic is all the same, it is just scale that separates the two. There was a great museum to walk through but watching these huge tankers pass through the double locks was awesome. We ended up ordering beers and sat down to watch 5 tankers pass through. Each one takes about 30 minutes to pass through the locks. Tug boats manoeuvre the ships into the lock entrance and then little trains pull the ships through the locks.
Another trip was to Barro Colorado, an island in the canal basin that is a research site for the Smithsonian. We went on a guided tour that included a boat trip to the island, presentations on the function of The Smithsonian on the island and 2 walking tours. We finished the Panama trip with an overnight bus ride to San José, not a trip I care to repeat. Leaving at 11pm we wasted 4 hours at the border crossing and finally made it into San José at 4pm.
That is not the only trip I’ve done. At the moment I am writing to you from the Osa Peninsula on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Finally I’ve travelled to see a bit more of Costa Rica other than just the Caribbean. Right now it is the wet season on the Caribbean and diving conditions are pretty bad so what better time to visit the Pacific, especially seems it is the dry season here.
This is actually my second trip here. I first came on 1st December with Jamie, an American diving instructor from Georgia who I met at the dive shop. It is a pretty long journey. Although Puerto Viejo and the Osa Peninsula are only about 100 miles from each other as the crow flies, you can only make the journey via San José. The journey takes 2 days and consists of a 4.5hr bus trip to San José, a 6hr bus journey to Palmer Norte, 30 minutes in a taxi or colectivo and then a 1.5hr boat trip. As a result, the Osa is visited only by the determined or the rich who fly in from San José. National Geographic highly rates the Osa Peninsula claiming it is one of the most highly diverse places on the planet.
Jamie and I know a family who live on the Osa and we were invited to stay with them. Shawn explained where we should meet him, at a boat dock at the end of the beach. Here he had two kayaks which we were to take to travel up the river to their home.
(The river we kayak)
(Views from the Ocean)
(Our little house in the Jungle)
(view from the main house to the house where we were staying)
The journey was beautiful, surrounded by rainforest with crystal clear waters. The river is tidal up to the point where we pull out so you need to know when the high tides are to time your journey in and out with water deep enough to pass the rapids. After the river trip is a short hike to the top of a knoll where Shawn, Vanessa and their daughter Star live very simply. The views are great and so are the sounds of the jungle. They have lived here for 6 years and only got electricity on the last day of our first visit. We collect water from one of two creeks in 5 gallon containers for the bathrooms, cooking and drinking. We shower in the creeks or the river and pretty much live by candlelight at night. Sitting on a knoll between the river and the ocean means there is plenty of opportunity for fishing, swimming, walking and whatever else takes your fancy. You certainly get plenty of exercise with all the water hauling, walking up and down the knoll and kayaking into town. As we have no refrigeration we need to take a trip into the village at least every day or two for food. As it is around a 2 hour trip you have to make sure you remember to take everything you need. There is also the opportunity to fish or go shrimping in the creeks at night. Jamie and I haven’t quite got the hang of this yet but I’m still waiting for the pounds of fish he keeps promising me. At least we managed to catch 2 shrimp last night for dinner.
So why are we back? Well we were not really geared up for the place first time round and Jamie was trying to decide whether or not to make his planned return to the States so after a week we headed back to Puerto Viejo. We spent nearly a week there catching up with friends, washing, birthdays and stuff and came back a couple of days ago. I’m not sure how long we are going to stay but I would like to be back in Puerto for New Year.
Right now I am on a trip to the village to get more cooking gas and rum for Christmas. I loaded the empty gas cylinder onto the kayak and took it down the river and into the sea, across the bay and up onto the beach where the pulperia is. I did a bit of shopping and then travelled back with the new gas cylinder. I’ve just stopped off to post this blog and then I will travel back up the river. It is going to be a bit more difficult going back because the tide is going out. I may have to portage round the rapids. Yesterday the family we are staying with returned from the Caribbean. We helped them carry all of their stuff up to the house. Now that they have electricity they had bought a fridge and a washing machine. Both of them came up the river on kayaks!
(Jamie going spear fishing in the river)
Back in Puerto is has been live as normal with plenty of parties, nice sunshine, rain and flooding, diving eating and drinking so here are a few more photos.
Right now I’m living a very simple life in Paradise. The monkeys wake us up every morning eating from the tree above our house. Sometimes it is the Spider Monkeys and sometimes it is the Howlers. The Howlers usually wake us up at 5am and announce dusk at around 5pm. The call of the Scarlet Macaws is noisy and raucous but their size and colour is impressive.
(Success on the fishing front)
(Views from the beach)
I have a flight to Venezuela on the 19th January so I really need to decide what I am going to do next. I cannot push my flights back any further without cutting down my time in each country. I know it is not going to be easy for me to leave Costa Rica. I have so many friends here and have been enjoying life to the full. I need to finish my divemaster for sure so January is decision time for me. Should I stay or should I go? I’ll let you know what I decide.
Happy holidays everyone! I hope this update finds you all well. Season greetings and a Happy New Year to you all! Enjoy the festivities.
P.S. If there are no photos, I will post them up later. Internet connection here is variable.
Y en Español!
Hola todos. Espero todos están bien con ustedes.
Todavía, estoy en Costa Rica en Puerto Viejo. Casi he terminado mis cursos de buceo pero los condiciones en Puerto ahora no están bien para buceando. Hay mucha lluvia y las olas son muy grandes. También, la tiende tiene problemas con el motor del barco y no podemos ir para bucear.
Sin embargo, me gusta viviendo aquí porque muchos amigos y la vida es muy divertido. Me gusta la playa, la gente, la vía de la vida y la selva.
He tomando viajes afuera a Costa Rica a Panamá y finalmente he estado a visitar otros lugares en Costa Rica y recentemente, estaba en la península de Osá en el pacifico. Me quedaba con una familia yo conozco cerca de Drake. Ellos tienen tierra en la selva y viven en un vía muy básicos. Tienen 3 casitas rusticas sin agua corriendo. Han vivido en la Osa para 6 años y solamente recibieron electricidad, hace 2 semanas. Allí, me bañaba en el arroyo o el río y necesitamos traer agua para el baño, la cocina y beber del rio o el arroyo.
He visitado la peninsul 2 veces. Estaba allí la premira vez hace 2 semanas con Jamie, un hombre de Estados Unidos quien es un instructor de busco. El segunda vez estamos preparando mejor para los condiciones. Estaba allí para navidad pero regresé a Puerto Viejo para el año nuevo. Es muy tranquilo en la Osa y me gusto mucho pero queré estar con todos de mis amigos para el año nuevo.
Para el día de navidad, estaba en la playa buscando cosas para cocinar para almuerzo. Estaba muy caliente con mucho sol pero hay mucha lluvia en las noches. En el dia de navidad me bañé en el arroyo con los monos, dos tipos arriba en los arboles. Hay muchos aves allí también, me favorito son los guacamayas. El cielo en la noche es muy obscuro y las estrellas son muy bonitas. Me gusta a pasar tiempo aquí pero la vida es muy duro también. Cuando necesita viajar al pueblo o las casa, la vía más rápida es por kayak en el río y caminando arriba a las casa. Un día fui al pueblo por gas para cocinar. Tomé la botilla vacía abajo de la colina, después por kayak en el río y el mar a la playa y la pulpería para una nueva botilla. Para regresar, estaba más fuerte porque la marea estaba baja y el río tiene rápidos en este tiempo. El viaje, sin embargo es muy bonita. La selva aquí en la península es bosque principal, bastante raro en el mundo.
El lugar es perfecto para caminando en la selva, para nadar y pescar en el rio y el mar. Un día, Jamie atrapó un pescado grande, el tipo guacamaya azul y tuvimos este como ceviche. Tuvimos mariscos de la playa también. Hay muchas cosas para comer incluidos cocos, piñas, naranjas, limones, bananos, pecados, mariscos y camarones. Todo el tiempo oye el sonido del bosque con muchos insectos, aves y mamíferos. En el área no hay muchos carros y el vía típica para viaje es en un bote y a pie, entonces necesita hacer muchos ejercicios aquí.
Me gusta el tiempo allí y quisiera quedarme aquí otra vez pero tengo un vuelo a Venezuela el 19 de enero. No quiero salir porque tengo muchos amigos aquí y estoy comedor aquí pero tampoco, no quiero pedir mis vuelos. No quiero decidir pero debo que pronto. Tengo un oportunidad a trabajar en la Osa con la misma familia y creo que iré al fin de enero.
A todos, feliz año nuevo!!
Un abrazo,
Nikkie
