Panama Rafting and Costa Rican Beach

Thursday, June 27, we took the 7 hour bus to David. The ride was nice with AC and an audiobook. Our hostel for the night was called the Purple House Hostel. It is quite purple and so is most of its contents. The lady who owns and operates it is from New York, she came down initially with the Peace Corps. We met two young Irish guys and one young guy from Britain. Good conversations. There were others there from other places as well, but we didn't get to talk with them much. When we were preparing for this trip 4 weeks sounded like a long time. But now that we are traveling, staying in hostels, we meet so many interesting people from all different parts of the world and most have been traveling for months, even some for a year now.

Friday morning we woke early to pack and be ready for the Chiriqui Rafting Company to pick us up from the hostel. When they were 20 minutes late we started to worry, so we called their office. Turns out they forgot to pick us up, so we rushed to get a taxi to meet the group. The rafting was great, although only class II and III and we had requested class IV. There were some Americans in the group, including a few who now live in Panama and love it. There was a Norweigan family that was a lot of fun, the dad was actually Irish. Also, there was a language teacher from Switzerland whose been traveling for a year now and is soon going home to return to teaching. Once again, good conversations. I love meeting all these interesting people. However, I'm reminded how annoying it is that most Americans only know English. Our education system really needs to change. The rafting went on for several hours with a break for a nice lunch (complete with ginger ale and pringles). Everything is so brillant green and brightly colored. Simply amazing. We did see a large iguana sunning itself in a tree out on a branch along the river. We finished the rafting trip just down the road from the border crossing into Costa Rica. We said goodbye and crossed the border with no problems thankfully. Immediately we found the bus to Laurel, then to Conte, then to Pavones. Stephen is doing a great job remembering and relearning his Spanish. Me however, I open my mouth and knowing something needs to come out besides English, start speaking Swahili.

We took the bus, literally, to the end of the road. The road stops in Punto Banco at a piece of paradise on the beach owned and run by Dutch. The beautiful place is called Rancho Burica, it is on the Pacific coast, a place for backpackers and surfers. They said that 90% of the people that visit there are Dutch...which we found to be true. We were there through the weekend, the place was filled, and the only other non-Dutch fellow was a surfter from California. The food was wonderful, made by a sweet Tico (this is what Costa Ricans call themselves). The place was so gorgeous. The howler monkeys woke us up at night with their interesting calls. The crashing of the waves was endless. We had hoped to take some surfing lessons, but these were not at all beginners waves. It was fun watching them surf and just enjoying the view. We played scrabble, walked on the beach, hiked to the seaview, and just relaxed. We planned to go horseback riding through the rainforest and along the beach, but unfortunately it rained for a couple hours. It is the rainy season here. The one night we were sitting at the beach, the Squirrel Monkeys came down and jumped from tree to tree. They were so little and cute, playing with one another paying us no attention. We were told they are actually endangered. We did see a Black and Green Dart Frog, a very large toad, a large ugly spider, and the Howler Monkeys, but did not get to spot the sloth or the toucans that live here. Stephen also saw a medium-sized Boa Constrictor in the wood pile.

Today is Monday, June 30, we took the 5am bus from Rancho Burrica to Golfito and we are now sitting in the internet cafe. Our flight to San Jose does not leave until 3:03pm. Tomorrow we take several buses and a ferry to the Caribbean coast to the small village of Parismina. There we will participate in a sea turtle conservation program for 3 days.

We are loving the adventure...Thanks for sharing with us...Love, DeAnna

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