PANAMA and a wonderful week with the Rosas-Scobie Familia

Visiting the Rosas Scobie family in Panama March 1 to 9, 2008

Well we said good bye to Joe and Cathy at 6 a.m. in Granada, Nicaragua on February 29th and waited on the steps of the bus depot trusting the bus would come. We had bought tickets on Tica -the only bus that runs to Panama from Nicaragua and were psyched for our land travel to David, Panama and seeing my brother Tom and his family. The fare was $50. USD each. The bus arrived at 7 a.m. and was pretty comfortable, the air conditioning was not too bad…..about one and a half hours later we were crossing the border at Penas Blancas into Costa Rica. People everywhere selling hammocks, wooden bowls, food, crafts, kids begging, and more….paid our $3. USD exit fee and the bus driver collected all our passports…a little unnerving to let go of that document! Finally we boarded the bus again with the bus driver calling out our names to collect our passports…is this a secure system one might ask? We just had to trust.....

Finally arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at 5:15 p.m. a 10 hour day including the long stop at the border. Well we checked our bags through for our next bus to David and then headed out to find dinner. We lucked out in finding a perfect place! A little oasis for us -La Bastille and Galleria at Calle 24 and Paseo Colon -we highly recommend it. Scrumptious dinner with wine and not too expensive. Owned by a Swiss guy from Zurich.

Back to the bus station to wait and wait. Bus left an hour late -at midnight -and I think we were both asleep instantly and woke up at the border, Paso Canoas. Border towns are not pretty places…Had a long long wait in line to exit Costa Rica then walked across to Panama. Paid our $5. USD tourist visa and back on the bus after a cursory inspection by the guards of our bags.

The bus people served us a box breakfast -and before we knew it we were in David -and it was so fabulous to see my brother Tom, his wife Karina, and their boys Shay, age 5, and Jake, age 4, -plus Karina’s sister Libby and her son Billy, age 7.

David is the capital of the province of Chiriqui, busy city….Tom and Karina live on a quiet street ….lovely to be there…

And they treated us both to a wonderful week of exploring. We went to San Felix and saw most of Karina’s family, the Rosas - wonderful visits - and spent a day on the beach at Las Lajas…gorgeous! Tom, Karina, Shay, Jake, Al and I all went to Bocas del Toro Toro together in the car. We parked at Almirante -led to the parking spot by a tourist guide on his bike, and then boarded the boat onto the Caribbean and across to Bocas del Toro. Immediately we boarded another boat to Isla Basimentos and took another 10 minutes to get there. We decided to stay at the Hostal Basimentos. Worked well for us -and was cheap -$18. USD per room -we each had bunks and private bathrooms. Fun to be there and to visit with other travellers too.

When we first arrived on Isla Basimentos, we were a little overwhelmed by the garbage everywhere and the negative feelings we were picking up. These feelings were explained the next day when we learned a young woman from California had drowned on the day we arrived at Wizard Beach, pulled down by a rip tide…very very tragic….

Our next day felt completely different. Music was playing in the streets; people were smiling; we had a great breakfast at Red Rooster’s then hired a man to take us in his boat to the highly recommended Polo Beach -safe swimming and almost completely deserted. And the snorkelling was fantastic!!! A perfect day! The restaurant packed us a picnic lunch and our boat driver came back for us a at 4:30 pm.

After 2 nights on Basimentos we headed back by boat to Bocas del Toro, toured around a bit and then back to the mainland and home.

On Friday we were off to another beach! This time - Punta Bejuco, a short distance across the Pacific from Boca Chica. Very very beautiful…..my brother Tom has bought 15 acres there and is developing the property with a business partner. Such a treat to see it… wonderful beach and swimming and incredible views!

And then it was time to say good by to Karina and Shay and Jake with big hugs and kisses…..and Tom drove Al and me to Panama City. A treat to have a drive but then a challenge for the 3 of us to find a hotel room for us! We called about 30 before finding one. Seems the hotels have been constantly booked for the past year -but we lucked out and found a room at the lovely Executive Hotel. Did not have time to tour the locks of the Panama Canal but did have a chance to stop briefly before Tom took us to the airport on March 9th and our flight to Quito, Ecuador and the next leg of our journey! Look forward to returning to Panama again! Quisiera hablar espanol muy bien!

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