Blogs from David, Chiriquí, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Hi Everybody! Friday We enjoyed our time in Jaco, Costa Rica. Our hotel was first class and located right on the beach. It had a nice casino and restaurant. We were able to travel from Jaco to the capital city, San Jose, by a comfortable van. We traveled over mountains with curvy roads and had spectacular views. We saw farming on terraces, coffee farms, a winery, many different fruit trees. Before leaving Jaco, we had a travel agent book a nice hotel for us in San Jose. It is not a city where you want to spend a lot of time. We left San Jose on a big Greyhound type bus. We traveled again over hills and mountains. We went through a Cloud Forest. I think it was probably the Tapanti National Park. Cloud forests are ... read more

From Nicaragua we motored through Costa Rica to Panama just stopping for a nights rest in San Jose (Costa Rica’s capital). We have about two weeks to explore Panama the southern most country of Central American before we return to Costa Rica on January 13th to rendezvous with both sets of parents for two weeks. Panama was in our minds as just another country in the region and knowing nothing more about it than that it possessed a rather famous canal we did not have it down as a potential highlight. However, we’ve been impressed. Actually very impressed. Welcoming and friendly locals, endless options on enticing places to explore and prices not far removed from Nicaragua. A pretty irresistible blend. On our first day in the country we discovered the Purple House in David, Panama’s second ... read more

We are finally back in Boquete and unhappy to have left Panama City. I loved it there. Would have liked to stay much longer and enjoyed hanging out with Meredith and Lena. Anyway, we will do some hiking to waterfalls today and then move on to Costa Rica either tomorrow or Friday and then from there to Nicaragua. Everyone says it is wonderful there and I cannot wait. Hard to believe that our trip is coming to an end soon. Only a week and a half left. ... read more

I am still in avid waiting to take the midnight bus to Panama City. I hate getting there at night so I'm on this bus arrives at 530 AM where I will meet up with the other monkey researchers. Bugging out in Panama I have so many bites and picasones, I'm itchy, from the bugs here. On Isla Popa there were chitras/ sandflies which can drive any ngabe or gringa loca, colradios/ciggers which itch for weeks ans zancaudo/ mosquitos which are not as bad since it is the dry season, even in Bocas. I wonder what awaits me the next 9 days in Soberana National Park and Gamboa. Coconut Oil I'll put up some pictures and another description later but I helped Clementina make coconut oil on Tuesday. She gave me some to bring home and ... read more

We were stuck in the border town of Paso Canoas between Costa Rica and Panama last night in the hotel ducha con raton, which roughly translates as the hotel with rats in your shower. I woke up early at 4:30 and decided to go to the bathroom and as I was doing the business I heard a small scratching and straining coming from the shower drain that was basically a hole knocked in the wall at the bottom of this shower. As I stared at the noise wondering what the heck was that, I saw a nice size very black rat head stick out to see who had turned on the lights so early. Should I tell Midori or not...? She did take a shower in there yesterday afternoon when we got to the dive. We ... read more