Beaches, birds and bye bye.

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so for the long awaited and long overdue final (for now) chapter in this adventure....
lindsie and i left nicaragua and dealt with one of our more annoying and bureaucratically challenging border crossings...but we prevailed and entered the land known as costa rica. little to say for it that you haven't already heard...it is beautiful and much more attention has been given to preserving the forests and natural resources...specifically to market them at tourists. we stopped for a night in liberia and left quickly the next morning in order to make lots of time (costa rica is much more expensive than other countries, so we didn't want to spend time in the cities, we came for the forests). this drive took us up to some of our highest elevations of the whole trip, around 10,000 feet and raining and cold. it was an intense section of road, way up in the cloud forests...and was the first time since oregon that i wished i had my heavy riding gloves with me. we broke our rule and ended up driving the last hour or so in the dark, ending a long day in san isidro, a large agriculturally based city. it was here that we watched the presidential coverage and cheered (and lindsie teared up) when obama was announced as the president-elect. it was also here that a speck of something (likely dirt) ended up in lindsie's eye...and became so stuck and irritated that we had to spend an extra day in this town in order to have the only eye doctor in southern costa rica remove the offending object. to kill some time we went to a nice nature reserve (named cusingos) and hiked around. lindsie saw her first petroglyph here.
upon leaving san isidro, we drove to the town of sierpe on the peninsula de osa. this peninsula is famously known for national geographic calling it "one of the most biologically intense places on earth." we arranged a boat ride down the river and into the ocean. it took us to a resort on a secluded beach named Poor man's Paradise. we spent the next three and a half days camping here. in order to explore the peninsula a little bit, one of the days lindsie and i hiked a coastal trail for about 7 or so miles...the trail had us bouncing from the ocean back into the jungle again and again. it was a beautiful and steamy hike. i don't think i have ever sweated so much before. however we did see plenty of wildlife, including all sorts of monkeys (including howler's), toucans, scarlet macaws, etc. another day we lounged on a beach and went snorkeling in some pretty rough waters. the current pulled us all around, but we did see some colorful fish and an olive ridley sea turtle swimming around. we also managed to piss of a scarlet macaw and have him attack us (only to find out later that this macaw did that kind of stuff to the locals pretty often). that same day we met a government employee who patrols the beach for sea turtle nesting sites and protects the eggs until they hatch. we were fortunate enough to watch him release some newborn turtles that evening. eventually we took a return boat to sierpe (seeing a couple of really big crocodiles and tons of birds along the way) and continued onwards to panama...but not after breaking down and buying our plane tickets to georgia. that was a shock to the system, actually setting a date to end a seven month journey...
panama was really highlighted by bocas del toro. however first we spent an uneventful evening in the city of david and had a really nice ride over some mountains in order to get to the caribbean side of the country. however...lindsie had been hoping for a sunny, relaxing caribbean experience this whole trip, and every time we went to that side of countries, we were hit with mediocre to downright crappy weather. bocas was different. we had sun and more sun with a splendid mix of blue skies. it was so nice that we ended up spending four days there...taking boats to beautiful beaches, biking around the island, meeting other travelers (we met up with luke here, and also our friend kevin), going to bars with swimming docks, etc. perhaps the most memorable day involved taking a trimaran sailboat tour. we saw dolphins, went sailing, drank beer, chatted and relaxed...and did some amazing snorkeling. it was incredible the colors of the coral and the other life found on and around them. the best reef was right next to a mangrove island. this proximity created a really unique mix of mangrove roots with coral and such attached to the roots. i can't really fully explain how beautiful it was. so i won't try too hard. look at the pictures or go for yourselves...i really, really recommend it.
anyway, we left soon thereafter and luke joined up with us. time was growing short and we had a plane to catch...so the three of us did a lot of driving in two days (including a bit of fun by my bike running out of gas for the first time on this trip)and ended up in panama city.
panama city is really big. and confusing. and they don't have nearly enough hotel rooms for such a big city, or we just need to not come into town during big conventions. so we drove into the casco viejo section of town (basically the historic district) and stayed there for a night. it was a very beautiful area, with lots of ruins and old buildings being restored. it was also right on the edge of some of the most dangerous areas (ghettos) of panama city. the three of us wandered and drank cheap guinness while watching the ships leave the mouth of the panama canal. the next day was a pile of problems as lindsie rode with and i followed a taxi all around panama city in search of a hotel room. none were to be found. luke got disheartened and drove back casco viejo to stay in a dorm room, but lindsie and i were not about to spend our last night on this trip in a crowded dorm, so with the help of our patient cabby (he dealt with us searching for a room for over two hours), we persevered and found an expensive room not near downtown as we had hoped. oh well, it was a nice room at least. we spent our last full night eating a fancy dinner with luke and having really bad beer at a brewpub (possibly the worst beer i have ever had). the following day was a whirlwind. luke and i met up early and rode out to Colon in order to meet the buyer of my motorcycle. it was perhaps one of the scariest areas i have been. incredibly run down projects everywhere, we finally found the guy, talked briefly and didn't even bother to count the money he gave me before i hopped on luke's bike and drove off as fast as we could (though dario, the buyer, was a really nice guy...my bike was part of his escape-from-the-ghetto plan). i must admit, that it was probably pretty funny watching two 6'3" and over guys riding on one bike...i am not proud to say that i was not the one driving. eh. the rest of that day brought trips to the airport to drop bags off, a trip to the panama canal (incredible), a stop at the mall for another bag to put junk in, a stop at an english pub for dinner and good beer and pool, and finally a goodbye with luke and a final trip to the airport where we took off at 3 in the morning and said 'goodbye' to panama. seven hours later we said 'hello' to atlanta, GA and thanksgiving with my southern relatives. after 11,500 miles....the end
~nate

well, since it's our last travel blog (for now) I thought I would jump in and just say it has been nice sharing our expericences with everyone via this blog and it was always great hearing back from people. I guess one of the things I was suprised to learn during our travels, is how long it actually takes to really experience new countries. We spent over 7 months in Central America and I still feel like there is so much more to experience, people to meet, and things to learn in the wonderfule places we visited. It's even more daunting to realise that C.A. is just a tiny glimpse of the rest of the world that I do want (and plan to) to explore. But for now I guess it's time to go home, see my dog, face reality and try to find a job in a crashing economy.......Until the next adventure!
-Lindsie

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Photos

just chillin'....
and posing for the gringo and his camera

perhaps the highest point we reached on this trip...over 10,000 feet...
and really cold, i sent my cold weather gloves home months ago...so i had to use socks instead

when macaws attack...
i guess he wasn't too happy with me...

giant, prehistoric balls...
of unknown origin in costa rica

dave, this is for you
he really likes jumping photos

our only fuzzy toucan shot
these guys are hard to get without a good zoom

white chinned monkey...
just eatin' his shoots

baby turtles are cute
this guy protects the eggs from hungry locals and animals and then releases them when they hatch

our final country...
is lindsie jumping for joy?

girls doing a traditional dance
in celebration of their states founding

this guy is hilarious...
he was walking around, sucking in his gut and posing for photos that his pale, skinny friend was taking

Comments

[John Dorsett]

Thanks for the great trip...
Hi guys... thanks for the narratives and letting us all ride along on your big adventure. It was good to see you looking like tourists again in Costa Rica ! I'm glad Lindsie's eye is ok ! Bienvenido a estados unidos !