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Published: January 8th 2007
Agapito
El Valle showing us a square treeHola once again! Sorry it has been so long in between blogs, but it isn´t easy to find a good internet cafe. So much has happened and so many stories to tell. We are going to back up to before Costa Rica (that short blog was just to let you know we were all right).
We left Pedasi, Panama and headed to El Valle. We weren´t actually sure which direction we were heading until we met with a real estate agent. We spent some time looking at property and he mentioned he was going to Panama City to close a deal. He had a new listing in a little town called El Valle, which was on the way. We expressed our interested and hitched a ride with him and his wife. It was a 4 hour journey. El Valle is in the center of a volcano that completely blew off the top. It is a beautiful valley.
Anyways, the real estate agent picked up a local named Agapito to show us where the property was. Come to find out, with bad roads due to rain and mountainous terrain, it would take another 45 minutes to get there. It was
Got Mud???
Nothing like roughing it with a facial and mineral baths in El Valle.
$1.00 each a splurge starting to get dark so the real estate agent really stepped on the gas to get there before the sun went down. After winding our way up, we reached a gate. The gate was not part of the property, so we had to go across the land beyond the gate to get to the property. John (JJ), Agapito and the real estate agent headed across the lot. It made me a little nervous when, out of the shadows, appears a guy with a machetti following them. After some arguement, he agreed to let them thru his property to see the adjoining lot. I followed and we had a short hike on the property. We scooted back to the truck just as it was getting dark and, much to our surprise, the tires had sunk into the soft mud below the truck. It took 2 hours in the dark, 6 men, 3 women and 2 children to finally get the truck out of the mud. We then proceeded to fly down the hill so we didn´t get stuck again. All of us were hanging on the edge of our seats grasping for our lives. We finally made it down the the
No Way
We must have been a good little boy and girl.
Just does not look quite right. bottom of the windy road and let Agapito out. Being the good real estate agent he was, Claudio gave Agapito $20 to be ours for the next day so we could see the rest of the property. Another adventure begins.
We meet Agapito the next morning at 9. Agapito speaks NO English, so we knew this was going to be a great challenge. We headed off with Agapito and his machetti in the lead and into the jungle we went. After he showed us the property, he asked if we were interested. We said no because it was too remote, so he proceeds to tell us he wants to show us another piece of land. He first takes us to his house, introduces us to his wife, daughter and son, and serves us fresh squeezed orange juice. Our communications would have been quite humorous to watch. We managed to make "small talk" and enjoyed our treat. Agapito told us he wanted us to be his neighbors and buy the lot next to his, which he showed us after the orange juice. We parted ways after an educational morning jungle hike and wished him well. We felt very priviledged to
We arrived
Packing to Sol Y Mar and still smiling.
(Barely) Must have been the cold beers. be invited over to his little abode.
We stayed in El Valle for 3 nights. During the remaining time there we hiked to Chorro El Macho which is a waterfall in the area. It was definitely not worth the effort or the cost. They charged $2.50 pp for a very short hike to a barely note-worthy fall. We then walked to the hot springs in the area. Now this was more like it! The fee to enter was $1.00 pp. When we got in, there was mud to slather all over ourselves. We baked in the mud until it was dry, rinsed off, and soaked in the hot spring for about half an hour. I was disappointed to be leaving the next morning because we certainly would have returned for another day.
That night, from our hotel room, we got to see the town Christmas parade. Each day we were there, we also picked up a "perro de la dia" or "dog of the day". Every dog was very well behaved and it would follow us everywhere. Very interesting.
The time had come to catch the bus out of El Valle...or so we thought. We hauled our
Christmas Eve & New Friends
America, Mexico, Italy, Germany and Uraguay. All welcome! stuff to the bus stop at 7:00, waited until about 8:00 and boarded our bus. We then proceeded to circle the town, returning to the original bus stop about 9:00, so basically it took us 2 hours to return to where we started. Good news was...we had great seats since we were first on. We finally headed down the hill.
We travelled to David, our next stop. We stayed one night in a hostel call the Purple House. Everything here (sheets, plates, dog collar, coffee cups, hammock, etc) are purple. We walked to the grocery store and had dinner for $1.80 and couldn´t even finish it all.
The next day´s travel took us across the border to Costa Rica. We were told to look for the little kids (ninos) to help us across, but there were none to be had. We muddled our way thru the crossing alone. There are 2 separate buildings. You have to check out of Panama, walk about 300 yds and get stamped into Costa Rica. To add to the confusion, it is a tax free shopping zone, so nothing is well marked. We managed to get across and find the appropriate bus to
Too Many To Choose From
One of many sunsets from Zancudo Costa Rica Golfito. Upon arrival to the ferry dock we were a bit frazzled. This had to be the longest travel day ever! The bus ride had been packed and hot. We walk to find a boat taxi looking like lost Americans. There was a guy sitting at the little restaurant smirking as he watched us muddle around. He finally piped up, in English (which was like an oasis to our ears after such a stressful day) and offered us a ride to Zancudo. We graciously accepted.
After crossing the gulf, we hiked for a late lunch and a beer. The walk to our destination was about 2 miles. We were hot and tired when we got there, but the site was awesome. We spent the next almost 2 weeks in Zancudo. The beach was awesome, but we were there too long. The locals were questioning if we were travel writers and started being known as the "local tourists". We met several locals upon arrival and we lucky enough to have invitations to Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day dinner by 2 separate parties. The Christmas Eve dinner was the most unique Christmas Eve dinner we have ever had. There was
2 Too Many To Choose From
Another one of many sunsets from Zancudo Costa Rica. Had to add one more! a mixture of nationalities and languages, but we all shared some great fish and wine.
If we type all the details to Zancudo in here, you all would have a novel to read, so we will just hit some of the best and will have to fill in details later. ( Be sure to ask JJ about his motorcycle trip for a fish!!!!!!! ) We met so many great people. Connie and Gabriel (artists in the town), Andrea & Anette from Germany, Diane, Chad, Karla, Kristina, Mark and Stephanie (owners of Oceana), Mary and Jerry and many others. Anyone visiting Zancudo should definitely stay at Oceana. They pay great attention to detail, have the best burger on the beach, have VERY nice clean facilities, and is just awesome. We only got to spend one night there, but if we return, that is where we would book our accomodations. They only have 2 cabinas. They had un-necessary mosquito netting around the bed which was great ambiance and I felt like the princess I know I should be!
Anyways, a few highlights...
John & I were body surfing. He was a few feet in front of me, turned and
Monkey Business
The little one needed a nap. yelled at me. I was sure it was because of the huge wave I was about to catch, but, much to my surprise, he saw a shark in the same wave as me! We stood in the water, about knee deep, contemplating on returning to the surf. After about 15 minutes of hesitation, we couldn´t resist and kept on swimming.
On New Year´s Eve we actually made it to midnight and went to bed. We had met another couple, Kate and Tyler, and had been having a great time. The next night the 4 of us played cribbage until about midnight. They returned to their cabina and John and I went to see the ocean. The waves were huge so we rushed back to the bar and grabbed the boogie boards. We were hooting and hollaring and Kate and Tyler said they could hear us all the way back at the cabina! We stayed out until about 2:00am. The "moon" was full, the "stars" were out, and it was fantastic! It was also very nice because everyone else on the beach had been up until wee hours of the morning the day before due to the New Year celebration,
Monkey Business 1
Howler Monkey Costa Rica but we hadn't, so we had the beach to ourselves (not that it was every crowded anyways). It was great!
Tyler and Kate were also going to be traveling to Panama. We decided to share a taxi to cut the cost down and ride in luxury (much nicer than the buses). We drove to the border where some expats told us to look for a guy named Joel who could wiz us through the border crossing. (anyone interested in details on how just email us and we will be more descript) We all stayed at the purple house for a night. We needed to get some change for the next few days and went to the casino to change some big bills. They recommended we gamble a little if we were going to get change. John bellied up to the black jack table, won $4 and we left. He also needed a hair cut, so we walked across the street, with his winnings, and found a place for a hair cut. It was the best $3 hair cut ever. He thought it would be good karma to tip her a dollar and all of his winnings were gone.
New Years Eve 2006-2007
Another awesome dinner and happy to be alive for it! The next day, Kate suggested Boca Brava as a next stop so we could once again share a taxi. We (being of few set plans) thought that would be great. We took a cab on a very remote 4X4 only road to a water taxi to Boca Brava. There were very steep steps up to the hotel/bar. The four of us with our packs made it to the top and checked out the rooms. Our first thoughts were-"Ah..no traffic noise and no roosters to wake us up!" None of us considered the howler monkeys. The first night we were there, they perched themselves in the tree over our room. Our roof, being made of tin, started making curious noises...like rain and bomb shells. We finally figured out what the monkeys were doing up there (eww). They howled most of the night, but it was really pretty neat to wake up with them in the morning right out your window. We sat in our room for a couple hours watching them jump from tree to tree.
We spent the next 3 nights there, hiking jungle trails, doing some snorkeling and just enjoying the surroundings. We all went back to David
Princess Deb
Treated like royalty at Oceana Cabinas/Restaraunt/Bar in Zancudo
Best of everything there. A "DO NOT MISS" place!!!! Thank you Mark & Stephanie and checked into Hotel Toledo. The room charge here is $20/night and..we are feeling very spoiled..have hot water showers, air conditioning and cable TV! We are staying here for 2 nights to get caught up on laundry, blogging, internet stuff, shopping (John got a new pair of flip flops for $2). Then we are off to Las Olaj for a 3 day splurge for our anniversary.
That leads us to where we are now, sitting in a nice, air-conditioned internet cafe missing everybody and hoping all is good. Please keep writing as we love hearing from you. It has been very interesting be so out of touch. We were scratching our heads this morning when we got Denver news (channel 4) on our TV this morning and were able to catch up again. Looks like yáll are heading for another possible good storm! Our weather pretty much remains the same..somewhere between 80 and 100 degrees. We never know, but we are enjoying it very much! Anyways..hopefully we will blog sooner this time, depending on where life take us. Thinking of all of you with smiles!
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Anna in Oregon
non-member comment
Maverick and Princess Deb
How cool are you? You are living the dream of the adventurer. How did the Hermit Crab Races turn out? Now that JJ is a professional gambler, I'm going to have to call him Maverick. ;-) Love the pictures. Oregon is warm and wet-ish this winter. Everything is brilliant, glowing green. 'Course, we don't have monkeys, so I guess it's not the same as Panama. Love you lots, Anna