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Published: December 18th 2009
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I had one more stop in Panama which was in the Lost and Found hostel, cool name for a beautiful place. But due to the rain and a inpatient Dutchie, I didn´t stay there long. I did see a kinkajou(honey bear) and cacomistles (racoon-ish animal with monkey behaviour). I went to a inspiring and adorable local guy who's all into organic. But he does it in his very own way. It was cool to listen to him and see his strange experiments. Also did he make different kinds of wine made of different kinds of fruits. As a wine lover I was really content, before the tasting that is. It was absolutely disgusting.
The border crossing was easy, for me, a lot of others got scammed and had to buy tickets to go back to the country they are coming from. With me they accepted my email, in Dutch, as confirmation that I would leave their country.
Puerto Viejo & beautiful surroundings. Here I was supposed to meet up a Dutchie who I've met 4 years ago on my first trip, back in Mexico. We haven't seen each other since. I checked in at the hostel and checked my
email which said that she is supposed to arrive the same day. A bit nervous I waited around. Nervous because you never know what it's gonna be like; fun, or boring, maybe she turns out to be a total b*tch or socially not okay. Well, fun we had heaps, she was a bitch and we had some serious conversations going on.
We visited from here
Cahuita and it's gorgeous park. I was overwhelmed by the changes which happened the last years, not in a good wa: roads got paved, shops everywhere, as well as restaurants and places to stay for tourists and way more tourist roaming around. The park didn't disappoint us, we did see a lot of animals and in the mean time we were blurting out phrases from Dutch stand up comedians.
We attempted to do the famous bike ride to
Manzanillo, which started off with an argument with the bike renter, who forgot what the words nice & social mean. After we got caught buy the rain, stopped for a beer and got passed by 2 poncho's. I also got turned down for volunteering in rescue centre El Jaguar because sadly I had just a 1,5 week
left. We did find a ride back with delivery boys: bikes in the back and we on each others lap in between the guys in the front. Nice and cosy and more importantly, dry. The next day, another try. It was nice and sunny again however the bike man wasn't. We ended up with mud between our toes in the park Manzanillo, sliding up and down the trail. We had some amazing views and seen again a group of howler monkeys and a sloth. This day I also managed to overrule a boy who was selling books with such strong arguments about this crap book, which I wanted to change for good book. It worked and even got a bigger discount. After a few days we've had had it, because besides the beautiful places nearby you can visit Puerto Viejo itself is a place with a lot of drinking & smoking pot what ruined peoples brains; calling us 'baby' and making (very unimpressive) sounds. So change of scenery was the plan.
We left for
San Jose to have one other day before Michelle went back to Honduras were she lives. After a disappointing try to do some shopping we
ended up watching the brilliant movie Slumdog Millionaire and had our saying good bye dinner, no tears just laughter.
I left for
Quepos as I remembered it as an okay town and I found a hostel with a pool. I also had great memories of the
national park Manuel Antonio. Because I had a small 2 weeks left and I couldn't be bothered to move around anymore, I decided to ask in the park if they could use an extra hand. In the end I 'worked' there a whole week. That meant; sitting on my behind every morning from 8.00-12.00 at the exit which used to be the entrance. This to help out to rangers who don't speak English and a lot of people reading there not-yet-updated guide books which will send them to the wrong 'entrance'. While sitting there you will see: white face capuchin monkeys fooling around in the trees, pelicans warming up in the sun and iguanas bustling around. And of course tourists and slimy guides. After lunch which was rice, beans and something additional everyday we had a half our beach break. Then we did different things, more because we asked for it and came
up with ideas like: helping out picking up trash which monkeys and racoons got out of the trash cans, shoo them away, rake leaves of the trails, helping out 4 guys who were making a viewing point by watching them and that's about it. As you understand this was really heavy labour especially as you consider I've seen a toucan, sloth, monkeys, birds e.g. laughing falcon, hermit crabs, racoons, iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards and a giant boa constrictor. The rangers caught her at a nearby hotel, because they didn't like that she ate all the chickens.
After my days there I have 3 more days relaxing, which I used to relax at the pool, relax at the beach next day and rest from al this the 3rd day. I did have a uninvited struggle in between: bed bugs. They fumigated the place a week before I got there and only after being there for a week I got bitten, and a lot. The only thing I want to say about that is that such tiny creatures can make you feel so uncomfortable, I seriously detest them.
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Hanna
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Welcome to Europe!
Hey! great to read about your last adventures :-) Too bad about the fruit wine, but now that you're back in Europe you'll be able to have nice Spanish and French wine every day. Take care and hope to meet up soon again!