Taking off from Tama - Sleeping in San - Piecing Puerto to Panama

I have left Tamarindo for now, and I must admit it was sad to say goodbye. I was becoming quite accustomed to my daily routine there. Surfing, relaxing and drinking with good company. However the next part of my adventure takes me into the unknown, and within time, i should know where I'm headed over the next couple of months. So in a way this becomes the exciting part. While i was happy to slip back into routine and kick back in Tamarindo, there was no real substance to my trip, and no real opportunity to gain something different from travelling.

I was going to hang around for the weekend in Tamarindo once i got the news about heading to Panama for this job, but thought it was the right time just to head off straight away. I felt like i was in limbo if i just hung around Tamarindo; i needed to go and find out what was going on. Although i did throw in a few massive ones including a night when I wore my full footy gear out to a nightclub. Only in Tamarindo!

Upon organising myself to head back down south the next morning i discovered that two other girls (more awesome Norwegian's; Thea and Oda) from the hostel were also heading off the next day to hit up the east side Caribbean coast. I told them about my plans to head east and then eventually to the islands of Bocas del Toro, Panama and with some loose planning we decided to head east together.

The next morning we woke early at 4.30am (well the girls woke early and then had to wake me up cause I'd somewhat over indulged with the lads the night before) and we boarded a bus at 5.30am from Tamarindo back to the capital (and the main route of transport) San Jose. We stayed at a really nice hostel in San Jose that night on recommendation from the girls and, after an early and long day of transport, called it a night relatively early. The next day, once again, was spent getting up early and travelling most of the day on a bus out to the eastern coast.

I should at this stage inform you a little about the bus services of Costa Rica. Although one is definitely not able to complain based on the money for service ratio, there are definitely some disadvantages to riding coach. For most of Central America, you have two options for bus services. There are the more 'upper class' shuttles that seat a lot less people, claim to have A/C and take a more direct route; or there are the more localised buses that are like putting your hand into a lucky dip basket at a school fate. The difference in quality between the two isn't anything extraordinary, but the price is, so its been a lot cheaper to just ride the lucky dips. So far these buses haven't been too bad, but a few comments to set the scene.

For one they get quite hot and stuffy. The A/C consists of leaving your window down and eating dirt for the duration of the trip. While in transit the wind that gusts through the window is often sufficient enough to temporarily extinguish your heat exhaustion; however if they stop for longer than 3 seconds it becomes hotter than a Chinese wok shop. Another disadvantage of these buses, and most road transport off the highways, is the quality of the roads. When taking a trip for 5 hours you cover more differentiation in terrain than completing Super Mario Kart 64 from Flower Cup to Star Cup. There are so many pot holes in parts of the road that you often feel like Yoshi swerving and dodging through the Moo Moo Farm trying to avoid bumps and things from popping up in the road. Combine that with Rainbow Road, where you are scaling a mountain with no sides that fall straight off a cliff face, and it can become quite an excitingly scary experience.

Anyway back to our travels. We headed out of San Jose on Saturday 19th and arrived in Puerto Viejo for 2 nights stay. This is a really cool place, and a lot less touristy than Tamarindo. Although accommodating the odd traveller or more, it has much more of a local feel to it. The Caribbean coast is certainly different than other parts of Costa Rica so far. A lot more of a Jamaican/Rastafarian feel to it. From here we plan to spend a couple of days exploring and then early Monday morning we're boarding a bus that takes us over the border into Panama within an hour. After that it is a short bus trip to the waterfront and then a water taxi over to the town of Bocas del Toro, which is situated on the main Isle Colon. We going to stay in a hostel for an undecided period at this stage, and at this time I will make my way to the English School to check out what it has to offer.