may 10-19 approximately

Bocas del toro
after climbing baru in boquete, we took a nice 3 hour shuttle to bocas del toro which is on the caribbean coast of panama. its really cool and beautiful but kind of pricey due to the layout of everything. to get to nice beaches you have to either take a bus or water taxi, which can really add up. we went to playa de estrella which is starfish beach, where we saw so many starfish living in the water. they were bigger than my hand. we also saw two stingrays swimming around in the shallows and a conch animal living inside the shell. we went snorkeling the next day and it was interesting but there was a serious lack of wildlife other than coral, although we did see a lobster living inside a hole in coral. i left to go to puerto viejo a day earlier than the rest of the group and traveled with two guys from denmark. that travel day we took a water taxi - bus - bus - walk across the deteriorating border bridge - taxi which luckily only took 4 hours.

puerto viejo
even though ive been to puerto viejo in 2008, i stayed there for 3 and a half days at rocking j"s. a crazy man with a crazy hostel. the majority of the space to sleep in is rooms full of hammocks, although there are a few dorm rooms as well. i chose to sleep in my own hammock on principal that ive been carrying it around for 3 weeks and should use it when i get the chance. every surface in the hostel is covered in mosaics made by guests, and he has built an arc out of metal shipping containers to perhaps save him from the end of the world or a great flood or tsunami. his thoughts- "i was a boyscout. be prepared". one day i biked on a 1 speed bike to manzanillo (13km each way) even though ive already been, still very pretty, the next we biked to cahuita to a national park which is about 20km each way, and the third day i just hung out near our hostel in town. in cahuita we saw a ton of monkeys, 3 sloths, a snake eating a lizard, and other cool stuff. definitely better than i expected and so worth the bike ride. also, i found the hotel we stayed at in 2008 as well as the hangout we went to, stanfords, which has changed dramatically. actually the whole town has changed dramatically. in 2008 there was one paved road, 1 grocery store, and not a whole lot of tourist options. there is now a small air conditioned mall, many new nice pricey restaurant options, and every street is paved.

montezuma
next i traveled from the southern caribbean side of the country to the northern pacific peninsula called Nicoya. i took a bus from puerto viejo to san jose, the capital city, with grant. we were halfway there and our bus stalled out and broke down, so near the top of a mountain pass we had to pull off and wait for another. im shocked this was our first issue with broken buses. the other bus came quickly to rescued us and we still made good time getting to san jose. from there we took taxis to different bus stations as grant was headed to arenal, and area i had previously been to in 2008. i made my way to montezuma on a "direct" bus for $15, which was a bus ride, a 1 hour ferry ride which was beautiful, back to the bus, and a bus change. 4 buses, a ferry, a taxi, and 13 hours and $35 later i made it across the country. quite a long day. on the trip from san jose to montezuma i made friends with a few other americans and we stayed in a hostel together and hung out. i ran into brice and nick from my original group (they leave the country on may 20 and wanted to see other things than just puerto viejo, so they had left two days earlier) and we hiked the waterfalls with a british girl. we got lost, took a wrong turn and ended up hiking around in the jungle for an extra hour and a half in 100% humidity. its incredible how much one can sweat. i feel like i just got out of a pool constantly.

the hostel im staying in currently flooded last night as there was a ton of rain and it is downhill from a creek, so our floor was covered in mud this morning and the water isnt working. hence the reason i came to the internet cafe at 730 am to write this