Quality time with Andrew, Caitlyn, Sam T. Coleridge, and drug dealers

This is part 2 of 2 regarding my Tortuguero/Panamá trip. Scroll down to read part one if you have not yet done so.

After a 6:30 breakfast at the hotel we loaded up in the boat for the last time and rode back to the place where another tour bus awaited us. After a very long ride in which we watched a movie and I shared the iPod of my seat partner, Caitlyn (a friend with whom I bonded immensely over the course of this trip), we finally arrived at the Costa Rica/Panamá border, which basically consisted of a bridge and respective border patrol offices on either side. Our tour bus was not allowed to cross the bridge, so we all had to carry our things across and wait at the Panama border office. It’s always fun to get your passport stamped in a new country, but the organization (or rather the lack thereof) left us both frustrated and unprotected under a sun that was beating down on us, little more than 6° above the equator (so I´m told). After getting everyone through, we loaded up in vans and took off in the direction of Bocas del Toro. Transportation the entire day was very mixed – by the time we arrived at our hotel in Bocas, we had taken a boat, a bus, walked across the bridge, vans, and finally another boat to the island where we were staying.

The town of Bocas del Toro gave the impression of being a tourist hub, but somehow managed to retain a sincere feeling of a true Panamanian island community….well, I guess that’s not exactly a topic to which I claim any expertise, but it certainly seemed as such at the time! Our arrival at the hotel included my first chance to meet Don Carlos Salas, the USAC coordinator for all of Costa Rica. We had the evening off, and after dinner on our own, most of us spent the rest of the night at La Iguana, a local club where I and a couple others had run-ins with a prostitute and two friendly marijuana dealers. Welcome to Bocas! That’s not entirely fair, of course, although admittedly there were times here that reminded me a bit of the town of Tortuga of Pirates of the Caribbean fame.

The next two days’ planned activities included island hopping around the area, which was a collection of groundbreaking experiences. Over the two mornings and early afternoons we were out and about, I walked the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen, swam in the warmest water I’ve ever felt outside a pool, ate the best fish I’ve ever tasted (including one of the eyeballs, a throwback to my China adventure), and snorkeled, saw wild dolphins, and held starfish (none of which I’d done before). I’m really running out of steam in describing this trip’s natural beauty; thus, I’ll let my posted pictures do most of the talking. At one beach there was a volleyball net which we used for almost two hours, also under an intense sun. Being an almost pure-blood Norwegian, I was certain that I would be supremely red and downright crispy after days of this, but amazingly I managed to return to Heredia with little more than slightly pink shoulders.

I should note here that this trip included the second of October, my dear mother’s birthday. Though I wasn’t able to get a hold of her that particular day, I did manage to call home once in Bocas, using a friend’s Skype account. It was really great to hear from them, and my only regret in doing so was that I couldn’t properly let them know how much fun I was having and how absolutely amazing everything on this trip was. I did find a little birthday present for her there, and I look forward to giving it to her when they come visit Ben, Kristen, Anna and me in November.

Speaking of shopping, I finally got around to doing a bit of that down in Bocas. I really haven’t spent that much in Heredia, but being surrounded by such a multitude of tourist shops in Panamá persuaded me into being a little more cavalier with my cash. I found a wooden necktie-paddle looking thing (and I’m not entirely sure it has any practical use) with a beautiful hand painting of a couple parrots on it, a comfortable black shirt which screams “I got this in Central America!”, an amber necklace, and a beautiful hand-painted feather (apparently that’s a popular thing here).

Another interesting part of our time in Bocas was the water shortage. The whole island just ran out of water the second day we were there, and didn’t come back until the evening before we left. This of course made shower and toilet use micromanaged activities, and we were all starting to smell a bit by the time the water came back. Ironically, all the clothes we had seemed to get extremely wet from the island activities we did in the mornings, and in the humid climate it was simply impossible to get anything to dry out. And yet, literally surrounded by salt water, washing hands or getting drinking water from the tap was just not possible. “Water, water, everywhere...”, as Mr. Coleridge put it (Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

Night life in Bocas was very fun as well. The places in town varied from small restaurants whose tables went out onto the water to one club which included an actual sunken ship. Our last evening there happened to be my roommate Andrew’s birthday, and so of course due celebration was in order. I personally chose to avoid the dance floor that night (despite the fact that I was sporting my classy new Panamanian apparel), and instead opted for a few hours of meaningful conversation with friends, another strong bonding experience. A small number of us even got some card games in during our time out. By this time, one simple yet fun game in particular (whose name we invented, dubbing it O.S.G., or Original Stupid Gangster...you can ask me if you’re curious) had become very popular since our first night in Tortuguero.

Despite the enormity of this blog post, there is so much more I could write about. As I mentioned previously, I’m not going to forget any of this, and I can only do so much to express how much I enjoyed it all. I suspect that has been (and will be) true of all my blog posts, but it rings especially true for this trip. Sometimes I forget I’m actually going to school down here, and a week-long trip like this almost gets lost in a semester full of adventure and fun.

In the meantime, I received a package from my friends at Augustana which included much appreciated food, letters, and an assortment of miscellaneous trinkets and gifts. Thank you guys!! Mail makes my week!!

This coming weekend I’m heading out to Volcán Arenal (which I’ve heard nothing but good things about) and surrounding area for some hiking and exploring with some of my fellow students here. I’ll try to throw up some pictures from this past trip as soon as I can, but before I know it I’ll be back next week with hopefully more fun stories and photos. It just never stops down here. Someone needs to remind me to breathe.

Once again, take care of yourselves. I miss you all. ¡Pura Vida!