costa rica, panama and beyond

ok, ok, so i know i have not been updating this as often as i would like, but it is because we just finished up a serious sprint.

Gov met up with my dad and i at our hotel for the last night in san jose. Leo left at 4 am the next morning so i said my goodbyes the night before. (No way i was getting up) gov and i woke up leisurely and manhandled the last all you could eat buffet before transitioning to a more economic lifestyle.

Then it was off to the races. We covered a lot of ground so I'll try to some it up with the highlights. we went to jaco for a night where we were inundated by whores and tourists and subway. I have never been to a all you can whore, whore bar before but it was an interesting experience. One i don't need to have again but a good place to take a girl on a first date.

next we went down the coast to Playa hermosa, a really chill stretch of beach inhabited by mostly tourist surfers. (in fact, there are just a ton of tourists in costa rica from all over) We stayed for a couple of nights since the vibe was nice and the surf was good.

next was manuel antonio just south of hermosa on the pacific coast. A Picturesque beach with a very tourist friendly town to boot. Gov was sick at night so i went out by myself and ended up meeting a ton of people and having a blast. Cool spot to visit.

We then decided it was time to get out of costa rica and we hightailed it to panama. Interestingly enough we were only in panama for 4 days checked out the canal, a surf town, and a mountain town that looked like it could have been in germany. then back up to costa rica where we crossed a pretty sketchy border on the Caribbean side. A couple of cab facilitators almost fist fought over who was going to help us across the footbridge they called a border.

but we made it to puerto viejo where we stayed at the most ridiculous hostel ever called rocking j's. a mega hostel with tents, hammocks, life music and a full bar. the party was always going on here. good times, but had we stayed more than 2 days we would have gone insane. tough lifestyle to keep up.

me meandered back over to the pacific side to santa theresa which is a town i wish we spent more days in. Good surf, nice accommodations for cheap and apparently you have to belong to the beautiful people's club to hang out here. it is like they pay people to stand around and look good. it was a trip.

now we are in san juan del sur, nicaragua staying with some of gov's friends who own a yoga community. this is day 3 and so far i have surfed and done yoga every day. I sleep in their garage (for free) and eat beens and rice. life is good. I think we may even get to join the local san juan soccer club with some locals. we have practice today at 5. wish me luck.

some final thoughts after this round of traveling: We have seen so many places in such a short amount of time. I am thankful for all the visual experiences we have gotten, however i can't say i really know one place or another. we didn't hang around long enough to let each place soak in.

Some people have asked me to comment on the culture of folks out here. Well, unfortunately it is tough for me to do. how does the saying go... a roling stone collects no moss..? well a sprinting traveler does not get a chance to really hang out with the locals. Everyone who i have conversed with has been friendly, helpul and interested in my story, but alas each of these relationships does ot last for more than 30 min at a time. I think for the time being i am going to walk a little slower.

Traveling so fast is really fun, but is exhausting. Keeping both those things in mind, i am happy to be stationary for a while and get a chance to really absorb my surroundings.


Sorry no pics this time. it takes to long for me to upload them with the connection i have.