Costa Rica

I made it to Costa Rica in the first few days of May and spent about 5 days in puerto viejo at Rockin J's hammock hostel where I met some really awesome people and we all stayed multiple days longer to hang out with each other. I also got my hair ¨dreaded¨ for $60. I paid that much cause I thought she would do a good job, but she basically did knotty braids that I spent the next week and a half redoing myself. It took her 2 and ahalf hours when it should have taken over 8 hours. So she scammed me and we had a bad relationship whenver we saw each other in town, which was kinda funny. But at least I know how to do dreads now and I have the satisfaction of having done my own. So my long curly hair is all goine now, and it feels GREAT!

To give you the run down, I had an amazing time with some new people I met and i am sure that some of those people will turn out to be long lasting friends. Raoul and Meya and I spent alot of time together (they are in the pic with me above) We even made a really cool sand castle with a mayan pyramid and a sacrificial pit. One of them was a guy from Holand named Raoul and we rented bikes and biked down the coast for about 15km and then hiked for 2 hours along some of the most beautiful and striking beaches ive ever seen to an organic Permaculture farm called Punta Mona where I found a strange fruit that looked like the shape of a cucumber only 4 inches long and was the color and taste of a green starfruit. I gave Raoul a bit and I had about 2 to 3 times as much and about an hour later, while in the middle of the jubngle with frogs and giant bugs and monkeys all around while tromping through thick mud, Raoul and i started to feel very light headed and became very gitty and very very high and somehow made our way laughing our asses off out of the jungle and got on our bikes and rode back to the hostel. While we were trekking through the mud we came across an overgrown road where the sun was shining down, and being high as we were, we thought it looked like and angel with its soul or heart being a patch of sky within its dress. We called it the sun god, you can see from the pictures on the left what we were thinking. It obviously isnt a good idea to eat random things you find in the jungle, but we did it anyways. It wasnt entirely random, it was the only tree in the Permaculture farm that I saw that had a name tag and they obviously planted it so I figured it wouldnt hurt us and we only at a vbery small amount in case it turned out poisonous. Although I probably wont eat random things I find again, I am really glad that we ate this blilimbi thing.
(I have updated a video that I took while we were high on bilibi or whatever it was called, its pretty funny, check out the NEW videos section)

Raoul later accompanied me to Parismina where I met up with Becca Parish and got to see amazing giant sea turtles that night. When I arrived, Becca was in the first house from the boat launch and had no idea that I was coming and we hugged for quite a while. It was great to see her again. That night, Raoul, Becca and I went to the beach in search of giant turtles and after a very long walk down the beach in the beautiful moonlight with the waves lapping at our feet, RAoul was feeling sik and decided to turn back and walk to the hostel along along the beach. Right after he left, we saw one about 4.5 feet in length come on shore but the 3 dogs that were with it scared it and it turned around to leave, but not before I got to touch it. then becca asked if I saw its eyes and I jumped in front of it to see its eyes right as it was going into the water and scared it accidentally. I got really excited I guess and I felt really bad for scareing such a gentle amazing creature. Then right after that we saw another one and watched it lay eggs as a group of volunteers scouped the eggs out to take to the hatchery. i stayed there for a while watching the nturtles face. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful things I have ever seen The turtle was cryng and every now and again it would take a large gasp for air and her whole body would shake. I walked away feeling very calm and peaceful.

My frind Raoul however was beaten up by a poacher that night on his way back to the hostel. Luckily he didnt get punched in the face and the poacher left, but that is a pretty crappy way to get introduced to a tranquil, remote little town.

Becca and I headed to Puerto Viejo again and spent about 4 days there and went to Cauhita, a national park on the coast with amazing beaches and lots of monkeys and sloths. Some of the monkeys were really fearless and even came up and grabbed my hand and jumped on beccas leg. Basically they wanted my bag with food in it but it was cool. After we saw them we went and skinny dipped in the ocean and had to run naked, screaming at a monkey who had just decided to steal my shorts. Luckily he dropped them. We then made Leaf Loin clothes while keeping an eye out for the monkey who was hiding in the tree waiting for another opportune moment.

We went to San Jose for one day and then to Santa Theresa where we stayed for 3 days and surfed . One night we went out to surf at sunset and it was by far the most amazing sunset either of us had ever seen. It was as though we were surfing in a Michaelangelo Fresco. Its undescribable how beautiful it was, so I wont make an attempt to describe it :) I met an Italian there named Keko, a very open and kind hearted man that I for some reason felt very drawn to. Becca and I had seen him everywhere that day and at the saturday Organic Market we saw him and Keko and I just started talking and hit it off. Im sure that I will meet him again. I have met alot of really cool Italians on this trip, which only makes my longing to live and work in Italy and learn Italian that much stronger.

After Santa Theresa, Becca and I went to a wildlife sanctuary where we stayed for 2 nights for $2 per night and we got free meals and worked on the organic farm planting things and clearing land for about three hours. It was cool but we were happy to leave.

Becca and i then split up and she went to Nicaragua and I to La Fortuna where i spent a few days. I will update that section soon.

Azuero Peninsula

So after leaving Panama City, I attempted to make it to playa Venao in one day but I got stuck in a small town called Las Tablas (which you only stay in if you get stuck there cause there is nothing to do) before heading to Venao the following morning. I set up camp and introduced myself to the people who were camping there. One woman, Catherine, had been there for 3 months. And an Italian couple, Flavio and Elisa, had been there for a month. The next day I went back up the way I had come to los Santos because an international fair had started and i wanted to geta hammock, food supplies and a machete. The fair was typical but I did get a very beautiful large hand woven hammock for $12 and a huge machete for $3 that I had toi get sharpened. After leaving the "Ferria de Azuero" I got stuck in Pedasi (the next town after Last Tablas towards Venao) where I stayed wih some fellow travels who came with me to venao the following day.

After I got back from Pedasi, I bought a surfboard for $70 and got to attempt to surf for the following week. Playa Venao has a little restaraunt with cheap food, but it is all fried like everywhere in Panama and central america, (except the rice and beans). I managed a few days where I spet no money at all because I cooked my own food and cooked with my neighboring campers. Over the course of the following week, I got to know Flavio and Elisa very well and they invited me to stay with them in Italy or southern Italian speaking Switzerland (where Elisa is from) depending on where they happen to be. I had a great time with them and I am certain that we will meet up again down the road. Playa Venao was gorgeous and if I wasnt surfing, chopping open coconuts for everyone, carving into gord-like fruit, playing dominoes, chatting or eating, I was sitting in my hamaca (hammock) just stairing, at the sea. It is quite an amazng tranquillo place and it is very easy to see how people can spend months there. But I obviously didnt spend months there.

Flavio, Elisa, Miguel (a local friend of ours)and I decided it was time to go and we left and headed further down the peninsula to a beach a few hours away called Playa Guanico where we spent a few days. When we got there we wanted to go to a "hotspring" we had been told about so we paid a man 10 bucks to take s. He took us to his grandmas and picked up his grandma who carried with her a random tupperwear container and worse a womans suit and he also picked up some other guy witha set of keys. We then went on a crazy ride through cow fields, over a river and through many gates that the gu with the keys opened. We then appoached the base of some barren hills (most everything is barren since this is the most deforested area in Pnama). We got out of the truck and walked for about 10 meters and stared down at this little trickle of water that came out from under a tree and went into a muddy area full of cow hoof prints and surely cow dung. We were then handed the random tupper-wear container and told to get down by the hole. So we undressed down to our swim trunks and oured the water that we scouped out over ourselves and ech other and actually had a great time and got lots of pictures and we walked away feeling more refreshed than any of us had in a long time. It was actually one of the best hotspring experiences I have ever had. I namd the hotsprings "Caca De Baca Hotsprings" which means cow poop hotsprings. Afterwards we rinsed off in a warm river berfore heading back.

This beach had far less tourists and the restaraunt was much nicer. The restaraunt however did not have a consistant menu by any means, but the prices were cheaper and the rice and beans were better than at Venao. Playa Guanico has a very strange surf, with large waves that usually break very close to the beach, but parts of the day have some good large waves that are easily enjoyably surfable. The ocean water was quite interesting because it varied in colors everywhere from blue to green to purple to brown to stereotypical tropical colors. And the sunsets ans sunrises were amazing as well. Every night I have sleptin my hamaca, I have woken up with the sunrise. I think that that is they way that a person should be woken up. We just set up our hamacas in the restaraunt for free and were even given hot showers at no charge. They people at Guanico are extremely friendly and kind and make you feel at home instantly. Playa Guanico was a great place to Visit but we soon wanted to leave out of shear boredom and left for David which took us 11 hours due to lying bus drivers. Many people will tell you ust about anything here to get your business, it really sucks.

I am now staying the night in David and heading to Costa Rica after having a last lunch with Flavio and Elisa. I should be meeting Becca i nthe next few days.