Sunday 27 January 2008

Panama by way of Costa Rica

Arrived in Costa Rica a day late but luckily not a dollar short. Got a little confused between 12 a.m and 12 p.m. ended up being exactly 24 hours late for my flight. The ticket guy at the counter was very helpful. After he finished laughing his ass off he got me another flight. My first flight ever where I got to go first class. It was kind of nice not to have to put my head in the persons lap next to me so I could take my shoes off. People rather snotty but the booze was free and the seat was comfy.

I am at the end of week two and am finally starting to get the pace down. Get up whenever, eat whenever, drink all day. Fairly straight forward. The beaches in Costa Rica are beautiful. Lush jungle on one side beautiful beach with warm water on the other. The food is killer. Most of the restaurants are run by Expats. Americans, Canadians, Italians who are awesome cooks and bartenders. The drink of choice is Mojito. Basically rum with brown sugar and lime. Easy to drink...all day. I have personally found that a blender, any fruit, and rum are pretty much indispensible. That has turned out to be my drink of choice. Kind of healthy but mostly not.

I havent done any of the touristy stuff in Costa Rica. We are staying at a beautiful house with a 5 minute walk to the beach. That has pretty much killed any innate need to go bungy jumping off waterfalls or go careening through the rain forest on a cable....maybe tomorrow. ...or not.

I am now writing this email from Panama. I think I prefer Panama to Costa Rica. For one thing the mosquitos here dont seem to be as smitten with me as the ones in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica I sleep with a screen around my bed and go on mosquito hunts before I go to bed. Its usually pointless because they are unstoppable. As of this writing I have 20 documented mosquito bites. The weather in Panama is less humid and the mosquitos less ruthless. The water is clear and warm and the snorkeling great. We are on the island of Bocas Del Rio. Very much a beach town with the requisite bar flys, obnoxious Americans stuck in the 60s, and the Haight Ashbury crowd with the dreads and the Rasta look. I try to gravitate towards the locals but they seem to be few and far between in this country of expats and tourists. Well, Im out of beer and I should probably eat something. Tomorrow we go back to Costa Rica. I will miss Panama. It will definitely be added to my list of places to go to decompress. Take care and be safe.

Signing off from Panama by way of Costa RIca.