Ephemerica

Our new bike/bus strategy has been working well, though not exactly as planned. The last segment of Central America began by bussing out of San Jose and the Central Valley to the Carribbean coast and the city of Limon from where we planned to ride down the coast to Panama, cross the continental divide and head into Panama City along the Pacific. We were a bit nervous about getting back on the bikes, but on our first day riding, a fellow cyclist going the opposite direction turned around and caught up with us for the sole reason of giving us some of his energy bars!

After 3 days of riding and enjoying the beaches and Carribbean food, we crossed into Panama. Because we had new passports without an entrance stamp, the officer had to check the system to ensure we hadn’t overstayed our welcome. Unfortunately, the system was down, which meant we had to hang out at the border for about an hour while waiting for him to verify our entry date. There was an Israeli guy in the same situation, so we had someone with whom to commiserate and converse. When we finally were stamped and allowed to leave Costa Rica, we rode on to Changuinola where we caught the last boat to Bocas del Toro, an archipelago just off the coast near the border.

The island was beautiful and there is supposed to be great snorkling/diving. Sadly, we don’t have a report on the snorkeling as the day we had set aside for snorkling was rainy, which means low visibilty. We ended up staying in Bocas an extra day because Matt had a sore throat. The second day of sore throat we decided that we needed to get off of the island because it was pretty expensive and our cheap room was really mildewy and it seemed as though the mold might be the cause of the illness.

It didn’t take much riding up steep hills in 90 degree weather before our month off of the bikes in cool mountain weather caught up to us. I was close to overheating when we decided to catch the bus to the next town with a hotel. When we had started thinking straight again, we decided to take advantage of the final destination of the bus-David-since Matt was getting sick and the next day of riding would have been over the continental divide, which we clearly would not be able to do.

We have been in David for about a week now, staying at the Purple House Hostel. It has been a good place to be held up. It feels kinda like we are at home, but have rotating housemates. We have met a lot of interesting people. We have been pretty derailed from our plans lately, but we are hoping to get a fresh start in South America. It almost feels like we are back at home, preparing to leave.

Tonight we are taking the bus to Panama City, where we are meeting my dad. Then we will be flying to Bogota!

Posted by cindy on August 18th, 2007 | Filed under: Costa Rica, Panama