10th post.

The 2nd day in Bocas del Toro i managed to keep a meal in my system for more than 15 minutes for the first timer in a week. I guess this was very much thanks to the colorful pills that Ane and Odd had gotten for me at the pharmacy. Still, i had no energy whatsoever. I had lost a few pounds, and my body had clearly not been able to hold on to any kind of nutrition for the past days. I had planned a visit to the doctors on the following day if it didnt pick up. After a nice cereal breakfast accompanied by the always exciting Digestive crackers and som vitamins, i started to feel a lot better. I had already decided that this was gonna be the first day i actually did something since the week before.

On this day (October 4th), we rented a private boat with a driver who drove us around among the surrounding islands. During the next 4 hours, we went to see dolphins, the kids (Odd & Ane) went snorkling, and we paid a visit to the red frog beach (on the isla Bastimentos) which got its name from the red frogs with the blue dots. The beach was a little dirty, but warm and doable. When we got back to isla Colón, we headed straight for a much needed 30 minute massage. After a couple of hours of resting we went to the local sushi place where i had a very decent lobster maki roll. I didnt react to it, and i was more or less officially recovered!

The next day we went back to isla Bastimentos to stay there for a couple of days. The rest of the day was spent under the roof in the main area where we played cards, got to know the pool table and had dinner before sleep. Fortunately the rooms had a/c which made it easier dealing with the outside temperature of 30 degrees.

The day after, we just chilled out on a beach that we had entirely to ourselves. It was nice doing absolutely nothing for a change(?). Anyway the water temperature was about 25 C, so even i enjoyed the ocean for a bit. For some reason, though, my sunscreen didnt seem to be waterproof. Not until later that night did i realize that i´d caught the most severe sunburn in history. So i went to bed with my moisturizer, and the much anticipated canopy/zipline tour that we had planned for the next day was obviously postponed again.

October 8th
After two days of some hardcore relaxing, it was time to catch the bus to Boquete northwest in Panama. After two boat rides and a short cab ride, we were on the bus who was going to take us back to an altitude (1200 ms). We arrived in Boquete fairly late to a peculiar hostel with humid rooms and a strange hostess who couldnt stop laughing about our poor spanish skills. We had planned to stay there for the next couple of days, but on the next day we moved to a dryer and more relaxing hostel.

Upon our visit to the tourist office at about noon, we learned that we couldnt go to the Baru volcano (3475 ms) because the steep hills were to slippery during the rainy season (a season that apparanetly lasts for 10 months or so..). And because it rained more or less all the time except in the morning, we had missed out on the best conditions for the canopy tour and the coffee farm tour that we wanted to do. Instead, we booked these tours for the next day, and spent the rest of the afternoon planning the rest of our trip. In the evening, we went to what (according to reviews) seems to be one of the finest restaurants in Panama, and even in Central America. After a very good meal and a decent Pinot, we went back to the hostel to get some sleep before our 7 am wakeup.

The following day, we started our drive towards the mountains at 8. We started our canopy/zipline tour at 2000 ms. The lines took us over one of the rivers no less than 12 times, the longest one being 420 meters. What a kick (for me at least), and what a view!

Next event on the program after lunch: coffee plant tour. At 2 pm, our guide took us to Don Alfredos plant, which is indeed one of a kind. Not necessarily because it has won a great number of prizes for its coffee in spite of it being pretty small (5 hectars) - but more because all of the machines in the "factory" were homemade; everything from the bean sorter to the roaster. Interesting!

In the evening we had planned to go to the french creperie just up the street, but since it was closed on mondays - why not go to Panamonte once again. This time: a medium rare steak and a chilean Merlot. Nadia from the canopy tour group also joined us. And this time, we all shared a chocolate cake, but still somehow managed to overeat. And once again we were scheduled for an early wake-up, as the only bus to San Jose would leave from David at 8:30 am, the next morning.

The next day, we left the hostel at 7:15 and arrived at the bus terminal in David at about 8, which would leave us plentz of time purchasing tickets and some snacks for the ride, but we were only just about done at the scheduled departure time. Of course the bus was 15 mins late, but BOY am i tired of playing hide and seek with the good deal ticket offices at bus terminals. On the bus we met Hailey - an american girl who had been travelling and volunteering in central america for several months, and therefore knew spanish pretty well. Pretty relaxing to travel with people who know the language, so the only thing you need to worry about during border crossings is not looking suspicious and showing your passport a few times.

Upon arrival in San Jose at 5:30-ish, we headed to hostel Panenga, stayed there for one night, had a very relaxed morning, and then i got myself a haircut before we went to the avis car rental station, at which we picked up our nice Mitsubishi jeep. This was the car who would take us to some of the sweetspots along the pacific coast. First we went to the backpackers hostel in Quepos where we stayed for one night. The next day we went to the Manuel Antonio national park which was just a five minute drive away. As we stepped out of the car we were of course offered a professional guide who promised that if we chose to go with him, we would see 99% of the fauna. We were also gonna end up on the best beach and there was a 100% monkey guarantee. Right..like we were gonna see 300 species of animals through a 2 hour walk. During our walk we saw a lot of monkeys, amphibians and a very nice beach - all this without a guide. The walk was pretty sweaty, and the mosquito repellent was used pretty frequently. The water was out, the energy was out, so we decided to take the car for a ride along the coast just to look around.

So, as we write october 14th, were on our way to what seems to be a coastal paradise. And Jaco has a lot to offer, considering how small it is. During our two-night visit it was raining for the most part, but for the first time in these two weeks we finally fulfilled our mission to have a night out after many days of food poisoning, colds, mosquito bites and more.

The next night was our last one together before Odd were to leave us. We marked this occation by going to the local seafood restaurant. niceity!

Ok. now im pretty tired of not being a jour with this travel blog, so im gonna try to get to the point, which is the date of today - october 16th: So, it was time to split up. Odd took us by car to Puntarenas where we had planned to go by bus to Monteverde. This little town is close to a very nice piece of rainforest, but more importantly; its very close to the famous Arenal volcano. But apparently (and should i say: as usual) a bridge had collapsed into the river on the way there, so al the buses were cancelled. A guy came up to us and said that the only ride we could catch to Monteverde was a direct bus from San Jose, which seemed strange because we where told that all these direct buses were cancelled. But the guy knew a special road, and luckily also a guy who could take us to one of the towns where this only direct bus to Monteverde would stop! Cool offer, but no thanks. The only ride out from this shithole was the 3 pm bus to San Jose. So we figured we'd go there, and then to La Fortuna, which is regarded one of the top sights in Costa Rica, and also close to the Arenal volcano - only on the other side of the mountain. Its a 4 1/2 hour ride, and were gonna try and catch the earlybird ride at 8:40. The hostel were in is the same we stayed at a few days ago; Backpackers Panenga, San Jose. And one more little nugget to complete this day; Odds flight to Panama City was cancelled, and he was rescheduled to the 11 pm. So he came here, and we had a last game of cards before parting ways again.

Ok, im gonna end this for now. The post you just read might contain some boring parts, and even a fare share of spelling errors, but i really dont care. Have a good october 17th. Good night, and good luck.