When I was booking the tickets I was working a conference where I had to take pictures for four full days and the lack of sleep caught fully up to me. I came up to the room that I had access too and jumped on the computer. After a little bit of searching I found $500 tickets to San Jose. For Alaska the prices were amazing. I’d already been to Costa Rica but Shasta hadn’t and I figured we could easily get to Panama, my last Central American country and 50th total. I asked Shasta to double check the tickets, then I asked my mom who was also there and we all agreed the information was correct and they looked great. Click. Purchase.
The next few months breezed by with the idea of a trip always lingering in my mind. The tickets were there to help me collect my thoughts and think, “almost there, then the world gets easier.”
We boarded the plane at 2am fully exhausted from finals week and ready to sleep. I slept little on the flight because I just can never seem to sleep well. Upon landing we spend just a few quick hours in the airport and then we were in line to board our flight when we heard something that was not what we expected, “Now boarding to San Jose, California.”
“Whoa, wait a second.” I said.
Shasta looked confused, “What’s wrong?”
“Did she just say California?”
Yes. She had. We had bought tickets to the wrong San Jose. In my tired stupor I’d purchased tickets to the wrong place. In my defense the airport code for San Jose Cali, is SJC and for San Jose Costa Rica it is SJO. Also, its CA for Cali and CR for Costa Rica. Despite knowing I’m not the only one who’s ever made that mistake I felt pretty stupid. We scrambled with a nice service counter lady who helped us look up flights to Costa Rica. We eventually were able to get some flights, plus the cost of the extra ticket but minus all the fees and all we had to do was stay in Seattle another 12 hours until the next flight and fly back from a different airport. It wasn’t what we intended but it would still get us the heck out of dodge. After a short visit with my brother who happens to live in Seattle we were back on track and in Costa Rica. When we landed we went straight to the Ticabus station and bought a ticket for the next bus to Panama where we had a contact that would let us stay at his place for a few days. The bus left in 6 hours. We were beyond exhausted at this point but we were on a mission. We payed to stay in the hotel for 4 hours and it was totally worth it even for the short nap. We hopped on the bus and drove the Costa Rican roads, #4 most dangerous apparently and made our way to the boarder. The border went as well as could be expected. First it was closed because it was Christmas, then when we finally made it through one and on to other side the power was out. It took 4 hours in growing heat to finally get through the border and make our way toward our stop in David, Panama, which they passed right by and I had to communicate poorly with the driver that we were about 30 minutes past our stop. He pulled over and put us on a random bus and finally we met with Ken who took us to his place. It had been three days and I’d slept little of it but we’d made it and the fun could begin. After a good sleep that is.
When we woke the first we noticed was just how beautiful the area was. Our view was better then any we could have paid for. This guy was something we saw out of the back window.
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But the view from the front deck? Welcome to Boca Chica.
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Ken had a boat and asked if we wanted to go out. I think of course was the proper answer.
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While out he really liked to go fishing and of course I enjoy fishing as well. I am a big catch and release fan.
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Shasta caught a bonito.
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There were also tons of dolphins in the bay and would often play in front of the boat.
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Beautiful beaches. You can just make out the roof of where we were staying in the middle of the photo.
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We stayed on the right side of the big house with the red roof.
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After a few days in Boca Chica we escaped into the cooler temperatures of the mountainous area of Panama in a town called Boquete.
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We ended up getting upgraded from a small car to a Toyota Hilux, I really enjoyed this truck!
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Something that surprised me was that the climbing was actually pretty fun. They had some cool areas, although the hadn’t escaped the local touch.
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Ah the ever so popular double gri-gri guide belay.
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The Gunko area. It was difficult getting used to this rock but it was pretty fun once you did. I was out of shape from to much typing and not enough climbing.
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Stairway to Heaven area. Mostly 5.11’s and 5.12’s with some 13’s probable.
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Another hard area. A 5.13 went through the roof.
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Well we climbed until we were tired, which didn’t take as long as it should have and then headed off into the jungle an a popular wildlife viewing. Ever since I got a bigger lens I’ve enjoyed thse walks more as I can actually get photos of things!
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Dense jungle.
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A very popular trail called the Lost Waterfall trail.
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Foliage.
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Bridges.
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Beauties.
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I was curious what was past this sign. It turns out paying any level of attention and you would see that it was bees. Lots of bees.
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Everytime you’re in the jungle here it is beautiful even if you don’t see any wildlife.
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This is sometimes called the oldest tree in Panama. It’s probably the oldest near a road but either way 1400 years and several volcanic eruptions is pretty impressive.
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But lets be honest, I was there for the monkeys. Howler monkeys in this case.
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Who’s king? I’m king.
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We continued to the waterfall and it was neat too. Although we both feel jaded from Iceland, those waterfalls were pretty impressive. Not to mention we’re from Alaska.
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Whoops..looks like I used the big pictures, sorry about that.
More coming soon….
