Isla Taboga

I finally revisited Taboga Island yesterday.

+ William's birthday extravaganza
Next weekend we're going on a Jungle Expedition!

The Smallest Country in the World, it seems

So you always hear the saying "It's a small world," but it's never more true than in Panama, which is definitely a small country. By area it's actually smaller than South Carolina! Anyways 2 weeks ago I was in Bocas del Toro (which is as far north-east from here as one can go without leaving the country) and met a bunch of people from all over the world who I never expected to see again. Then Last Tuesday I ran into a group of people from Norway at a club who I'd stayed at the hostel with and hung out with in Bocas. And when we met then we had already seen eachother a few days earlier in Costa Rica. And then... this Thursday I was at a club and ran into some guys from Italy who I had also met in Bocas!

The other day I went to Diablo, the part of the canal where cayuco teams practice paddling

There will be an ocean-to-ocean cayuco race through canal next month
And a random shot of the family on Christmas

In other news, it seems that the famous Panamanian rapper/reggae star DangerMan has died. I have no clue as to the details.

Puerto Viejo/Bocas del Toro

I can't possibly explain all the details of the trip, so I will just say that Costa Rica was absolutely awesome.

One of my cool chairs!


And then on the way home we spent a night in Bocas del Toro, which are Panamanian islands in the Caribbean up near Costa Rica. We stayed at a hostel/bar called the Aqua Lounge and it was tons of fun.

Costa Rica Expedition - Day 1

I figured I should update this as I go because I could probably already write a small novel on the past 24 hours of our adventure. Last night Deshay, Jordan, Ryan, and I got on a bus from Panama City to the Costa Rican border at 10:45. Stephanie ended up not being able to go and this was the disappointment of my year. Anyways we got to the border around 5:30 am. First we had to "check out" of Panama, then walk 200m and "check in" to Costa Rica. Or something. I have no idea how this border thing works, and I suspect that the officials there don't really understand it either. It took about 5 hours before the four of us were legally in Costa Rica, due to some serious complications with Deshay's possession of both an American and a Jamaican passport. But then we find that we can't take a bus from the border to Puerto Viejo... instead, all buses go directly to San Jose and branch from there. This means that we would eventually spend over three hours on a bus just back tracking. So by about 9:15am Costa Rica time, which is an hour earlier than Panama, we were on a 7 hour bus ride to the capital. When we got there, it turned out that buses to the Limon province leave from a different bus terminal than the one we arrived at. Finding a taxi willing to squeeze a surfboard into his sedan was a challenge in itself, but we made it to the other terminal. Haha... only to find that we had missed the last bus to Puerto Viejo by about an hour. Luckily we found an awesome hostel for $10 a night, which has free internet access! So we ate dinner in San Jose and now we are watching the Super Bowl! Tomorrow morning we will be on a bus to Puerto Viejo by 6 am, if everything goes according to plan. But so far on this trip, nothing has gone according to plan, but everything has gone wonderfully.  

Spring Break has begun...

On Wednesday I had no classes so I went to the mall for no particular reason. By the time I came home, I was the proud owner of both a tent and an inflatable lounge chair. Impulse buys perhaps? I think maybe I had forseen that I would need them soon, because they are already both packed in a suitcase, ready to go to Costa Rica!

A $12.99 tent is just the accessory my room needed

So how did this plan come about? Well on Thursday I learned that a group of IP students were going to Costa Rica on Tuesday, and it only took a few seconds for me to agree to go with them. This morning (Saturday), I learned that a few people would be leaving Sunday night, and Stephanie and I jumped on the opportunity to leave earlier. But when we went to the terminal to buy our bus tickets, we found that all buses into Costa Rica were full until Tuesday. BUT we could have the last 5 seats on a bus TONIGHT which takes us to the border. From there we're winging it.
The tentative plan is that we will hopefully find a bus to Puerto Viejo, a popular surfing town on the Caribbean side near the border. We may travel to some other beaches on that coast and will probably meet up with the others when they arrive on Wednesday. I have no clue how long Stephanie and I are staying, but everyone needs to be home before next Monday for school! We will try to find a hostel or a cheap hotel, but I'm bringing my tent just in case.