Just kidding. I only wanted your attention. I love to travel and discover new lands and cultures. Already I have budding plans for future trips over the rest of this great Earth and all continents (that will all happen well in the future I can assure you). Traveling like this has been one of the grandest experiences of my life. I would definitely recommend that everyone at some point in their life should get out and explore the world around them at least a little bit. Despite the wonders this planet has to offer though, I know a good many people never really go anywhere. They might say things like “I can’t get time off work” or “I don’t have the cash” or any number of excuses, which may or may not be valid. But I think a lot of the time people don’t go anywhere because they’re afraid something bad might happen to them.
It is true: if you travel for any length of time eventually you are going to run into some misfortune. It may not be serious but it will be frustrating at the very least. We’ve had all sorts of things happen to us over the months. We got lost in a huge city. We had a cab driver rip us off. We’ve lost various belongings. We’ve gotten really sick in really inconvenient places. And there’s something about being a really long way from home that tends to magnify even the slightest of problems. But so far we’ve been very fortunate in that nothing incredibly terrible has happened…until recently.
Bocas del Toro was an awesome place. A bit crowded and touristy at time, but how can you turn down snorkeling in the Caribbean? We did and saw lots of cool stuff including a 1 meter long baracuda! After spending lots of time playing cards and chilling out we set out to say goodbye to Panama and make our way to Costa Rica. Taking a couple taxis, one of which had this guy zooming down these winding roads at around 70 mph that you should really only be doing 35 on. This is rather common of cab drivers down here but he also might have been showing off his new car since he’d only had it for four days. We crossed the border to Costa Rica and made it into Puerto Viejo.
Take every image you’ve ever had of the Caribbean and you’ve got this town. Beautiful beaches, open bars with sand floors, fantastic drinks and food; this place had it all. We were all set to just kick back and enjoy everything there was to offer out here. The restaurant we ate at had daquris 2 for $4 at happy hour. We asked the waitress when happy hour was and she replied “All day”. Tell me that’s not cool. So we ate and enjoyed a drink and played some Pinochle (yes, we know we’re odd). Then we headed out to the beach to catch some surf. We marveled at the beauty around us, and we found a nice semi-empty beach with some good waves. We got into our suits to head out wave jumping. The water was the absolute perfect temperature, comfortable the entire time even as the sun was setting. We rode waves, laughed, and got way too much salt in our mouths. And then…it started.
This next point I freely admit was all my fault as I was being a bit of a bonehead. While wave jumping at some point I got turned around and hit by a rogue wave I wasn’t ready for. I was drug under, remained there for several seconds, and in the chaos of it all the riptide pulled my glasses off (reason I hate wearing glasses #175). I grabbed frantically for them but the slipped just out of my fingers. Jordan and I searched for them in the surf, which is useless when the waves are pounding on you relentlessly. I knew it was a lost cause right away and we headed back to where our stuff was. In the end though, it turns out I got off easy. We arrived to fine some hooligans had made of with some of our stuff. Jordan lost his camera and Amanda lost a bag with her journal, glasses, sunglasses, her book Elantris (which she was only 100 pages away from finishing), and her camera as well. We searched and came up with nothing. We walked to the police station in the dark, defeated, me going very carefully as I am functionally blind with out my specs. The police were nice of course, but we all new the odds of anything coming out of this were slim to none. So we went back to the first bar to take advantage of all day happy hour. We decided to play some cards to unwind only to realize, the final insult, that both the regular cards and the pinochle deck were in Amanda’s stolen bag! I tell you we were pretty pathetic. Of coarse we were all aggravated to various degrees. I feel especially bad for Amanda who in her few short weeks here has had more regular stressful occurances then Jordan and I have seen in our first six months! She has been taking it very well I think and will enjoy the rest of her stay here I’m sure. We were all able to laugh and get on with life.
We caught the bus to San Jose, a city we’d told is not that great. It’s actually rather non-descript. Not bad really, but not anything to write about. We did get to finally see Pirates of the Caribbean, after a much anticipated wait. So now I sit here updating the site with a long post and pictures at the same time (note to future employers: I am a good multi-tasker) while Jordan and Amanda are out doing some white water rafting. Ordinarily I would have gone but my funds are rather diminished now and things in Costa Rica are pretty dang expensive. So we will leave tomorrow, right after I get my new glasses hopefully. Where we’ll go hasn’t really been decided yet. But even with all these troubles I still enjoy traveling. Learning to roll with the punches is essential if you’re going to do something like this and since we’re all physically ok you learn to appreciate that.
As always our best to all our loved ones at home. Be sure to check out the photo gallery as a bunch of new pics have gone up. Later!
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