One Way United

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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Getting into Panama City was an adventure in itself. It was on a Sunday just as the sun was going down. We had no concept of where to go and luckily a couple of nice policemen showed us the way to a cheap hotel. On the way we passed loads of people banging drums and creating a ruckus in the street. We think our guides said it had something to do with their independence day, but when we looked in the guidebook apparently Panama has three independence days. History must be a fun class here. So we got to the hotel and it’s one of the dingiest ones I’ve ever seen in my life. The pictures will make you laugh. Still it was adequate and I was content just to have somewhere to stay with AC in that ridiculously humid city. We didn’t count on a monsoon happening though.

 I don’t know how serious of a storm it was for this area, but it was an adventure for us. The lightning was so close and so loud it was setting off people’s car alarms. So I’m laying awake in bed at 5 a.m. when I get a knock on my door. It was Jordan (he and Amanda were in a different room) and apparently the torential downpour had flooded their entire room! They claim they were akle deep in water at one point. The staff helped us move their stuff to a new room, sloshing through water all the while. It was chaotic at the time but we’ll be laughing about that one for years to come.

The next day (July 17th) was my 22nd birthday. We celebrated by setting off to see the engineering marvel that is the Panama Canal. This place is definitely impressive and we watched two ships go through the locks (albeit very slowly) and played pinochle, just so we could say we were one of the few people on the planet who had played pinochle at the Panama Canal. We also found it funny that, according to the informational video and museum there, that some man from Spain “discovered” the Pacific Ocean. How great for him.

After that we made our way to a mall, ate way too much at the local burger joint, and saw Superman Returns at the movies. We agreed that it merits an 8 out of 10 and is definitely worth a view. Today we’ll board a bus to the town of David, Panama from which we think we’ll go on to the Caribbean coast! That should be cool. Love to all.

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Fabrice and I are in Lima now.  We are finally caught up to Adam and I will not describe everything we have done as everything is really similar to what you have already read from Adam’s entries.  That’s assuming other people actually read our entries’ except for our moms who leave almost all the comments (woohoo for moms!).  Anyway, I had a point to this entry, and it was to describe a day in the life of an everyday traveler.

Fabrice and I were in Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, and had finished doing our touristy thing of the day (exploring an old convent…Adam has already described).  We went to the mall to catch the next viewing of the Da Vinci Code only to find that the cinema was closed until 5:00 because of the elections and we had to catch a bus at 8:30, making it impossible to see that movie that day.  A bit dissapointed we did the only thing we could think of at that moment.  Of course it was going to the internet.  Here we were, enjoying a nice hour of internet when we heard a lot of commotion outside.

Since it’s always fun to see things that are not a part of the everday tourist experience, we went outside to check it out.  The results of the election were just coming in and it turned out Alan Garcia (a man who went into exile after ruining the country in his first presidential run from 1985-1990) beat out nationalist Ollanta Humala (who anti-U.S. Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves supported).  This was not a shock as ever since Chavez made it clear which candidate he supported (and publicly bashed Alan), Ollanta began to lose more and more support while Alan’s numbers went up (go figure).

Anyway, back to the story.  We went outside and hundreds of people were screaming “Ollanta presidente, Ollanta presidente.”  They clashed with an Alan supporting group and things were thrown and police were everywhere.  They took sore losing to another level.  They walked around the main plaza for several hours chanting “Ollanta presidente” and “Arequipa revolucion.”  Apparently there were a lot of Ollanta supporters in Arequipa because he had promised to give the city of Arequipa more power or something.  There were a few very tense moments when it felt like a huge fight would break out.  There were hundreds of policemen everywhere in full riot gear.  Several media people with their fancy cameras would get right in the face of some of the intense Ollanta supporters as they screamed threats at them.  Meanwhile, Fabrice was completely undaunted by the unstable atmosphere and he weaved in and out of the policemen, taking pictures, with no policeman stopping him, probably considering him another journalist.  He got many good pictures of the riot which I will put up later.

There was a man in the midst of the madness who, always taking advantage of every opportunity, offered us to eat at his restaurant on a balcony overlooking the main square and the riot.  We thought “why not?” and went upstairs to order dessert.  As we sat at the table overlooking the madness below, there was a group of Peruvian people at the next table.  The waiter informed us that the new Vice President of Peru (Lourdes Mendoza Del Solar) was sitting there.  Of course we both wanted to meet her (”why not?).

Now, this was not the best time to meet a new Vice President.  There were hundreds of people in near riot mode directly beneath us that had a full view of the balcony and we had witnessed things being thrown at that balconly before the VP had got there.  If there was ever a time to say “no” to meeting a new Vice President, it was now. 

In the end, we didn’t care that much (it was the new frickin’ VP of Peru) and Fabrice asked her to write something in his little travel journal he carries around.  I got up to meet her as well and say my congratulations and the VP told us to sit down at her table.  Who are we to argue with a Vice President?  So we sat down and talked a little with her and her staff.  We were offered whisky (Lourdes only drank coffee) which we accepted.  Who were we to reject whisky from a Vice President?  After the group came up with the genious realization that the VP could be in danger on the balcony, they moved inside and invited their new friends along.  That would be us. 

So we sat down and talked some more while also watching the news which had constant updates of the new percentages and so on.  During this time, the mayor of Arequipa also came to hang out.  We ended up talking mostly with the VP’s sister, Sandra.  The VP was preoccupied with the interviews she had to do later, with trying to call the president, and watching the updates on the news.  Whatever.  People get elected all the time, get over it!  No, she was actually really, really nice and I was thrilled to meet a political leader that also seems like a real genuine person.  We learned that she is deputy mayor of Arequipa currently, that she is actually the second Vice President (Peru has 2 VPs) and that she will actually be the first women Vice President in Peru history.  Not bad. 

Anyway, the VP left for an interview and we said goodbye.  We hung out a little longer and talked more with Sandra.  Unfortunately, we had to take a bus to Nazca soon that night and had to say good bye.  We exchanged emails with Sandra, said our ciao, made our cheek to cheek kiss thing, shook hands with the staff and the mayor, and left.  We walked to our hostel to grab our bags before taking a cab to the bus terminal.  We talked excitedly about our meeting and shook our heads.  We boarded the bus and rode into the night.  It was just another night in the life of a couple of ordinary travelers.

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