Playa Estrella

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

I’ve been here a couple of days now, internet-free except for about 3 minutes that I borrowed the hostel office computer.  So all of these Bocas del Toro posts will be a bit on the late side.  I hope at least that I will be able to get interenet at my next hostel on Isla Bastimento.  *NOTE* This post was posted May 27th.

From where I’m sitting on the balcony in front of my hostel dorm room, I can hear someone hammering in the tarped up house next door.  I think the people must be living in the house while construction is going on.  The roof and supports seem to be finished, but not the walls.  In the window of the house next to that one, I can see a woman in a blue T-shirt making pasta for her family and using the ledge outside her window as extra counter space.

At this point, the woman has just poured her  pasta into the strainer.  

The tarped up house.

It is insanely hot and humid here.  I can feel myself literally melting.  I figured there would be more breeze because I’m practically on the ocean, but that is most definitely not the case.  It hasn’t rained since I got here, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.  The air is so still; I sweat every second of every day, even when I sleep.  The air does not seem to cool, even at night.  At least in Costa Rica, the clouds come in in the afternoon, as does the breeze which cools everything down.  (It must be mentioned that with the clouds comes torrential rain).

Yesterday, I went to the beach and got a pretty bad sunburn.  I didn’t realize it until after the fact though.  It never occurred to me I would burn; I had put on sunscreen and spent the day in the shade of palm trees.  But I suppose it was washed off by the ocean or by the bug spray I liberally sprayed on after the first tiny dot bugs started stinging me.  There are these tiny flying bugs here, about the size of a period at the end of a sentence, that sting.  I haven’t noticed that they leave a bump, but it still hurts while they are stinging.  Afterwards, I can’t tell where they stung and can’t feel the pain.

So now I’m in quite a lot of pain from the burn, and worse still, I was bitten by some sort of a bug last night that left smallish itchy welts all over my right leg and arm (hardly any welts on left arm and leg oddly enough).  So I itch, but if I scratch my sunburn pains me.

The beach itself was quite nice.  There was a long, narrow stretch of land.  Extraordinarily calm water was on one side of the strip of sand, palm trees and jungle on the other.

The sign says not to touch the starfish.

It was fairly easy to find a spot distant enough from anyone else underneath the palms.

I camped out underneath the center palm. The beach was narrow, but still quite nice.

The water was quite nice as well.  Swimming was easy in the calm sea and the temperature was nice in the morning.  Later in the afternoon, the water, especially the most shallow water, became hot.  The beach is called Playa Estrella for the starfish.  Especially when I arrived, there were starfish littering the shallow water of the sea.  I was directed by signage not to touch, and I didn’t, but I wanted to.  I got very close to some of them.  I think at the temperature of the water increased, they retreated deeper into the sea where it was a bit cooler.

I rode home on the same bus I went there on.  Elvis and Manuel (I don’t actually remember the 2nd guy’s name, only the first’s was memorable, so I made up a new name for him) were the driver and doorman.  I’m not sure which was which, but at the end of the journey there, we were all asked to pay the return fare ($5) and given a little yellow laminated card that had Elvis and Manuel’s telephone numbers and the bus schedule (to give back to them as proof of payment).

That bus ride to the beach has been one of the most interesting experiences of my trip.  They squished as many people on that bus as possible.  Just when I thought the bus was full, Elvis (or Manuel) would direct someone up to the front to sit down in a nonexistent seat.  That bus had 4 or 5 (more?) fold out seats.

I was seated next to a local woman who happened to know all the words to the vibrantly colorful Caribbean (but not exactly calypso) sounding songs.  I find it very difficult to describe the music I heard on that 40 or 45 minute ride.  Basically, each musical artist would take a catchy (or not) phrase and repeat it over and over using different notes set to upbeat music.  The song I distinctly remember is “Hay Doctores.”  I never figured out if it was a question, “Are there any doctors?” or if it was a statement, “There are doctors.”  Since the singers’ intonation went up at the end, I’m voting for a question.  Seriously, I don’t think there were any other lyrics to the song.  These guys just really cared about these doctors.  Many of the other songs I heard were similar.  I suppose that’s why the woman next to me knew all of the words to the songs blasting through the bus.

Back to Elvis and Manuel.  These guys have the hookups.  Every few minutes they would stop the bus.  The driver and doorman would get out and do something (that I couldn’t see from my poor vantage point).  Then they would hop back in and drive on for a few more minutes.  I imagine Elvis was the doorman.  The driver just didn’t look like an Elvis.

I was able to see some of Elvis’ actions from where I sat.  For example, at one stop, he picked up a large bucket full of ice.  He dropped it off at the side of the road a couple of minutes later.  At one point, he had a large bottle of gasoline (I think).  He held it out the door for the 100 yards the bus drove with it.  He then left it of the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  At another stop, he ran across the street to drop a small plastic bag on the doorstep of a woman’s house (he did not wait for her to come get it; she was in the yard at the time).  Not far from Bocas Town, the driver stopped at a convenience store.  Later in the trip, he stopped in the middle of a road construction site to exchange a bottle of water for a dollar with one of the workers.

The bus finally arrived at the beach; it was one of the more interesting bus rides of my life.

Because of the sunburn and my reluctance to get back out in the sun (pretty much anything to do here requires much intake of sun), I only left the hostel this morning to get food and even that was fairly painful.  Fortunately the hostel is big and there are multiple places to hang out.  I’ve read, played sudoku, written, watched local children throw paper over their front porch rail, half-listened to several Spanish lessons (I’m staying at a Spanish language school), and have seen several different kinds of birds (including what I swear is a hummingbird).

I haven’t learned much of anything new, but I have heard some words and phrases I haven’t heard in some time, thus reigniting a small part of my atrophied brain.  The only thing I thought was rather curious was a guy who was (if I understood correctly) trying to teach his class to pronounce Mexico and Oaxaca with an X sound instead of an H sound.  I didn’t quite catch everything he said, so I think some of my confusion would have been explained away if I could have heard the entire lecture, rather than just a few snippets.

Tomorrow, I will take a water taxi to Isla Bastimentos.  That island is supposed to be less peopled, have fewer businesses, and more wilderness.  The beaches are supposed to be even nicer than the one I saw yesterday as well.

Wild and Crazy No Internet Day

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011


I can’t get the internet to work for anything.  Google keeps telling me it’s a problem with my DNS servers, but since I’ve tried all the other options it gives me, the only thing left is to restart the modem, and of course I can’t do that.  So it looks like I may not have internet for the next 3 or 4 days, maybe more as I’m not sure if I will have it or not at my next stop.  


So anyway, I am now on Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro, Panama.  I had so looked forward to this place, especially since the parts of Costa Rica I’ve seen have been so disappointing.  It’s okay, but not at all what I expected.  First of all, even though I’m surrounded by ocean, I can’t get there very easily and can only see a snippet at a time.  My hostel is about a block from the ocean, but I can only see it if I go to the 2nd floor and crane my neck over the balcony.  Businesses and hotels are lining the oceanfront, but none of it is beachy.  

Apparently, I have to take a bus to the beach, or maybe a water taxi.  And even then, it’s not supposed to be the best beach.  I’ll probably go tomorrow though - I’ve been looking forward to beach time since I got here.  I am also really interested in going to La Gruta, a cave where you can see lots of bats, but I’m not interested in taking a very expensive taxi there and back (the 4 year old guidebook says it should cost $10).  Even my 2 year old Costa Rica guidebook says everything costs several dollars less than it actually does.  


Again, lack of efficient public transportation fails me.  That was a big problem I had in Alueja and San Jose.  I couldn’t go to La Paz waterfalls or Poas Volcano because of a lack of public transportation options.  


I booked 3 nights here thinking the beach was right there (meaning walking distance).  I guess I also thought there would be more to see than there is.  I’ve pretty much walked the town.  Two or three times.  


This traveling alone thing isn’t working out very well.  If I was with someone else, the taxi ride to La Gruta would only be half as bad.  Food would be easier too.  It’s really too hot to cook.  In Europe my go to was bread and cheese, but here… the bread isn’t that great and 8 ounces of cheese is $5.00 (imported, I haven’t seen any local cheeses, here in Panama or in Costa Rica).  My go to here is juice and cookies.  It was bananas until I had 3 in one morning and I can’t do that again.  So I eat what I can find for breakfast unless the hostel serves it (I’ve had hostel  breakfast once out of 5 mornings).  I sometimes eat lunch out if I can find a place that serves vegetarian.  And afternoon snack/dinner is juice (or orange soda) and cookies.  So healthy I know, but I don’t have very many options here.  And even the “cook easily” options are limited to spaghetti.  


It’s so insanely hot here.  I don’t know what the temperature is, but I was literally melting when I returned from my hour long walk/sit in the tiny municipal park.  I’m not sure if it’s hotter or more humid than Texas, but here, there is no such thing as air conditioning.  You’re lucky if you get a fan.  I’m outside in the shade right now and I’m sweating.  


The place I’m staying is pretty interesting.  It’s called Spanish by the Sea.  It’s actually a language school.  I knew it when I booked the place and it would have been cool to take a class (I’m actually watching a class right now).  I didn’t book any classes though.  Additionally, I think they start classes every Sunday (and seeing as I won’t be here on a Sunday, I suppose it wouldn’t have worked out anyway).  

The hostel.  Not a terribly good picture, but nonetheless...

Actually, I can’t figure out the language here.  Every once in awhile I catch a distinctively Spanish word on the street, but often the language doesn’t even sound like Spanish.  I listened to a guy sitting next to me and couldn’t figure out what he was speaking, but he threw in an English word every now and then.  People here seem to know each other (which makes sense, this place isn’t very big).  NOTE*I have since read in the Panama Lonely Planet Guidebook that “Gali-Gali is a distinct Creole language of the Bocas del Toro Province that combines Afro-Antillean English, Spanish, and Ngobe-Bugle.”*


The airplane trip from San Jose to Bocas was an other worldly experience.  I arrived at the airport very early by taxi.  My flight was at 6.30.  The airport is tiny.  This one domestic commercial airline, NatureAir flies out of the airport.  As far as I can tell, all other aircraft were personal or perhaps for cargo.


I checked in for the flight and was required to weigh my bag (14.86 lbs of the 15 lbs limit).  And then I was required to step on the scale myself (with my carryon).  My passport was kept. (I’m not sure why and it freaked me out, but they took everyone’s.)  By everyone, I mean all 7 of us.  Four were German, 2 were… Swedish?  All were in their 20s I’d guess.  After our baggage was hand inspected, we waited and waited.  Finally, we were ushered through the security area.  I wish I knew they didn’t care about liquids before I bothered zip locking them.  Nobody cared about the extremely dangerous weapons in my shoes either.  That was a joke.  


The 7 of us, led by the pilot, walked out to the plane.  It was tiny from the outside and even tinier on the inside.  There were exactly 7 seats, including the 1 next to the pilot. The guy seated next to the pilot took advantage of the situation and filmed the takeoff and landing, and I’m pretty sure he took photos of himself seated next to the pilot.  


I was expecting this to be the scariest flight of my life - I’d been dreading it since before I bought the ticket.  But I also knew I wasn’t interested in sitting on a series of buses and water taxis by myself on a trek that would span 8 hours.  The flight itself was nice actually, and I wasn’t scared like I was expecting. I even saw a volcano smoking fairly clearly from my larger than normal window.  

The "baggage guy" unloading the 7 "checked" backpacks.  

The flight lasted all of 35 minutes and I was in Panama.  By the way, I didn’t mention that our “checked” luggage was actually packed into the main cabin with us.  I could see my bag if I turned around in my seat.


The best part about the whole experience was that I could walk to my hostel from the airport.  Airports are usually so far from everything, but this one is right there.  People live all around it and there is a ball field at the south end separated only by a chain link fence.  

The airport was under construction, but operations were as usual, which meant that we passengers simply walked through the construction to enter the airport.  I was the first called into the immigration office.  Yes, there was an office with one man sitting behind one desk.  He asked me some questions.  I answered and he carefully entered my answers into his ledger.  He stamped my passport and I was back into the holding room where my luggage was hand inspected again, but this time both carry on and checked bags.  


And finally, I was free, released into the wilds of Panama to explore and discover new things.  

It's that time of year again

It's almost summer.  And of course, summer = travel for many people.  In the past, most of my traveling has been between January and April during the off-peak season.  However, this year, I am traveling mid-May to mid-June.  In 13 days, I will embark on an impressive, sometimes difficult, rewarding journey to Costa Rica and Panama.  As I have the past couple of years, I will keep this blog updated with pictures and information about my adventures.


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