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Arrival and departure

I write this sitting on the sofa. That is, my feet are on the rug, the rest of me is on the Chesterfield, and I am home. I’m back in the Mushroom Kingdom and delighted to see my princess, though as an awesome independent woman she needed no rescuing. Aside from Lauren, I can safely say there were a few things I was looking forward to, including, but not limited to, my own bed, proper towels, Marmite, consistently hot showers, potable tap water, a decent pillow, fresh vegetables, not living out of a backpack, not having to slather myself with sun cream and insect repellent on a daily basis, not being regularly embarrassed by my broken Spanish. Before the long flight home, I had a shorter hop from Panama City back to the Sand Kingdom, AKA Mexico. Cancun was still there and I finished the trip with a satisfying if not spectacular pizza and reprised my hammock plus rum and Coke trick because it felt appropriate and because I could. The following day brought the return leg to Gatwick, a n...
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Take me down to Panama City

“Where the air is hot and the old town’s pretty, for my last proper stop before home...” This, then, is it. If not my last blog, certainly the final one covering a destination on my trip. After crossing a large part of Panama, I got a good look at the country and it looked good. From Bocas I boated back to the mainland before traversing the highlands, with forested hills as far as the eye could see. Then it was the Panamerican Highway for several hours all the way to the capital. Unfortunately a crash on the outskirts caused an hour and half’s delay to an already lengthy journey. This was compounded by the unfathomable logic of having a toilet on board the coach but keeping it locked. After close to four hours, it was unlocked by a member of staff who looked increasingly annoyed and inexplicably bemused as half the bus joined the queue. The congestion was a taste of things to come, with the city at times feeling like one big traffic jam. It’s the only truly modern global city that I ...
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Islands in the stream

Or perhaps with my geek chic glasses Island in the Sun may be more appropriate. Or I could swap my falsetto for a foghorn and go with Fantasy Island. Either way, I’m sure you get my drift. I’ve landed in Panama and alighted in Bocas del Toro, a group of islands just off the Caribbean coast. Fortunately it’s also not too far from the Costa Rican border, as it had already been a long journey from San Jose. As mentioned previously, I did get to experience one final highlights package on the trip though, taking in jungle, palms and a fair chunk of coastline. After expecting this to be the most hassle of any of the border crossings given the demands for paperwork, it actually turned out to be both quick and easy - I wasn’t asked for anything beyond my passport. The only downside was I wasn’t mobbed by money changers, as at pretty much every other crossing, typically one of the two times I’ve actually wanted to change money at that point. After the bus ride came 40 minutes on a boat (s...
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No way San Jose

This is essentially a post in three parts, featuring a couple of jumps in time. As the both the capital and possessing a central location, this is what led me to actually spend four nights in San Jose, though I only actually spent one full day in the city. And in true Tarantino style, I'm not going to start at the beginning. Instead I'll pick up where I left off last time. I left for Manuel Antonio from San Jose and hopped back the same way. As a waypoint on my route to Panama, I was greeted on my return to the city by a festival taking place across both the large park my hostel sat on the edge of and a number of surrounding streets and plazas. Big parades with costumes, brass bands and dancing kept things lively; arts and crafts and food stalls took up slots around the park's rim; and live bands filled stages. I wasn't expecting this but I did enjoy having a nose about. The capital isn't usually high up on most traveller's itineraries when they visit Costa Ri...
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Hotter than the sun

Ok, so that may be hyperbole and a half but I’ve spent the last three days being too hot. Even worse, it’s been horribly muggy and close and I’ve spent a fair amount of time just attempting to cool down and stay hydrated. Perhaps this is karma catching up with me for waving Lauren farewell and continuing on alone, though more on that next time. It’s been a weird adjustment, a bit like starting over again with the sense of something (someone) missing. I’m also coming down to earth from the holiday high to mere travelling again and the differences that come with it (clue: none of them can really be described as positive). And did I mention that it’s hot? That’s enough of emo-Chris for now though. In reality I’m in a pretty good situation. Unlike the snowy renaissance the UK is undergoing, that’s not a problem I need to deal with and I’m also still in Costa Rica, a truly beautiful country, and I’ve hopped down the Pacific coast to Quepos. There’s not a huge amount here, but there is on...
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Coast to coast

Our Costa Rican journey started on the Caribbean coast and we successfully made our way west to the Pacific coast in Montezuma. As the last proper stop there was one overwhelming aim in mind for it: beach. Possibly with some pool time thrown in. And maybe partaking of some items proclaiming ‘Eat me’ and ‘Drink me’. Perhaps some reading and games to mix things up a bit too. The overall aim here then was clearly relaxation and we gave it a pretty good go. After our cooler sojourn in the highlands, it was back down to sea level and soaring temperatures. Safe to say, the hotel pool and surrounding loungers got plenty of use. The beach also lived up to the hype: golden sand, blue sea and sky, fringe of palms. Perfect. Well, almost; there was an annoying broken flip flop incident and the sea was quite aggressive (it was easy to see why the peninsula here is a surfing hotspot). But it was beautiful and ticked the requisite boxes. We walked to a waterfall, though this was less of a hike...
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Get off of my cloud

A short (in distance at least) hop across Lake Arenal brought us to Santa Elena, base for the Monteverde cloud forest, grandaddy of them all. The journey was scenic, across the water and green hills rather reminiscent of England’s green and pleasant land, though thick mist meant visibility wasn’t as good as it could have been. This mist was to become very familiar to us over the next couple of days as the weather was also as changeable as at home. Clouds zipped across the sky due to strong winds and the despite the sunshine there was a regular fine film of rain being blown down from the permanently shrouded forest in the hills above the town. We plunged straight in on the first night with a night walk. As so much of the wildlife here is nocturnal, and we’d already had such a great experience in Tortuguero, expectations were high. It didn’t disappoint either, as we spied two opossums, a baby sloth, a sleeping toucan (head and bill tucked up against its body), a sleeping hummingbird...
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