8 Bit Odyssey

“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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Have a walk round the National Park, they said. Go for a dip in the natural hot springs, they said. Clamber over a wall to get there, they definitely did not say. That was the obstacle in the way to get to the water; that or scramble up a couple of small falls. We chose the latter option and it was as actually pretty straightforward, but some advance warning that the river wasn’t as easily accessible as we assumed it would be would have been nice. It was, however, well worth it. Sat in a river and series of natural pools, volcanically-heated water lapping over us, it was a very relaxing (eventually) end to our day trip to Arenal volcano. We started with a light hike around the National Park, taking in trails, a waterfall where the brave went for a chilly dip in the pool below, a couple of hanging bridges, and a horde of friendly raccoons who seemed pretty non-plussed by the attention we were paying to them. Then lunch, then the adventure in the river, and then rum and nachos to cap o...

“I want a baby caiman” is not something you hear from your fiancée every day but in context it made some kind of sense. Or at least it did as far as we had just seen one, along with its mother, although we never really discussed whether it would be happy living in our bath. Perhaps it was the early morning leading to a whiff of delirium, or maybe it was simply the fact we were on a canoe, cruising through the waterways of Tortuguero National Park surrounded by stunning scenery and a veritable feast of wildlife. It started slowly, with herons and iguanas, but built up a head of steam to take in not just the caimans but a tree full of squabbling toucans, an extended family of capuchins and a lone howler monkey cresting a tree. Oh, and a black river turtle, ensuring we ticked the box for the the place’s namesake creature (Tortuguero means ‘place of the turtles’). After pausing for breakfast, we returned on foot to see another side of the park. A sleeping sloth and a pair of spider monke...