Up at 06:00 Saturday morning.  Packed a bag, took the dog for a walk, and just as I was getting ready to jump in my own dingy for the 15 minute ride to town the Red Frog Marina boat came running in.  I hopped on and slowly woke fully to the day as the cool breeze created by the racing panga cooled my skin and ran me to the dock at Bocas del Toro.  I had just enough time to slurp down a scalding hot cup of coffee before the 30 minute ferry ride to Almirante departed.  Skimming across the water at high speed I saw at spotted eagle ray jump clear out of the water.  What a spectacular sight.  Once in Almirante I hiked the half mile to the bus stop and jump on an oversized minivan to Changuinola.  The 20 km take us a little over half an hour.  Once there I find Meg, my kiwi friend from Isla Mujeres who is on her visa run, and we find a bus for Sixaola on the Costa Rican border.

I devour another cup of coffee and the greasiest ground beef empanada I’ve ever seen on the 45 minute ride.  The locals have to tell us three times we’d arrived.  With no markers and not much of a town to see we had no way of knowing we’d arrived.  Off the bus we were pointed to the Panamanian customs office where we cleared out and began walking down the rickety old railroad bridge, the formal entry point in this part of the world to Costa Rica.  On the other side we clear into Costa Rica, so simple without all the boat papers, and start looking for the bus stop.  With 45 minutes to kill we find a small cantina with real breakfast and I eat like a starving man.  Another bus, another hour and we make it to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. 

Not wanting to do the hostel thing well into my 30’s, I had booked a very inexpensive room that turns out to be a simply amazing place.  The accommodations are clean and simple, but the landscape is lush with plantains, cocos, and flowers of every imaginable size and color.  Today was simply a day to read, relax, eat, and hang by the pool.  I can’t honestly say how amazing it is to swim in a freshwater pool after being in the salty brine of the sea for so long. 

Tomorrow we are off to the Children’s Village in Limon and if we get the go ahead, we’ll be heading to San Juan to meet some people in the Costa Rican office who’ve helped me organize every site visit I’ve made in Central America.  I’ve been sitting still for too long now.  The action alone feels good.

Lee