We caught the bus out of Panama and into Costa Rica. At the border was a big bridge going across a river. Up until the border, the bus had been travelling along a sealed road, when suddenly it climbed up a hill and onto a dirt road. The bus struggled with the ups and downs of the dirt road then stopped just before the bridge where we all had to get off and walk across. The one lane bridge was in a similar condition to the road, greatly in need of some form of maintenance. On the bridge we were met by a few beggars asking for money. On the other side was the immigration office where we had to get our passports stamped. After that, back on the bus and along a dodgy road with sealed sections separated by rough potholed bits causing us to slow down to about 7 kmh. The contrast between the 1st/2nd world and the 3rd world couldn't have been any more stark.
We got to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, in the late afternoon then had to catch another bus to Las Juntas where Mikayla has been living. So after a few more hours we were at our destination, a small country town, then had to wheel our luggage about 1/2 a kilometer through the street to get to where we were staying. The room was a small 'dog box' with bunk beds. It was really hot and humid, the bedding felt damp and there was no air conditioning, just a fan, also no TV or Internet. But it was better than sleeping outside .. I suppose. The next day the owners of the accommodation offered us a bigger, better room with air conditioning and TV for just another $3. At $15 per night instead of $12 it was hard to resist.
While we were here Mikayla turned 18. Kim bought her an iPod touch and I bought her an electronic photo frame. The iPod has been getting a good hard workout ever since. On the night of Mikayla's 18th, after we had tea together, she went out with her friends and had a big night out. A couple of nights later we went out for tea with her host family from Costa Rica. The highlight of the night was Mikayla getting her face pushed into a cake, which apparently is a big tradition in Costa Rica. Another tradition apparently is getting pelted with eggs!!
I sat next to the host father, and managed to have a reasonable conversation with him in Spanish. Among other things, we discussed the temperature, the price of fuel, I found out that he had lived his whole life in Las Juntas. Pretty basic I know, but last time I was in South America all I could say was yes, no and thank you in Spanish.
We spent a few days in Las Juntas before heading off to Manuel Antonio which is a more tropical location near the sea. Our accommodation was owned and managed by an expat Polish-American. His name was Andy, he was an alcoholic and proud of it and he had very strong right-wing political views. He thought that Barack Obama was a socialist and that all socialists were stupid. Kim and I had a few drinks with him the first night we were there. I asked him if he thought the Scandinavian counties were dumb given their socialist systems and high standards of living. This is not a political statement, just an observation, particularly when capitalism, especially in the USA, seems to be going so badly at the moment anyway.
While we were here Kim celebrated her 40th birthday. Kim got some silver jewelry that we picked up in Bolivia, some really nice Costa Rican timber (rainforest) jewelry boxes and got shouted out for tea.
During the day we went out to one of the local beaches, where we were treated to drinks service on the beach by a local person that bordered on having a manic personality disorder. He kept referring to Skippy when talking to us, so at least he knew something about Australia. While on the beach we were constantly being asked to buy things like drinks, ceramics and towels. The towel bloke would have asked us at least four times, on different occasions, each time getting the same answer.
After Manuel Antonio we headed back to San Jose on our way to Nicaragua. We had to stay one night at the bus terminal which was excellent accommodation and good value. While here we went for a walk up into the San Jose shopping district. Here we discovered bingo machines which are a bit like poker machines, only better. Kim went really well and won some money while Mikayla and I probably lost a couple of dollars each. It filled in some time for us while we waited for our next bus to Nicaragua.
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