Luckily, the first 180 km I could hitch a hike with my boss from Isla Verde. She and her friend were going to Bocas del Toro and they dropped me off in Almirante where I waited for the bus to Changuinola. However, I had forgotten that the tiny bus station of ugly Almirante is full of little annoying boys who are just too happy to help you with your luggage (for money, of course) and how are there to persuade rich-looking tourists to take the taxi instead of the bus. I hated the fact that they always went really close by my luggage and wanted to carry it for me because in two of my three bags I carried quite a bit of money. The rest was hidden somewhere on my body! :-P However, I was stubborn and waited for the bus. When I arrived in Changuinola I paid $1 extra because I had such a big suitcase. I think that was quite unfair because all the Panamanians carried huge bags of oranges, rice or potatoes, but none of them paid extra. Why do people here always think that blonde girls are super rich? And when I tell them that I just earn as less as they do because I get an Panamanian salary, they don’t believe me!
From Changuinola I wanted to take a taxi to the border of Costa Rica. I read in my travel book that it should cost about $5, but I also know that I always get an extra (high) price for looking like a tourist. So, when I asked a taxi driver he wanted $8. I tried to get him down to $6, but he didn’t want to. But instead he told me about a bus to the border which would only cost $1. I thought that was very nice of him, so I smiled, thanked him and looked for the bus. It turned out the bus was even less than $1!
At the border it was a hard fight with my luggage. Since I’ll be travelling for nearly 2 years in total, I have a lot of stuff. The first challenge was to get up the stairs. But only a second after I tried to lift my heavy suitcase myself, I had a Panamanian guy helping me. I looked at him and asked in Spanish: “Is it for free?” But he just grinned. However, once we were up the stairs, I grabbed my suitcase really fast and told him that now I would not need any more help. I, of course, didn’t give him any money. As I told you: I only get a Panamanian salary and that is not enough for paying extra tips! After I had my stamp from the Panamanian side of the border, I went into the direction of the Costa Rican side. And just before I came to the bridge, there were a lot of people yelling out that it would only cost $5 for me to let them carry my luggage over the other side. I very soon found out why they offered that service: The bridge consisted out of a few wooden blanks which were pilled on top of each other and pulling my suitcase over them turned out to be nearly impossible. On the very side of the bridge there was a little sidewalk which was made out of rusting metal. I couldn’t quite decide which one was less dangerous, but decided to take the rusty side (although nobody else did) because it was easier to pull my suitcase there. However, I nearly ripped my jacket open at a rusty part that was sticking out from the fencing!
But once on the other side, I got into Costa Rica without problems. Now I only had to wait for another bus. Both border towns, Guabito (on the Panamanian side) and Sixaola (on the Costa Rican side) looked exactly the same, except for the fact that the Costa Rican side only had a gravel road and not a paved road like in Panama. The bus took much longer to get to Puerto Viejo than I thought. (It looked so short on the map.) However, once I was in Puerto Viejo, it was easy to get a taxi to the hotel and there I was greeted by two very friendly Costa Rican receptionists. One of them, Raymundo, brought me straight to my apartment which is in the middle of the jungle (I can hear the holler monkeys every morning and I check for scorpions before I put on my shoes.), but not too far from the hotel. I turned out that half of the employees of the hotel live in my block of apartments and I feel a bit like being in summer camp.
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