My bus was to leave at 7.30 am, but since Sergio had to work he had to take me there earlier and couldn’t wait with me. The bus station is in one of the most dangerous parts of San Josè and I felt quite weird to be the only blonde girl waiting at the station. However, the bus was on time and inside I felt a little safer. Everybody told me that it would be very hot on the ride, but the first two hours I was freezing because all the windows were open, we were going up the mountains and the sun wasn’t out yet. But later on it did get very hot inside the bus because the bus didn’t have any air conditioning. According to schedule the bus would need 9 hours for about 350 km. I had thought that it takes so long because it would slowly inch its way up the mountain. But I was wrong: the bus raced through tight curves and incredibly bad streets with huge potholes. (By the way, Costa Rica and Panama are both knows for its bad streets. That might be the reason why most people here drive jeeps with 4-wheel drives.) On my way I was a bit surprised that there are still so many very poor people who lived in little wooden sheds without electricity or running water. (The wooden shed for the garden tools in the yard of my parents looks so much nicer than the sheds where the poor people here live in and nobody would ever think of living in our garden shed!) At the border it took about 1,5 hours to get the stamp for the passport. I’m not so sure why it took so long because here were only 6 people in front of me. The officials blamed their computers for the long waiting time, but I blame the slow-moving officials. Then they also wanted to check my huge suitcase. I opened it and they only looked at the very top layer of my clothing and then said that it was done. So, I could have smuggled my drugs in either my backpack or in the bottom of my suitcase. However, I at least got my tourist visa for 3 months for Panama without any extra questioning. Back in the bus, it only took 40 more minutes and I arrived in David, a dirty, loud, and very hot town in the Chiriqui Province of Panama. I was supposed to call the hotel when I arrive, so that they could pick me up. But when I stepped out of the bus, a woman came towards me and asked if I’m Sabine. The woman turned out to be Eva, my boss. I was very happy that she had already been there because I would not have felt very safe waiting in David for half an hour. When Eva and I went up the mountains to Boquete (where the hotel is located) I was shocked about the even bigger potholes and the way of driving here. (It has already been very bad in San Josè, but supposedly the driving manners in Panama are even worse.) When we arrived in Boquete, I saw that it’s quite a cute and energetic town with very beautiful views. Way before I arrived in Panama, Sabine (my collegue at Isla Verde, the hotel) asked me if I like pets and if I would mind taking care of Eva’s two dogs and the one cat. I love animals, so I replied that I wouldn’t mind at all. But when I read that e-mail I had thought about two cute little doggies. However, when I arrived I realized that those two cute doggies where a full grown 90 pound female Rottweiler (Moga) and a big male Labrador (Faial). And Lakshmi is the very affectionate 8-months old Burmese cat. Already on my first night I realized that it will be a challenge to go for walks with Moga because she likes to kill cats and smaller dogs and does not really listen to commands.
(And yes, there are people here who live in sheds like that. Some of the shed/houses even look much worse.)
