And now I digress...

Now that I do have time to write about some adventures in Bocas del Toro, it´s hard to decide which ones to tell!

First, of course I brought the rainy weather with me to Bocas del Toro, as I seem to do everywhere, including Sao Paulo today. So the first few days were spent relaxing with my new traveling buddy Nic and trying to arrange some scuba dives. By the end of the stay, I had completed six dives around the island, including one all day trip where we saw dolphins, visited Red Frog beach and had lunch at some lagoon restaurant. The diving in Bocas is okay, but nothing spectacular. There are pretty much no fish. At all. Ever. And the water was pretty green with poor visibility because of all the rain. I was told that the best diving is outside the bay, but the seas were just too rough this time of year. Bummer.

I did manage to rent bikes a few days in a row and (attempt to) explored the island. The further away from Bocas Town you get, the more beautiful the beaches, crystal clear the water, and fewer the crowd due to nearly impassable roads.

There´s one bike ride in particular worth mentioning. I was sitting in a cafe after some early morning scuba diving and reading a book called the Kindness of Strangers. The book is a collection of short stories written by all sorts of travelers about strange, serendipitous and wonderful encounters with strangers on their journies. I was just finishing reading a story about a girl who impulsively sought out adventure and ended up having a crazy and wonderful adventure with an dirty old Israeli man and a Californian realestate agent. At that moment, a strange guy who had been eyeballing me for a while from behind his laptop shouts out, ´what you reading?´

I did´t really want to talk to the geyser, so I quickly mumbled something about traveling and kindness of strangers.´

´Oh, interesting. Mind if I join you.´He was already getting up to join me, so I couldn´t really say no. We ended up talking about everything from his job as some sort of computer software programer nerd that allows him to work from wherever in the world he can find wireless to the local minimum wage. The waitress finally delivered my saving grace: the bill. But much to my chagrine Ulrich, as he was called, asked if I´d like to join him on a bicycle ride to the beach.

I had no excuses. And I had just read about all the adventures that can happen when you say ´yes´ to invitations. We rented bikes for two hours and rode off towards Big Creek beach. What I didn´t realize was that the beach was a couple of miles away, and the road to get there was comprised mostly of clay-mud, wet sand, coral rocks and puddles as deep as your thigh in someplaces. Needless to say, I was covered in mud and sweat when I popped a tire an hour into our adventure. Ulrich seemed to be determined to keep going. So I suggested we hide the bikes in some bushes and hitch a ride to the beach. Great idea.

As we started walking down the road again, waiting for a truck to pass, Ulrich cracked open a coconut as he asked me about traveling alone. I said something about not really ever being alone and always finding friends. ´Yeah, I bet you don´t find yourself on muddy bike rides with strangers that often,´ he replied. Strangers....he was a stranger!? I hadn´t even thought of that. Here we were isolated on a treacherous road far from any people, our bikes hidden in the bushes, and I didn´t really even know this guy. I started to feel uneasy, but a truck pulled up and we hopped in the back before I could start to worry about whether or not Ulrich was an ax-murderer.

After a few short hitches past a bunch of surfer camps and the island dump, we finally arrived at our destination. A beautiful white sand beach with turqouise blue waters. ´Wanna go for a swim?´Ulrich asked. Hmm...was this where he would drown me or try to take photos of me or something equally creepy. I stripped off my clothes to my bathing suit and bolted to the water. The surf was very strong, too strong to swim in, and I was ready to just get back to other people so I could feel at ease again.

We hitched our way back to the bikes, and convinced the nice man driving the truck to take us back to town with our bikes. Along the way Ulrich and I just chatted about traveling and eventually the topic of love interests while traveling came up. I was happy to note the slight change in Ulrich´s demeanor when I mentioned a boyfriend back home. He told stories about some of his failed romances and we finally reached the bike shop. And that was it. Although there was definitely a part of me that felt very uncomfortable for most of my adventure, I feel a little silly now knowing that I had just let my imagination get the best of me. He obviously was just a lonely guy looking for some human (as opposed to digital) company. No harm done, and we actually had a great time.

Anyways, my time is almost up on the computer, so I hope this little anecdote sufficed for an update on my travels in Bocas!

Quick update!

So, I have safely arrived in Sao Paulo and am currently waiting in a 24hour internet cafe before my flight to Salvador tomorrow, where I will probably sleep until carnaval starts the next day!

In the past week now I´ve had two separate airlines charge me twice for the same ticket and two separate airlines cancel tickets. This part of travel is a pain in the ass. Especially since I spent my last two days in Bocas del Toro and one day in Costa Rica on the phone all day (I think close to about $50 in calls) trying to fix everything, with the result being my travel agent saying `sorry, there´s nothing i can do for you except refund the ticket. You´ll have to arrange your own way to Salvador.´Why do I even bother!?

Good news is, though, that everything will work out, because it always does, and I am being met by someone in the airport to take me to an apartment I am renting for the week with some friends I met on the internet. This should be exciting! I´ll keep you all posted.

AHHH!! Problems!!

So sorry haven´t written in a while. I have tons of great stories about Bocas, but right now I am in the middle of a nightmare. For some reason my plane ticket to Salvador, Brazil is all messed up and booked for a time that I can´t make, so I am currently on hold with a travel agent who is trying to work it out for me...AHHH, I´m leaving for Brazil tomorrow (or supposed to). Also, for some reason the local airline, the one I booked my ticket to Bocas del Toro with, charged my card twice, so I´ll have to go sort that out as well. This is so frustrating because this all just came up now, the day before I am meant to head to San Jose, Costa Rica to catch my flight to Brazil. My heart has been pounding all day.

Once everything is sorted out I´ll write more about my adventures here in Bocas!

Bocas del Toro

Panama City was fun. My British friend, Nick, and I walked all over the city for the first few days. We explored the old colonial part of town, wandered around the central market area and got beers in the banking zone. I didn´t really know what to expect, but Panama City is huge and growing still, with huge posh restaurants, clubs and more highrises than Seattle. The nightlife in Panama City is pretty good as well, with tons of upscale clubs and bars. It´s funny because traveling sola means plenty of questions about where´s my esposo (husband) and are instantly telling me ¨you, I love¨when I explain that I am traveling alone.

Amorous men aside, I got my Brazilian visa with no problems at all. It was actually quite simple and I didn´t even have to turn in all the documents that the application requested. The little old lady working in the consulates office just told me not to worry about it and didn´t even mind that my application was technically not all the way filled out. Since I had finished my visa business already, and since diving in the Panama Canal would cost me $225 AND I would have to wait until there was at least one other person interested in going, I decided to hop on a tiny little plane with Nick to Bocas del Toro.

Bocas is good so far. It is quite touristy and a bit larger than I expected, but there seems to be plenty to do. It has a proper beach with great surf, good snorkeling and diving, and a handful of other islands to explore. I think I´ll stay here for a week or so and then start bussing it to San Jose, Costa Rica to catch my flight to Brazil. Ciao!

Panama City...Already!

The week with Jared was great. After I got over feeling ill and adjusting to not being in Utila and being with him in the Domincan Republic things were perfect. We went white water rafting and climbed waterfalls (which was actually harder than it sounds--my swim suit bottoms fell down while I was being pulled up one of the waterfalls and everyone, including the video camera man, saw my naughty parts!). Saying goodbye was horrible, and I kept having to stifle tears at the bus terminal and for the entire 4 hour ride back to Santo Domingo.

Which is another thing I think I should mention: traveling is hard. I mostly just post notes about all the fun things I´ve been doing and the great friends I´ve met. But there is so much frustration and emotional goodbyes and disorientation with travel that sometimes I feel like a shell of a person when I get to a new place.

On that note, I arrived in Panama City yesterday and met a fella named Nick to share a cab and a room with in the city. We basically walked everywhere yesterday stopping for beers along the way (warning: be careful when drinking with the English--they´ll drink you under the table). Today I am going to stop by the Brazilian Embassy to try to figure out my visa and then check out some scuba diving options. Will write more later!

Republica Dominica!

So I finally arrived in the Dominican Republic on Thursday January 3rd after about two days of continuous travel. Our New Year´s celebration in Utila lasted about two days, and I literally walked onto the ferry to leave having not slept in who knows how long. My friend Daniel from the dive center was leaving with me, so I had some company for the journey. Our friends Ivonne and Mario gave us a ride to the airport in San Pedro Sula (a few hours journey from the coast where we were) and we were there all day waiting for our flights.

It was hard getting on the plane and leaving. I just kept thinking I was making a big mistake. My travels to the D.R. took me through San Salvador, El Salvador; San Jose, Costa Rica; and Panama City, Panama so I had plenty of time to stew over whether or not I should give back the money and just go back to Utila after the D.R. I still haven´t decided.

Arriving in Santo Domingo, D.R. was great, though. The sun was shining, and I immediately met an honest and kind taxi driver who sped to the bus station so I could make my bus to Puerto Plata to meet Jared (my man friend!), waited to make sure I had ticket, then wished me all the best. The ride to Puerto Plata was long and stressful--I wasn´t sure where I was meeting Jared or how to contact him while in route. To top it off it started raining.

Everything worked out in the end, though, thanks to a very kind Haitian man sitting next to me who kept reassuring me I would arrive okay and all would work out. Jared and I stayed in Sosua, a German town for two days before heading to the resort my beautiful aunt had arranged to let us stay in. Unfortunately, of the four days we´ve been in this country, it´s POURED for three of them. I have been sick with weird bite/hives on my legs and a sore throat, so Jared has had to put up with a lot of whining and plenty of trips to the pharmacy (where surprisingly enough, there was another Haitian man who went out of his way to help me communicate to the pharmacist what was going on and how to take the medication...hmmm).

Yesterday it was gorgeous, thankfully, and we headed to a nearby beach town called Cabarete. There were kite and wind surfers everywhere, and the town has a laidback sunny feel. We caught a ride back to our hotel with one of the most upbeat characters I´ve met yet. Jared and I were squished onto the back of his motorcycle with armfuls of groceries and he just chattered the whole way about how much he loved his beautiful country and how we would too. He told us to come back to Cabarate at night for bachata and merengue at the clubs and gave us his card.

We´re getting ready to head down to the beach for a swim since it stopped raining for a bit. Ciao!