From Tolu (Colombia) to Puntarenas (Costa Rica)

I left Cartagena (1) and went to Tolu (2), another coastal town in Colombia, but this one is more for local people, and I liked the friendly atmosphere of the town. On my way to the Darien Gap, a rather dangerous place they say, I stay in Turbo, a not so very friendly place, but I have to take the launch here that will take me to Puerto Obaldia (4), where I get stranded a few days, because there are no planes, and I don’t have my papers in order. Puerto Obaldia is very boring, but when I finally get to Panama city (5), this changes. Panama city is interesting with a lot of contrasts, and later I meet a lot of gringos in Boquete (6). Unfortunately the weather is not too good, so I skip my plans for Bocas del Toro and move to San Jose Costa Rica (7), the most ugly capital of the world presumably. I end this trip in Puntarenas (8).

Before I reach Central America, I spent another week in Colombia in two coastal towns in the Caribbean. Most of this week I spent in Tolu. Tolu is an old fashioned beach town (it reminded me of the Mediterranean towns, a very long time ago when I still was young) and most of the people come from the region around Medillin to spend their holidays here. Is has a noisy atmosphere, because all the restaurants and bars are competing who can broadcast the loudest music, but it is also very friendly with people making music on the streets while dancing.


Tolu

There a lot of non-aggressive street vendors that sell artesanias and the local bicycle taxi brings you for not too much to every place in town. These bicycles are moderately sophisticated, because most of them too produce a lot of noisy music thanks to the large batteries, and only moderately because I expected at least colour television on board, where I could watch an interesting Colombian soap. I would love to watch them all day, these flag carriers of civilisation.

The beaches are small and after Tayrona the waves look rather silly. The water is very warm. I estimate it to be around 30 oC, and it is hardly enough to cool off, but it still is nice to lay on it, when around you it is 35 oC and cloudless. In Tolu I meet Peter again. He is a dive master and together with him I made two dives in Tatanga. He is travelling with another German Erich, a friendly chirugian from Munich, and Sole, a lovely woman from Bogota (who tells me has 26 brothers and sisters!) who works as an English teacher at the University although she has an education in graphics design!


Laffi and Alex place

They convince me to change my hostel to Villa Barbilla, which is run by Laffi, a German and world traveller, and Alex, his Colombian wife. They have a very nice place, a big garden with hammocks, decent beds and bathrooms, good music, and Alex is an excellent cook. She makes on a night a delicious Thai meal (curry, coconut sauce and langoustines) in a town where friendly said the food is relatively poor.

I stay four nights in Villa Barbilla and enjoy beer, rum (yes yes you know this by now) and the pleasant conversations of good company. Don’t ask I didn’t do anything in Tolu, besides lying like a pig all day in the sun (by the way in Holland pigs don’t lay in the sun!) on the beach. Laffie, Peter, Erich and I went one day to the San Bernardino islands, where Laffi and Peter went diving, while Erich and I visited Isla Palma, which has excellently been transformed into the island of bad taste.


Erich in front of the aquarium

It is called the Aquarium, but it is much more. Imagine an island in the Caribbean (2x2km) where they have mangrove forest, monkeys, a lot of different bird species (even birds from Africa like the Ostrich and the Marabou) combined with a naval museum, where strange Voodoo puppets seem to act as guides, and then the biggest treasure of all THE AQUARIUM.

Before entering this masterpiece of architecture we walk through secret caves of paper Mache where we can see pirates doing horrible things with women (and because little children read these stories too, I can’t further describe here)


Sailors are nasty creature

and we see a beautiful waterfall where even Patrick, the waterfall builder I have met in Bogotá etc, can find a deep source of inspiration.


Another waterfall

Our guide, a girl ca. 15 years old, doesn’t give us time to enjoy all these delicacies and starts to tell about all these little treasures, while she’s far ahead of the crowd, explaining everything rapidly with her back to the group and not interested if everybody is there. This certainly was an excursion to remember.

Next we go to Isla Mucura, and we cross several very small and idyllic islands. One of them is Islote. On this island 2000 people seem to be stuffed upon each others lips. Out of the air you can see that there isn’t a single tree left, every inch is covered by a house.


Isla Islote

Sometimes you can see an isolated house walking on the water, some sort of Jesus bird houses.


Jesus Houses

Mucara is the next island and every tourists dream. Beautiful beaches, white sand, palm trees, and the beautiful colours of the Caribbean waters. The main beach however is unpleasant.


Isla Mucura

The local people don’t even pretend hospitality. They want our money and fast. So while we are in the boat, ready to go aboard, they already start pushing us to order NOW, and I say in my ‘fluent’ Spanish, that if they behave this way, I won’t buy anything at all. Soon I regret me saying that, because this is probably the warmest day so far in my South America trip (somewhere around 40 oC). Even a dip in the water doesn’t help. But I’m a man of principles and so I buy my beer somewhere else when the lady doesn’t watch.


Swamp on Mucura

Still there are some nice pictures to be shot, although I’m glad not to spend my life here. I would be bored to death. Not even a computer.


Mucura palms


Mucura beach

Next day I say good buy to my German friends (Sole already left) and I go to another big attraction. There is a volcano near Tolu with a mud pool. Never have done this and every new experience is welcome. After that much sun the last few weeks my skin can use a beauty treatment!

Arriving on the spot, I miss the typical cone and when I reach the top, I can see a big hole in the ground and some people creeping and crawling in the dirt. I remember the pigs in Serere doing that, they also seem to enjoy it so OK WIM BE A BIG BOY NOW, don’t retreat, step into that shit hole and immerse yourself in that stinking and diarrhoea like substance. Be a good PIG!


Pigs in space

So there I go and as soon as I step into it, it is hardly possible to move anymore. One relief, it is not possible to drown in this murky (?) substance, and you can stay in every possible position.

While in there for an hour, it is fun to watch the people around me, how they transform into Pompeii-like statues and all sorts of dirty thoughts cross my mind (of course those thoughts are private).

Well it may be healthy, this sort of penetrating dirt, but after this bath I stink like a farting bulldog (and they can stink!!) so I take a minibus to San Antero where I spend a few hours on playa Grande, before going back to Tolu. For the time being this will be my last day on a Caribbean beach in South America.

Next day I take the bus to Monteria, and after that the bus to Turbo. This is my last city in South America, before crossing to Panama. Originally I wanted to take the boat from Cartagena to the beautiful San Blas islands and then to Panama, but unfortunately the first boat making this trip is leaving the 2nd of February and I don’t want to stay 11 days in Cartagena. The other option is taking a flight to Panama city (PC), but this option is too expensive (350 dollars round trip, or 200 dollars one way, but I might have a problem entering Panama when I don’t have a ticket out of the country –some sort of stupid law in that country-, see later for more details). So I will try my luck crossing the Darien Gap by boat and the Darien Gap starts in Turbo.


Turbo

Turbo itself is not much, it is a little port where they ship bananas. The people are not very friendly, the town is dirty, so it is not difficult to leave this place. Ohhh, the Darien Gap, they say, is the most dangerous place of Colombia, there is a lot of smuggling, drug transport, guerrilla’s, soldiers and police and I feel less comfortable about it this time.

Also when I see the immigration office in the port, where it says I can’t enter Panama, when I don’t have a ticket out of the country and I don’t have one. But the guy of the Colombia immigration office gives me an exit stamp and only asks me if I have enough money and have a vaccination against yellow fever. After that the police searches my backpack.

So off we go in a speedboat with 16 other people, first destination Capurgana. I thought I had some rough (bus) journeys during my travelling, but this trip is by far the worst. For 3 hours the boat dances over the waves that are getting bigger and bigger, and on the other side of the wave it falls down sometimes for more than 2 meters. It seems I am on a rollercoaster, but I prefer 60 rides in Goliath, one of the top attractions in Six Flags Harderwijk. Maybe you can compare it with riding on a mechanical bull. 13 days after this trip my bottom still hurts.


Darien Gap 1

After an hour the crew of the boat decides it is time to remove the plastic roof above our heads, so the next 2 hours we have a refreshing shower now and then (more now than then) and I get soaked rather thoroughly.

One row in front of me is an Argentinean lady sitting and it looks that she is going to vomit on my backpack. When I get more used to this shaking and stirring I notice the landscape and I can’t help admiring its beauty.


The rough

The waves that are splashing against the rocky shores, the cliffs, the colour of the sea, the capes, the rainforest with the bright yellow flowers and the beautiful little resorts and beaches where the boat stops to drop some wealthier tourists who will spend their holidays here.

Finally we reach Capurgana, the lady didn’t vomit, the police searches my backpack again, I have to go to the Colombian immigration office again (no problems again) and to the Panamanian Consulate ( no problem) before I arrange a boat to Puerto Obaldia in Panama.


Capurgana

First we walk through Capurgana and I’m a little sad that I can’t spend a few days here in this beautiful place. If I had known this. This resort has beautiful beaches and great backcountry, but I don’t have enough money. Who knows next time.


Capurgana sea

The next boat trip takes an hour. Fortunately it is not that bumpy, but it rains and now and then a wave brings us a visit. Then we reach the harbour of Puerto Obaldia (PO). I’m out of Colombia, left South America, Central America here I come, I’m in Panama!!


Puerto Obaldia

Needless to say we have immigration procedures. First the military police searches us, no problems and then immigration. Before me the Argentinean woman with two kids that are grown up by the way, has problems. No ticket out of the country, although she has a flying ticket from Bogota to Buenos Aires and that is not Panama.

They argue for half an hour and the woman opens up her whole register of tricks. She is misinformed by the embassy, she has a plain to catch the next day, and she then behaves pathetic and in the end she starts crying. The guy behind the desk is very clear and very strict not willing to cheat on the rules. When he hears I don’t have a ticket out of Panama either, he gets nuts and starts to complain that this way he can’t do his work!! He lectures me about rules, procedures and more of that sort of crap, (too many people stay in Panama, so therefore these clever politicians over there invented this rule, blablabla, as if people would make use of their ticket if they wanted to stay!!!). Impossible getting through his wall of speech I ask him: “Que hago”, and he says that I should buy a ticket out of the country for 25 dollars, it is an open ticket and I even can get off and on the bus without problems (which later I learn turns out not to be true). Well if that is all............., even the Argentinean woman immediately stops complaining. We will get this ticket when the plane from PC arrives and then we will get our entry stamps. Only problem, they don’t know when the plane arrives, and I’m short on money, so the next days I will eat bread and drink water.... Eh well OK two beers a day not more!


Puerto Obaldia street

Unfortunately PO is not like Capurgana. There is nothing to do, there is a lot of military, to go to the beach is forbidden on one side, and on the other side I should get a permit. I don’t even ask if I can go to the mountains, I already know the answer. So the only thing to do is learn some Spanish, watch the locals, where women of the Kuna tribe are the most interesting to watch, because of the colourful dresses they wear and the ornaments around their legs (Chaquiras). Life is too quiet here, most people sit on their ass the whole day. I like being lazy, but this is even too much for me.

The only thing here is the sea and there are big waves again. It might be dangerous here too, because of the undercurrents.

On the morning of the third day, I hear that a plane from PC will arrive and my name is on the list. The plane will leave at 11 AM. So I hurry to the guy of Immigration to get my entry stamp. Although I don’t have my ticket yet, he gives me an entry stamp. The guy is really not bad. I’m in Panama officially now!!!!!!!!!

Of course the plane is not on time, but around 1PM when the dog has sniffed our baggage, I get my bus ticket, and we leave to PC where we arrive 40 minutes later. Needless to say we have immigration procedures. First we have the dog again and I hope the other dog didn’t pee on my backpack. Male dog have the nasty habit of peeing over everything that doesn’t smell like theirs. Then there is the man of Immigration and although I have an entry stamp, the same questions, that stupid bus ticket and this is NEW, they verify my passport number. Then, probably because the dog had a cold, final inspection of my backpack by a guy, who is taking his job very serious (and I mean very serious....). So after 11 inspections (is 11 not the fools number?) I’M OFFICIALLY IN PANAMA AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the airport I get a lift from a Panamanian woman who shows me the centre, brings me to several 3hour 10$ hotels, which seem too noisy and finally drops me in front of one of the nicest hostels in PC, “Casco Viejo”. After 5 energy consuming days I’m finally in Panama City.


Panama casco viejo

PC is certainly a city that forces you to think. At one end of the city is Casco Viejo, the oldest part and well worth visiting. At the other end is the new part with skyscrapers, malls, American food chains, and wealthy(?) Americans. In the middle you have the centre (very clever remark Wim!!!), which has nothing interesting to visit except for the 3h 10$ hotels. PC is built in a bay on the Pacific coast, and the views along this bay from the old town to the new town and vice versa are magnificent.


Old and new

Casco Viejo, some people told me, looks like Havana, which isn’t a compliment in one way, but it the other way it is. There is life on the streets and also the noise coming out
of the houses is very vivid, a lot of noise and temperament. A nice place to watch people and according to many locals in some places very dangerous, where you better can’t go.


Here do live people!

I even get police protection (recognize this Tony and Ainsley??) to guide me out of the area Chorrillo, when I was strolling around, interested by the old wooden (and almost rotten) houses, the life on the streets, the dirt etc.


My private guards

Casco Viejo is a mixture of these old wooden houses,


Casca viejo's life

newly renovated houses, old stone houses that almost look like ruins (most of the time people still living here). There are even stone buildings where only the frame is standing and it looks like they have been bombed. It might even be true because close to the theatre (which is a lovely place),


The theatre

there are the remnants of a building that was bombed by the Americans when they brought Noriega a visit in 1989.


House with lot of fresh breeze

One of the nicest places that combines a lot of these elements is near Plaza Herrera, where there is a remnant of the old city wall (like in Cartagena), old wooden houses falling apart, and a beautifully restored 19/20th century building, that resembles the bow of a ship. 100 meters further starts an area, where a tourist better doesn’t come. There are a lot of this sort of places with mixtures of renovated houses and houses falling apart and therefore it is a pleasure to walk around to discover all these extremes in every single street. I enjoyed it very much, this vibrant part of town.


The bow of a ship and the city wall

Unfortunately this situation won’t last long. They are going to renovate Casco Viejo. Although I understand the necessity, the plan is also to throw out the poor (probably to where they belong which is the slums that surround every big city in the third world) and then the project developers march in, renovating it in a sterile fashion and degrading the place into a shopping area for the rich at day time, and a dead object at night time, with the exception of some plaza’s where the rich will eat in expensive restaurants and the poor are performing some silly dances in the hope that the rich will spare a few dimes for this pleasant minute if diversion in between the soup and the lobster.


I said the fool


Kuna uniform

The presidential palace has a curious guard. They are cranes and they don't like the competition from there human collegues, who is very proud of his task.


Presidential gard


city life


Panama new

I hope that PC will not develop into something the centre of Cartagena already is. Then on the other side the sky scrapers, which suggest that there is a lot of American money in Panama.
Talking about Panama city, the absolute must is the canal. And since I am a former employee that worked on this sort of installation, I have to go. The Panama canal connects the Pacific with the Atlantic and is 80 km long.


Panama canal

To get from here to there you have to cross three locks that raise the ships about 100 metres (and drops them again the same height). The French started the first project (by de Lessep, the same who built the Suez canal), but it failed very soon. Then the Americans came in and they finished the project successfully in the second decade of the 20th century. Until 1999 the Americans had the jurisdiction over the canal, but handed it over in 1999 to the Panamanians. The canal is an impressive piece of technology but the 5$ entrance to the visitor centre was too much for me, so after the more or less obliged pictures, I walked to Panama bay, where there is only a small strip between the bay and the last part of the canal. Also here you see they are investing a lot of money to attract the wealthy (American) tourist.


Panama bay (left) and Panama canal

All in all I had a nice time in PC. One of the nicest experiences was a street concert, where I just happened to be, and enchanted by their music, I sat down and watched happily these incredible musicians and their poetic music. Malpais –the name of the band- is Costa Rican, and it reminded me of the Nits, Angelo Branduardi and other bands that integrate local music with pop and classical music. I even bought their CD, and felt refreshed for two days. Art is really comforting.


Balboa monument

Next day I take the taxi to the bus station and meet a guy who already travels 10 years. He is around 30 and I realise I’m still an amateur. I take the bus to Boquete,


Panama buses


How to make ice (a big ice block, scrap it of, and add sirup)!

a 7 hours long journey to the border of Panama and for the first time the landscape is boring and I realise I really have left South America. Gone are the mighty mountains of the Andes.

I hardly have a good reason choosing Boquete. I wanted to go to Bocas del Toro (islands in the Caribbean) but the weather predictions are not good and being on a small island when the weather sucks, that never again. I learned that in Belise once. Boquete has some nice countryside and is close enough to Bocas may the weather turn to good.


Boquete

All in all I stay 4 nights. The little village is slowly being transformed into an Anerican countryside village. Many Americans buy property here the largest being retired. They surprise me too. They are very critical about their government, and although I never met any American during my travel who likes the Bush administration, I didn’t expect this from an older generation. One of them even speaks of “this corrupt government”.


Valle Escondida

Outside Boquete an American has bought a whole valley and he now slowly (?) transforms this valley into a village for the rich. I must admit (after paying 2 dollars entrance) that the houses are built in a beautiful environment and even the houses are altogether not that bad, but a closer look upon the lots learns me I will not spend my money here. 250000$ for a house where the neighbours are almost looking in your bedroom, and there is only a front garden, no I’m going to spend my money elsewhere. I think of Patrick Ryan again. He really could build some great waterfalls here.


Valle Escondida 2

Boquete is advertised as a place with a lot of flowers and this is certainly true. It is a long time ago that my nose did some work (although I mustn’t forget the little stream in Turbo Colombia, that looked black and smelled as if at least 1000 elephants had been shitting and vomiting into it), and the friendly sun gives these flowers a mighty aura.


Flowers in Boquete

There are even gardens to visit according to my guide book. One of them is Mi Jardin is su jardin, but this garden is not my garden. The initiative of the owner is however very friendly. He opens his garden for the public for free, and all Dutch love this sort of gesture. Unfortunately this garden doesn’t give me any thrill at all, and for a little while I wonder why. I start to think of the garden my mother had in Utrecht. A heavenly garden. My mother, she is a gardener. Always when I was in there I felt at home (which is true by the way), and also the garden of my sister Marleen has the same atmosphere. What is the difference with this boring garden????

I walk further through hilly landscape with some nice views on the surroundings and I stumble onto another garden, El Explorador, but to enter this one I have to pay 2$! That is a lot of money for this Scottish Dutchman, and I hesitate………….

OK, I’m in a good mood so I give this monstrous sum of money to a friendly looking lady, and here we go…….


THE GARDEN EXPLORADOR

MMM, this seems to be interesting, although all that moralistic stuff in here, I don’t know, that could be a little bit less.


Translate lesson

Hmmm, but I love that view over there and heee what an interesting flower. Shit, I never saw such a palm tree. WOW, a green humming bird, hihihi that’s funny, I have never seen that, mmm that saying certainly has some true meaning, I can’t deny that…….HAHAHAHAHAHA, don’t drink when you fly hilarious,



Don't fly when you drink

OOOOOH this reminds my of Bert’s (de Wilde, my art teacher) little objects in his atelier. Maybe you should call them “Little sparks of Joy”.


Sparks of Joy 1


Sparks of joy 2

And so I wander around a few hours in this lovely garden; nice flowers, funny objects, things that make you think, nice places to sit and to watch the landscape in the right spot. In every corner there are things to be surprised of, or just to laugh about. Yes I’m touched again, like before in Sucre, in the textile museum (Bolivia), or like in La Paz, just walking in the streets, like Serere, seeing the colourful insects and what to think of that wonderful museum in Lima, there was so much to DISCOVER.

Yes it is about discovering, that makes a good garden, that was there at home, that is still there in Marleen’s garden and I hope will be there when Thesy’s (my other sister) garden gets more shape.

To discover, to explore………..

My last day in Boquete with still bad weather, I spend walking around a little bit more.


A walk through the Boquete area

This time to the hills where there are some coffee plantations, and later I talk with Diego and Natalia in hostel Palacio. They make articrafts and sell it on the streets. They make long days, but earn enough to combine travelling with working. Natalia is doing this for 3 years now, and Diego started when he was 16. Now he is 25 and has seen most of central and South America. I admire them, these friendly people and they change my way of thinking a little bit further.


Coffee

The weather in this part of Panama stays windy, rainy and cold, so I decide to skip Bocas del Toro, and move to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, 7 hours by bus from Boquete.


Raining cats and.......

I cross the border in Paso Canoas, and to my surprise the lady behind the desk doesn’t even look at me. She just stamps my passport. No controls, no dogs, why didn’t I smuggle a shit load of cocaine. I could have made a fortune.

The bus from Neily to San Isidro, a greater part along the river El General, is rather nice again. The part from San Isidro to San Jose in a full bus, where I have to stand most of the time is in the dark. I arrive in San Jose, while there are presidential elections going on. It is very exciting because Arias (40,5%) leads Solis (40,2%). Many people drive in their cars, making noise and flagging.


Through Costa Rica


Through Costa Rica 2

I go to hostel Nicaragua, an old and worn out place, run by an old and worn out lady with grey hair (but I have respect for her grey hair). San Jose is however the most ugly capital I have ever seen. There is nothing interesting and the architecture is awful. Wait!There is one interesting spot.


San Jose

If you think away the fences, the concrete and the litter, and you just look at the virgin soil, that his how I would like to see San Jose. No time to waste in this place.

Next I spent 1 day in Puntarenas. It is not an incredible place, but after almost two weeks clouds and rain (yes Barbara and Walewein, be glad you are in Holland, because the last 2 weeks were awful!) it is nice to see the sun again. Puntarenas is built on a small strip of land (6km x 600m) surrounded by the pacific. It could be a nice beach town, but it is not, so after one day I leave to Santa Teresa on the other side of the bay.


Puntarenas

Why……??
I’m going to meet a friend, next time more.
Love Wim


Los endos 1

Los Endos 2