Team Canada

Hola! Seeing as though we´ve crossed two countries borders and a time zone since we wrote last, it´s probably necessary for us to connect the dots now and bring everyone up to speed! We spent our last few days in San Juan Del Sur hanging out with James and the crew.

(We became regulars at this restaurant where we ate at least 2 times per day... oh and we have also been averaging 2 lolly-pops per day, our new favourite travel snack)

We went to a beautiful surf beach nearby called Maderas where we spent the day laying in the sand, wandering down the coast, and watching first-timers get hit in the face with their surf boards.


(James warning fellow surfers that he´s about to hit the water)

(remind me not to stand next to a very tanned miss Erin in beach photos...)

Back in town, things were crazy: the president of Nicaragua (Ortega) was visiting SJDS and making a speech in their central park. Many of the roads were blocked off and the area was packed with locals and Sandanista celebrators. Firecrackers blasted all through town and fanatics wearing masks and their red and black colours poured through the streets. It was comforting to see all the police stand back and watch the rowdy crowds from afar, as they don´t interfere with the Sandanistas...

On our last night in town, we went out to Iguana´s, the hotspot bar on the beach, to have one last hurrah with James, Nat, Yaela, and other travelers who we´d spent some time with SJDS. After pulling the classy move of buying our own big bottle of Flor de Caña and brining it into the bar, we all shared some laughs, dances, ... and James´candy which he still had stuffed in his pockets from his piñata several nights earlier...

(Classic Hames)

After a long goodbye breakfast at Big Wave Dave´s, we hopped a bus out to the highway with 6 other fellow-travelers all headed for the Costa Rican border. For future reference: 8 people, 8 backpacks, and 1 surf board make it slightly harder to get picked up by cabs or pick-ups... Luckily one generous man squeezed all of us in his tiny truck and we made it to the border.

(I wonder why no one is stopping for us...?)

Erin and I decided to beeline through Costa Rica in favour of spending more time in Panama. We took a lengthy bus ride to Cosa Rica´s capital, San Jose, on what would have been a relatively pleasant ride, but the fact that the driver cranked the heat kind of ruined things for us. I mean really, who turns on the heat in Central American transit in the afternoon? Well.. perhaps the bus driver who was also passed out on a table in the ticket agent office where we purchased our tickets earlier that day with his shirt off, his huge harry belly moving up and down, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

After a short night in San Jose, and some excitement to see the bright red lights of a Denny´s restaurant in the city (we´re easily excited, especially over items such as toilet paper), we headed for the Panama border. We´ve been fairly lucky in terms of avoiding bad weather and conditions in Central America so far... about 10 days earlier, the coast of Panama was hit with heavy rains and flooding. Many roads and bridges were destroyed and some people had to flee their homes and businesses. We could see the aftermath of mud at the border and people cleaning up the area.

Forgetting that we jumped ahead another hour once in Panama, Erin and I only had 20 minutes to make the 45 minute drive to the boat dock to catch the last sailing over to the island of Bocas del Toro. Some man put us in a shuttle and called the ferry people to tell them to wait for 2 more girls... after a ¨quick¨ (to put it mildly) drive to the dock, the boat was still waiting, and we made it to Bocas that night. Continuing our string of luck (and perhaps with a little bit of charm), we got a really good deal at a decent hotel, which also had a bar, where it happened to be ladies night, and who can say no to free rum? It was no Flor de Caña, but it was economical. The next day we ran into a fellow Canadian traveler (Gates from Yellowknife), who we had bumped into 3 times now at this point along our journey through Nicaragua and Costa Rica.. or perhaps he has been stalking us? hah, just kidding Gates... or am I? He introduced us to another Canadian dude (Ben from Calgary) and the 4 of us took a boat to a neighbouring island and spent the day lounging on docks in the sunshine.

(and to think our families are back at home decorating christmas trees in abnormally cold westcoast weather...)

(Ben, Gates, & Erin relaxing)

(Gates´ass getting bruised on the boatride back to Bocas)

(Ben and the ladies, feeling the breeze)

Instead of signing up to do the typical beach/snorkel tour that most people do on Bocus, the four of us decided it would be far more interesting to get a boat down to these small islands south of Bocas. We were pumped that the main island, Zapatillo, was actually where they filmed the season of Survivor Panama, and we just had to go there! Our captain downed a few beers as he drove us down the island chain (it wouldn´t be proper Central American transport if he didn´t). We stopped a few times along the way at remote hotels and restaurants on the water, where we´re guessing the crew of Survivor must have been bunking while they did the filming. And they wanted to show us some different parrot species, which were cool.

(I don´t even know how to properly comment on this photo or to make a joke that does it justice... can we all just observe the fact that there is a gate, which locks, protecting the integrity of this cabin...)

(Ladies and gentlemen, our captain... oh and the boat had ONE lifejacket, which HE is wearing)

(Team Canada, excited to reach Survivor Island... who will return the sole survivor?)

We were dropped on the beach and our captain anchored offshore and played the bongos as he waited for us to have our day of fun. Although it was a little overcast, it didn´t matter because the island was so remote and beautiful. It was somewhat surreal to be wandering along the same beach where just a few years ago we were watching it on TV.

(One to send home to your buddies, Gates)

Once we got our bearings on the island, we did what any logical people would do, we tied our t-shirts around our heads and took on the roles of castaways for the afternoon...

(The boys constructed a shelter... while Erin and I ate chips and salsa... typical)

(good thing our headbands also gave us mullets)

After a great day on Zapatillo, we boated back to Bocas on what was a hilarious ride; it started POURING rain and we all had to get down on the floor of the boat because the rain was coming in so hard, and our captain tried to sheild his face with his one lifejacket, which was an interesting judgement call because he then could not see anything and was still driving as fast as he could to get back to Bocas quicker... The captain´s teenage sidekick/boat-hand was in the fetal position on the floor in the back of the boat yelling in Spanish about how cold (frio) he was... Gates and Ben were bent over with their heads between their knees, although I´m pretty sure Gates STILL managed to fall asleep... And Erin and I, soaking wet and getting thrashed around on the floor of the boat watching this all go down, were in hysterics.

Back in Bocas, and after a nice cold shower at our hotel to lift our spirits, Erin and I had a low-key night at our hotel bar. And of course this happened to us... we met the owner of the hotel who was a little tipsy and started buying us shots (of malibu.. who does shots of malibu?) and wanted to get us an upgrade to a suite. In this case, though, Erin and I went to bed.

Yesterday morning, Team Canada caught the first boat out of Bocas, and hopped a nice, short 10 hour bus ride to Panama City.

(Gates and Ben, sleeping on the bus)

We arrived in Panama City and the 4 of us are scheduled to be picked up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to go to some islands off the Carribean coast of Panama called San Blas. There´s no electricity there, so we´ll be out of the loop for the next few days... until next time, adios!