Leaving Panama and arriving in Costa Rica

This morning I woke up early as I had a plan to leave Panama and the rain in the hope of finding some sun, and in the hostel reception met up with a couple of others who felt the same way and were also heading on up to San Jose in Costa Rica as well as me.

Because of the them had only just had their luggage stolen by a taxi driver the previous day, I was on hyper sensitivity all day and was jumping at shadows even in the middle of a patch of sunshine.

The owner of the hostel was not up at the crack of dawn, so it was not possible to get a map or a postcard form the hostel, and had I knew this in advance I would have asked last night or got up earlier and takena trip to the 24 hour super market just a few minutes up the road, rain or no rain.

We all shared a cab but I made sure that I took a photo of the licence plate so if anything did happen to our stuff then at least we could put in a proper police report and have as best a chance as possible to get it all back.

Arriving at the bus station was a bit weird as a guy in a uniform t-shirt took our bags and threw then in the bus underrack, took our money and then walked off without giving us our tickets for thr journey or our bags, which sort of confused and worried us a bit as this was not what we was expecting, and although we were asking as best we could in Spanish he kept just saying that we would get them at the border.

This wasn't good enough for us, so before we boarded we all headed on down to corner him and eventually got tickets for ourselves but still not for our bags. The two ladies got seats together and I got a seat next to a local lady who seemed nice and polite but who had the window seat and me the aisle seat.

I tried to move behind but an elderly woman came and turfed me out of her seat, so I had to go back to my original seat and as it turned out this was a very fortuitous move as the girl I was sitting next to spoke great English and was very happy and friendly, making polite conversation with me all the way to the border and out the other end.

The border crossing of Panama into Costa Rica was total calm chaos, in that we had no real idea what we had to do and they seemed to be in no real hurry to deal with us or anyone else.

We had to get our passports stamped and then take our bags to a checking area where they were meant to be inspected, but after my old pair of trainers fell out the top as soon as I released the string pull, the guard gave the bag one look, and then waved me on and then I got to reput my bag on the bus and then head on across the invisible border and do it all again on the other side.

The Costa Rican side required us to collect more stamps, recollect our bags and hand in our passports so that they could hand them back to us after another cursory glance in our rucksacks, and I am glad that I didn't have a proper suitcase and people who had suitcases that were easy to open were given a much harder time of it.

The border was more a mini town or a market than a partrolled border and it was hard to tell what we had to do, when we had to do it or in what order, but on the other hand at least there was loads of people around to ask directions for and even exchange dollars for colona's if you dont mind getting a poor exchange rate.

Back on the bus and we still had a seven hour ride to go, although now we had to set our watched back one hour, and my and my new Panamanian friend V' were chatting so much I thought that the rest of the passengers were going to get fed up with me and ask us to quieten down, but luckily they didn't.

The view from the bus was great and it was nice to stop off for a proper meal about halfway, but with the bumpy roads and tree lined curves there was almost no opportunties to take any photos.

By the time we got near to San Jose the bus had climbed high into the hills bringing a chilling wind and cloud fog into view, so much so that I not only had to put on my jumper and jacket but also the rolling green mountains were eventually hidden from my roving eye.

Arriving in San Jose I was sad to say goodbye to my new friend V' but we had exchanged details and I would certianly look for her on facebook when I got a free moment later on today.

One of the two backpacker ladies from the hostel in Panama was able to meet up with a friend and stay with them, so it was only me and one other who caught the red taxi from the bus stop to our hostel and here things got a little complacated.

Firstly I was still a tiny bit paranoid so as M' was getting in the taxi I tried to take a photo of the taxi registration number, but this must have been a huge personal problem for the taxi driver as the second he saw the flash he got all angry, demanded that we get out and find another taxi, which to say the least was very strange and did nothing to ease either of our fears for a nice time in Costa Rica.

Thus we waited a few minutes for another to arrive and this time just did our best to memorise the number before we got in, not wanting to upset another driver and this time it was ok and we arrived for only 1000 colona's.

Although I had a booking my friend M' did not, and so we had a bit of fuss in the reception, especially as I wanted to pay in dollars and M' wanted a 80 / 20 split as neither of us had been to the cashpoint yet to get some local currency.

Once we got our keys to our dorm we spend a good ten minutes walking around the maze like place trying to find a dorm number 13, only for me to use trial and error to find that our keys fitted a private room dorm number 14, that was being shared by another couple who were not there at the moment.

We had barely got comfortable and set off to use the computers when the receptionist came over and told me that there was a mistake and that we needed to change rooms, which did not put either of us in good moods I can tell you.

Finally settled in we then wanted to get a bite to eat, but being a holiday Monday all the restaurants were closed and so we just grabbed a bite in the hostel restaurant which served me the largest plate of spaghetti I have ever seen, watched the end of a movie and then headed on back to our dorm room where M' read her book and I updated my blog.