From San Jose to Panama City

From Monteverde we happily left the altitude, cold, and rain to more pleasant pastures in a place called La Fortuna. The main reason people go to La Fortuna is to check out the Arenal Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica! The last major eruption occured in 2000. One of the super highlights of our visit to the volcano involved sitting at the bottom of the volcano in the dark *and the rain*, munching on hot pizza, our eyes patiently focusing on the volcano, waiting to see an actual eruption *which we did!*. The volcano is constantly erupting and from where were were standing ie. quite far, we could still see lava rocks being thrown out of the volcano and rolling down the side. Not a bad way to have a pizza....

When leaving La Fortuna, we had two options to get down to San Jose. The easy option involving a bus ride or the more adventurous Plan Super B which would force us to white water raft a grade 4-5 river part of the way. And you thought I was a chicken! Haaa! Think again. The river was amazing. We slalomed through rocks and rapides and even nearly all fell in. But thanks to our cute captain on board * i am telling you these ticos are super cute* , we arrived safely.

Once in San Jose we checked in to our final hotel as a group. San Jose is a big capital city with no real appealing sightseeing opportunities. It's big, grey and polluted. I stayed an extra night in San Jose, in a hostel ... and let me tell you it was a rough awakening to the roughin' it part of my trip. I think i will have to splurge a few times on this trip to keep my sanity and respectability!
I spent the day with the coolest Danes ever. They even got me into a Museum *no easy feat!*

I then endured an 18 hour bus ride from San Jose to Panama City. My words are a bit harsh, it wasn't that bad. I was sat next to a 12 year old american boy called Jesse who's parents are evangelist missionaries in Panama. The border crossing was easy enough, although i did get a little nervous when they asked me for my plane ticket out of Panama and I realised that I only had my booking confirmation. No problemo!

Panama City is modern and very americanised. It kind of made me think of Singapore but in grottier and seedier. I think I was staying in an ok area but I can't be sure. I was discouraged by the hotel staff to leave the hotel at night. The Casco Viejo is the old district, colonial in style and completely dilapidated. A building had collapsed that day because of heavy rainfall. But despite this, it's charming *although slightly dangerous*.

I also took the time to see the Panama Canal. Very cool. The pictures don't really do it justice.
And sent a box home which in itself was a huge undertaking. First, finding the post office, then realising that they do not sell boxes in the post office, going to a chinese supermaket to get a skanky old box, arriving to the post office only to realise that i also needed wrapping paper. Bref, all this took the best part of 2 hours, cost a fortune and would not have been possible if an old Panamean lady had not taken pity on my and held my hand from the beg to the end * yes 2 hours!* In the end she put me in a taxi and i gave her a hug!