Nine Degrees North - Part 2

Blog continued from Nine Degrees North, Part 1  ...

We stop at the Farmacia to pick up some powerful  long acting DEET mosquito repellant for all those mosquitos we warned about.  Which, as it turns out, was one, possibly 3 during the entire time we were on our holiday.  Other little biters found us a few times, found me anyway.  Picking up the repellant, more

sunscreen, the pharmacist asked if we'd like to have something to 'prevent' dengue fever.  Now, I'm pretty sure nothing will prevent dengue fever, since we all know what the CDC says, 'the transmission of the virus from mosquitoes to humans must be interrupted to PREVENT the illness.'  

The pharmacist offered us Isoprinosine, a fairly  well documented immune system booster.  I figured that couldn’t hurt at all considering the trip ahead.  He seemed like a smart enough guy, so we took him up on it.   We quickly find a restaurant where I ordered a nice spicy/sweet rimmed margarita and started my immune building course, 1 every 8 hours x 7 days.  Tablets, not margaritas.

We're sitting at a cozy table at the window in this restaurant facing the pedestrian mall.  I happen to notice an aging gringo standing outside in front of me, talking to himself.  Looks like one of my former patients.  Tom and I looked at each other, “He looks like he's been here far too long.”

Fifteen feet behind him, we’re watching the 2 policia keeping a close eye on our gringo pal, all the while licking their vanilla soft-serve ice cream cones, enjoying the pretty chicas strolling by in the hot sun.

"La Chola" by Costa Rica artist Manuel Vargas

Wandering along downtown San Jose, you wouldn’t believe the number of shoe stores here, blocks and blocks and blocks of them.  Tom noticed, however, just how many people were wearing new shoes!  A pair of heels I saw cost 5,000 colones, and I wondered at the time, how much was that really?   Not bad for a pair of bright pink stilettos.  

We strolled through an indoor market, various fish and meats on ice.  Sliced dolphin on ice.  Fruit markets, eggs for sale, leather goods, hand-carved & painted wooden birds and fish wall hangings, leather goods, gorgeous hammocks - and panama hats.  Little food booths in which to get a taste of local prepared cuisine.   Fun stuff.

To honor Costa Rican City Workers, by sculptor Edgar Zúñiga

Another street, storefronts alive with signs: Ropo American,  shop here - imported goods, made in America.  Enjoyed many,  many beautiful art sculptures in and around the squares and courtyards.  

Wonderful.  

After a few hours, we bus it back to our little hide-away for a bit of rest before our journey continues the next day.  We see on CNN, in the bar, that the plane is still missing.  That's all we ever saw on the news.  Breaking News: the plane is still missing.  Malaysian Airlines #370.  Thank you, Wolf Blitzer.

Next day, travel to Panama from Costa Rica, our driver told us there's only one road that will take us from San Jose, down through the mountains to Limon on the coast, and onward to the border with Panama.  One road, two lane most of the way, with not near enough long passing stretches.  Double yellow lines don't seem to mean a whole lot there.  Everyone flies along at breakneck speed.  Never did see any car wrecks and our shuttle vans didn’t have seatbelts, either.

Passed alongside banana and pineapple plantations, flowers in all colors of the rainbow.  Clotheslines and big blue holding tanks propped up to catch what water does fall.  Big and small homes for poor and poorer families built of concrete, or wood, some with metal walls or roofs.  Homes on stilts, providing airflow, some welcome shade, a place to hang that hammock and a clothes line.  A few thatched roofs.   We pass by some large new homes, fenced in behind black steel walls and gates. 

Passing by one of these banana plantations, we ask our driver, "Why are so many of the banana bunches wrapped up in blue plastic?"

"In the blue bags is insect repellant, to protect the fruit, to keep away the mosquitos."  I checked online later.  Lots of pesticides.  Not good for the workers, either.  Big money for Costa Rica exports, though.  According to [caravan.com (2009)], of the top 20 banana producing countries in the world, Costa Rica production ranks eighth, with a total of 130 banana producing countries.  Banana-land, indeed.

Three fun-filled hours after heading out, it was indeed, an exciting moment to break through the jungle roads onto flat land and finally catch a glimpse of the Caribbean sea just a bit southwest

of Limon.  Dole and Chiquita branding on the side of huge refrigeration shipping containers, yards full of 18-wheelers headed out, were just a hint of the big business being done in this huge shipping port.

Stopped for lunch at a beach resort, we're racing over the ‘hot-hot-hot’ powdery sand to soak our feet in the ocean waters for the very first time.  Oh, that was nice.  So was the cold beer.  Beautiful place, the Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo.  

Weeks later, we returned here on our way back to San Jose to catch our flight home.   You could tell we'd just about had our fill of sun and heat, because this day we chose to relax and enjoy our lunch in the shade of the open courtyard, alongside the pools, artful jungle landscaping and gorgeous dark green, black, blue and yellow spotted turtles.

But I digress.   Back to our first border crossing, CR to Panama.  Crossing the border by land, via this shuttle service is a two, or three step process.  Sometime in the recent past, Panama passed a law that ‘any paid transport vehicle with driver' that brings people to Panama has to stay there while the customers are in Panama. 

Well, that became a huge burden for the transport companies.  Their business is to pick up and drop off, not be on standby the entire time tourists are playing in Panama.  So the transport companies came up with their own plan. 

Now you’re dropped off at the border, where you make your way across on foot.  On the other side, a different, pre-arranged vehicle picks you up for your Panama adventure.

So we're bumped out in Sixaloa, a sleepy Costa Rica border town where we proceed to make our way over to the equally quiet Panamanian border town of Guabito.  We follow the directions of our driver and the scattered policia who herd us along to the Costa Rica immigration office for our passport check.  Why are you here?  Where are you going? For how long?  With whom?  Very serious stuff, here, no laughing allowed, I’m telling you that right now.

Rio Sixaola Bridge

We’re then directed, along with all the other visitors, to walk across the Sixaola bridge, which hangs out over Rio Sixaola.  This bridge is actually pretty cool, in a scary sort of way.  ‘Turns out it’s a decommissioned railroad bridge, with 8’ long 2” x 12” wooden slats nailed down with long and thick nails, spaced far enough to clearly see the river below running down to the sea.  A bit treacherous.  It looked that way, anyway.

We get to the other side, made a quick stop to pay the Panamanian customs policia their $3, and then on to the immigration office, where we have pretty much the identical passport check as in Costa Rica.  Everyone’s keeping track of everyone these days, I guess.  

After several takes, we manage to find our next driver, our last shuttle van that takes us to Almirante, mainland Panama, where we board our boat taxi to Bocas.

To be continued.......