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| Goodbye to Nuevo Arenal |
It is with heavy hearts that we readied ourselves to say goodbye to sweet Costa Rica. After nearly two years, we’ve had such a great time exploring, have made many dear friends and have all experienced some pretty amazing personal growth. But, as was our original plan, we planned on heading out at the end of the school year, at the end of November. We gave away what we weren’t going to bring with us and made our rounds for our final goodbyes (for now, anyway). We do plan on coming back again in the future because we feel like we really have some roots here.
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| Lorena and her family will be missed |
We drove about 4 hours to San Jose and dropped our car off to a great small business who helps folks to buy and sell cars locally. They know our car well as they helped us to buy it when we first came. After a long, slow cab ride through unpleasantly heavy San Jose traffic, we ate our last supper at a local chain, Rosti Pollo, which is much enjoyed by our crew. After another (somewhat less slower) taxi ride, we arrived at the TicaBus terminal in central San Jose. Our bus was scheduled to leave around midnight and was "Executive" class. Executive class was meant to include a pillow, a blanket and food and drinks.
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| TicaBus terminal waiting |
We'd heard that TicaBus offers the nicest buses and the comfiest service in all of Costa Rica. Our bus and the ride itself didn't disappoint at all. We'd prepared for the 15 hour journey and knew we'd be crossing the border into Panama sometime in the middle of the night. In my mind, the border crossing would be relatively quiet and therefore painlessly quick. It's here where our assumptions were wrong. We slept peacefully from just after midnight until the bus stopped at 4 am, at the Costa Rican side of the border crossing at Paso Canoas. We got off the bus, lined up and waited. And waited. And waited some more.
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| A tired crew at 4 am |
We finally learned that the border on the Costa Rica side would open at 6 am. The painful realization of a two hour wait was softened somewhat by chatting with other passengers, none of whom were excited to be waiting for two hours in the middle of the night. We met a sweet family from San Jose with impressive English skills who were going to Panama City for a few days to shop. Talked with a tall, Yankee capped Panamanian who was traveling home after working in Managua, Nicaragua. A young German couple traveling through Central America. Two men from Barcelona who'd only met on the bus.
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| TicaBus |
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| Paso Canoas, early morning |
Of course, nobody could believe how crazy it was that the bus arrived at a time when the border wouldn't be open. For me this typified some of the unexpected challenges we can expect to face when hauling our family through Central and South America. We were in no particular hurry, but it was still painful to have to wait for so long in the middle of the night. Finally, just after 6 am, the line moved quickly, our passports were stamped with our exit visas and we walked across the border into Panama. Any sentimentality for leaving Costa Rica was overshadowed by the sheer joy of actually finally making some progress getting across the border.
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| Immigration, with Christmas decorations |
By the time we'd cleared immigration and customs on the Panamanian side it was getting warm and 8 am had arrived. As we were celebrating driving away, eager to sleep again, I notice that the guy I had been sitting next to (from Barcelona) on the full bus was not there. I brought this to the attention of the attendant and we were informed that he had not been permitted to go through immigration! In addition to your passport, the two (apparently strictly) required documents to enter Panama are proof of travel out of Panama and either US $500 in cash or proof that you have at least that much in a bank account. He apparently had tried to borrow money to pass this requirement and it didn't work out so well. The only problem was that his shiny iPhone was still sitting on his seat. We were reassured it'd would make its way back to him through the TicaBus office. Glad it wasn't us.
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| Happy riders |
After a couple more hours of really good sleeping, breakfast was served: sandwiches of ham, ketchup, mayo, lettuce and tomato, added to a package of cookies in a retro-looking TicaBus box. Though we'd brought snacks, I was hungry enough that I could have eaten the box itself.
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| Sunny Panamanian bus vista |
After yet more sleep, we stopped again. Maybe for lunch I wondered? Our the window across the road I saw a large McDonald's and then it dawned on me: our executive class bus ride would be capped off by a McDonald's catered lunch! I chuckled as our friendly attendant came through the bus delivering warm McPollo sandwiches from a large box. You can't make this up.
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| Lunch catering company |
By this time, our crew was generally well rested and enjoying the ride. The bus made good time into Panama City. We knew we were close when we crossed the famous Panama Canal and followed side streets into the surprisingly clean and huge city itself. We said our goodbyes, gathered our belongings and left our home of the last 15 and a half hours, emptying out into the national transit center. Loud, fast, brightly colored and dual-exhausted "adorned" buses and several equally brightly dressed indigenous women caught our attention. The size of the transit center and the appropriately scaled Christmas trees were impressive.
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| Welcome to Panama City |
A very reasonable taxi ride later, we arrived to the Hotel Terranova in downtown Panama City. We put the shower through its paces, soaked up our view a bit more and wandered out to feed ourselves. It was an easy decision to eat at Habbibi, a Panamanian Middle Eastern restaurant, which was quite tasty. We wandered back to the hotel and slept well.
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| Cityscape, as seen from from Hotel Terranova |
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