From Quepos, we headed to Panama, which is a land flowing with inexpensive and delicious baked goods, amazing coffee, beautiful beautiful Molas, and easy buses. Panama just might win the prize of best central american country so far... We spent two nights in Boquete, which is a town in a mountainous region about two hours from the border with CR. Panama uses the American dollar as their currency, but the prices for just about everything are about 40 years behind the US. For example, we went to a panaderia for breakfast, and got two cheesey breads, two coffees, and a pineapple muffin for $2.00. Amazing. Boquete is well known for its coffee and flowers. The local fairground was still set up from its "cafe y flores" fair the week before. We decided to see some gardens that are supposed to be kind of Alice-in-Wonderland themed, called "El Explorador." We got there and the place seemed to be in disrepair, which made it kind of creepy. Imagine a garden pot that has a 70's-esque smily face...now imagine it knocked on its side, with the dirt and plants spread everywhere... It was cool, too, though. Spread throughout the gardens there were all of these signs hand-painted in Spanish that had little sayings and prayers and advice. After we walked for a bit, we ran into the woman who ran the place, who apologized, and said they weren't open for business, since they place had been decimated by a wind storm a week before. She pointed out what we had somehow not really noticed- downed power lines, trees about to fall down...and she kept saying "Muy peligro!" (very dangerous.) Our whole walk back to the entrance, she kept pointing everywhere and saying "peligro, peligro, peligro..." So, we left, but it was really cool to see.
We took a day-trip from Boquete up to the town of Cerro Punta, where we hiked up in a cloud forest. That area of the country is known for its year-round strawberry crop, so we went to a roadside stand recommended by a taxi driver to get strawberries and cream and strawberry milkshakes and strawberry bread. mmmmmmmm.
Because I had my heart set on it, we took an overnight bus into Panama city to see the Panama canal. We were dirty and sweaty from walking around the cloud forest that day, so Gwen and I were looking for a place to take a shower before getting on the bus. This random guy gave us directions to a hotel that he said was cheap, where we could change our clothes and take a shower… On our walk over there, I asked a dad and his son if we were on the right track to El Escirpion, the hotel, and they very quickly told us it was crazy dangerous, with lots of drug addicts living there, ad we’d probably be robbed (potentially by the guy who gave us the directions). So, after chatting for a bit, he told us that we could shower at his mom’s house, which was a few blocks away. He sent his son Chris in the taxi with us to get to their house, and we got clean and changed, and then Chris rode back into town with us to make sure we got here safely. We had a package of M&Ms in our bag, which was the only thing that might suffice for a thank-you gift to the family- I said it was something sweet for them, because they were the sweetest. The dad apparently has a daughter in the states, and wanted to help us out after we were led so far astray. So, so, so nice. Reminds me that the world is a good place. crazy dangerous, with lots of drug addicts living there, and we´d probably be robbed (potentially by the guy who gave us the directions). So, after chatting, he told us we could shower at his mom´s house, which was a few blocks away. He sent his son Chris in the taxi with us to get to her house, and we got clean and changed, and then Chris rode back into town with us to make sure we got here safely. We had a package of M&Ms in our bag, which was the only thing that might suffice for a thank-you gift to the family- I said it was something sweet for them, because they were the sweetest. The dad apparently has a daughter in the states, and wanted to help us out after we were led so far astray. So, so, so nice. Reminds me that the world is a good place.
The overnight bus was absolutely freezing cold, but the canal was awesome to see. When we got there, a ship carrying about 500 tractor-trailer containers was going through the locks. Gwen was very generous to humor my extreme enthusiasm for the canal...
Before our overnight bus back out of Panama city, we stopped in one of the oldest parts of town to walk around. We found a group of women underneath this net of bouganvillas who were selling traditional crafts, so we spent a lot of time and money there. Our bus that night took us to an early-morning ferry to the Caribbean island of Bocas del Toro.
We stayed two nights in Bocas, eating caribbean food and hanging out on the huge and beautiful porch in our hotel. The Thursday that we were there, we heard that Gwen's aunt Sally was in a car accident, and decided to come home to be with her family. The first flight we could take out was on Sunday, so we headed up to cross the border back into Costa Rica to spend the night in the caribbean town of Cahuita. Crossing the border was crazy- the two border towns were separated by a river, and connected by a bridge that was missing a few important boards.
In Cahuita, we stayed in a beautiful cabina by the ocean. The ocean, however, was full of tree debris and dirt from the series of storms that had also decimated those crazy gardens in Panama. Swimming in the ocean was basically out of the question, so we walked for a bit to find this gorgeous swimming pool.
We swam, saw a poison dart frog, humming birds, crazy lizards...and we were surrounded by all of this beautiful jungle.
It was a perfect place to....
...get engaged!
We're engaged! I asked Gwen to marry me! We were talking about being together, and in love, and it was all of a sudden the exact right time to decide to get married. We're getting married!!! Hooray!
We got to WV on Sunday night, February 15th, and headed up to NY to visit with Gwen's family the next day. It felt so good to be there, supporting them and spending time all together. We've been traveling between Sally's house in NY and seeing my fam in WV, and will be back up near MA on Wednesday the 25th.
We've loved keeping you updated on our travels, and will post all of our pictures here, or on facebook. We had an amazing trip- and will absolutely continue our adventures in the next few months.
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