San Jose, Costa Rica

So finally after my eery retreat to Playa Las Lajas, I went back to Costa Rica to catch my looming flight to San Jose with my new little brothers Pip and Jason (I say "little" but they are actually 22 and 21 respectively.) Here we checked in to a ridiculously luxurious hostel complete with aircon, free internet and even a swimming pool. Upon witnessing my surprise, my travel buddies informed me that this was the norm in Costa Rica. I get the feeling that backpacking around Costa Rica is a totally different vibe from roughing it in Mexico and the rest of Central America... In  fact, the range of accommodation I have experienced on my trip is extreme. From sleeping in a hammock alone on a beach with nothing but the moon and mosquitoes for company and not able to see my reflection in a mirror for over a week near the beginning of my trip... to being in a white-washed dorm with attached, marble-floored en-suite complete with eighteen-year-old gap yah kids from Bath straightening their hair and applying body shimmer by the end of it. Confusing mindfuck to say the least. My last day in San Jose I felt something of an outsider. Surprisingly, despite being a "city girl", I can say without hesitation that my most natural environment is definitely the outdoors. Forest not fashion. Conversation not cover-up.

In San Jose I spent the day wandering the colourful (but essentially touristy) markets picking up last minute presents for my friends and family before catching my flight back to London. I explored the city by foot, taking in the American influence of the commercial businesses, the discerning metal bars and gates at all shop fronts and windows, the barbed wire lining homes and residences... People describe San Jose as a "necessary evil" before exploring the rest of Costa Rica however, I only saw it in a couple of days which is not nearly long enough to make any kind of judgement of a large city. However the fences and barriers, open prostitution and racist slurs of the graffiti, all screamed of a paranoid city.

In my travels I was unable to see much of Costa Rica due to time constraints, but mainly due to lack of money! It is an expensive country to travel, with prices akin to the US. However I am very aware from my friends' encounters with the country that there is so much - mainly nature-based experiences - that I missed out on. I hope to return one day with a bit more cash to exploit all the wonders that Pura Vida has to offer.

My last day travelling was lovely. When travelling you say hi and goodbye to new friends on average, every 3days. I found that 70% of these people were absolute pleasures to meet and the kind who if they were London-based, the friendship could be nurtured for many years. My last day in Costa Rica I had to say goodbye to Jason and Pip who I had spent my last ten days with. American Jason - a very bright, funny, warm, charming, charismatic guy whom I felt extremely comfortable with from my first moments with him to my last. He lives up to American "jock" stereotypes and yet crushes them at once - amazing! And Pip, a sweet, also very bright, positive, open-minded, reflective, friendly joker from Holland. Their company was heart-warming and we meshed unbelievably well together. It was very sad as not only was I saying goodbye to these two wonderful people whom I may never see again but in that moment, I was saying goodbye to all the amazing people who I had met on my trip. As I was leaving my travel bubble. Once I stepped on my plane, noone would be able to relate to me like the people I met travelling. I would most likely never see these people - who really did touch my life  - again. I would have to pick myself up off THAT wavelength and ride another, more realistic one.

Pip, Jason and I

Playa Las Lajas, Panama

A few clammy bus rides (and most of the day later) and Jason, Pip and I found ourselves on the opposite coast of Panama to Bocas del Toro, at a beach called Playa Las Lajas. We chose our destination en-route and it was decided upon by the lack of bus services to anywhere else that evening. BUT it also seemed like a fun idea to go to another beach and if it was anything like Bocas it would be a place to party, swim, surf, beach it up, jungle it up and meet more interesting people.

It was nothing like Bocas.

Our 1 room, 1 bed

We found ourselves stranded by a bus in the dark night at a poor excuse for a bus shelter just outside a long road with a mildly exciting and promising sign reading 'WELCOME TO PLAYA LAS LAJAS' which we considered walking down before being warned it would take about 30mins to DRIVE down let alone amble with our backpacks around 10pm at night, not knowing where exactly we were going. So we took a taxi and requested that it take us to the nearest, cheap hostel. It wasn't near but at US$10 a night for a cabin for ALL THREE OF US it was irresistibly cheap! The ominous route there however was confusing. We were at the beach, apparently the most beautiful in the Chiriqui province of Panama and yet we saw nothing and noone. Just darkness, the odd tree, the muddy road and occasionally a deserted looking shack. It was VERY strange. And then we arrived at the cabins/hostel and an unreasonably pissed off hostel manager/owner "greeted" us and reluctantly showed us to our home for the next couple of days... a dingy, dark, damp cabin with only ONE double bed in the middle. It rained heavily that evening and so we cooked our own dinner, drank lots of red wine and then drunkenly attempted to make a fire with wet wood... for about an hour and were shamefully unsuccessful. The night ended with a drunken nightwalk/ nightstagger up the beach with one torchlight for visibility and no clue as to where we were going as we had never seen the beach in daylight. Plankton, crabs and shells seen only in the dim glow of our light made for an exciting walk.

The next day we walked up the 14km stretch of beach and discovered that it really is quite beautiful. The pacific ocean greeted us with warm, navy waves that gently folded into the black sand shore, very different from the East coast. As we walked along though, we discovered that Playa Las Lajas really is a ghostbeach. Dead! Noone in sight and lots of huts, restaurants, hostels etc just abandoned on the side of the beach. It didn't make sense to us and seemed like something out of a horror movie almost. However as we continued walking we discovered a small pub hut with about 5 (German) customers all watching the World Cup (Netherlands V Uruguay). It didn't make sense but the football and booze did. So Dutch Pip, Jason and I spent the afternoon getting drunk watching the World cup and rowdily supporting Netherlands to the other customers' disgust... and also taking swimming breaks in the ocean. Outstanding day!

That evening we made friends with and got more drunk with some handsome and lovely Argentinians who had landed at our cabins. Card games (Chancho va!), bottles of wine, torrential rain, boiled hot dogs later and a very merry Jason, Pip and me ended up switching cabins to another DRIER one... where we proceeded to roll about laughing and filming and joking for the rest of the night! ...Only to wake up to the psycho hostel owner getting really freaking angry at us for switching cabins, flicking us off and spitting "SOLO MAL USTEDES!" at us in the morning. Lovely.

We swiftly moved on from this middle-of-nowhere, beautiful hell and on to San Jose for all 3 of our flights back to our respective homes...