Last days in Colombia and Christmas in Panama

Merry Belated Christmas everyone!

Coming to you live from Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica. I've spent the last few days recuperating from my time in Panama by going to the beach, drinking an absurd amount of tropical smoothies, and wandering around the town chatting with locals.

I left off my last post having just come back from Cartagena in Colombia two weeks ago, with one week left in Medellin. I took it easy for a few days until Dan came back from San Andres on the Wednesday (14th) and crashed at my place. Dan and Daraab had booked a cottage in Guatape for the next night (Thursday the 15th), not knowing that Daraab would no longer be in the country at this time. Guatape was a must see for me and the place that they had booked wouldn't give them a refund so we invited some lady friends and headed up the following day.

Dan moves in slow motion whenever he is mobilizing to leave the house to go anywhere so what was originally a planned 11am uber ride turned to 2pm. We had to go super far out of the way to pick up the girls so we ended up arriving at our cottage at 6:30pm in pitch black. I knew the place would be nice, but this place was decked out. There were only four of us but this was a place for 12. There is not much to do in terms of nightlife in the actual town of Guatape so the plan was to party at our place at night and check out the town in the day. The next morning we woke up and almost without skipping a beat were like - we're definitely extending another day. 

Guatape is an Archipelago with striking houses spread out across the islands and a small city center where the main attraction is a giant 65 million year old rock that has somehow stood the test of time and has as recently as the 1950's been recognized as a national monument. The Friday I went with Dan into town and we climbed it to the top and saw one of the craziest 360 degree views that I have ever seen. We sat there and had some beers, chatted about life, and shared some hearty laughs. We also checked out the city center which had the classic colonialist colorful and low-relief architecture, but not much going on. 

Towards the evening we headed back to the house and chilled in the jacuzzi for a while. In the midst of all the high octane partying in Colombia, it was great to have a day to just hang out and have some meaningful conversation about our goals, reflect on what we learned about ourselves on this trip and of course roast each other without talking about the distractions of everyday life in Colombia. This was my last full day in Colombia and definitely one of my favorites. Naturally, being my last night in Colombia, it transitioned into another night of partying until like 5 or 6am.

What followed the next day was probably the worst travel day of my life. I was woken up at 8:30am by my taxi driver who had come to pick up just me, to drive me back to Medellin in time to catch my flight to Panama. After a two hour drive while still pretty much drunk, I made it back to my place with about an hour to pack everything and head to the airport. I made this in pretty good time, but because of my state, forgot a bunch of stuff which I had to buy again in Panama. I made it to Medellin airport with 1.5 hours to my flight and was told that I was not allowed to go to Panama without a flight out of Panama, as if I was planning on escaping and living in Panama. Stupid a** rule but whatever. I booked some random cheap flight back to Medellin at the end of January. Right after I did that, I realized I could have just bought a refundable ticket and cancelled it after showing them the proof. Then after that the lady at the counter told me I need to fill out some online immigration form. After all this BS, I had like 45 minutes to my flight and had to wait in the customs line which was packed to the brim. I made the flight with 5 minutes to go. I landed in Panama City and went to my hotel which I randomly booked without any research, only to find I was in the middle of the Panamanian ghetto. I passed out in the worst hotel room I've ever stayed in and woke up at like 8pm, starving. I had a flight the next morning (Sunday) exactly the same time as the World Cup final to Bocas Del Toro. 

Somehow, I made it to Bocas which is another Archipelago. I caught the extra time of the final at the hostel I was staying at, but I was way too dead to care about the outcome. There are not many places to stay at in Bocas because the city center is tiny. I figured I would do a hostel because of the social aspect, but I got a private room and bathroom because I am past the point in my life where I can tolerate staying in dorms. I took a few days to just explore the island, lie down on the beach, go surfing, hit the gym, and check out different restaurants. I stayed away from chatting with the people in my hostel because the vibe was clearly just party oriented.

A couple of interesting things to note. There we're a ton of German people working and staying there. Like, by far more Germans than any other nationality which is interesting because I always considered them more like Canadians - more interested in commercial and popular travel spots as opposed to exotic and remote. Kudos to them. But one of the downsides of being at a hostel run by Germans in their 20's is that every night is techno night. I asked the reception everyday what is going on and one night it's techno night, the next night it's reggaeton and techno night and even for Christmas Eve it was a hostel-wide dinner followed by you guessed it, a techno party. I thought ahead and only booked 4 nights here in case I didn't like it. My last straw with this place was them fumigating the rooms while I was taking a shower and only noticed it because of the smell at which point I had to wait outside soaking wet and in my towel until they were done.

I had a couple of near death experiences going surfing in the most popular spot on the island because I thought I was way sicker than I was. Luckily, I made it out after flailing for like 15 minutes with my board stuck on a reef. Even when I went to the beginners spot called Black Rock, I could barely manage because unlike what I had experienced in the past which is the wave breaking close to shore so you can just swim back easily, all of their surf spots were hundreds of meters off-shore and the waves broke on reefs so if you didn't know how to escape the waves (which I didn't) you just got dragged farther and farther back until you hit rocks. Clearly, I was overdue for a lesson.

The coolest ocean experience I had in my life probably was going scuba diving here because it is the first time I dived somewhere with a coral reef, so I got to see some of the vibrant colors and weirdest sci-fi looking under water plants I've ever seen in my life. I did two separate dives back-to-back and in the second spot the instructor said he saw a shark and a bunch of stingrays there yesterday - neither of which I was at all interested in coming face-to-face with. These dives, for reasons I'm not sure why, were the hardest on my ears. It felt like I was giving birth out of my ears for 10-15 minutes before they got adjusted to the pressure. After that was over we went to the bottom which was around 40 feet (personal best for me) where I was looking around me non-stop to make sure I wasn't being hunted by sharks. After a couple of minutes I got comfortable and was actually curious to see a shark or stingrays. We were coming up on a shipwreck that the instructor wanted to show me and right before we got there, he pointed right under me and there was a massive stingray hiding in plain sight in the sand within arms reach away from me. I quickly lost any desire to want to see a stingray again. The shipwreck was really cool though because we actually went inside and I saw the coral building around it and the equipment that was lost with the ship going down.

The nightlife in Bocas was pretty lacking and the beaches were all only accessible by taxi, shuttle, or water taxis. Plus, a lot of them were too dangerous to swim in because the undertow and riptides were way too strong. These were the two main things I had come here for so I was pretty let down. For Christmas Eve I went for dinner with two girls out that I had met the night before, to an Italian restaurant that was really good and where the owner was really friendly with me. Their names were Mey and Lucy and they were from Costa Rica and Venezuela. In a place where it was 99% tourists, I found the only two non-English speaking girls to spend Christmas Eve with. Though Mey was actually pretty good at English, I told them to speak only in Spanish for me to practice. We had good conversation and some fantastic wine, after which I had the best night in Bocas at the new hostel I was staying at because it was the first time I had seen everyone that I had met over the past few days in one place at the same time. 

The next day fully salvaged any negative impressions I had of Bocas because I went on a solo hike in the jungle to a place where I was told there was a beach where you can actually swim called La Piscina. I was a little freaked out at the start of the hike because this wasn't your North American hike through the woods. It was your thick, rainforest jungle where you can encounter a whole slew of animals that could probably mess you up. I chose to take the path through what was called Sloth Jungle because while I probably can't escape a Leopard, I had a good shot at beating a sloth in a hundred meter dash. After about two hours walking half through the jungle and half on the beach, I got to La Piscina. What a let down. The water was murky, the shore was way too narrow to leave your stuff, and I hadn't seen another human in about 45 minutes. I decided to keep going deeper in the jungle. After about 10 more minutes I heard something in the trees so I look up to see a monkey jumping from tree to tree. He saw me too so he came on a branch closer to me and started staring at me. A couple of second later a few of his friends show up and now I'm having a starting contest with like 5 or 6 monkeys. After a few pictures and videos, I kept going. Two minutes of walking go by and I notice that they are following me on the treetops. I'm also starting to hear more and more animal noises I don't recognize, so I figure that to avoid starring in a Panamanian news report headlined - Canadian Man gets Beaten to Death by Monkeys in Bocas, I start heading back. On the way back, I'm a lot more comfortable so I'm taking in all the sounds and sights. At one point I'm still in the jungle and I hear a low guttural scream that to me sounds like a Gorilla. I keep walking and sounds starts getting closer and closer so what was a casual strut turns into an Olympic speed-walk. The sound now sounds like it's right beside me and I'm almost in a sprint and then when I look up expecting to see King Kong, it turns out it's a howler monkey. This is just a harmless normal sized monkey that makes an unbelievably loud and low frequency screech given it's size. I also saw a few sloths but they all were hiding in densely leafed trees so it was hard to get a good picture.

I made it back to the beach where I started the hike and I got a message from my friend Baron who I had met at this very beach a few days prior, along with his girlfriend Wendy. They happened to be coming to the beach in 10 minutes so I met up with them and had a few drinks. Baron  is a web design freelancer and Wendy is a private chef (she actually cooked for Larry Ellison) and they live together in the Baja Province in Mexico (West coast peninsula). They're both in their early 40's and spend only a few months of the year at their home in Mexico, and the rest travelling. A little into our chat we were joined by their friends Tommy and Tara who were a married couple in their 50's, here for vacation for like a month. I had met them the day before so we all already knew each other. What followed was an incredible evening of sharing travel stories, stimulating conversation, a plethora of dirty jokes (mostly from Tommy and Tara), much vino, a ton of unsolicited female advice from everyone towards me, and an incredible Christmas Day dinner on the beach and under the stars. It was crazy how much we were able to relate to one another despite the huge age gaps. They were able to connect with me because they remember being my age and they were impressed with how young I was already living this lifestyle, and I was able to relate to their crazy experiences abroad and I am always infinitely curious when I meet people who work a profession that allows them to work from wherever they want. I am sure I will see them again at some point in the future.

After dinner, I caught the last taxi back into town at like 11:30 pm and ran into Mey and Lucy at the hostel. We tried to find a party to hit up but there was nothing much going on so I called it early.

The next morning I had to check out of my hostel and I had a boat, shuttle and taxi ride booked to get to the place I am to right now - Puerto Viejo. I got a hotel farther away from the city center to avoid temptation so I have been relaxing and working since then. But this is definitely more the vibe I was hoping to get in Bocas. Finally, a gorgeous and swimmable beach. More of a laid back feel as opposed to Bocas' underwhelming party atmosphere. Everything is walking distance. 

Only thing is the screen on my personal phone screen broke so I have to do everything from my work phone. I also lost all of the pictures from Panama which is why I wasn't able to include them here.

I was feeling a little stressed out yesterday because of a mix of that and I had no place to live in booked past today as well as no return flight back to Canada. I got that all sorted last night. Tomorrow I'll be moving to an airbnb for a week after which I have a flight from San Jose -> Cancun next Thursday. I'm gonna spend next weekend in Playa del Carmen visiting all my friends there and enjoying my last bit of sun before returning to the terrible weather that I'm sure awaits me in Toronto.

To my parents: I'm flying into the Kitchener airport next Sunday so one of you has to pick me up from there.

Hope everyone has a great NYE, you'll probably get one or two more updates before I get back.

Peace out

-MS