Bocas Del Toro

Getting into Bocas around 5 oclock we went out to dinner and crashed after the long trip. At the restaraunt we tried a couple of the local beers. Suprisingly Panama has about 6 or 7 different beers brewed in the country. At 75 cents a beer we had to try them all. I liked them all so much more than the Imperial's we drink in Costa Rica.

On our second day in Bocas we sighned up for a tour of the islands. It was an all day trip that included snorkeling with visits to Red Frog Beach, and Dolphin Bay. Our first stop on the tour was Dolphin Bay, it was pretty cool seeing the Dolphins play in the wake of our boats, however Allie was really upset we did'nt bring the camera. After the ride to Dolphin Bay we went snorkeling at a reef that really did'nt have many fish or coral to see. After snorkeling we went to Red Frog Beach. An awesome beach with green water and awesome waves. After two hours on Red Frog beach we headed to Hospital Point for more snorkeling.

After the tour we went back to Bocas and went to look for a surfboard for Saturday. After talking to some locals they recomended the local beach 2o minutes away from our hotel. To get to the beach you walk down the street cut through a path in a graveyard and you were at the beach. However after getting to the beach we realized the waves were way to small for much of anything. And the beach wasnt very nice.

We headed back into town and talked to a water taxi driver that recommended Playa Wizard. Supposedly a secluded beach with excellent waves. Out water taxi dropped us off at a dock and informed us of a path directly in front of the dock we could take to the beach.

The trail started off as a paved sidewalk between houses, after about 100 yards however the path lead straight up to a house's porch. As we were walking up the house we were greeted by the owner who assured us we were on the rigth path and we could cut through his porch to follow the path to the beach.







As soon as we passed the house the path turned into a muddy horse trail through the jungle. The trail climbed up and down bluffs with standing water and horse turds.
After about 20 minutes of climbing we heard the waves near the end of the trail we were standing on a bluff overlooking Playa Wizard. Even though Allie might disagree walking barefoot through the mud, standing water and hores turds was worth the desolate 2 kilometer beach with perfect waves.

Changuinola to Bocas

After a 20 minute drive from the border to Changuinola we hopped on a water taxi for Island of Colon. The main island of Bocas Del Toro archipalago.
After a 50 minute boat ride through estuaries and bays we reached Island of Colon. Our first night their we spent at hostel Mondo Taitu. With 50cent drinks and a bar in the hostel. This is a great place if you dont care where you sleep and want to get drunk. It was a cheap place at $18 a room but we decided to try somewhere else for the rest of our time.
The rest of our nights we stayed at a nicer hotel. The Hotel Las Brissas had a deck overlooking the ocean and other islands.

A water taxi in Bocas.

Border Crossing

After a 6 hour bus ride from San Jose we arrived at Sixaola Costa Rica's border town and last stop on our bus. We had to cross this bridge and find a ride to Chingola the town with Bocas Del Toro boat launch.
The crossing was painless it took about 30 minutes to fill out the declaration forms, and buy $5 Panama tourist tickets. After crossing this rickety bridge with missing and loose boards. We were in Panama.


After we got to the other side of the bridge into Panama a semitruck was just starting to cross the bridge.
Me in front of the Rio Sixola bridge.

La Feria

Pretty boring weekend the highlight was of course was La Feria. In Costa Rica every town has a farmers market on either Saturday or Sunday. The fruits and vegetable here are usually cheaper and supposedly fresher than the produce in the stores. The picture above is what you can get for about 18 dollars at the fair. After going there for the last two weekends we have recently been adding green peppers, onions and tomatoes to everything we make.

La Feria around 9 o'clock packed as usual. To give you some idea as to how cheap the market is here is a list of some prices I remember; 15 eggs $2, a huge bunch of bananas 50 cents, 3 avocados $1, head of lettuce 50 cents, pineapple $1, small watemelon $1, 2 cucumbers 75 cents, 2 onions 50 cents.

I found out on Saturday that I have a new class that meets 4 times a week. So now I have 8 classes, 7 different levels, 6 different books, and two different schools. I am surprised I can keep track of their names let alone all of their paperwork. I ended finishing my lesson plans up to Wednesday but I have already forgot what I am teaching to my first class tomorrow morning. I really need to get better organized, I wish I had OCD and had a certain place for every little thing. However it is the exact opposite.

P.S.

I bought Its always Sunny in Philadelphia season one this week off of itunes and highly recommend renting the season. I think they also just started their 3rd season on FX.

Poas Volcano

Poas Volcano is a very easy day trip to take from San Jose if you don’t have a car. There is an express bus to Poas that leaves form the Alajuela bus terminal everyday at 8:30. The bus stops in Alajuela and than heads out to the volcano. It takes around two hours to get to Poas from San Jose. And about an hour and a half is driving from Alajuela to Poas. Even though Poas is only about 18 kilometers (12 miles) from Alajuela the ride takes so long because you are traveling up a small and winding mountain road the entire time. Alajuela has an elevation of around 3,000ft while Poas is around 8,000 ft.

The picture above is taken from an overlook 950 feet above the bottom of the crater. Poas has a 40 year cycle of activity. And has last erupted in the 1950s. It is considered a highly active volcano and the national park is frequently closed due to high sulphuric gas emissions. The water in the crater has also recently been decreasing another sighn of a near future eruption.

When my sister Megan visited us to drop off some goods, Allie and I wanted to show her a good time being in San Jose not very long we were a little unsure where to take her. After getting in around 9 o'clock at night we figured we would just go out to eat and figure out what we were going to do the next day. We left our apartment the next day heading out to an Internet cafe to see where the buses could take us. It was 8:15 when we figured what we would do and the bus for Poas left at 8:30. We were in San Pedro and had about 15 minutes to get into San Jose and get over to the East side of town where the Alajuela bus terminal was located.

After taking the bus into San Jose we sprinted across the downtown along the Central Avienda, and hopped on a bus to Alajuela. When we arrived at Alajuela we were unsure of where to find the Poas bus and after trying to talk to some locals we started walking in the direction we believed they wanted us to go. While walking down the street a bus passed with Poas written on the front. We flagged the bus down and got in. The bus was around 1500 colones (3 dollars) a person a little steep considering it costs about 2 dollars to get out to the beach 2 1/2 hours away. However after the trip we realized we had paid for a round trip ticket with the same bus that waited for us at the National Park what a deal.

When we got closer to the volcano the bus started driving through a fog that allowed the driver to see about 10 feet in front of the bus. The heavy fog is due to the high altitude and condensation created from the sulphurous water boiling inside the crater.

While Allie and Megan inhale the sulphourous gasses. I decide to take a breather and take this picture. While walking around the national park you notice the smell of sulfur, not the most pleasant smell.
Taken on the walk to the lagoon, this part of the path was pitch black due to the density of the foilage.
After a 15 minute walk down a paved trail you reach the Botas lagoon a crater that has been inactive for the last 7,500 years. The water in the lagoon is extremly acidic however the tempature is around 70 degrees farenhite.


Above and below are pictures taken on our walk to and from Botas Lagoon.

After walking around the park for about two hour we headed over to the gift shop and bathrooms. Shortly after we got to the gift shop. It started to rain buckets. I took this picture from inside the shelter we had to hang out in for the next two hours because our bus did'nt leave til 2.

La Cruz de Alajuelita

Here are some pictures from our day trip La Cruz de Alajuelita. What a hike. Who would have thought climbing a mountain would be so tough. The weather has been perfect for hiking and I was really looking forward to getting out of San Jose.

The rainy season is coming to an end, and this past week seems to indicate the rainy season is turning into windy season. For the past week it has hardly rained and everyday has been around the mid 60’s with a constant breeze. Cool enough for a sweatshirt but not too cold for a t-shirt. Even though it is still October it only rained a couple of times this week.

After studying Costa Rica on Google Earth for the past week, I found a trail in the mountains that was accessible by bus. We left this morning at around 8 o’clock and had a 30 minute bus ride to El Llano. While waiting for the bus we met a very friendly man who after spending the night in a bar in San Jose was headed back to his home in El Llano. Don Armando dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and a black eye, decided he would help us find the beginning of the trail up the mountain.

After about a kilometer walk up the road with Don Armando we came to his house. He asked for a pen and paper and drew us some squiggly lines as a guide to help find La Cruz. He offered us a drink, we declined and going our separate ways we headed up the trail and Don probably to bed.
The trail started as a dirt slope filled with rocks. After about 5 minutes of walking Allie and I were ready for a break. This wasn’t a hike up a mountain but rather a climb up a mountain. We realized that we were in for a long hike and figured we would try to take breaks every fifteen minutes or so. After about 40 minutes of climbing and brakes we came across a fenced in pasture. I could see the cross was in sight and figured the fence was mainly to keep the cows in and not so much the people out. We moved on walking through a cow pie infested pasture with an eagle eye’s view of San Jose. After crossing the pasture we came to the trail again and shortly after reached our destination, La Cruz De Alajuelita. We had lunch at the top of the mountain 6,500 feet up looking down on the birds and San Jose.

A day in the life/ wallet / and nose

Just finished dinner decided to write about my typical day. I started the day off with a bus ride at around 5:15 this morning, I took the bus into San Jose for 155 colones. After getting dropped off on the east side of San Jose, I walked to the center of the city to the Coca Cola bus terminal. This terminal is called Coca Cola because Coke use to have a factory where there is now small shops and most of the bus terminals. The walk is around 1 kilometer and usually takes 10-15 minutes. I walk along the central avenida. Umm, I love the smell of fresh fish, fried chicken and the diesel in the morning.

When arriving at Coca Cola I hop on a bus that takes me out to Santa Anna, a western suburb of San Jose. This bus usually costs around 230 colones. These bus stops are very busy when I get their a little after 5, and the bus drivers believe it is their duty to try to break records for cramming pasengers on a bus. This is about a 25 minute bus ride where I get to enjoy being jabbed in the ribs by strangers and inhaling the pungent smell of cheap cologne. It seems every time I get on a bus no one wants to open the windows and someone close by is always wearing some cheap cologne. This really got to me today on my bus ride because I was especially tired this morning and I think this time it was the guy sitting right next to me, on top of that he had a watch alarm going off that he didn't feel the need to turn off.

After teaching at the Santa Anna Forum for an hour and a half, I took the bus back to San Jose which usually costs around 270 colones. I usually get back to my apartment around 9:30/10:00. So including the commute I put around 4 hours into my morning class. I make $7 dollars an hour and teach an hour and a half. I spend about 810 colnes ($1.50) on bus rides.

After class today I had to prepare for my new class at 6-8 and my Friday morning class in Santa Anna. I spent from around 11 o'clock to 3 o'clock planning the lessons for the 6-8 evening and my Friday morning class. I went to my employer's office to print up some hand outs and a 15 minute chore turned into an hour and a half trying to print my handouts up, talking to my boss and than using a copy machine that gets jammed on 2 out of 3 copies you make.

After going to the office I took a shower and headed over to my new class in La Sabana a Western part of San Jose. My class started at 6 but I had to leave at around 4:30. Because when you take a bus during rush hour I recommend you bring a good book. So I took the 155 colones bus into San Jose and transferred to the La Sabana bus for 95 colones. I got over to the school around 5:30 and was informed the students were unable to come to class. So I talked to my boss for a bit and he assigned me a new class at the same time. I ended up getting home around 7. If I were to teach the class I would have made 14 dollars because it was a 2 hour class and made 7 dollars an hour. Minus the bus fare that would have been around $12.50 from 4:30 to 9:00. So teaching English here seems mainly like volunteer work.

Below I listed a break down of the money and time I spend each day

daily bus fare avg (dbfa): 1450 colones /520 = $2.80 us *bus fares increase going into San Jose
daily income: $24us
daily time spent on bus (dtsob): 5 hrs
time teaching (tt): 3.5 hrs
planning/paperwork (p&p): 3.5 hrs

I need to move to the West side of town. When I first started looking for a job their were a couple places in San Pedro however I like the people I work with more at my other jobs. If I could move over to the west side of town I can probably cut down the travel time in half. San Jose is not a big city but it is a P.I.A. to commute through during the rush hours.

Looking for an Apt / Shootout

9:00 and I just got back from my first one on one class at my new job. The class went well and my student was very eager to learn. My new student Hector, is a manger at Juan Santa Maria Airport. We had a really interesting conversation about aviation in Costa Rica, and he explained a dispute over the funding of a new airport.

This morning Allie and I looked at an apartment in Santa Anna, a western suburb of San Jose. The apartment was a furnished 2 bedroom with cable, Internet and a pool for 500 a month. The complex was very nice, clean and had a beautiful backdrop with mountains less than a mile away. However the apartment was too far away from grocery stores and seemed more like a place people would retire to. The landlord mentioned the tenants were mostly old people, and while looking at the apartment I noticed the old person smell coming from the apartment next door. We decided to pass on the apartment and keep looking.

The reason we are looking for a new apartment is due to recent criminal activities around our apartment complex. A few weeks ago one of our neighbors was robbed at gun point. This Monday while I was at work robbers attempted to rob two more tenants in front of our apartment building. At my apartment building there are two gates that you have two enter. For each gate you need a security code and a key. The tenants were able to get in to both gates before the robbers were able to rob them. The thieves pointed the guns at the kids demanding their laptops which they weren't even carrying. A security who heard the altercation came down the block and shot off his gun to scare the thieves however they fired back at the guard. The police came and caught got one of the robbers and no one was hurt. Ever since than my landlord has had a security guard outside of our apartment every night, and has changed the locks. This makes me feel a little better but I still think an apartment full of gringos is not the safest place to live. Even though San Pedro is suppose to be relatively safe I think our apartment is a target for robbers. However not to stress the only things I ever carry around is bus fare and books so I would care less if someone took my school books and 500 colones. Along with the gates and electric fences their are little huts every couple of blocks. Communities hire security guards to sit in the huts and make sure everything is safe. Their is one of these huts around the block from us and that is where the security guard came from.

Finding a Job Part 2

Hey Everybody, just trying to work out this blog thing. So far so good.

Well this last week has been a pretty busy week. After trying to come up with a budget that would work where more money came in than went out. Allie and I realized we needed to look for new jobs. While we did have two jobs teaching English one of our jobs never gave us steady hours. So we quit one of the jobs on Friday and started looking for new jobs the following Tuesday.

After sending my resume to a couple English schools and two gambling web sites Tuesday morning ( I have heard of several job opportunities in online gambling in Costa Rica). I spoke with an English school Tuesday afternoon and was able to set up an appointment for Wednesday. The interviewer gave me directions to the school, assured me it would be okay if I was late for the interview and I could tell this was a boss I could get along with. I showed up to the interview on time Wednesday and was offered three night classes starting the following Tuesday. With three new classes on top of my three morning classes I figured I will make almost 100 dollars a week. That might work but will still need to eat rice and beans at least twice a week yuck.

This story I would say is a realistic and good example of the ease in finding a job teaching English. All the schools I have talked to and all of the teachers as well agree that native English teachers are always in high demand. I do not have any experience teaching English, majored in Aviation Management and was offered every job I interviewed for. It is easy to find a job teaching English in Costa Rica However finding a good school that is convenient, pays well, and gives you enough hours is another story.

The picture at the top is from Cahuita.