As soon as we crossed the Nicaraguan/Costa Rican border the differences were striking and apparent. I have been to Costa Rica before, so I knew how developed the country was, but after living in Nicaragua, it is crazy. It is an entirely different world. Costa Rica is looking more and more like America (I was there about 18 months ago and it looks even still more different now then then.) The differences in money, standards of living, infrastructure and everything else you can think of are so different between the countries. I was just blown away. Olivia and I spent some time in downtown San Jose that night and just enjoyed being in a big city, it was crazy after all that time not being in a big city. We went back to the hostel early after an extremely hard time of not being able to get back because literally no taxis knew where it was. We literally had to go from taxi to taxi asking, in the dark, getting darker, and finally a nice guy helped us and said we would find it together, and we did! Once back I went through all of my stuff and got rid of a ton of shit. My bag was way too heavy (probably around 50 pounds) so I unloaded a lot. I have this bad habit of packing WAY too much, you think I would learn by now....
The next morning we took a bus from San Jose (or the plan was) to a city that we were supposed to connect with a water taxi, to take us the rest of the way to Bocas. When we got to the Panamanian/Costa Rican border, there were a young guy who was on the bus with us who had lost his passport and had a new one sent from Canada, but it had been inadvertently stolen/lost in the mail, so he had been issued a temporary one by the Canadian embassy in Costa Rica. Problem was, when he got to the border, someone had crossed that border with HIS passport. So they wouldn't let him over. Well, I felt really bad for him, but since we were all on the same bus together, the bus wouldn't leave without him.....a 20 minute border crossing turned into a 2 hour plus border crossing, in the pouring down rain. They eventually let him over, but by the time that happened, we were told we would not make it to the last boat in time to get to Bocas that night. So a taxi driver took us and 12 others from the bus (we were insanely packed in) the rest of the way insanely fast. I don't think I have ever driven so fast in a car, and it was pouring down rain and it was extremely windey up in the mountains. I was freaked out the whole way as was everyone else. We eventually got to the taxi literally 5 or so minutes before it left and were on our way to Bocas. We got to Bocas, found a hostel and decided we would only stay there that night because it was literally the shittiest, dirtiest, nastiest, loudest hostel we had ever stayed in. I literally had shit growing from my bed, these nasty looking dangly things....I was on the bottom bunk and they were growing towards me. Ewwww!!! There was also a bar at the hostel, so the place was literally shaking from it being so loud, and we had to get up at the ass crack of dawn for our SCUBA class, needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep that night.
We woke up very unrested the next morning, found a very nice hotel with AC for the same price! We then went to our first SCUBA class. SCUBA diving is something I have ALWAYS wanted to do in my life and I was really excited. We had to fill out medical paperwork to SCUBA of course and I marked that I have asthma and that I get seasick/motion sickness. Then the instructor said if anyone marked any boxes they wouldn't be able to dive without medical clearance, so he said we could unmark them if we wanted. He asked if my motion sickness/asthma is a problem and I'm like nah, not really a problem, hardly ever happens.. Biggest lie of my life! Probably wasn't the smartest move, but I really wanted to dive. You should all probably know by now, my motion sickness is EXTREME. I get sick on swings. Seriously. And I have very bad asthma as well. Fortunately though, I had no problems the entire time! So, I was really excited to dive, but as we were talking to the instructor and in class my anxiety level started to rise and rise. Especially after we found out we would be going underwater within two hours of the start of our class! TWO Hours?!?! I was freaking out! But low and behold, about 90 minutes within the start of the class we were being fitted with gear (there were two other American guys with us in the class and our instructor was an American) and told of the things we were going to have to do underwater. These things included: Flooding our masks with water and then getting the water out again, changing our respirator to back up sources, which involves taking the respirator out of your mouth, continuously blowing bubbles until your secondary source or your buddies secondary respirator is back in your mouth and last but not least, having our oxygen turned off underwater and NOT being allowed to panic. YAY! I was really excited. Not. I was freaking out. As we got to the bottom of the water (we were only about 15 feet down, but in the ocean) I was like WTF am I doing?!?! Humans do not have gills for a reason!!!! I was watching everyone else and I was like why can't I be as calm as them, they are doing their skills so well!!!! When my oxygen was turned off (you have about 3 breaths from when its turned off until its gone) as I was breathing my last breath, waiting for the moment when I try to exhale and get nothing, I was really starting to panic. I unknowingly exhaled my last breath, went to inhale another and....NOTHING! I cannot describe the feeling. Unless you have SCUBA dove before or for some other reason had no oxygen source, being without oxygen is a very strange abnormal feeling. It feels like your lungs kinda shrivel up and someone is sitting on you and you are choking all at the same time. I don't really know how else to describe it lol. But it was scary and is definitely not a way I would want to go. When he first told me our oxygen would be turned off I kind of freaked out and was like how long EXACTLY will it take for the oxygen to come back on?!!? He was like once its off, I can turn it back on instantly, don't worry. The test was just so you know 1.) What it feels like to not have oxygen and 2.) Showing you can handle that. Well, I survived all of those skills but was like, yaaaa I can't do this. SCUBA is not for me. I'm not coming back. We broke for lunch and after talking to Olivia and the other guys they all thought the same thing, I thought I was the only one panicking!!! That made me feel better and I decided to come back. That afternoon we went on a dive (an actual dive, to about 45 feet) and it went much better then the morning. After a full day of class and dives (about 8 hours) we went home to study and read a 400 page book that we had to finish by the next day. So we did A LOT of reading and homework.
The next day we had more class and diving in the morning and had to do all the skills we did the previous day in the 15 feet of water in 30-40 feet of water in the open ocean, plus other skills like completely removing our mask and having to swim 30 feet of water on one breath of air. The skills were scary again, but I did much better and passed them all. We broke for lunch and in the afternoon went out on a fun dive without having to do any skills which was really fun. We descended through a field of thousands (literally) of moon jellyfish, thankfully they don't sting, but I was still a little freaked out swimming through them, but it was pretty amazing. After the second day I knew that I could finish the certification and wanted to, I just had to let go of the panic and fear. But Olivia and I were both worried we wouldn't pass the final written test! We went home after our afternoon class and studied until 2 AM, crazy for SCUBA! I felt like I was in school again, haha. The next morning, we took our test and we all passed! Went on our final dives, did our final skills and we were all certified!! It is really exciting since it is a life long goal I have had and now can dive anywhere I want to!! On our dives we saw lots of different fish, coral reefs and a ship wreck! The diving in Bocas wasn't amazing (snorkeling in Belize was better) but I am excited for future diving around the World! Walking on the dock one day I got an enormous piece of wood shoved into my foot (like a huge sliver) so I have had to have my foot wrapped up for the past few days. I have really bad luck/am really clumsy when it comes to injuries, it sucks!!
After 3 days in Bocas, and literally only diving, sleeping and eating there, we set off for Panama City by bus. Oh what a journey that turned out to be. We had to take a water taxi to shore and then a taxi to catch the bus. So, my bag is VERY heavy, still, even after I have chucked a bunch of shit out. I always warn people before they try to huck it around, but its always men and they're always like oh ya ya ya, no problem, then go to pick it up and are like uhhhhhhhh soo heavy!! A guy picked up my bag from the boat and then almost dropped it between the boat and dock! Thankfully someone caught it in time. Literally two minutes (or less) later, the taxi driver threw up my bag onto his van, missed, and then my bag rolled and bounced down a huge hill towards the ocean, three guys chased it and somehow, miraculously caught it inches from the water. But not before it was covered in mud. Sigh, my life traveling!! haha. Thankfully, nothing was broken though, my bag is just a little dirty. We got on the bus finally and it stunk SO bad. It was supposed to be 7 hours to Panama City but it somehow turned into 12, awesome! In the final minutes of the bus ride literally, a woman started throwing up right next to me, and though I felt bad, literally having been in her place before, I was freaking out because me+puke+sounds of puke usually=me puking. I was gagging and had my mouth/nose covered but it was a hard last few minutes. But, I made it out ok! We got in a taxi, went to the hostel that we had a reservation at, only to find out they were full. Awesome!! We had to get back in a taxi and go around to a bunch of other places asking prices and etc.. Finally got a hostel and immediately went to sleep without dinner after our crazy day of 14 hours of traveling.
The next morning we got up and went return our tickets that were to take us back to Nicaragua by bus from Panama City. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but I changed my ticket to come home a week early leaving from Panama City instead of Managua, Nicaragua. I did it for many reasons, but mainly because all of a sudden, I just got a feeling that I was ready to come home. I can't really explain it but I immediately went and changed my ticket when I thought that. Anyhow, so we had these Ticabus tickets (think Greyhound) that we had to return and we had to go to this mall/transportation hub to do so. When we got there, we were told they would have no money for about 5 hours or so, so we decided to go to the mall! Now this mall is no ordinary mall, this mall is the biggest mall I have ever seen/been to in my life. It was utterly overwhelming. I hadn't been in anything bigger then a small convenience store size store since August, so it was pretty crazy. And it was PACKED with people, wait till you see the picture, it was insane, like body-to-body contact while walking. We shopped for a few hours, got our tickets refunded and then headed to an area of the city called Casco Viejo, an older area of Panama City. It immediately reminded both of us of Southern Italy or Portugal, it seriously felt like we stepped into Europe! It was pretty crazy and really made me miss Europe! It was so beautiful and is this littler peninsula that juts into the water so is surrounded on all sides by water. I made the mistake of setting my Central American guide book down for a second and then it was long gone. Sold into book slavery is my guess. The little stall we were at told us to check the book stall to buy it back...I think not. We think he took it and sold it. Sounds bad, but is a very common thing to happen down here. Oh well, at least it was the end of my trip anyhow. After spending the afternoon in this area of Panama City, we made our way back to the mall to watch the Twilight movie
Today we went to the Panama Canal! It was pretty exciting to see it in action, but after seeing it do it's thing once, the coolness wears off pretty quickly. Especially since I have seen the Ballard Locks in Seattle numerous times, it just wasn't as exciting. Its definitely one of those once in a lifetime things that you can say you've done but really don't need to repeat. Randomly, while in line to buy tickets, I turned to Olivia and go, is that guy Jeff over there?!?! Jeff was literally the first person I met and hung out with in Nicaragua back in August and was at our Spanish school. She was like, I think so?!? So I was like JEFF! And he answered. Crazy shit. What a small world, three months later, we see him again in line for the Panama Canal?!? What are the odds. It is stuff like that which make me love traveling. Crazy experiences that just don't happen outside of traveling it seems. So we ended up hanging out with him all day. It is weird, because the three of us started out together in Granada, and in our second to last day here, came back together. It was just weird, but cool. We later saw some ruins in the city, which weren't very cool after seeing Tikal in Guatemala. Tonight we are heading out for a nice dinner and tomorrow (our last full day in Central America) we are planning on getting massages, finishing up souvenir shopping and just taking it easy.
We leave early AM on Wednesday (about 36 hours from this writing) and its very surreal to be going home after all this time. At times I feel that I have been gone for forever, other times just weeks. I am ready to be home though and am excited for Christmas, family and friends. I could do without the cold weather though, lol. Look for another blog recapping things after I come home, I hope you all have enjoyed this journey with me. Thanks for reading. SEE you all very SOON!
-Kimberly
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