The Grand Entry

San Jose, Costa Rica, is where we spent our first two nights in Central America. An adorable hostel by the name of Hostel 1110. San Jose however, is an armpit of a city. Dirty, chaotic, loud, lacking of charm and character. I was eager to get out of the hustle and bustle into the beauty of the country.

Friday proved to be the outlet into unmatched beauty. We boarded a bus in San Jose at 9 am. This was our transportation to the Panama border. We were told it would be around an 8 hour trip. Of course the port-o-potty door would have a ¨not in service¨ sign hanging on it... good thing we sweat a lot. The bus departed the unfiltered urban air into the lush rainforest which smelled of refreshing dew and pure earth. The kind of air you wish you had lungs the size of five gallon buckets for since breathing it in feels that amazing. We traveled in and out of dense green foliage, through small villages filled with little wood huts, banana plantations, coffee fields, and through tunnels carved into mountains. This bus also doubled as the area´s Fedex truck, stopping to pick up bags of goods along the way and delivering them to overjoyed locals. Kelly and I rode pretty much the entire way in honor of dogs, with our heads sticking out of the window. It was worth every bit of debris in my eye, all of my now dirt clogged pores and my extra red right arm.

At the Panama border you have to walk over a nearly delapidated bridge about 200 feet long and a good 100 feet above a river. The metal is rusting through and the wood boards have about 6 inches inbetween each one, which forces you to look down. The bridge is just wide enough for semi trucks to travel across, and not so comfortingly, those travel across at the same time as pedestrians. Just a wee bit of a blood pressure rising experience. Little did we know we were supposed to get our passports stamped on the Costa Rican side before walking across that bridge, so we ended up going through the same hair raising experience 3 times. Yikes!

At this point we boarded a small van busting at the seams with sweaty people to a City called Almirante. Here is where you board the boat to the islands of Bocas Del Toro. It was perfect. Emerald green islands speckled throughout the crystal clear water with a faint orange sky as the backdrop.

From the main city Bocas you take an even smaller wood boat to Isla Bastimentos, our current home. The house we´re living in is called Up In The Hill. Quite literally, it is very far up a hill. At this point it was a little after 8 pm. I brought a backpacking backpack and an old-school rectangle suitcase, Liz has her backpacking backpack and a large duffle bag, and Kelly has a backpacking backpack and a regular size backpack. Liz and I were extremely jealous of Kelly at this point. The trail to our house starts with make shift sidewalk that is very steep, imagine a regular staircase without the stairs, just paved over. That's how steep it is. This ¨sidewalk¨ lasted for about 10 minutes and then it´s uphill straight through the middle of a jungle, through mud, over tree roots, surrounded by night monkey´s, sloths and lots of bugs. This part of the hike that's supposed to take 25 minutes took us a good 45 as we were carrying everything but the kitchen sink up there with us. Stupid Americans. I´ve never been so sweaty in my life! My neck felt like I had been sprayed with watered down jelly, disgusting, exactly. Liz ended up sacrificing her duffle to the side of the trail a little ways up, which the police were not so happily gaurding for her when she returned.

Our house is the most adorable thing you´ve ever seen in your life! An ex tv producer from Argentina and his wife from Scotland live with their two children in a house not too far from ours. He said 18 years ago he wasn't happy with his life anymore so he moved here and built these houses himself. It's completely self-sustained, solar panels power the electricity, the shower is outside using rain water stored in a tank, and the house itself is made of bamboo and carved timber. It sits under the brightest stars I've seen in my life and has a beautiful veiw of the ocean that lulls us to sleep every night.

We met many of the English speaking Brothers and Sisters today, they're of course wonderful, kind people. Our first day in service will be tomorrow. More updates soon!