lust, lust, wanderlust.
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
Travelers get bored easily, so we decided to entertain ourselves with the “What can you buy for 1 Boliviano” game. That was in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, with Paraguay second and Venezuela third I believe. But Bolivia is the best place ever to go shopping and buy tons of souveniers! So that’s what I did for a week.. shop, recover from a bronchial infection/hacking cough, and tread carefully with the food. I got a custom made leather jacket! Yes!
So the exchange rate is: 1 US dollar = 7 Bolivianos.
So 1 Boliviano = .1427 US dollars so about 14 cents.
What can you buy for 1 Boliviano? (14 cents)
What can you buy for less than 5 Bolivianos? (71 cents)
:)
I have spent more hours in a bus in the past 10 weeks than I have in my entire life. Buses from city to city, ranging from direct buses that only take 4 hours to marathon overnight buses that range from 8 to 12 to 16 hours. Luckily the bus rides are the main form of transportation for most South American countries so they are fast, affordable, reliable, and usually bearable in comfort. Local buses consist of worn down cushioned seats with no air-conditioning or bathrooms. Seats are densely packed with little leg-room, probably because the average Ecuadorian and Peruvian is pretty small. There are the luxury lines, and the best by far is Cruz del Sur in Peru, which rivals first-class plane seats in luxury and comfort. Imagine this - black leather seats that fully recline to 170 degrees with inclined leg rests. It’s comfortable for a 6 foot European and downright spacious for a 5’5” Asian girl - I ended up curling up on my side and falling into blissful sleep. Buses include pillows, blankets, television with headphone jacks, full meal service and drinks, and of course a friendly attendant. Here are some pics:
Me and Vince on the cushy Cruz del Sur from Nasca to Arequipa, Peru. Pillows and blankets included!
Testing out the reclining seats, oh yeahh! Jason’s pleased in the back as well. Justine must be in the bathroom ;p.
On another note, let me say that I have officially taken the longest bus journey of my life. The ride from San Pedro de Atacama Desert in Chile to the capital, Santiago, Chile, is a miserable 23 hours on a two-lane highway that bisects the skinny length of Chile. It’s mostly desert, but when I left, apparently half of the highway was blocked by snowfall. It is winter in South America after all. Four hours into our journey we stopped for dinner at Antafagosta and the attendant announced that we were snowed in for an unknown amount of time. Basically we would either leave in a few hours, tomorrow morning, or tomorrow afternoon. We hung around the bus station all evening and ended up sleeping on the bus in the parking lot. It was a pretty hilarious sight to see 50 buses lined up in the lot with no where to go. Everyone just as ragged and irritated as we did, but we managed through the night and left the next day at 2pm. Thus, our 23 hour bus ride turned into 41 hours, in which we spent two glorious nights on the bus. We saw the most terrible line-up of movies as well and most were in Spanish. I swear, South Americans love the shittiest C-rated action movies! In the span of 2 days I saw Transformers 2, Fast and Furious 1, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Hunt to Kill, Face-off, some really bad Robin Williams movie, a vampire movie, ughhhhhhhh.
Best bus line: Cruz del Sur
Longest bus ride: 41 hours
Number of overnight buses taken: 6?
First of all, my deepest apologies.
I know i dropped off the face of the earth after my last post in the beginning of June, and I’m sorry that I worried you. No, I wasn’t kidnapped and I didn’t get lost; It’s just that I got extremely lazy. Between moving to a new city every few days to cramming days in with activities, I found it pretty hard to update my blog or upload pictures. Available computers are rare, and the wireless is unreliable, so next time I know to bring a netbook or something of that sort.
So 10 weeks later, I am back here in the States. As soon as I entered the airport in Santiago, Chile, I could already feel the sentiment of “being away” dissolving. I drank Starbucks, I recharged my iPhone in broad daylight, and I flushed toilet paper down the toilet. They even carded me on the plane when I requested red wine! After I landed, I was picked up by my loving dad in an air-conditioned car and proceeded to go to a restaurant that didn’t serve solely french fries and rotisserie chicken.
It has only been two days and already I feel completely re-adjusted to “modern” society. I indulged in the daily “necessities” that were luxuries abroad. A hot shower, private room, AND I can flush down dirty toilet paper? No way!
Then I drove a car, swiped my credit card, ate sushi, dimsum, and pizza, and here I am, completely assimilated to the habits that I grown accustomed to. I’m just doing the daily activities that I have done every day for the past 25 years but still, it feels different. Even though going away seems like a distant dream now, I have this lingering feeling of longing and melancholy. How can I have this same perspective of living after what I have experienced? How can I appreciate how fortunate I am without feeling so completely materialistic and spoiled? It’s great to be back, but now I just want to go away again. There’s so much more to see.
I feel like I am taking back with me so much more than just “seeing” famous sights like Machu Picchu and the Nasca lines. People, culture, history, social differences, politics, delicious food, international awareness, lifestyle differences, self-discovery, personal challenges, loneliness, forced extroversion. Best of all, I have unearthed a new passion of mine - traveling. Where next? I’m thinking India. Columbia. Nicaragua. New Zealand. Malaysia. Thailand. Egypt. Morocco. Israel. Brazil. Argentina. Vamos!
The sun came out at last! Spent all day on a snorkel/boat tour with Chris and Juliana, who I met on the Panamanian border yesterday. We’re going to Panama City together as well.
Did I ever tell you that I always imagine myself living by water? Think Palos Verdes, Hermosa Beach, Oakland by Lake Merrit, San Francisco, now Seattle.. looks like I will always need a bit of ocean breeze and waves to keep me happy. So yes, the boat ride over to Dolphin Bay [to see dolphins of course!] was awesome and a few dolphins played in our boat’s wake for a while. We weaved past these islands of mangrove trees and 30 min. later the waves just stopped and suddenly we were floating in this crystal clear, calm bay. There were no ripples and with the ocean reflecting the sky, I really couldn’t tell the sky from the ocean.
The boat took us closer to shore to Zapitilla Island, which is also a protected national park. It was also the island that Survivor was filmed for a few episodes! The water was unreal - imagine this intense light green/aqua color that is so clear that you can see straight down to your toes from 6 feet. Fine, white sand, very mild waves, and just water as far as you can see. Paradise found.
After a few hours of snorkeling and sun bathing, we were shuttled to a restaurant that was built on rafters right above the water. A floating restaurant. Ok, not a floating one, but one in the middle of the ocean. We did more snorkeling underneath it - imagine that! Starfish, jelly fish, sea urchin, sea cucumbers. A few more fish but not many. Still no turtle or jaguar sighting so looks like I will keep my eyes peeled in the Amazon for that one.
I used Skype and reached my mom today. Reception was bad, so it was really a one-way conversation. I feel bad.. she seems really worried but all I can let her know is that I am safe, I am taking my precautions, and I am mingling with the right people. Please don’t worry so much. Don’t you want to hear about my experiences instead? Don’t you want to know what the town is like, what the people are like? The wildlife, the weather, the poverty, the tourism? You have to see it for yourself.
Sorry to skip over to Costa Rica but I figured that I should be in the PRESENT.
The Journey:
So I’m about 1.5 weeks in and I just crossed over from Puerto Viejo de Tallamanca in Costa Rica to Bocas del Toro, Panama. To get here, I spent 4 hours on a public bus that took me across rural areas of the Carribean side of CR to the Sixola at the CR/Panama border. CR is spoiled by their really nice, cheap public bus system, which is chartered bus with comfy leather seats, big windows but no AC. We passed by tons and tons of banana plantations, and low and behold I saw a docking site for “Del Monte Bananas.” Ah hah! So I found the source. Crossing the border was the most archaic procedure, consisting of getting a few stamps from this official who sits in an office on one side of the bridge, then walking over a dilapidated bridge to the other side of the border. Things to note: Yes, we physically walked over the bridge with our luggage. Wooden planks were laid on top of iron beams and the rusty train track that rain across the bridge. Thus we crossed!
After a shuttle and a water taxi, we finally arrived at Bocas, which consists of a archipelago of beautiful islands that can only be accessed by boat. Bocas reminds me a lot of Montezuma and Puerto Viejo, mainly because they are all top tourist destinations but they try to maintain that small beach town feel. I’m in the main island of Colon, and the weather is warm, less humid, breezy. Water taxis are totally cool, as they shuttle you from island to island, or even from one bar to another bar across the way for a $1. It’s kind of nice to be here during off season because the party scene hasn’t kicked in fully yet. Locals are laid back but I can see that times are a bit tough since not many tourists are around to buy their knicknacks - you know, the cursory braided bracelets and Rasta hats. Beyond the main strip are the homes of locals. We walked around yesterday and it was cool to see so many children outside playing, and playing baseball for that matter. In CR it was all about the futbol, futbol! but looks like America had some influence on this country. It’s kind of sad to see the tiny little tin-roofed shack homes that sprawl behind the main tourist strip, but it looks like they are doing ok.
First full day consisted of wandering around town, buying cheap food, and hitting up Barco Herido -aka the Sunken Boat for some dancing with hostelmates. It was such a cool outdoor bar with a sunken boat in the middle. With all the planks and walkways, I could forsee people walking/falling easily into the ocean but unfortunately I did not witness any such drunken happiness. Then after it was surreal to jump in an innertube and lay around. The water was warmer than the air, and the sky was just filled with bright stars. Pura Vida. It’s a wonderful feeling to look at something familiar, but develop a new emotion and new experience from it. Here, the stars were smaller, brighter, and clustered differently. The air was breezy, the water warm to touch, and all other sounds of the water was muted. Tranquilo tranquilo.
Neighborhood
Lounge with the sound of waves crashing in the background. And hammocks
Hostel heike. Hooray for hot showers, free breakfast, a nice lounge and a really sweet owner
Bocas del Toro, Panama
Main street of a sleepy beach town
# of bug bites thus far:
1) Monteverde, CR (2 days): 0
2) Montezuma, CR (4 days): 17
3) San Jose, CR (1 day): 0
4) Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, CR (2 days): 0
# of items lost/stolen:
1) Glasses – YAY! I accidentally left it on a table on the balcony but it was returned to the office
# of times people screw me over
1) Owner who made me pay an extra night for not checking out by 11am (lost $10)
2) Taxi driver who made me pay c2500 for a bus ride to the Carribean terminal (lost $5)
# of times I win!
1) Fresh from the San Jose International airport, I managed to bypass the $20 cabrides to downtown and grab a bus for 550c (~$1). Win!
2) All other bus rides from the main bus station in San Jose. 4.5 hours for 4550 (~$10)
3) Delicious spaghetti w/ clams for dinner in Montezuma. $6
