Costa Rica - more familiar faces

As if catching up with a couple good friends from DC wasn´t enough, the joy of seeing Zach and Bart was made all the greater by the fact that they were waiting for me in a dry house and had cold beer at the ready. I got off a bus on the side of a dark road near where I thought Bart´s house was and ran a few hundred yards in a torrential downpour to meet them. After a long day of travel up from Panama, seeing the guys was awesome. For the next week, we did lots of getting hammered by waves, relaxing around the pool and watching CNN & Fox News. After being detached from the inundation of campaign coverage for so long, I was actually excited to catch up on as much election news as I could. What a change from past years when I normally can´t wait to get away from it all.

Near the end of the week, we headed out into the Monteverde and Volcano Arenal areas for some hiking, swimming and hours of ´bet you can´t hit that thing with a rock´. We even found a 10k race in San Jose which was a very cool way to spend our last day together before parting ways.

I absolutely love traveling solo, but it´s been really cool to have had visits from such good friends along the way. Now that the visits are over, I can't wait to get home and see everyone else.

Bocas del Toro, Panama - a unique place to run

¨The best place is out at the airport just after the last flight of the day takes off.¨

The responses are always interesting whenever I ask a local for advice on where to go running. From the most common reply, a puzzled ¨You mean you want to run, just to run?¨ to the odd, yet intriguing one ¨There´s a group of old folks that jogs in that (1/4 mile around) park every morning at 4 AM¨, I never know what to expect. This latest suggestion, in Bocas Del Toro, seemed way too good to pass up. So, at 5:05 PM after Air Panama flight #1726 took off for Panama City, I headed out to the tarmac and joined several locals running down the incredibly flat, incredibly straight stretch of asphalt while a couple different groups played some pick-up fútbol. I´m not sure when I´ll ever get a chance to do that again or if I´d ever care to run on a (long, flat, straight) runway again, but it was a pretty cool ¨couldn´t do that in the states¨ experience.While not running at Bocas Del Toro International, I took the muddiest 5 mile bike ride of my life, snorkeled a bit and hung out at red frog beach. And yes, Halloween, complete with all the trimmings (including costumes) is everywhere.

Sailing to the San Blas Islands (Panama) and that canal thingy

Paradise Part II. After Parque Tayrona, it was hard to imagine anything coming close in the ¨wow, so this is what paradise looks like¨ category. The San Blas Islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama did so in a big way.

After making it up from the bottom of South America completely by bus (with the exception of the Galapagos detour), a boat was required to continue on into Central America. I guess required is a bit of a stretch, as there is actually land connecting the two Americas, but it´s a commonly known fact down here that if you try crossing by land, you´ll die. That being said, hopping on a boat headed for a place that many veteran sailors call their favorite place on earth, is not all that bad. After some searching, we decided on the larger 40 meter long Stahlratte which would provide plenty of opportunity to jump, dive and swing from high places as well as time to get away from the other 20 people (13 pax, 7 crew) if desired. After some crappy weather leading up to our arrival in the San Blas, the local bureau of tourism seemed to know we were there because they delivered welcoming, clear skies for a an amazing bienvenido to paradise. Seconds after the anchor was dropped, people started flying off the boat like recently caught fish trying to make their way back to aquatic safety. For me, it was time to finally make the sketchy climb up the crows nest (that I had been eyeing since we left Colombia) to get some photos from above before going for a swim.



Great food which included lots of tropical fruit and fresh fish and lobster helped keep us energized for the sunny days filled with lots of swinging, snorkeling and exploring, while cold cerveza and a little music was all we needed to enjoy the slightly cooler evenings.

Eventually we had to say goodbye to our new friends and the comfortable sway of the boat to make our way to Panama City, but not before staying a night with the friendly Kuna tribe in their island village. Showers here consisted of buckets of water and the toilets consisted of a seat over a hole which dropped directly into the ocean (for the record, we didn´t swim here). Finally, it was back to non-paradise as we stopped in Panama City to check out the pretty cool canal and to get Liza on a flight back to reality.

Ahh, the Caribbean...Parque Tayrona & Cartagena (Colombia)

For months I´ve been waiting for this. As much as I was eagerly awaiting my arrival into Colombia, I longed for its Caribbean coast even more. The combination of wonderful people, warm weather and refreshing water that had been beckoning, was finally here. In addition to all of this, a good friend from DC was coming down to visit and join me for the sail over to Panama. So exciting to see a familiar face!

I spent a couple days awaiting Liza´s arrival by relaxing, hiking and exploring the dense, cactus-filled mountainsides around the coastal town of Taganga. That last part was not planned nor appreciated - my hands and legs are filled with cactus needles collected while trying to escape the prickly incarceration. Once together, Liza and I went scuba diving and drank pitchers of smoothies and daiquiris made from papaya, mango, passion fruit, strawberry, Banana, blackberry and whatever else we could find. Sufficiently plied with tropical beverages, we then headed to a place that can only be described as paradise. I had heard so many good things about Parque Tayrona that it was almost certain to disappoint. Incredibly, the serenity and beauty of this boulder-filled, palm tree-lined beach/park surpassed anything I could have imagined. From our accommodations (hammocks under a thatched gazebo perched directly over the crashing waves below) we watched the most spectacular electrical storm I´ve ever seen. Wow!





















Unfortunately we eventually had to continue on (via an absolutely loco boat ride) towards Cartagena to try and set up a sailboat ride to Panama. This colonial city, filled with colorful buildings, colorful people and colorful sunsets provided a perfect backdrop for my sad goodbye to this amazing country. A couple photos of the city skyline from our boat and Colombia was quickly only a memory...

Villa de Leyva, Colombia - Old School Couchsurfing

Little did I know that helping negotiate a mazorca transaction would lead to such a wonderful experience. While making a quick stop in a small town just North of Bogota, I hopped off the bus to buy one of my new favorite foods - a grilled (like almost charred), salted, butter slathered corn on the cob on steroids called mazorca. The chewy kernelled tastiness was too much for me to pass up and apparently for the local looking local hanging out the back window of the bus, as well. ¨Amigo¨, yelled Señor Pedro as he waved a note out the window indicating he wanted a little mazorca action as well. A ¨gracias¨ and ¨de nada¨ while making the money for corn exchange was the extent of our conversation until I stepped off the bus in Villa de Leyva and asked the driver to point me towards the main square. Señor Pedro, waiting to grab his bag from the roof of the bus, indicated the direction and said he was also heading that way if I wanted to join him. This former communist and revolutionary turned born again Christian and artist spoke decent English but humored me in my attempts to practice Spanish. As we approached the crowded main square, he informed me that this was a holiday weekend and therefore throngs of Bogateños were in town escaping the city grind. ¨Come with me to drop off my bag (at the restaurant his wife was working at) and I´ll help you find a place to stay¨ he assured me. Cool. After meeting his wife, we inquired unsuccessfully at five or six places that were all full and eventually returned back to the restaurant. After some discussion (or possibly argument) that I could not understand, Señor Pedro grabbed his bag and we headed off for his house where he insisted I would stay the night. Wow. Overwhelmed by the generosity, I had to at least draw the line when he suggested I take their bed and they would sleep on a mattress in the living room (I´m just a nice guy like that). While giving me the tour of the pueblo that night and the next morning, I would have sworn that Señor Pedro was the mayor of Villa de Leyva as he seemed to know, and be liked, by everyone we encountered.













The beautiful little town and the surrounding area combined with this, not in the guidebooks, encounter with Señor Pedro made this one of the coolest experiences of my whole trip and helped reaffirm all of the wonderful things I have heard about Colombia and its people.

Salento, Colombia - Zona Cafetera

Somewhere down the line after drugs, guerrillas and kidnapping, coffee probably comes to mind when you think of Colombia. And in this case, it´s for good reason. They have lots of coffee here and they drink even more. Men strolling the streets with thermoses of tinto to sell are more common here than beer guys at Lambeau Field. For about a tenth of what you´d pay at Starbucks, you can get yourself a small cup of this tasty black coffee anytime, anywhere. Unfortunately, for those frothy, skim, mocha, latte, frappuccino fans, you´ll probably have to actually find a Starbucks as your choices on the street are black, black or black.



A visit to the coffee region, called the zona cafetera, is a requirement for foreign tourists and locals alike. For whatever reason, I always find it odd when I end up in a really touristy spot that´s actually filled with local tourists and not gringos. Wow, you mean Colombians go on vacation, too?? Salento is definitely one of those places that people from all over the country flock to for beautiful vistas, tranquilo settings and its famous (farm raised) trout. That farm raised thing confused me a bit, but I am assuming, at one point the famous trout here actually came from a river and not swimming pool. In addition to chilling, drinking jitters inducing levels of jo and taking a coffee tour from the couldn´t look more like a coffee grower, coffee grower, Don Elias and his apprentice grandson, I took a day hike through the absolutely stunning Valle de Corcora. Once again, Colombia delivered with warm, friendly people and jaw-dropping scenery. It´s easy to see why people don´t want to leave.








(Parents, want to instill a little discipline in the kids? Try the playground pictured below.)

Almost forgot...I finally had my first go at Tejo, the national sport of Colombia. This game, resembling horseshoes, but much cooler because there is exploding gunpowder involved, could easily be more dangerous than my all-time favorite, jarts. What tejo lacks in potential for impaling a teammate or competitor, it definitely makes up for in likeliness that a novice will throw the extremely heavy disc well off course and onto a neighboring lane. That and the fact, that you can´t play tejo without drinking beer. (can somebody say, Mallard Point?)