I seek-a a week-a in Costa Rica!

At 11 am tomorrow, an air-conditioned coach will leave the Bus Terminal in Panama, with yours truly on board. A MERE 16 HOURS LATER, I will arrive dead on my feet in San Jose, Costa Rica.

As the world's worst ever Geography graduate, I am looking forward to finally setting my eyes on an active volcano at Volcan Arenal, followed by a few days on the Pacific Coastline around the Manuel Antonio nature reserve.

I can´t help getting the feeling that as great as Panama has been, I am about to enter a paradise without parallel. I may be travelling in hope (the best way to travel) but its a racing certainty that as the 16 hours will end in San Jose around 3am, I will be arriving in pieces!

Cashew Nuts come from ...... Cashew Fruit!

Who knew? .... certainly not I which explains my utter surprise when presented with 4 examples of the Cashew Fruit from the Cashew Tree. It looks quite similar to red and yellow pepper, hangs "upside down" presenting the nut (actually the seed) on the outside, in a hard casing... amazing!

I found the Hammock!

In the first entry of this blog, I mentioned that the hammock in the title was hypothetical. Well, Easter break saw me driving down to a freind´s family holiday home on the beach for a few days, and the hammock has been found! I spent 2 nights sleeping in one, the first due to a drunken inability to make it to my bed, the second night was by positive choice! I can heartily recommend waking up in a hammock, bleary eyed, with a mild hangover and walking straight in to the Pacific Ocean for a "straightener"!!
A beautiful old home with 3 seperate bedrooms, a small kitchen, and loads of open covered social area (where the hammock is located), leading out to a small garden with a fenced gate straight on to the practically empty, unspoilt beach you can see above. Perfecto!
The roadtrip was a success, I drove most of the 650kms that we covered in the 4 days without hitting anyone, although I will need a lot more practice driving in the city.

I also made the aquaintence of the Cashew Fruit, which deserves a seperate entry !

More photos of my Playa Blanca Easter break can be found by clicking on the photo link

Semana Santa

He came, they killed him, he came back.....and then he left for good/god* (*delete as appropriate).

Easter is big here as you might imagine for a country so tightly assoiciated with Spanish Colonial expansion, Conquistadors etc....... so, as the long, Easter weekend approaches, most Panamanian families retreat to their Pueblos, where the extended family will gather for a few days of quiet, meditative reflection.

For the rest of us, in a country with only one major road (it does however stretch from Alaska down to Buenos Aires, more or less) it means only one thing...ROADTRIP!

When a friend of mine here told me that his beautiful young niece was a dentist with a clinic in the plushest part of the city, I thought it only fair to put my teeth in her hands (so to speak). For a very small payment, Dr Melina Franco laboured over my knashers for over an hour, leaving me with a great set of newly cleaned teeth. Such thoroughness & delicacy have long since been forgotten in most UK dental surgeries. I accepted the news of 2 small cavities that would require filling with the excitement of a child on the cusp of a summer vacation. I am also considering getting my wine and coffee stained teeth whitened, although only if the funds allow. Nothing to do with the prospect of gazing in to Dr Franco´s eyes for another few hours.......honest!

Anyway, we chatted about various things and I ended up being invited to both of her family´s holiday homes - one in the mountains of El Valle de Anton, the other on the beachfront at Playa Blanca - over the Easter weekend. I am hiring a car for four days and I am finally going to let myself loose on Panamanian roads! ....can´t wait!