Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Panama to Costa Rica

Today I woke up around 5:30 am to get ready for my trip. I got ready and packed up all my stuff. I had breakfast and then checked out to catch the bus. I walked around the corner to the bus stop and got on the bus. The bus ride to David is about 1.5 hours. When I got to the bus station I tried to find the ticket office to buy a ticket to San Jose, Costa Rica. I ended up walking around for at least 15 minutes before I was able to find the ticket office. I was told to just put my information down and I would pay later. So I did and then went to wait in line for the bus. I also met an American guy who was from NYC. He had been traveling for a couple of weeks and was heading back. He told me that he slept outside mostly in his hammock which I suppose is one way to save money but definitely not for me. After maybe 15 or so minutes of waiting we were allowed to board the bus. I took a nap on and off until we got to the border. We all had to get off the bus and take our luggage. We put the luggage in a line and then a dog walked by and sniffed our luggage. We were told to get our luggage and put it back on the bus and then get into a line to leave Panama. While we were in the line some random guy came by and sold us stamps for $1. If you don't have this stamp you can't leave Panama I guess. Afterwards I went through customs without any trouble on the Panama side... I think I had to pay some fees. Then I walked down the street to go to the Costa Rican border to enter customs. I got into a line and went through customs with ease. We then had to take our luggage off the bus, again, and have it checked by customs. When I say checked by customs I mean lay it on the table and then pick it back up again. They didn't even make me open my bag. I then put my bag back on the bus and paid the driver and got back on the bus. After everyone boarded we continued our trip. We arrived into San Jose around 4:00 p.m. I then decided I would walk to the next bus terminal because I believed it was near. I stopped 2 guys and asked them and discovered it was across town. A taxi driver also saw me and tried to solicit his services but I didn't go with him. The 2 guys stopped a cab driver and talked with him and told me the taxi driver would give me a good price. I took the taxi to the other bus terminal and got in line to buy a ticket to Liberia. When I finally got to the ticket window all the 5 pm tickets were sold out so I bought a ticket for the 6 pm bus. When the bus came, a little before 6:00 pm, I was able to board the bus. I slept on and off during the bus ride and we arrived into Liberia after 10 pm. I then took a taxi to a hostel that I had saw in Lonely Planet. I was able to get the last room. So I took a shower and then was laying down to rest when I noticed bugs on the bed. I saw 1 bug then about 15 minutes later I would see another bug. So I flicked one off and then a little bit later another one would come. So now I started getting worried because I thought they were bed bugs but wasn't sure. I googled bedbugs and thought it could be them. I had also squished one and it was full of blood. At this point it was like 2 in the morning and I didn't know what to do. I went and talked to the guy who works in the hostel and he only had a dorm room. I didn't want to wake the people up and wasn't sure if it would make a difference or if they were bed bugs or just a couple of random bugs so I asked the guy to just change the sheets. I also showed him a bug. What was weird is that I had checked the bed and there was no signs of bugs in the mattress.  I slept part of the night with the lights on with as much clothes on as I could tolerate and the sheet wrapped tightly around me. A couple hours later I turned off the light and went to bed. Let me tell you that was not the best night of sleep. It was hot and I only had a fan and I was tightly wrapped in a blanket with to many clothes on. Terrible long day!

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