Panama - The End Of Central America

Panama is the last country in Central America and I'm feeling a bit sad! After this we'll ship by boat to a brand new continent, South America. I always have a hard time letting things go, so we're moving  through Panama as slow as we can.

We've been here a week and overall we love the country. It is absolutely beautiful and apparently under the radar as far as foreign travelers go. While everyone is cramming into Costa Rica spending a fortune on vacation, Panama rests peacefully just a couple hundred miles south.

This country is WAY WAY cheaper than Costa. Hotels are once again $20 instead of $60. A brick of cheese is $3 instead of $10. A hair cut is $5. A beer only 34 cents! The other night we enjoyed the best Filet Mignon we've had in 2 years. It came from an all natural grass fed panama cow. Price, $12. Yeah, we're in no hurry to bust through this country.


So far there are two things that are no F'in joke in Panama. The hills and the wildlife. The Sprinter hates one while Stevie hates the other. I took the photo of the spider after Stevie came SCREAMING out of the bathroom. What's the big deal, the thing is only like 7 inches big. Plus I heard if it bites you, you get spidy-powers...

Every one of these Central American countries have blown me away with beauty. Check out this breathtaking view we had while driving over the mountain pass from the Caribbean to the Pacific side of Panama...

Our first stop was the little mountain town of Boquete where we hung for a couple days...

Below Stevie enjoys a hike in the jungle followed by $1 gin and tonics at the local bar. We met some great people here. Harreson and Nevia, you guys rock! Unfortunately we didn't get a single picture of you from our fun dinner/dance night. But I'll be uploading videos of you salsa dancing to YouTube later.

We took an amazing hike through the jungle to find the famous Caldera hot springs just outside of Boquete. All natural and really hot, as clearly shown on Stevie's face!

We need to note that the rainy season has officially started in Central America. There is serious rain down here. It pours hard, but at least I can still wear shorts. We are leaving the mountains now and heading for the beach. There is supposed to be great waves over on the Pacific. Can't wait to surf. TREE

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Bocas Del Toro - Killin' Me Man

Hi, my name is Stevie, and I am a hot sauce-aholic. I’ve had this problem since I was a teenager, but my addiction only became unmanageable five years ago. That was when I first tried Killin’ Me Man- my hot sauce of choice- from Bocas del Toro, Panama. As soon as I tasted it, my eye twitched, my heart pounded, and perspiration beaded at my brow. I knew immediately I was hooked.

Anyone who has ever dealt with the disease of addiction knows how it affects family and friends. Sadly, my case is no different. One day I walked into my kitchen and I saw my friend Kerri standing in front of the fridge, pouring sweat, sucking the hot sauce straight off her fingers. Kerri! Kerri! I yelled, but I was too late. A couple years later, it got so bad that she took a plane to Panama and a boat to Bocas to buy a one-year supply. You see the worst part about being addicted to Killin’ Me Man is that it has a very limited distribution.

But no one has suffered with me more than Tree, my faithful husband and best friend. Tree is a straight and narrow kind of guy. He’s the sporty, athletic type while I’m more like an afterschool special. Knowing this and that I couldn’t support my habit alone, drastic measures were taken. Unbeknownst to my dear husband, I started putting Killin’ Me Man in all of his food—tuna fish, fried eggs, tacos—you name it, I killed it. And before long, even Tree got addicted.


They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, so here it goes. I know most of you think that we drove all the way to Panama because we’re nomads, we love foreign cultures, blah blah blah, but that’s not the truth.  The truth is that we did it for this:


BOOYAH!!! That's 12 bottles bitches. We are flying HIGH!!!!

And if scoring our favorite salsa picante wasn't enough, we stumbled on a bar after my own heart called Drinking and Thinking- my two favorite pastimes!! After getting a couple local Panamanian beers, Tree and I boozed it up while perusing the bookshelves.

In the photo below, can anyone guess who the four Famous Drinkers and Thinkers are? Post your answer in the comments section and if you guess right, we will send you a postcard from an exotic location!

Kiki adds yet another exotic island to her travel resume!

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Aloha Panama - Thanks For Letting Us In

We've officially crossed one more border and added one more flag to the back of the Sprinter. The Costa Rica to Panama border proved to be our most difficult crossing to date and consumed an entire day. When we entered Costa Rica from Nicaragua we received a valid vehicle import permit, but the clowns up north never entered the permit into the computer system. Therefore the southern border officials had no record of us and would not let the Sprinter leave the country. We spent 6 frustrating hours making phone calls to the boss and the boss's boss. Finally we got someone to override and exit us.

Next we tried to get into Panama. As usual, we had Kiki hiding under the bed in our attempt to smuggle her into a new country. As soon as we crossed over we were waved aside and 2 officials jumped in the back. The first thing they said was "where is your puppy?" Busted! Someone from the other side must have tipped them off. Stevie followed one of the guys into a building to negotiate the bribe while I started working on the paperwork for our new vehicle permit. We barely got everything done before the offices closed.

This border took first place for the smallest crossing we've done. It was a REALLY old single lane railroad bridge used mostly for foot traffic. It was a nightmare day, but we survived and entered another country! (Watch border crossing video here)

Our first glimpse of Panama. This place is absolutely magical. We can tell that we are going to LOVE this country...

Guess what their #1 export is?

It is sad going from the super affluent country of Costa Rica back into a poverty stricken country like Panama where 80% of the rural population live below the poverty line. The average rural family lives on a few hundred dollars per year. It's like Stevie says,
"I guess some countries grow bananas and some countries eat them".

And so, we enter a new country eager to explore the landscape, learn about the culture, and meet the local people. Aloha Panama. TREE

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Will the real Pura Vida please stand up?

About ten years ago, a surfer friend of mine came back from a two week vacation in Costa Rica with two catchy things, 1) Gonorrhea, and 2) the phrase Pura Vida. That was the first I'd heard of the latter one, and I couldn't help but wonder how it might be related to the first. A few years later, I made the connection: I was renting a room in a house outside of Venice beach in Mar Vista, and my landlord, who also had property in Costa Rica, came over nearly every day to get stoned and play his bongos in the living room. One day, in between taking bong hits from his 5 foot Vaporizer, he rambled on about how he was building an ecolodge called Pura Vida in Costa Rica, and would we (my roommates and I) like to be 'hostesses' at his beachfront fantasy resort? He would 'bring us customers' and only take a small 'finder's fee.' At that point, I knew exactly how 1 and 2 were related, and I wanted no part of Pura Vida.

When Tree and I crossed the border into Costa Rica, I told him that no matter how tempting it may be, we were not allowed to say those two words. If someone says them to us, that's fine, we´ll just smile and keep walking. I couldn't help but think of Pura Vida as a gateway phrase: first you say it, just to be polite, and the next thing you know your private parts hurt.

And yet, for the last six weeks, I´ve listened to Ticos (Costa Ricans) say Pura Vida, and not once have I heard one use the national phrase as a drunken battle cry for bad behavior. In fact, from the mouths of Ticos, Pura Vida is often used as a greeting, a farewell, and as a way to express gratitude or satisfaction. It can also refer to someone who is nice and friendly.


Finally, I asked an older Tico to explain to me what Pura Vida means, precisely, and he suggested that I stop thinking of the phrase as words but more as an expression of life. And then I got it: Pura Vida is a way of life that extols balance, slow living, strong community, being in the moment, soaking up the sun, riding your bike, playing soccer with your neighbors, laughing easily, celebrating good fortune of magnitudes small and large alike, living in harmony with nature, and most importantly, giving back as much, if not more, than one takes from life. It turns out that I LOVE PURA VIDA!!!

I just hope that as Costa Rica continues to grow in popularity as a worldwide travel destination that it can fend off the darkside of tourism and maintain its purity of life.

Tree and I have enjoyed our time immensely in this incredible country, but now it´s time to move on to Panama. Let the adventure continue!

Thank you Costa Rica! Pura Vida!

-Stevie

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New GPS Pinpoints Sprinter Life Location

We're back in Costa Rica after an amazing week with family in Mexico. We picked up Kiki from the doggy sitter and we're rolling southeast. After 6+ weeks in CR, we're ready for a new country. Very soon we'll be crossing into Panama. Instead of taking the main border crossing, we've decided to drive through the jungle and down the Caribbean side of Costa. We'll use a smaller border crossing near the coast. This will deliver us to the Caribbean side of Panama where we'll be able to hop a ferry to Bocas Del Toro.

We recently implemented two exciting new pieces of technology. First, we invested in a SPOT GPS. This device will send our GPS coordinates to the Sprinter Life blog every 10 minutes and post our location on a map located under the "GPS Location" link on our navigation bar. click here to view now
This is a great safety device and it allows you to see exactly where we are at any given time.

We also purchased a Garmin GPS unit loaded with maps of Central and South America. Up until now we've relied on traditional fold out maps to find our way. I would drive and Stevie would navigate. We've found this exercise to be a valuable tool in building patience and temper management in our relationship. This new GPS should prove to be a huge help in navigating countries that don't have or use road signs, consequently adding years to our happy marriage.

Thats all for now - TREE

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