A Walk in the Jungle at Night... Reaching the End of Central America... Saying Goodbye to Fanny

Okay, we´re Oregonians. We pride ourselves, among other things, on being able to brave the rain. I now confess that I didn´t even know what rain was until we stayed the night in Tortuguero - a small town on the banks of the rivers of Northeast Costa Rica. It lies in the wettest region of the country on a flood plain which doesn´t allow for roads. The only way in or out is by river taxi. Even when it´s not raining the air is so humid there is no way to stay dry - there only exist varying degrees of soaked. Needless to say it takes a special breed of person to live out in this environment - preferably part aquatic.
While there, we took a night tour of the beach where we were lucky enough to see a giant green sea turtle laying her eggs, burying them, and crawling back to the ocean. In retrospect, it was an amazing experience. At the time, we were soaking wet and equally cold contemplating the merits of having paid for a two mile walk in the pitch dark downpour. They don´t show you that part on National Geographic. We also took in a canoe tour of the surrounding river system where we got to see various kinds of monkeys playing in the canopy as well as toucans and other birds.
Though we had originally planned on spending two nights in Tortuguero, the weather and general lack of things to do convinced us that an early retreat was in order. After getting back to the car, Dave, Thai, and I headed west for Monte Verde Cloud Forest. In retrospect, we should have gone there first, but in our zeal to return to the Caribbean coast we neglected to check what else we might want to do in Costa Rica. As a result, we did a bit of zig-zagging across the country. We arrived in Santa Elena on the edge of the park late in the evening after tangling with the highways in the capitol, San Jose. Costa Rica was the first country where we got the go ahead to drive at night, so we were able to continue on our way after nightfall.
The last 30km of the drive took and hour and a half... A dirt road amounting to an endless collection of treacherous hills, careening turns, potholes the size of suitcases, and rocks large enough to take a chunk out of the bottom of the car... We didn´t know what to expect of the town, but judging by the road, we didn´t hold out for much. All of a sudden, we hit pavement, streetlights, and a giant supermarket! Little did we know that Santa Elena is actually a bustling little place complete with all the amenities of any city just off the main highway. I still don´t know what to make of the road in, but you could definitely see the effect of the tourist dollars at work on the forest gateway.
We quickly found a place to stay at a small hostel which had hot water and FREE COFFEE! I took a moment (well, a lot of moments) to appreciate our proximity to the coffee plantations of the Costa Rican interior. We made Santa Elena our home for three nights while we toured the city and planned our jungle explorations. We took in the frog and butterfly sanctuaries which were home to all of the hard-to-find wildlife of the area. We also took a night tour of primary forest, during which we saw all sorts of wildlife that is only active in the evening - tree frogs, wolf spiders, tarantulas, white-faced kowatis, olingos, and yes, even racoons. Seriously, we´ve made our way from the 25th to the 10th parallel and we´re still surrounded by racoons, possums, and skunks. Unfortunately, the three-toed sloth, Thai´s chosen critter-to-see, eluded us. I guess it just gives us a reason to come back.
Before we left the area, we also went on a suspension bridge tour of the canopy which gave us a bird´s eye view of the cloud forest. It was beautiful (at least to those of us not afraid of heights... Dave...), but definitely skint on animals.
After making the treacherous return to the Pan-American Highway, we traveled south towards Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean just above the Panamanian border. We spent a couple of nights in Rockin´ J´s, a funky but definitely over-populated backpacker´s stop. Dave and Thai stayed in the tent for $4 a night; I found a hammock to crash in for $5. The town was nice, but just not up to what we had seen of Caribbean towns to the north - have I mentioned we loved Belize? We did manage to find a couple of amazingly oversized hammocks for sale, though, so I can´t hate the area completely. If you are in the mood to travel to a foreign country only to meet nothing but other Americans (and Cancun is getting dull) take a trip to Puerto Viejo. Besides, one can only take so many nights living on the same grounds as one of the busiest bars in town. It´s not good for your sleep, or your wallet.
We crossed into Panama a few days later through Sixaola with little trouble and made our way to Bocas del Toro. Bocas is an island just off the coast that hosts a jumping surfing community. It was a good time, but we could only handle so much of it. New faces, new places, new bars... A lot of the same old atmosphere that comes with the backpacking scene. Plus we were beginning to stress a bit about what we should do with our car once we reached Panama City. After two days, we decided to move south to the capitol. We left Dave on the island to take in the beach a bit more, but he met up with us three days later, so we still didn´t shake him.
Since the 2nd, we´ve been bumming around the city seeing some of the sights and getting a hand on our car situation. We toured Casco Viejo, the colonial section of town, and made our way to the Panama Canal lookout. All very fascinating, but our focus in this city has clearly been getting rid of our car!
And so while most tourists in Panama might spend their time taking the train along the Canal or shopping in the many large malls in El Cangrejo or along Balboa, I have spent the last week mingling with the Indian and Pakistani used-car salesmen of Vista Hermosa getting my feet wet in the Panamanian Customs process. We learned very late along the way (once we had already crossed into Panama) that I would not be allowed to leave the country without the car! This definitely threw a wrench in our original plan of storing/ditching Fanny in the country while we continued on to South America. On top of that, our tour books had led us to believe that selling the car was next to impossible. So we began to think. We thought about returning to Costa Rica where we were pretty sure the laws were not nearly as strict. We thought about ´losing´the car in the city and reporting it stolen. Neither sounded wonderful to us.
Then we found some advice on a travel website that suggested hunting down an Indian used-car lot as they were known for sorting out such problems quite expediently. With the aid of our hostel keeper, we found the right area of town and quickly began haggling. In the end, we got $1,100 for Fanny - a much better price and much less hassle than filing a false police report. Over the next few days, we sorted out the loose ends of the deal - alerting Customs and getting the stamp for the vehicle canceled from my passport - and as of this afternoon, we are cleared to leave the country. Which is REALLY helpful, because we fly to Peru tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM! As of tomorrow, we are officially on to South America!