Panama

Bridge at Sixaola

We went on an adventure to Panama, a trip timed around the expiration of our 90 day tourist visa. By being out of Costa Rica for 3 days, we could renew our visa for another stint and see another Central American country. We drove for about 4 hours to get to Sixaola, the border town in Costa Rica, parked our car in a lot, checked out of CR border patrol, and ambled our way precariously carrying our bags and the baby across the famous bridge between the countries going over the Sixaola River. The gaps in the bridge were large enough in some parts for small children to go through, making us hold our breath to the other side. Fortunately, we and our stuff made it. Then, after we found out about an hour's jump in the time, we grabbed a taxi van that whizzed us to Almirante in just the nick of time to catch a water taxi, ie., skiff holding 30 people, to Isla Colon, where the town of Bocas del Toro is. The 30 minute skiff ride felt a little uneasy, without a lifejacket for the baby, lots of wave action, and impending darkness, but we made it to Bocas all in one piece.

Bocas is obviously a tourist oriented place, and unfortunately, it was rainy the whole time we were there, so we didn't venture out too far. We did go up to a beach that is known for all of its colorful starfish but it was too stormy, so we had lunch, kids played on the hammocks for a while, and we returned. Overall, during our very short stint in Panama, it seemed like there was more poverty, judging by the housing and children hustling work for money. Interestingly, there has been such an American influence that you can only get American dollars out of the ATMs and was the only currency used, except for coins in Panamanian balboas.
We were told at border patrol in CR that when we returned we'd have to show a return ticket out of CR but after a lot of worrying about not having that in our possession, they didn't ask to see anything of the sort when we came back into the country.

When we were in Panama about to cross the bridge back into Costa Rica, we saw an airplane flying over banana fields on the CR side, spraying what we presume was insecticide over vast areas. And, as were driving, we went through a silent group of hundreds of farm workers walking on the road together, perhaps returning to the bananas after lunch. We wondered about the effect that the spraying was having on their health and had once heard about an international lawsuit against one of the big banana producers due to the illnesses that the insectides were producing in worker. It appeared that Dole and Chiquita own vast amounts of land in this part of the country.

An ice cream cone with a Zena cherry on top

Girl selling yuca from Almirante. We paid her $1 to take a picture.