Bye to Sean, borders and VW's

Rita just asked me where we were in my blog, which reminded me that I haven't blogged in quite a while. Better get on that!
After spending a few days on the Peninsula de Oso, Rita and I said goodbye to Sean. He had to fly back to the States and get back to work, something I will have to do eventually!
Rita and I drove down to another beach town in Costa Rica and spent a couple of nights there. Then off to Panama we went.
Oh the joys of another border crossing! We got it pretty much figured out, at least,which lines to stand in first, but it still takes forever. While we where waiting around we saw a beautifully restored 1972 VW bus. I got to talking to the lady in the passenger seat. Her husband and Rita were both doing the dance to get the vehicles though customs. Their names are Wendy and Steve and they hail from Canada, outside Toronto. They and their VW bus, Pumper, drove down from Canada, though the States and Central America. They were going to spend about a week in Panama and the load Pumper into a container and have her shipped to Columbia, where they would continue their journey.
It took us about 3 hours to get through, but then we were back on the road. We headed up to a lovely town in the mountains by the name of Boquete.


It took us quite awhile to find a place to stay as the town was full up. We finally ended up in a dorm room at one of the hostels. Got to say, that was a first for both of us! At $8 a night and nice folks to share with, all was well. If I remember correctly the hostel is called Palencia and is run by a fabulous Panamanian by the name of Pancho. Look him up in the Lonely Planet! We really enjoyed our stay there and would go back if we got the chance.
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End of the Road

Decided the next morning to explore more of the Penninsula, so loaded up our gear and headed to Carate. We'd been told there where a few places to spend the night and that the views along the road were spectacular. No lies about the views, amazing, the jungle to the right and the blue pacific to the left. As we were driving, we noticed flashes of red in a tree and pulled over. There were about 16 Scarlet Macaws flying between two trees, they are magnificent!





Got a lot of pictures with just a flash of feathers until I got this one!
After staring at them for ages we piled back in the car and headed down the road. We came to the small village of Carate, not much there, we kept seeing signs for a hotel with cabins for rent at the end of the road. Rita had thought she'd seen a sign saying it was in our price range. We kept going and going and going. Still seeing signs that told us we were almost there. Finally came to one that said 4x4's only, good thing we have that. Forded the stream and headed up the dirt road(track). Finally arrived at the end of the road. Beautiful place, high up in the jungle, with a view down the valley to the ocean. Not by any stretch of the imagination was it in our price range! It was all inclusive and included 3 meals a day. The least expensive accommodations they had was $105 per person to stay in a tent! Probably a really nice tent but still a tent! Back in the car we climbed and headed back to Kapu.





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Location:Peninsula de Oso, Costa, Rica