Under the Sea!

Our last night in Peurto Viejo, we went to a delicious restaurant (apparently started by a great Canadian chef). It was also confirmed by Jessica (works at dive shop in PV) that the man we had always seen lounging in the tree, actually lived there. On Saturday morning, on our way in for our last breakfast, we could see that in fact he had everything scattered about the branches, from his shoes, to an umbrella, to a foam pillow and of course his toothbrush. Saturday wasn't a spectacular day by any means, but more or less a good day to spend travelling to Alajuela. The bus ride to San Jose ascended through some beautiful, lush, green cloud forest, and on the way down from it, the weather patterns were noticeably different: while the Caribbean was cloudy and muggy, San Jose was blue sky, and very hot.
In Alajuela, we went to a hostel right next to where we had stayed before, and where Jesse, Nathan and Connor were supposedly staying. Not only cheaper than our previous Alajuela accomodations, but we were able to make some nachos and the kitchen and do some laundry as well. These nachos were the best of them all, with beans, cheese, guacamole and chunky salsa. Early Sunday morning, I helped Mom with her bags and saw her off at the aeropuerto. On the bus ride back to Alajuela, Gabriel happened to be on it, so we caught up a bit and I got to practice my Spanish. When I arrived back at the Hostel, the guys were still sleeping of course, but at 9 o'clock we went to San Jose to start our long haul to Panama! Jesse was ill unfortunately, probably food related, but he survived the bus ride.
The border was interesting, with a rickety bridge separating the two little shacks of immigration offices. We had not taken into consideration the fact that Panama is an hour ahead of Costa Rica, so we thought we would be able to catch the last boat to Bocas at 5:30 if we just bussed to the dock. The bus ride takes 2 hours, and seeing as it was 4pm Panama time, we had to pay for a taxi. The boat ride was definately gnarly, and very beautiful as is Bocas del Toro. It is a rad town on an Island, and all the waterfront houses/buildings have patios that are over the water. We ended up lodging up at the Casbah, where Nathan lost the cheaper bed to a Japanese guy, Yoki, in a game of rock paper scissor.
After dropping our packs off, the five of us went to find some food...right after we taught Yoki how to shotgun! The beer here is the cheapest I have seen! 55 cents in the super market and $1 at the bar! (The currency here is just American dollars, so there was no need to change at the border). After a good ol pizza feast, we headed back to the hostel, clearly full of students on spring break. For a Sunday night, the partying was pretty decent. Nate and I stayed at the hostel until quiet time, then headed down the street to another hostel...this one with a bar. There was a group of 24 students from the same university there, so it was relatively pumping.
Monday Connor, Nathan and myself started our scubadiving course, and today we are finishing it up. It is fan freakin tastic! Today we made it to 20m deep, and yesturday only 13. 4 dives thus far, 45 minutes each and tomororw we will do 2 more before back to Costa Rica. Our first dive was at a ship wreck, and others have been just enjoying Coral Gardens and tropical fish!
Jesse has just been chillin on the beach in his hammock readin, and in the nights we have been hittin happy hour hard for 50 cent beers! Right now it is time to go write the Final exam to the PADI open water certification! Woot woot.

Photos: Bocas Islands (sort of like waterworld?)...Connor getting ready for a dive