Addicted to the feeling

So since the last blog I had an amazing random adventure to Panama. This spur of the moment run to an unknown destination turned out to possibly be the most amazing adventure exploration on my trip. I've explored a lot of remote areas for surf on this trip but this one certainly sits near the top of them. Last week Ricardo started talking about wanting to leave the country to get a renewed stamp on his passport so he can stay legal while they're processing his citizenship here. On Thursday he convinced me to go to Panama with him. I really didn't want to travel like this, fast short long distance trips because they're not economical & I have to time to travel slowly. I'm not working so I'm on a totally different pace. But I figured I would go, see about renewing my 3 month temporary import of my car into the country & search for surf. We had been to Santa Catalina in Panama on a previous trip but that was far for a 3 day weekend so we looked at the map for a beach close to the border. We found a small fishermans town on the map named Puerto Armuelles & decided we would aim for that. So we wake up at 3am on Friday morning & hit the road. By traveling at this hour we can blaze fast through the dirt roads with no traffic, never have to stop at the one way bridges & make it to the border in nearly half the time as mid day. We arrive at the border & I find out some news that will alter my direction. I was under the impression that I could come back into the country for another 90 days so long as I left the country for 3 days. This is true for me but not true for my truck. My truck has to exit the country for 90 days to be able to reenter again. And my truck's importation is set to expire on May 23rd. So now I am happy I came on this trip because I was planning on going to Nicaragua for a few weeks & then returning to Costa Rica to hang out with Rob & Cheryl when they're here. I would have found out at the border that I couldn't return which wouldn't have been cool. The borders are always a bit of chaos & even though I've been through this border before it doesn't make it that much easier to deal with. Always harassed for money & people pretending to be officials to "help" me get through the border. The guy who inspects my car just flat out asks for some money to buy a drink before he stamps my papers, the usual really. The first interesting thing upon entering panama is that the main highway is blocked from driving, there is some sort of peoples protest going on. Our original plan was to start asking people about Puerto Armuelles but maybe if that didn't work out go somewhere else. Now the only road open was the one to Puerto Armuelles so we're going there or back to Costa Rica. As we drive in we begin to ask people about surfing there & there is little hopeful response. The only thing we found on the internet was boats and offshore islands but more for fishing. Per the usual we are stopping every so often and asking people the same questions, how to get to the beach, do people surf there, etc. We arrive to the beach only to see no waves but we keep asking locals & they keep pointing us to drive north, telling us to pass through a restricted oil area & keep driving on the beach for an hour or so. And they say you can only pass on the beach during low tide which luckily it is low tide at this time but also means if we go on this drive, we can't return until another low tide. So we decide to hop on the beach & start driving on sand & reef. It's something like I've never driven on before. We pass off the beach onto a horrible "road" beside the beach & come upon an older local guy & he asks for a lift. He tells us there is a place to stay if we keep driving on the beach for a while, until you can't drive any further. Come to find out we get to spots that we think you can't drive any further but there are no places so we're forced to try to pass which we do. Eventually we land in a beautiful tropical jungle on the beach area and there are 4 cabinas & a camping area. At this point we're thinking we've been quite an adventure to get here but we're still not real hopeful on surf based on what we've been seeing. The camping is right above the beach & directly in front of us is an island. It's hard to say the distance but we decide we're going to paddle to this island & see if there are waves on the other side. Packing food would be ideal as it looks like a far paddle & maybe we'll be out on this island for a while. But we can't really come up with a solution for that so we pack a knife as the island is covered with palm trees & we're going to get coconuts for drink & food. We paddle across open water ocean in an odd zone of currents as swell that wraps around both sides of the islands & collides with itself in the middle on our side. The paddle turns out to be 30 mins long, the landing is on reef & rock which makes walking around the island another difficult task. 45 minutes later & we're on the back side of the island with sites of massive rocks sticking out of the waver & big glassy waves breaking all along this side. For me excitement kicks in immediately, for Ricardo he seems to be more concerned about the ability to surf with all these rocks sticking out of the water. We continue hiking around to look at all the spots & we see what I think looks like a rideable section of surf. There are rocks showing in the inside but it appears the outside is makeable. The fact that we're on this deserted island of extreme tropical lushness & looking at what looks like incredible surf I can't wait any longer and decide to give it a go. Ricardo opts to watch for now as he's not convinced it's safe which is true, the walk over rocks & reef isn't fun to get out & the site of dry rock while surfing an unknown spot definitely keeps you on edge. And for me surfing alone in what felt like so far from anything or anyone was a bit scary & exciting. It felt like what I would imagine somewhere in Indonesia might feel like. As I paddle out I realize the size and power is bigger than I anticipated which is typically the case in surfing, it always looks easier from shore than when you're getting smashed on the head by sets & too nervous about rocks to duck dive properly to get below the waves. A bit of struggle & I'm beyond the break. I finally paddle into a steep, glassy wave and have an amazing ride all the way into the rocky inside section & jump off the back of the wave unscathed. That's when the feeling of realizing all the travel, adventure, patience, fear, & exercise it took to arrive to this spot was worth it & I was truly living a dream. It's one thing to follow the rainbow but it's amazing feeling to find a pot of gold at the end of it. I'm overly excited & paddling like a madman to get back out & catch another, though really that was unnecessary as the waves were nonstop & there was nobody out. After 20 mins or so, Ricardo joins me & we trade off some amazing waves pushing ourselves wave after wave. We are in complete disbelief & have huge smiles painted on our faces. I guess this may seem like a bunch of surf chatter but really it was just an amazing adventure to arrive to a deserted island & find fairly uncharted territory. Surfing is so dynamic that it's really hard to find good surf. You have to have the right swell direction, right tide, right wind & these are ever changing things. So we were over the moon that it had all worked out for us. After surfing we collected thatched palm leaves to lay on top of the rocks to create a space to lay & rest. We hunted for Coconuts as we need to rehydrate. Finding good coconuts proves to be tough, Ricardo spends a lot of time fighting coconuts off the trees with a long stick. We fight to get in them & end up drinking coconut after coconut and eating the meat as well. Sitting on this island, opening coconuts I began to wonder what my friends and family were doing. It would have been nice to share this with everyone & I was certainly reflecting on what an amazing group of friends & family I have and how I do miss everyone. I was able to get a little bit of video footage of most of the adventure. It turned out, as always, to be hard to get good surf footage of us as sitting on the inside with my camera meant you dealt with rocks underneath and massive waves in the head. And we weren't typically surfing alone with the other filming. After surfing we have to paddle back to the mainland which is not so fun after surfing until exhaustion. That night camping there was a full moon (pictured) that lit up the beach & our camp, amazing night to go along with the amazing day. We had a sloth perched up on a tree above our tent & walking to the bathrooms I spotted an anteater, which is a first for me. Waking up the following morning to the intrusive sounds of howler monkeys & we're ready to do it all over again. Another paddle, though we're both fairly sore from the day before, another hike & hopes for another fun day of surf. The surf got bigger & we had another day of euphoria on a deserted island. The trip was short lived, we camped 2 nights & we were back in the car retracing our steps driving on the beach for an hour or so & heading for the border. Double check at the border that I have to leave which is a firm yes so now I'm back in Jaco at Ricardo's and sorting out what I'm going to do next. It looks like I'll probably be heading to Panama & I'm excited about getting back into the adrenaline of traveling in foreign land, I'm addicted to this feeling right now.

If you've made it this far & you have a few more minutes, check out some footage from panama --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4t5Zm4ygog

Mindfulness

Hola todo del mundo. SO I've been slow at the blog thing because I haven't been doing as much traveling. I suppose that when I'm not mobile, less crazy stories happen. But all the same I've still been meeting people from all over the world, surfing, reading, eating rice, beans & fried plaintains and enjoying the healthy lifestyle. One of the refreshing things about meeting travelers is that everyone lives on the bare minimum budget. Nobody is shopping just to shop or spending money frivolously. You buy food, you find budget accommodations, travel by bus, etc. It's good to be around that kind of financial mindset as I've been guitly of spending too much on things that I don't need. The funny thing now is I'm living on so much less than I ever have but I'm having a trip of a lifetime. I'm also reading instead of watching TV. I have no clue what's on TV, never watching any depressing news & really can't believe how many books I've read. Probably more on this trip than over the past couple of years & it's been enjoyable. What else has happened, oh I went from not eating tomatoes to eating tomotoes. When I started this trip, I didn't like tomatoes. But everytime I ordered something "sin tomate" people must have thought my spanish was wrong because they always gave it to me with tomatoes. And no matter how many times I told Fish or Ricardo on the road that I wasn't into tomatoes, when they cooked I somehow always was served tomatoes. Eventually I just gave up & started eating them and now I find myself slicing tomatoes for my sandwiches, go figure. Well since my last blog some changes, inevitably on this trip, have happened. I was suppose to start house sitting but it seems to have fallen through which I found out the day I was moving to the house. I'm quite sure what happened but something between the owner & the contractor who's getting paid to stay there so I've been in Jaco. I did do a trip down to Dominical with a friend I made who only had a few days left on her trip. It was sort of soured because the Dominical I described to her was ruined by a fiesta of sorts built in this chill town to promote a paved road being built in it. Instead of stars on the beach, it was discoteque on the beach. Plus I was again fighting kidney stone pains which I've been trying get to pass thru a variety of natural 'remedies'. However, The waves were really fun & we found a chill waterfall spot to spend a low tide morning. That and my aussie friend made me laugh a lot during my pain to help. It was interesting on this little trip because I never felt like I had such an accent until I spent time chatting with this girl from England both days in the lineup & then with my Aussie friend the rest of the time. They made me repeat what I said about as much as I make people repeat themselves who talk to me in spanish. I never thought my english was difficult to understand but apparently it is to some. Also Tania, my aussie friend, couldn't help but repeat/mock almost everything I said because of my áccent. The English surfer girl literally asked me to repeat everything I said but she was so cute it didn't bother me :) So the day before Dominical we & another girl from the school of the world did a day trip to manuel antonio national park to hike; we saw 2 types of monkeys up close, some other strange animal that is a cross between a deer & a rat and saw some really nice tropical beaches hiking along. Since then it's been back to Jaco & back to a somewhat normal routine with Ricardo. I did just got an email from an old boss who is now a VP at a nonprofit public healthcare facility. He said he has a Director position that he'd love to talk to me about. For someone jobless and being that I've never held a position quite that high up in my field, it's a great offer. But here I sit enjoying my days and thinking about jumping out of this for that is a tough thought. On one hand I could take the job, live like I live now on very little and truly save up some money. However I've yet to volunteer and I still have a long way to go on my spanish & want to travel more. Ricardo's advice today was "look you put all this effort into wrestling and you were successful at that. Then you put all this effort into this career and you made that happen successfully. Now you're putting your mind into getting better at surfing & you're improving. So don't worry about money, when you want to put your mind on making money you'll make it." I had also just read a quote from Dj's facebook that said "we do the things we HAVE to do so we can do the things we WANT to do". This made me think a little too, right now I'm not doing anything I have to really but I know at some point I will. It's strange right now, I don't have a cell phone, don't watch TV and am really leading a different healthier lifestyle and it would seem odd to get sucked back into something less natural. I've also been told by more & more people that my stories "should be a book". ~Seems to be what I've heard a lot. Maybe I should be putting energy into that or something along the lines of that with Hurley, Chevy(suggestion from someone), adventure mag, etc. A guy just left here saying he has some background & contacts in writing and gave me his card. Though it seems a bit egocentric to think that my story would be of that much interest. Quien sabe? As for now I don't know my next step since the house sitting gig seems to be just about totally under water. Salud, Yyyesssii (somehow my name is turned into yesse since Jesse is a really hard name to pronounce apparently)

episide number ?

So it's been a while since I've been on the bloggio. Since the last time I've been on here, I've been spending a good deal of time with Ricardo, Hannah, & their baby Kalani. Ricardo & I have been surfing a lot, I've been working on my spanish which is going okay but I need so much work to actually have extended conversations. I mean, I can say "donde esta el bano" with the best of them at this point but I'm trying to get to that next level. So I've had some close encounters with the crazy howler monkeys which has been fun, got some good photos here & there. I ran into my first real hiccup which was my bank card expired. Ooops. Not sure how I let that one slip by but on April fools day my bank card pulled an April fools "no hay plata para ti" prank that wasn't a prank. At that point I realized not being able to get money is going to damper things a little bit and maybe I need to figure out how to make some money while I figure out how to get my card. I got really lucky though, Hannah's mom was coming down in 3 days from Boston so I called Dj, asked him to search the mail for a new card & overnight it to her. He found it, dropped it in fedex and saved me big time. It got to her the day before she left, she brought it and I'm back in business. Minor scare averted. Shortly after was a holiday week here, semana santa, & Ricardo had a long weekend so we went on a trip. He wanted to exit the country to renew his passport here because he's dealing with a crazy mess between his bank, citizenship, his son & some other stuff. Anyways we decided to go to a place neither of us had been, Santa Catalina Panama on the pacific Coast. We woke up at 3 am, hit the road and made some great time to the frontier. Crossed into Panama no probs & started making our way. Things change drastically when you get into this side of Panama from Costa Rica. The highway is newly paved & driving there is almost like driving in the states. The gas stations are from the states & their money is the Balboa aka the US dollar. Again we're lost & end up taking a long route to get to Santa Catalina but we finally arrive & it's beautiful. Perched up on a cliffside, palm trees, outer reefs, outer islands & hardly anything there. Ricardo & I get to a place that is full, because of the holiday weekend, but the guy lets us park & surf. Waves are really good but the crowds are actually really bad. After our first surf we run into our first problem with being in such a small town so far away from any real town, we can't find any food! We have a few things in my car but didn't really plan on camping & surviving on our own. Turns out the few places that serve food didn't want to serve us because we were at a weird hour & we weren't wearing shirts which I finally read in my book is 'illegal' or not the norm there. After searching for a place to stay we realize everything is full & we're going to have to camp. Thankfully a place that has rooms also has space for camping & they have a kitchen that serves breakfast & lunch. It's a bit hot for camping but the spot was amazing with great views of the surf & sunset. Surfing a reef reminded me of Hawaii & the abuse I took also reminded me of being in Hawaii. I was having a little too much fun & caught a wave I shouldn't have, ended up too far inside & and turned around with a huge set coming. The water disappeared from under me and I was on dry rock which put some major abuse on my board & me. Came out alive but my board was in bad shape but fixable. A few days here & it's time to head back towards Costa Rica. We decide we'll try to spend our last night at Pavones in Costa Rica so we leave 1 day early. Get to the border a bit faster this time, cross without any hassles and we're off to Pavones. It's about an hour & half drive to Pavones from the border & we get a mile from seeing the waves when 2 cars drive by slowly staring at us & a guy jumps out with his badge & stops us. He's a customs official, Ricardo is driving my car and the questions begin. I have all the necessary paperwork, we're both legal with fresh stamps on our passport BUT apparently Ricardo is not allowed to drive my car. So they start saying they are going to take my car. I guess I could say I'm happy that at this point my spanish has gotten better & I'm understanding what they're saying though I'm not wanting to understand it. We're arguing back, Ricardo tells them I was having pains from kidney stones & had pain medicine which was in the center console but they don't budge. They spend some more time talking away from us & we start getting a bit suspicious. The guy with the badge & pistol is driving a car with Panama plates so I'm saying to Ricardo, isn't that weird? There are 2 ladies driving another car which does look like an officials type car from Costa Rica. Anyways they come back to us & say we have 2 options; one is they take my car back to the border or 2 we get escorted back to the border. So we obviously choose number 2, they drive in front & back of us and escort us all the way back which was frustrating because we just wanted to see the waves & it was almost dark so our plans were ruined. During the drive looking at the panama plates we got more & more weary of the guy and started talking about what we might do if something weird starts to happen. The prob was the women had Ricardo's passport & my car permission so both of which are important documents. Back to the border, we pull up to a customs official there & tell them we think these people are weird but apparently that guy is driving a car with panama plates because he had just taken that car from someone else. More madness begins there, they are researching Ricardo's citizenship & other things which he's in the process of trying to get approved. More people get involved, they keep having meetings in back rooms & it's getting blown out of proportion considering we both have all the legal paperwork and I can totally drive but he was driving, which they told us a million times. At this point it started raining like crazy, super dark & downpour which seemed to fit the situation well. We argued, discussed, got lectured about if anything happens to me he can't drive my car and they let us go. So our plans for the day ruined by we're happy nothing worse happened, no fines, no nothing other than time lost & gas lost I guess. We drive north in the rain & shortly after a police car with it's lights on drives behind us. We're both thinking "oh great, here we go again" but it follows far back and never seems to want to pull us over. It's pouring so Ricardo is thinking they don't want to get out in the rain, there are no places to stop just a really narrow road. When I pass slow cars, he passes and so on for an hour of stress until finally we arrive at a gas station & I stop and the police doesn't . Whew, crisis averted. We spend the night in Dominical, have one more checkpoint hassle about the car & Ricardo's passport and we make it back to Jaco safe & sound. The trials & tribulations of having your own car I guess. It looks like what's next for me is I'm going to house sit in Dominical for a little while. A friend of Rob Williams has a house down there & I've been emailing with him & it seem like a decent option to relax and not spend much money. In the meanwhile my exercise group in Ricardo's neighborhood has grown to 4 & maybe six tonight. I'm the "entrenador" and having to use my spanish with everyone so it's good practice. I hope this episode finds everyone healthy & happy. Pura Vida!

Rumble in the jungle....almost

Hola familia y amigos! Well I just got back to Jaco today from another interesting adventure. This time I ventured south on the pacific side to the end of the road, literally. The spot is Pavones, a famed "longest left" surf spot, and with a south swell looming, it already closing out at the beach breaks in Hermosa & Dominical, I decided hit the road for a solo trip to Pavones. Another nice drive along the beautiful lush green jungle countryside, sunny blue skies and for me excitement to see this place. Upon arrival I find that though pavones is small & remote, there are a lot of surfers there ready to see this long wave in action. It's mangroves, palm tree's, black sand beach and cobble stones that help create this epic wave. When I pull up, the swell has already arrived and when I see this place it looks unbelievable. South swells wrap into this bay, break on the cobble stones and peel for what seems like an eternity. The arrival into a new town is always a strange feeling for me. All of the people stare at me & my big black truck & when I park and talk to this gringo guy, he responds with someones going to break into my truck if I park where I'm at. There are quite a few surfers in the water, spread out throughout the different takeoff zones but certainly a large amount. Being a new person, the surf community doesn't quite accept you right away. No surfers really want to see more surfers show up, especially when most gringo surfers tend to be coming to costa rica to learn to surf and inherently make the lineup more dangerous. As you walk to the line up there is a wall off the only restaurant right in front of pavones and there are a grip of people that sit there and watch the surfers & also stare at me as I walk by. So being a bit worried about my truck and things in it, then paddling out without very many friendly faces starts me off a bit weary of being here. Then as I ease into the lineup, not nearly up at the point, I watch as person after person fails to link up waves, fall on drops and surf really bad considering these high performance gems are firing through the lineup. After a couple failed attempts of sneaking into a wave, I finally snag a nice reeling left and get a good ride down the line in front of the restaurant crowd and all the way into the bay at the end. It's like you can feel all the eyes on you to see if you meet the approval. After that first ride, all the worries and fears of whether I should be there are gone and I'm just so stoked to get to see a wave that breaks like this. Faces turn friendly, rides get longer & the day turns brighter. After a solid surf in the water it's time to find a place to stay. I find a room in a cabina for 10 dollars per night with what seems like a really friendly crowd. The cast of characters that "live" in pavones at the cabinas are fit to make a reality TV show. Everyone is super friendly but as time passes, you start to figure out that they are either a drunk, drug addict, hidden away from trouble, a combination of all of these or a die hard surfer. There is a regular group people hanging out at the cabina and there is a lot to laugh about with this group. First there is a resident named Dave who's from South Carolina with a refreshing strong southern accent, this guy should have a tv show about him. He says the funniest things and has the craziest stories. He's a little guy and as the first night gets a little late & his beer consumption has gone up, he begins to tell me a story where he confronted all the local guys at the Cantina about people stealing things and them not being cool. He told them that if they want a piece of him to bring it, "weaponize" and bring all your amigos. So later that night while he was at the bar, a fight started with him getting hit in the back by a 2x4 and then he proceeded to fight 6'ish guys. The details behind what exactly ensued are different depending on how drunk the story teller was and which drunken story teller told me. I was fed the town gossip by quite a few people because I made friends quickly after my surfing was up to par and people started making friends with me. As the weekend wound down, the visitors left and it was back to the just the regulars and me. It would be easy for me to stay in a town like this, it's extremely relaxing and stress free and most of the people are really nice and trying to tell me I should just stay there and surf all these other secret spots. The surf is incredible there and I've just had the longest rides of my life which really makes it hard not to have a big grin on my face. The rides can be somewhere between 200 & 300 yards/meters. So long you have to walk back up the point, it's pretty amazing really. I paddled out with my digital video camera one of the days, put it in my mouth, paddled into a wave, stood up & started video'ng and the ride ended at 34 seconds long. And that was a 'normal' wave there, not caught from all the way up the point. I was really happy that I felt fit because this wave proved very challenging from a paddle perspective and from your legs burning on such a long ride. Paddling up the point was like paddling up stream, extremely strong current directly against you. All the surfing and training Ricardo & I had been doing seemed to pay off as I was able to last out there for hours at a time and usually spent about 5-7 hours a day in the water which put me on a lot a good waves as most people faded out of the lineup quickly. I still managed to put in my exercise routine after surfing too & I only mention this because of some of what unfolds later. The testosterone level at the cabina seemed to go up when 2 new guys moved in, one of which is helping run the place. So now I little crazy southern dave, about 5'6 & 150 lbs. There is big bill who runs the joint, he's a dopey older guy, tall, 220 lbs and moved out of his parents house to be the mgr of this hostel for a friend so he's not the sharpest tool in the box but he seems nice, seems being the key word. Now i have mateo, aka romeo, who is a typical surf dude that lives in pavones. He's from the east coast of the states, blond hair, tan and full on surf guy talk. Then his friend sloan is there visiting too, which he's a slow minded meathead of sorts. There is a couple from Holland also staying there which means we have 1 female around but the dude level was a bit too much for her to hang with all the time. I sit around at night with these guys as they continue to drink, as they've done all day really, and I like to fuel the fire as they start to make claims of how tough they are. First, sheriff dave as I call him after the town fight over stolen slippa's and the likes, says 2 months ago he was doing 1500 pushups in an hour, think about that. But I know better than to say much cuz I have an inclination that there is something I don't know about this guy. Sloan is a muscle kind of meat head can't believe that and stars to challenge him on it, and dave rattles off he'll go diamonds, one armed, whatever you want and sloan starts to back down. I believe him on his 1500 pushups because he seems to be so into it, but as I sit back and think I start thinking that someone would need a lot of free time to build up to something like that...like jailtime free time that is. This night I'm back to kidney stone pains and they're bad, real bad. I've surfed all day, exercised before dinner and now am in need of some sort of pain killer. Sloan offers me a pain killer which I accept, though he also thinks this opens the door to us being buddies and shows me this "awesome" thing he bought at the pharmacy which I don't know what the box he's showing me means in english and I open it to find a needle and liquid. It's steroids and he's trying to sell me how great it is to use these and pump up, it will give me so much engergy. I'm looking at this clown, who's done nothing all day and I say "man I woke up at 5 am, surfed 7 hours, did pushups, situps, lunges, squats do I really look like I need energy from steroids?" Back to the gang, these guys keep one up'ing each other on how tough they are (or were if you ask me)and because I'm the only sober one I just keep picking and pulling more out of them while I say nothing. It finally dawns on sheriff dave that I'm sober and everyone is starting to be bothered by the fact that as they say I am "being so healthy." The one thing you realize is other people start to feel guilty about not doing anything when someone else is exercising in your face all day & if they're not as drunk or on drugs like you are. It's not my fault though, I'm just doing my thing and not saying anything to anyone. All in all, I'm having fun laughing with these guys and laughing at them claim to be so tough and how fit they used to be in another less alcoholic state of their life. I did ask sheriff Dave if he was locked up in order to do those pushups and he told me he spent the last year in jail, details unknown to me. That's how you get to a point where you can do an insane amount of pushups, I knew there was no other way. You start to realize a lot of people in such a far off place like this are running away from a previous life. It makes me wonder if that's what I'm doing, but I then realize I'm on a completely different life journey than these guys. But it does make me sit back and think about what am I searching for on my journey and I had a lot of good time to think about some things. Pavones is a sort of town that everyone speaks english, it's a problem I have spending all my time in beach/surf destinations. Not enough chance to practice my spanish. SO I walk around, meet some locals and ask them if I could hang out and practice spanish which they loved the idea. They proceed to tell me how most of the gringos don't speak any spanish or even try & how disrespectful these guys that move here can be. They also tell me how the locals don't like sheriff dave or Bill, who I've been walking in & out of town with a handful of times. Anyways it was a good half day of spanish practice as the waves were smaller & I was unmotivated after great 6-8 foot faces of surf the past 5 days. So with the swell fading away and I'm a bit surfed & even though I could get stuck in town like this easily, I figure it's time me for me head north. The holland couple needs a lift out of town so I agree to let them ride with me. Well after driving for a few minutes, I realize I left my pots and pans in the kitchen and have to turn back. Coming back down the dirt roads, I make a turn only to see dopey bill steam rolling along in his 1980 van. We see him, then realize he's not looking or doesn't see us and I pop the truck into reverse and he finally starts to skid and bam we have a head to head collision. Mind you I'm really mad but since it's a guy who's been nice to me, I jump out of the car and say nothing just look at my front end that he's just smashed. He jumps out of his van asking if I have insurance then a few minutes later he wants to talk and asks me what I'm going to do to which I respond "nothing." My bumper is bent in to the point that my tire can't turn without obstruction. These local guys delivering flowers drive by, see us trying to bend my bumper back and in typical form them jump out and have a clever way of 'fixing' my problem. It seems when there is no mechanic or AAA around, everyone's resourceful. Bill asks to talk to me and starts getting weird, saying this was my fault and I'm going to need to pay him. We argue for a second & he says I'm going to get the police to which I say go get them. Meanwhile, our cars are blocking the only intersection in town and the news of a fender bender spreads thru sleepy hollow quickly and we have hoards of visitors. people come and go and bill finally returns with the policia. The beauty of this situation is Bill lives there but speaks no spanish and the police, thank god, speak no english. And my spanish is good enough to tell them the story and actually talk to them. At first I'm still being nice, translating for bill what they're asking him and translating back. The police look at the situation like a very small one, tell me that we need to come to our own solution and move on. But Bills only solution is for me to give him money and everyone in my car and the guy in his car all agreed it was his fault. He doesn't care, he's being an idiot. Bill is now saying he's going to take me to court. There are 2 diff types of policia in costa rica, one for tourist and one for traffic. These police in pavones are tourist police and the nearest traffic police are 2 hours away. They can call the traffic police to come out, write us each a ticket but they're telling me it's pointless to which I translate for Bill but he's being stubborn now. So he wants them called, wasting my day to wait for the traffic police. Even the local police didn't want to wait, they were hot in their uniforms and they asked me at least 10 times to come up with a solution. As the heat kicked in, the anger started to set in a bit more for me & mainly because Bill was lying about what happened. He said I hit him when in fact I was in reverse when he smashed me. The people in my car who also stayed at his place were arguing with him about it. I decide the nice guy thing is over & I start not translating anymore for him & when I do, I just tell him he's been drinking all morning and he said it was his fault to which they laugh. what kind of jerk moves to a country and doesn't speak any of their language anyway? And now I won't tell him what they're saying, he's asking me & I'm starting to give him mean responses now. Mind you this guy is 6'2ish and 220 lbs ( I know his weight because in macho man talk it came out). But I also witness the fact that he could only surf long enough to catch one day each day, then it was back to the chair and the beers so I knew that I had the edge & I knew that though all these guys were tough, only one of us was actually doing anything and that was me. Sheriff dave pulls up on his beach cruiser and is devastated that Bill & I are at ends. At this point my blood is boiling, Bill is being stupid, he's wasting my day because he thinks he's going to take me to court in Costa Rica. I am talking really loud to Dave & telling him that I'm about to snap on Bill. Dave was the ex con who fought 6 guys and I just tell him, look none of you guys can take me & I'm about to snap. I said while you've been drinking all day, I've been training and I have skills up my sleeves that I haven't been bragging about like all you guys. He knows I'm serious and says he doesn't want to be involved and leaves. 3 hours later, all the while I'm getting more and more mad, transit cop shows up. He, like the other cops, laugh at the fact that we called him for such a minor fender bender. I'm not helping translate anything, they all like that I speak spanish and finally Bill says another lie and even though they can't understand him I can't take it anymore so I get in his face (or chest really) and tell him he's one comment away from getting a beat down. I just told him with his beer gut, lazy ways & slow movement that I'm going to kill him & that he better find some friends or a weapon or both. The funny thing is he got really scared, after all this tough guy talk for days I had to endure when push came to shove, he was scared. So he tries to tell the cops on me but guess what, they can't understand him and when they ask me what he's saying I say that he is saying that he drank too much beer this morning. They laugh at me, tell me to relax & not fight him but at this point I'm ready to smash this guy's face in because he deserves it. I ask the police if we can just fight and the winner takes the money but they just keep laughing at me, especially pointing out how much bigger he is but of course I tell him he does nothing but drink and I'm not worried. He's cowered away now, under the bushes afraid to be near me. The transit cop writes us both a ticket that we can take to a town far away, he's trying to ask for a court date but they don't understand his terrible attempts of reading words from his spanish dictionary. They then tell me in spanish he can't do anything, I don't need to appear with the paper if I don't want to and this was all pointless. I translate for him that he needs to go to court at 8am in a town hours away to present the ticket. We part ways, I hit the road angry that I didn't just fight him but happy that I kept a cool control over a jamie correll like tempter that popped out of nowhere. So now I have a nice truck with a slightly damaged front end but it's not that big of a deal. I've headed back up to Jaco to spend a little more time with Ricardo & family. The time I spent in Pavones made me realize I probably should hit the road and head south, i want to get to panama, see the panama canal & the locks there and then try to figure out how to get my car shipped to ecuador. We'll see though, so many options! Sorry this story was so long & I never reread or proof read what I type so hopefully not too many confusing errors, my brain gets scattered! Hope everyone is happy & healthy

Bienvenidos a Costa Rrrrrica!

As always, so much has happened since the last post. Since then I've passed through the entire country and entered panama and back. Costa Rica is different than all of the other countries, it was immediately apparent that I was in Costa Rica the very first night after crossing the border. We went straight to Roca Bruja after crossing the frontier, the drive to witches rock is horrendous really. There is a reason that many people don't go there even though it's a magestic jungle/national park and is a world class surf break. Access is just difficult almost impassable and is impassable during the wet season. The drive there is terrible and here we are doing it at night, it's super slow technical driving that should be on a commercial for Chevrolet 'like a rock.' The reason it's apparent you are in Costa Rica besides the road conditions is the wildlife. Immediately there are night animals out running as we drive into the park. Camping there and you wake up to the sounds of unfamiliar birds and howler monkeys. If you've never heard howler monkeys before, this is a sound like no other. Seriously, the sound they bellow makes you think you are being stalked by a dinosaur or some massive wild beast. I can remember the first time I heard this noise on my first trip to Costa Rica while hiking with Camille, we were freaked out wondering what in the world was coming to get us from the jungle. Waking up to this sound made me realize I had finally made it to costa rica and here I am waking up at Roca Bruja, a place I've always dreamed of surfing. I had no idea this surf spot came with an amazing jungle atmosphere with constant noises, movements and sightings of animals. There wasn't much swell at Roca Bruja but you can get an idea of how perfect the surf could be. The winds were too strong offshore and the swell wasn't big enough to make more than waist to chest high perfect little waves. The second morning we walked to the surf spot at 530am, which is a pretty long walk, and halfway there, along with seeing puma prints in the sand, we stumbled across a giant sea turtle climbing up the sand, dig a perfect hole with her back flippers, lay about 60 eggs, fill the hole and drag herself back to the ocean. What a cool sight that was to witness. So with no waves for 2 days and Fish having zero dollars more, we were faced with decisions of what to do again. I wanted to stay at Roca Bruja and hike and just hang out in the jungle but fish couldn't afford more and since there were no waves he wanted to bail. We had plans to drive the entire northern peninsula but the surf forecast was small and Fish's lack of money situation was putting a cramp on my plans so we opted to bypass a big part of Costa and drive straight to Playa Hermosa to drop him off and for me to go to Ricardo's pad in Jaco. This was a good regrouping point for me and I was ready to travel alone again though it seems I never make that happen. For the next few days I surfed hermosa, esterillos and jaco with Ricardo and at times all of the girls that are taking lessons in the school of the world. I figured I'd be nice and "help out" :) A couple of days meeting the students, hanging around Jaco with Ricardo and his family and I started to feel like I hadn't done anything. I guess the feeling of constant adrenaline of traveling by car had been so much that 3 days of somewhat routine like familiarity started to make me feel like I needed to do something again. Sunday morning Ricardo and I had plans to surf at about 530 am but when I woke up he said this guy that we had seen surfing the other day just walked by and is taking the bus to Panama bocas del toro and he's going with photographers and the waves are supposed to be good. A minute of discussing and we hop in the car and go track him down at the bus station to ask him a few more questions like can a car make it on the island, does he want to split gas, etc. He's amped on me wanting to go and drive and within 10 minutes I decide to go and start packing. Ricardo can't come, he has to work and the family and all. So before you know it I'm in the car with this kid from Costa Rica and his 2 Argentinian photographers. JosyMar, from Costa, is apparently ranked 3rd in the open surf division and is trying to make the most out of his surf career. He's a funny character, thinks every girl loves him and talks to everyone with beach slang spanish which later I'm told that's the kind of spanish I talk. So anyway we're off in the car, seems like it's going to be a fun trip and the first thing that happens is he falls right to sleep. I have no idea where we're going and I keep trying to wake him up but first problem is he can't keep himself awake, apparently he was out all night the night before and hadn't slept yet and the other problem is he didn't know how to get anywhere. I guess he's always on the bus so again, like always, we are lost and asking people for directions which spins us in circles a few times because somehow nobody knows where the ONE road to the Caribbean is. I don't know why I thought this trip wouldn't be long but traversing across this small country is no easy feat. It's a beautiful countryside with ever changing climates; we crossed through mountains, jungles, cloud forests, rain forests, sun, rain, dry, humid, & paved roads and unpaved ones. On the drive there I nearly ran over a sloth, it was in the road and on a paved road which meant I was moving along pretty fast. Sloths are the strangest alien looking things to me, more sloth encounters later. Over to the Caribbean which is a first for me and the first noticeable difference is that it's totally different, as far as the people around. It's now more black dready guys and you don't see the Tico looking people much anymore. We went to look at the infamous Salsa Brava surf spot in Puerto Viejo which is know as a really heavy wave sending a lot of people home with injuries. That wave wasn't really working though the town of Puerto Viejo looks like a cool spot that I would like to spend more time in but not this day, only about 20 minutes and then I'm convinced that even though it's 4pm the border is close and we'll be surfing in no time. I try to tell these guys that passing a border with a foreign vehicle is usually a long dreadful task but they respond with "tranquilo maje, pura vida" so we head for the border. We arrive at the border at 5pm and costa rica frontier closes at 5pm, Panamas frontier closes at 6pm BUT there is a time zone change for one hour so 5pm in costa is 6pm in panama. A "helper" guy starts saying he can get us through, we have to run quickly though he's missing a leg so I'm running and he's crutching super fast. We get the car exported from costa rica, and head across the craziest bridge ever to get to panama side. More on the bridge on the return. We show up at panama right when the guy that does the temporary importation of the vehicles is leaving so he's not happy about having to work on this plus his wife is there waiting. So as usual he keeps me in the room, the other guys all waiting outside, and begins to lecture me about coming on time and him having to work late now. At least now my spanish is much better but I don't want to understand what he's saying because he's asking me for 20 dollars since he has to work late. In the end he won't approve my car until we give him some money so I get the guys to chip in and we come up with enough to make him happy and we're in. The legless guy at the border says the ferry for bocas del torro leaves at 8 and it's an hour away plus it's just about dark. Back to the car and there are kids at about age 7 to adults all saying they watched my car for me and want to be paid. So brush that aside and we're in the car heading somewhere and none of us know how to get there. Now mind you my lonely planet book says plain out not to drive your own car in panama, it's too dangerous. So we drive, ask for directions at least 10 times and it gets dark which I'm not happy about but we arrive to the Ferry before 8pm. We speak to some people around and find out the ferry does leave at 8 but it's 8 in the morning and there is already a line of truckers that are sleeping over night and the girl tells the guys I'm with we should just stay in line so nobody wants to drive back 30 mins to the hotel options. Soooo we sleep in the car, on a road, in Panama and I'm thinking for sure this has to be the dumbest thing I've done yet on my trip. How easy of a target are we? Another prob with that is it's off and on raining and my car has power windows so if anyone wants to roll up or down, they need me to put the keys in. So it's a long night of sleep, I have a bad feeling when I wake up about the car battery. At about 7, an hour before the ferry, I try to start the car and the battery is completely dead. Now I'm really thinking we are an easy target, we're sitting on a street with a dead car and everyone in the world thinks I'm a millionairre. But just as I'm having all these bad thoughts, anyone and everyone around begins to help us. I'm thinking it sure would be nice to call AAA but I don't think they have AAA Panama. So First we ask the guy in front of us to try to jump the car and no luck. We're working against time, thinking this trip is just turning into a disaster which it partially was already. All these people, speaking spanish at me really fast and one guy says to pull out my battery he's going to bring his, try to start my truck and then switch back to my battery. Anyone that knows me knows my car skills are that I don't have any, so just pulling out the battery is something I know nothing about but at this point I have like 20 mins before the ferry leaves. This guy comes running back from far away with a giant battery from his semi-truck, I have my battery detached somehow or another and he links up my truck to his battery and it starts. We switch the battery back to mine, which I didn't know you could do this while the car was running. So in a flash, I learned a little more spanish, learned a little about car batteries and learned not to judge an entire country by alleged bad news when in reality these people were much more helpful than I could have possibly experienced at home. That is a difference I've noticed being here and being at Ricardo's place, there is a community and people help each other out with everything...it's much more personal than at home where we don't really talk to our neighbors anymore. So back to the trip, we made it on the ferry and off to Isla Colon, the primary island of bocas del torro. The time spent there was pretty cool, though it did rain almost the entire time. We drove offroad, major mud driving and surfed a bunch of spots around the island only accessible by 4x4 or boat. The people there were all Rasta afro caribbean decent but when they spoke it was pure spanish. It caught me off guard, I guess I have an image in my head of what someone is supposed to sound like by the way they look and it was way off. I guess what's cool about this trip is meeting so many people, especially staying in hostels and traveling around. I find myself hanging out with people from germany, france, netherlands, iceland, australia, canada, argentina, chile and so many other places. It's interesting to meet and talk to people from around the world, it definitely changes you're overall outlook. Some of the nicest people I met were from France who typically don't like americans and Ricardo is from Venezuela and our countries are at ends but yet the truth of the matter is that people are people and you can't judge a place or person by some idea of what you think of it in your head. There is a personal transformation happening with me as I travel and learn more about other places and about myself. It's hard to explain it all but it's happening and I'm sure I will reflect and see it better after this trip is over, if it ever ends. So we stay a few nights in Bocas and start the trek back, nothing is easy with a car. The ferry leaves at 4pm, takes 2 hours to hit land again and the frontier closes at 6 BUT somehow my latin american copilots can't seem to do that math and think we should just go to the border and they'll get us through somehow....to which I laugh. They don't want to spend money either so they would rather try the border and sleep in the car there if it doesn't work out. The drive towards the frontier was crazy, dense dense fog through a rainy rainforest with no street lights and zero visibility. We get to a town and head for a hotel as I refuse to go to the border and sleep in the car, I would rather fork out 10 dollars for a hotel room. So the border the next day, all goes pretty ok as far as borders are concerned BUT the bridge between panama and costa rica causes us a brief scare. It's not a car bridge, it's a railroad bridge perched about 50 feet above the water. Your car straddles the rails but with my big boat, when it is driving there isn't room for all the people walking so they have to hang over the ledge to let me pass. Well one guy just refused to move so as I was trying to avoid him, I manage to slip my right 2 tires over the rail which was an immediate disaster waiting to happen. I have 3 people yelling stupid instructions in spanish, like go to the right but what they don't know is my tire has no room to turn right and when you look left half of both tires are over the edge and the edge isn't straight so sometimes even more. it was so sketchy, I was certain we were going to flip off this bridge into the water. Now I have about 9 different people inside and outside the car yelling different directions at me in spanish, so of course I'm ready to kill them all. We're all sweating, could never get back over but in the end we made it to the end, at times with 1 entire back wheel in the air off the bridge. The scare was over, we enter costa with minimal headaches and back to drive across the country. While passing through the rain forest I see a kid with a sloth in his hand, so I stop and rewind back as Josymar would say or reverse back and got out to meet these kids. They had a little family, a dad, mom and tiny baby latched to the moms stomack. Sloths are crazy creatures and seeing one up close and holding it was quite a surreal experience for me, such an odd animal. That done, we traverse back across the entire country and I'm back at Ricardo's to regroup, change my oil, fix my tail light and clean my truck. I think I have my first visitor coming down, Dj is trying to come for his birthday at the end of March so I have some time to travel around until then. Pura vida!