UPDATE!! So I am actually in San Pedro, Costa Rica right now but I will update from the beginning So May 17th I woke up and ate my last bowl of Cornflakes at the Rodriguez household and it was kind of bittersweet. I was sad to be leaving but I knew in just a few hours id be seeing my best friend everrr Jacquie in Panamá. So after breakfast I went to try to call my parents down the street. Afterwards I looked around Quito for one last time! I got really sad at the point because it just hit me that Quito had become my home. I went back to the house and Paulina made me a quesadilla and I got some of my last minute things together and we went to the airport. Carla, Ivan, and Paulina all came with me and it was a little sad to say goodbye I didnt want to leave. I waited in the airport about 2 hours because they thought I should get there really early but I got right through. My flight stopped in Guayaquil like every flight in Ecuador does haha and I sat next to two women from the coast. I had always heard that people from the coast are really difficult to understand but I never believed it. But I had to talk to them for a good five minutes before I realized what we were even talking about hahah. Then we continued on to San Jose, Costa Rica where I had a two hour lay over. I noticed right away that Costa Rica was going to be really expensive!!!. Two dollars for french fries of the "dollar" menu at bk. After the layover I finally arrived in Panamá City! Jacquie and I had an awesome renunion!! We screamed and laughed and hugged and it was great! Finally after 4 1/2 months!!! We got picked up by the mamallena hostel taxi guy rafael and we arrived safetly to our hostel. We got in and just settled in our stuff and met some really nice people from all over the world. The next day we decided to go grocery shopping and make all our own meals. Then we took a walk through the city. We were walking for a few hours and just comparing the city to other places and just enjoying the day. It was soooooo hot. After walking for a few hours we didn´t really know how to get back (or rather we didnt feel like walking back) so we decided to get a taxi and ask him to take us to Casco Viejo. We read about it being a little historic part of town and thought itd be a good idea. It turns out Casco Viejo was only a few more blocks away but while driving through this one part of the city the taxi driver told us to never walk through here. Later we found out from a book I was reading that that part of the neighborhood is called Salsipuedes which translates literally to leave if you can. We were like wow how interesting is that. In Casco Viejo we found ourselves at the tip of Panamá. There was a cute little boardwalk that looked out over the ocean and to the other side of the city. Over the boardwalk was a flower canopy that was really pretty and a few Kuna Indians selling things in their traditional outfits of beads and little cloth. Very colorful! As we continued to walk we came to the cultural center with a few historic buildings and statues. The day turned out to be beautiful and we had a really good time. We got back to the hostel later on and just cooked some food and talked with the other travelers. I chatted with a girl from Israel for a while and it was very interesting to hear about her culture. In Israel everyone has to join the army (girls two years and guys 4) then they can go to college. We talked a lot about her country and some of the misperceptions. The next day Jacquie and I decided to do the ever so touristy visit to the Panamá Canal. But wow was it worth it. We found the bus to get there and while getting of I think I bumped into this kid or something so we started talking and after learning that I could speak spanish we began conversation as we walked towards the entrance of the Miraflores Locks to see the canal. His name was Francisco and he is from Chile! We got up there and continued to talk to him. We saw some really large ships go through the canal and we were able to see how it works. It was actually very interesting. After a few hours and three ships later we hitched a ride (It is actually safe here if its with a farmer truck, camioneta) to the Parque Nacional. Fransisco came with us and the three of us took about a 2 hour hike through the forest. Towards the end we saw about 8 howler monkeys! It was great! We were supposed to catch a bus at 6 but the bus must have gone by earlier because we waited a good twenty minutes and it never came but luckly a police truck drove by and picked us up and brought us to the main road where we were able to take a bus from there. Since it was getting darker Fransisco went on the bus with us and made sure we got back to our hostel safetly then he went off to where he was staying. We exchanged facebooks with him so it will be great to keep in touch! At 1040 that night we took a bus to the northern most province of Panamá called Chiriquí province. The bus was headed for David and would arrive around six in the morning. We were hoping to get some sleep on this overnight bus but there is always another person on the bus besides the driver that collects the money and stuff and this particular other person was a creeper. He started talking to us in the middle of the night at one point and wouldn´t leave us alone so I made up a story that I was a lesbian from germany and was not interested in guys then I started to speak some of the random german I know. hahaha. He finally left. We eventually fell asleep because then it turns out that we had passed David and we still hadnt gotten off the bus. The both of us heard someone yelling but we thought it was just the guy being a creeper again but apparantly he was trying to wake us up. We were not too far away though and got off at this small place where there was a taxi driver who informed us that a small bus for David would be passing soon. Two seconds later there it was so we flagged it down. All over the province they use these small little buses kind of like small tourism buses. So we hoped on amongst some kids going to school and a few business type people. We actually didnt want to stay in David so we got dropped off at the bus station where there would be buses that could take us to Boquete. Boquete is a really small town where there are a ton of american retirees. We found a hostel then went to breakfast because we were too hungry to wait any longer. We found a cute little place with a woman named Olga. Everything she said to us was with a little pet name haha. So cute. After that we started walking towards Volcano Baru but it turns out at some point we didnt turn where we were supposed to so we ended up on the driving road for volcano cerro puntas. On the way up we stopped and talked to a few people and learned that there were some waterfalls about 2 hours up in Bajo Mono. We felt like we were walking forever!!! On the way back down we saw two people in the back of a truck so we flagged it down. They were a couple from Denmark heading back towards Boquete as well. Once we got back to Boquete we went grocery shopping and made some dinner then we went next door and just hung out at a small bar and listened to some Maná. The next morning we left and went to a hostel in David where we would stay the next night but for now we just wanted to drop off our big bags so we could head to the Island Boca Brava. Ugh what a pain that was. It sounded so great but we first had to take a bus to the Horconcitos turnoff then from there grab a taxi which would cost 15 dollars. So unfortunatly we paid that then he dropped us off at the Boca Chica and we took a water taxi to Boca Brava. What we thought was going to be a cute little island town turned out to be one hotel on an island with a beach 15 minutes away. The hotel was owned by these Bavarian people and it was kind of expensive. Since that was literally the only place on the island we had to eat food there which was also expensive. Our room was covered in bugs. There were two beds (only matresses) a small on and a big one. The big one was infested with ants so we shared the small one which only had about 20 ants. We woke up in the morning with ant bites all over our bodies!!!! We really didnt want to stay in bed so we decided to get up at 5:45 to watch the sunrise. It was gorgeous. All night before we sat up on the balcony and just watched the waves. The island was really pretty but the ants just were terrible and gross. The fact that it cost so much was awful to. At 9 we got a water taxi back to Boca Chica and well guess what there was no one there to bring us back to Horconcitos to catch our bus to David. So this guy who lived there was like oh my brother can bring you so we were like ok great. but the guy wanted 35 bucks so we were like forget about it its only 8km lets just walk (it would take about 2 hours). After about 5 minutes of walking these woman who we saw coming off another boat drove by and offered to bring us back to Horconcitos. They were Celine Dion look alikes and they were two French woman who must have just moved to Panamá or something but they were really nice and they got a kick out of our french! We got the bus back to David from there and went back to the Purple House hostel. Omg this place was a hoot. Everything really was purple!!!! EVERYTHING! The owner Andrea though was like a nazi and she charged for everyyyything and made sure you remembed that you had to pay for like every little thing you did. We got a kick out of that though. She had a super cute dog though named Cute-sí hahah. The next morning we took a bus to Costa Rica!! Crossing the border was a really interesting experience. Once we got to the border we had to get off the bus and walk to immigration and to customs then the bus picked us up on the other side. Once we tried getting back on to the bus Jacquie couldn´t find the tickets which she was holding!!! So I begged the driver to let me check to see if she had just left them on the bus. Luckly the weirdo canadian couple had spotted them and we were able to get back on!!!! That was almost a heart attack!! Driving through Costa Rica was really pretty!!! The temperature changed dramatically too! It is much cooler here because of the mountains. So we arrived in San José and went to Alajuela because we though thats where our hostel that we wanted to stay in was and we thought it was a good base town to go losts of places. But it turns out the hostel was actually in San Pedro and Jacquie read the information wrong. But we had a backup hostel anyway so it was ok. When we got to trotamundos hostel we stayed in a room with a guy from ARGENTINA!!! He was awesome! He gave me an alfajor and I was in heaven!! It was really funny too we were talking and I mentioned that besides Buenos Aires I had gone to Lobería and like not even Argentinians know where that is but he has family who lives right near there so he just thought it was the funniest thing ever!! I did too. Cuz legit Lobería hahahahahaha. So we hung out with him for the night and just chatted and it was great. The next day we thought we were going to be able to figure out what we wanted to do but we couldnt find out how to get to the national park we wanted to get to. We ended up finding this tour that seemed really cool but we figured that we would have to plan it a day in advance. So we left Alajuela to go to Hostel Bekuo in San Pedro, Los Yoses which we orignally planned on staying. The town is cute. Just like a small little city. We did some grocery shopping and just hung out. There is a lot to do here. It´s great. We planned our tour and we ended up doing that today. It was a boat ride down two rivers... Sarapiqui and Sucio. We were able to see lots of monkeys, iguanas, birds, caimen, crocodiles, and cows drinking from the river haha, also one of the smallest ducks ever. It was a really pretty ride and very relaxing. Then we arrived at a farm were we took horses up part of a volcano to the canopies! They had 14 canopies which were really fun!!! After the canopies we had lunch. It was amaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzing!!!! Then we went to see frogs. We got to see that frog that is just like the image of Costa Rica, I don´t remember the name but its beautiful. Its actually a nocturnal frog so it was sleeping and it looks like it would be all green and it camofluaged with the leaf it was on. Then the guide woke it up and its bright orange eyes popped open followed by its orange toes which popped out from under him then he stretched and underneath him was the prettiest color blue!!! Best frog ever. We also saw a bright green and black one which was very poisoness. Then we went to see snakes. We were able to hold the most venomous snake in Costa Rica!!! (Venom was taken out obvs). He felt soo cool! Then we went to see butterflies... eehhh... they were pretty though. We saw the electric blue one that I always saw in the Ecuador rainforest but up close, as well as an owl butterfly, and a few other kinds. Then we took the boat back to Puerto Viejo and hopped back on the bus to San Pedro. NOw we are here about to make some dinner. We are headed to the beach tomorrow morning for the next few days! Then off to Nicaragua. I´ll update soon!

que dios te bendiga

Elenita