Category: Hungry Ghost News

The Jeep isn’t a Jeep! It’s a compact mini-bus with 18 passengers and baggage!

But the First Principle of Transportation is Safe Arrival so I will put aside my expectation… for now at least. But it is clear from the comments of the other passengers that expectations were being challenged.

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I was considering walking the lava trail inside the Arenal Volcano National Park but the tour company I contacted just wanted to sell a guided tour. In hindsight, I should just have gone by taxi. But hindsight is both a blessing and a curse.

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I did eventually venture outside. The small town of La Fortuna has a compact and easily walkable centre. The town is very touristy with all types of travellers. So it’s all quite buzzy, and lots of locals speak more than a smattering of English. Since arriving in La Fortuna, I have noticed that Costa Rica is relatively expensive, possibly even more so than Bocas del Toro in Panama!

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For all of my best plans and efforts to get to the airport on time, the flight departure time was delayed by one hour. Bang goes my already slim chance of catching my preferred direct bus to La Fortuna. Nevermind, I think there are indirect buses that will get me there eventually. I had only settled on La Fortuna yesterday as my first destination in Costa Rica because of the direct bus. I don’t have a hotel booked yet and I am not sure of my next destination.

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I took a circular route back to Studio Coliving Hotel noticing quite a few – but not all – shops, banks and offices had been newly boarded up, as if a hurricane were forecast. Then I remembered the recent and ongoing protests all over Panama because of alleged government corruption in relation to recently granted licences for open cast copper mining. As I got closer to the hotel, the protestors gathering at Iglesia del Carmen Metro station were gaining in numbers and becoming more vocal.

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Travelling with cabin size and weight baggage (under 10kg) is a liberating rather than limiting way to get around. In the past I would travel with at least one, and sometimes two bags, to check in as well as my cabin bag(s). Nowadays, I like to travel simply to simply travel. It is a lot easier, less complicated and much cheaper this way.

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Around 1 pm the boat took us to a snorkelling spot near the ‘floating restaurant’ that we had visited earlier. Snorkels and masks were dispensed and we entered the water. What a disaster! There was hardly any corel here and people were swimming into each other. My mask didn’t fit well allowing a lot of water to enter and my snorkel’s mouthpiece was too small to ‘grasp’ as it were. Also, I felt, real or imagined, that the tide was pulling me away from the boat. I love snorkelling, under the right conditions it can be a very meditative experience, just drifting and being with my breath, but I am not a strong swimmer; so it was time for me to return to the boat. No one stayed in the water long and everyone was back on board after 15-minutes, which in itself says a lot.

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It was now late afternoon by now and I took myself for a walk to the nearest public beach which was about 10-minutes away. It was nice enough but I would not be over keen to swim here. I returned to the Yellow House through a graveyard which always cheers me up as I remind myself “…and then you die”.

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This regular online community meeting, along with ‘Sit-and-Share’ meetings (when I can make them), and a Bodhi College study group are very interesting and supportive. I am only just starting to appreciate how beneficial it is for my mental well-being; they help combat loneliness and aloneness. Also, in attending these different sessions, I am not just turning up for myself but I am turning up for the other attendees too… it’s a two-way street.

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Once settled in my room, which includes a small kitchenette, I went to leave the hotel to stroll around the neighbourhood before it got dark. But when I got to reception the hotel was ‘closed’ and I was advised not to go outside. The ground floor windows had been boarded up, albeit in a temporary fashion. Apparently there are ongoing, sometimes violent, demonstrations happening all over Panama because the government has issued licences for open cast copper mining. Ordinary Panamanians are not happy about this and government officials are suspected of corruption. The hotel receptionist suggests leaving my walk for an hour or two until the current protest passes. From the hotel roof garden, I can see protestors gathering at the highway intersection and Riot Police standing in a side street.

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