freezing January called for an escape... viva centroamerica! It was difficult to go back and not go to Nicaragua, but it was time to check out a few new places. For this fettyfunventure Panama y Costa Rica were the targets with a last-minute, welcomed tag-along Sethman.Left my place in DC @ 3am, shivering and was sweating in Pamana City by 10:45am - what a small world we live in... refused to complain about the heat though. Holy Panama City - looked out the window of the p
lane and could of swore I was flying in to Miami - massive buildings - very impressive infrastructure. The first day (before Seth arrived that night) I toured the old part of the city, visited the infamous canal and relaxed at an int'l jazz festival that just happened to be going on. Great day was topped off with some cheap cerveza with Seth after he arrived. Seth and I continued to explore the city the next day, went on an awesome hike where we saw lots of animals (and got caught in some rain) and were witness to many shenanigans that evening...On that note we escaped the city the next day on a bus ride across half of Panama to a little town in the mountains - Bouquete. This little mountain town was beautiful (and has been found
by many foreigners who now live there) - it is the outdoorzy capital of 
Panama. Our main activity in Bouquete was to rock the zip l
ine and it was awesome! First time for both of us and perfect day for the zip tour. While we were there a coffee and flower festival was going on - though coffee or flowers are neither of my favorite things, there was plenty of interesting food/drink/party action that went along with it!After Bouquete it
was beach time! We bused to Bocas del Toro, Panama the next day. Bocas was a very chill, beautiful place - we explored a couple of the islands, ate some great food and enjoyed some R&R. There were some amazing, deserted beaches that we found, everyone was working on island time in this little paradise...From Bocas it was off to Costa Rica - after a quick morning of travel and boarder crossing (actually surprised we made it to CR given the condition of the bridge you have to walk across there) we ended up in the very interesting/sketchy town of Puerto Viejo. Don't get me wrong, it was a cool spot with amazing beaches, jungle, wildlife, etc... but definitely gave off the sketchy-vibe left and right. There was more R&R
to be had in PV, we did rent beach cruisers one day and visit some cool beaches along the coast. Also had some great food there. Fa
v meal of
the trip came one night in PV - pasta w/ white sauce and some VERY fresh shrimp (lotsa shrimp - so good).From PV we h
eaded to San Jose to catch flights home - our day in San Jose consisted mostly of watching AFC/NFC Championship games... so American of us! We did take a stroll down the main street of San Jose, almost got ran over 10 times and Seth almost left his foot there, but uneventful mostly!Overall nice trip - great to be warm. Seth and I were both a bit under the weather during parts of the trip - but powered through.
Panama y Costa Rica were similar and different in many ways to the other spots I have been in centroamerica, both definitely had more of a American influence than other countries and also both were more $$$ - which is very important for the backpacker... centroamerica is for $1(max) beers,
get with the program CR!SALUD
