Tica Week: My Little Journey (Feb 8-16, 2015)

I have 3 home countries. I'm legal citizens with passports and IDs to 2, and 2 I've lived in for more than 6 consecutive months. Of course, I'm talking about the US, Panama, and Costa Rica. Yay! So, US and PA are the ones I've lived in, and CR is the one where I have my 2nd citizenship.

Why the hell am I talking about this right now? Well, another important fact to know is that for me (as an American) in Panama, I'm technically on like a tourist visa, and that visa only lasts for 180 days (6 months). If you stay longer, you gotta pays and who knows what else. The simplest thing to do is to leave the country (at least 72 hours is necessary) and then come back for the rest of the time. My visa was to expire February 23rd, so I need to leave before then. Going back and forth between the US and here is a bit expensive, so the much cheaper option: Costa Rica! 

My Valentine's day in Costa Rica

Going, by bus, between Panama and Costa Rica's capital cities is $40 one way, and takes somewhere between 15 and 18 hours, depending on how many stops the bus takes. So that's what I did! Got tickets from Expreso Panama for the 8th, got in contact with my aunt, Danni (Danniela), and got my passports ready! Though really, I only needed one.. but ya know, when you got 2..

8th: Went to Albrook. Started boarding the bus at 10:30. It was like a greyhound type of bus. They gave us the border crossing papers you need to fill out, I stuck my backpack under the bus, and I got to my seat. Didn't have a seat partner, so that was sweet! Tried to fall asleep on the 2 seats. But I've never been good at trying to fall asleep in transportation, so I kinda just rested.

9th: Bus stopped at 2am. We got out at this rest-stop place and used the bathroom. There was this Colombian lady that I had started talking to before we got on the bus, and here we started talking again. I found out that she was a grandmother. I don't remember her name, so let's just call her CG (Colombian Grandmother). CG took me under her wing. At this stop, she gave me the rest of the juice that she had bought. I offered her the empty seat I had next to me, and while she hesitated to take away my luxury, I convinced her to take the seat.

Back on the bus, we tried to go to sleep. And I kinda managed it! Except once we started getting near the border, the bus would be stopped every once in a while for border people to check our passports or have dogs smell our bags. At 6/7am (ish) we hit the border and had to wait til both sides were open (there's an hour difference between Panama and Costa Rica). We found a bathroom, and when everything else opened, we got our passports and bags and started our process. First we got in line so we could get the stamp to leave Panama. Then we went to a room where dogs smelled all of our bags. Then we put our bags on the bus, and leaving the bus, walked away from Panama, and to the CR check-in. Our bus went there separately. We made our entrance in Costa Rica stamp-official, and then people looked inside our bags. We loaded ourselves back up on the bus, and headed off the San Jose.

Our passports were checked a few more times near the border, and then around 9:30 we stopped at a restaurant for brunch. I ate the food I'd brought, CG ate some typical CR food, and I charged my phone a little. Back on the bus, until San Jose. I slept a little in the morning, but not a whole lot. When we finally arrived, we got our bags, and Danni found me! Hooray! Successful exchange between capital cities! Said bye to my CG, and Danni and I went and got her car.

Let me just say, Danni and I had never actually met before. She's technically my step-aunt, but she's only a few years older than me, so I felt like it was easy to be good friends. She's super sweet and fun and I had such a lovely time with her, so I'm so glad that I stayed with her!

Danni and I

We got to her home in Curridabat, and for the rest of the day, there was nothing planned. So we walked to the mall, saw the movie Jupiter Ascending (Visuals: good. Story: not so good.), got me a CR sim card for my phone, and the went back home. I got to meet her boyfriend Ale (Alejandro), and the two of them made dinner while I suddenly became very tired and very hungry.

The 3 of us in the car another day

10th: The main goal for this day was to get my Costa Rican ID (cedula) renewed. Danni and I were successful in this mission, and we even were able to get it within the day rather than in several days. We also visited Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, Biblioteca Nacional Miguel Obregón Lizano, Museo del Jade (my name!), and then we had a lunch. We met up with Ale, went to a place so he could eat lunch, saw a little bit of Danni's University- Universidad de Costa Rica . I tried my first green mango popsicle (yum!) and then we headed home

My museum :)

Green Mango Popsicle!

This library has a restoration room. How cool is that?!

11th: Today we went off to visit Danni's dad in Alajuela. Her friend Paula joined us, and I met her dad, step-mom, half-brothers, and adopted brother. We spent the day hanging out there, and also went in their pool.

12th: Still at Danni's dad's house, we spent most of the day at the pool. Unfortunately, while sitting under an umbrella at the side of the pool, the sun crept up and burnt the side of my leg. Oh well. I really tried. That evening we went to a pizza place where they played movies while you ate. Frozen was playing during our meal. Ale asked me to explain what was going on in Frozen, and we also had a conversation about idioms in both languages. The pizza we got was half Brazilian and half vegetarian, with cheese-filled crust and shaped like a heart for the upcoming Valentine's day. The Brazilian half was interesting because it came with slices of lemon that you would squirt on your pizza. As I had never put lemon on my pizza before, I found it duly interesting.

13th: A bit of a random day. We first went by the bank to buy my leaving-CR-tax thing that I needed, and then the store for some aloe (for my leg) and organic massage gel for my family (mother's request). Then we went to UCR so Danni could get some supplies for a school project. While at the Uni, we picked up her friend Verny and headed off to Cartago. Cartago was very cold, actually. We bought some snacks and went up to a nature look-out that was supposed to have a good view. We did have a good view, it was just a good view of white fog. We huddled in our jackets, trying to shield ourselves from the rainy wind, and snacked, while talking about words (fog vs funk vs fork vs f**k). Then we started walking back, and realized it wasn't as windy and rainy there, so we stopped again and snacked/talked more. Eventually we decided to head home. Since we were kinda wet, Danni and I changed clothes, and then we took a bus to the University so I could get a proper UCR experience and with my new ID.

So cold!

Calle de something (don't remember what it's called!) is where we went, which is basically a street of bars. We met up with Ale at one of them. After a bit, Verny left with a friend, and we were gradually joined by half a dozen of Ale's friends, and by Paula. We got some pizza, as this was our dinner, and we decided that this pizza was better than the heart pizza from the other night. After a few hours, we decided to head off somewhere to either dance or do karaoke, but that plan fell through, and we ended up heading home instead.

14th: For this Valentine's day, there was a family reunion planned. All of Danni's maternal family, and my new family, got together at a house, where we ate food, played pictionary (my team won. I'm surprisingly good at drawing and one of my team members was very good at guessing), had more food, cake, watched people dance, and talked of course. After the reunion, one of Danni's cousins actually got engaged! Overall, it was a very enjoyable time. As we headed home, Ale started complaining of being hungry, while Danni and I teased him, and I talked about Panama. When we got home, I ended up skyping my family, while Ale tried to decide if he wanted to get food or not. After trying to decide for forever, he eventually just went home.

Playing Pictionary (in Spanish)

The food was excellent

15th: Today was the day I was to head back to Panama again. I didn't want to leave, but I had a ticket. Danni and Ale said goodbye to me at the bus at noon, and with a bus only about half full, I started my way back to Panama.

We stopped at the same place to eat. This time, however, I actually bought a meal. I got rice beans and platanos for approximately $2.70. Back on the bus, we reached the border around sunset, but it was basically just the same thing I'd already done, except backwards.  However, neither before nor after did we get stopped for passport/luggage checks, so that cut down on some time. We arrived at Albrook ahead of schedule, at 2:30am, and I called Abdiel and he and Nef came and picked me up.

~And Now Later~
Costa Rica-related adventures have just now come to a close, as on my 3rd visit to the Costa Rican Consulate in Panama City I got my Costa Rican Passport fully renewed. But I guess that's all for CR for this year. When will I visit next? Summer 2016? 2017? As soon as I possibly can, I'll take a nice long trip to CR. Until next time-

See ya.